The X- Files - Wikipedia. The X- Files is an American science fictiondrama television series created by Chris Carter, which originally aired from September 1. MAN'S BEST FRIEND AND WORST ENEMY News Briefs: Get Your Return Dates for Wilfred and Honey Boo Boo Right Here. Plus: Someone will be back for The Office finale, Cops. Fargo season 3, episode 7 recap: The Law of Inevitability This is not mashed potatoes, Moe Dammack. Using other people’s research or ideas without giving them due credit is plagiarism. Since BibMe The X-Files; Genre: Science fiction Horror Drama Mystery Thriller Supernatural fiction: Created by: Chris Carter: Starring: David Duchovny Gillian Anderson Robert Patrick. May 1. 9, 2. 00. 2 on Fox. The program spanned nine seasons, included 2. Later in 2. 00. 8, a second film was made and preceded a tenth- season revival, which consisted of six episodes, in 2. The revival premiered on January 2. In April 2. 01. 7, Fox officially announced that The X- Files would be returning for an eleventh season of ten episodes, which would air in the 2. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who investigate X- Files: marginalized, unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. Mulder believes in the existence of aliens and the paranormal while Scully, a medical doctor and a skeptic, is assigned to make scientific analyses of Mulder's discoveries to debunk his work and thus return him to mainstream cases. Early in the series, both agents become pawns in a larger conflict and come to trust only each other and a very few select people. The agents also discover an agenda of the government to keep the existence of extraterrestrial life a secret. They develop a close relationship which begins as a platonic friendship, but becomes a romance by the end of the series. In addition to the series- spanning story arc, . When creating the main characters, Carter sought to reverse gender stereotypes by making Mulder a believer and Scully a skeptic. The first seven seasons featured Duchovny and Anderson equally. In the last two seasons, Anderson took precedence while Duchovny appeared intermittently. New main characters were introduced: FBI agents John Doggett (Robert Patrick) and Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish). The wait between Attack on Titan’s first season and its second one was around four years. Thankfully, the wait for season three won’t be that long. Season three. Is there a thematic vision to the second season of Bloodline? As we cross the quarter-season mark, I’m beginning to doubt it. Plenty of themes emerged as the first. Mulder and Scully's boss, Assistant Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), also became a main character. The first five seasons of The X- Files were filmed and produced in Vancouver, British Columbia, before eventually moving to Los Angeles to accommodate Duchovny. The series later returned to Vancouver to film The X- Files: I Want to Believe as well as the tenth season of the series. The X- Files was a hit for the Fox network and received largely positive reviews, although its long- term story arc was criticized near the conclusion. Initially considered a cult series, it turned into a pop culture touchstone that tapped into public mistrust of governments and large institutions and embraced conspiracy theories and spirituality. Both the series itself and lead actors Duchovny and Anderson received multiple awards and nominations, and by the end it was the longest- running science fiction series in U. S. The series also spawned a franchise which includes The Lone Gunmen spin- off, two theatrical films and accompanying merchandise. After the final theatrical film in 2. March 2. 01. 5, Fox eventually announced that the series would return, with Chris Carter as executive producer and writer, and Duchovny, Anderson, Pileggi, Davis, and Gish all reprising their roles. Premise. Mulder is a talented profiler and strong believer in the supernatural. He is also adamant about the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life and its presence on Earth. This set of beliefs earns him the nickname . His belief in the paranormal springs from the claimed abduction of his sister Samantha Mulder by extraterrestrials when Mulder was 1. Her abduction drives Mulder throughout most of the series. Because of this, as well as more nebulous desires for vindication and the revelation of truths kept hidden by human authorities, Mulder struggles to maintain objectivity in his investigations. Agent Scully is a foil for Mulder in this regard. As a medical doctor and natural skeptic, Scully approaches cases with complete detachment even when Mulder, despite his considerable training, loses his objectivity. She is partnered with Mulder initially so that she can debunk Mulder's nonconforming theories, often supplying logical, scientific explanations for the cases' apparently unexplainable phenomena. Although she is frequently able to offer scientific alternatives to Mulder's deductions, she is rarely able to refute them completely. Over the course of the series, she becomes increasingly dissatisfied with her own ability to approach the cases scientifically. After Mulder's abduction at the hands of aliens in the seventh season finale . Doggett replaces him as Scully's partner and helps her search for him, later involving Reyes, of whom Doggett had professional knowledge. He is found guilty, but he escapes punishment with the help of the other agents and he and Scully become fugitives. These episodes, comprising the majority of the series, dealt with paranormal phenomena, including: cryptids, mutants, science fiction technology, horror monsters, and religious phenomena. Some of the Monster- of- the- Week episodes even featured satiric elements and comedic story lines. The main story arc involves the agents' efforts to uncover a government conspiracy to hide the existence of extraterrestrials on Earth and their sinister collaboration with those governments. Mysterious men comprising a shadow element within the U. S. They are usually represented by Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis), a ruthless killer, masterful politician, negotiator, failed novelist, and the series' principal antagonist. As the series goes along, Mulder and Scully learn about evidence of the alien invasion piece by piece. It is revealed that the extraterrestrials plan on using a sentient virus, known as the black oil, to infect mankind and turn the population of the world into a slave race. The Syndicate—having made a deal to be spared by the aliens—have been working to develop an alien- human hybrid that will be able to withstand the effects of the black oil. The group has also been secretly working on a vaccine to overcome the black oil; this vaccine is revealed in the latter parts of season five, as well as the 1. Counter to the alien colonization effort, another faction of aliens, the faceless rebels, are working to stop alien colonization. Eventually, in the season six episodes . The colonists, now without human liaisons, dispatch the . In the latter parts of season eight, and the whole of season nine, the Super Soldiers manage to replace key individuals in the government, forcing Mulder and Scully to go into hiding. Cast and characters. Mulder is an Oxford- educated FBIspecial agent who believes in the existence of extraterrestrials and a government conspiracy to hide the truth regarding them. He works in the X- Files office, which is concerned with cases marked as unsolvable; most involve supernatural/mysterious circumstances. Mulder considers the X- Files so important that he has made their study his life's main purpose. After his abduction by aliens at the end of season seven, his role in the show diminished and much of his work is taken on by Agent John Doggett. Scully is an FBI special agent, a medical doctor, and scientist who is Mulder's partner. In contrast to his credulity, Scully is a skeptic, basing her beliefs on scientific explanations. However, despite her otherwise rigid skepticism, she is a Catholic, and her faith plays an important role in several episodes. As the series progresses, she becomes more open to the possibility of paranormal happenings. Skinner is an FBI assistant director who served in the United States Marine Corps in the Vietnam War. During this time he shot and killed a young boy carrying explosives, an incident which scarred him for life. Doggett is an FBI special agent who makes his first appearance in the season eight episode . Doggett served in the United States Marine Corps from the 1. Later, he started to work with the New York City Police Department, reaching the rank of detective. Reyes is an FBI special agent who was born and raised in Mexico City. Her first FBI assignment was serving on a special task force investigating satanic rituals. The Cigarette Smoking Man is the series' primary villain. In the ninth- season episodes . Krycek is a Russian- American, the son of Cold War immigrants, and first introduced as an FBI Special Agent assigned as a temporary investigation partner to Fox Mulder. However, it later becomes evident that Krycek is actually an undercover agent working for Cigarette Smoking Man. Krycek plays an important part in several events that are harmful to Mulder and Scully. Spender was a skeptic who was assigned to The X- Files after Fox Mulder's forced leave. As an assistant director (and later deputy director), he temporarily became supervisor to Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully when they were assigned away from the X- Files division. A dichotomy. They are the equal parts of my desire to believe in something and my inability to believe in something. My skepticism and my faith. And the writing of the characters came very easily to me. I want, like a lot of people do, to have the experience of witnessing a paranormal phenomenon. At the same time I want not to accept it, but to question it. I think those characters and those voices came out of that duality. Tired of the comedies he had been working on for Walt Disney Pictures, a report that 3. Americans may have been abducted by aliens, the Watergate scandal and the 1. Kolchak: The Night Stalker, triggered the idea for The X- Files. He wrote the pilot episode in 1. He fleshed out the concept and returned a few weeks later, when they commissioned the pilot. Carter worked with NYPD Blue producer Daniel Sackheim to further develop the pilot, drawing stylistic inspiration from the 1. The Thin Blue Line and the British television series Prime Suspect. Inspiration also came from Carter's memories of The Twilight Zone as well as from The Silence of the Lambs, which provided the impetus for framing the series around agents from the FBI, in order to provide the characters with a more plausible reason for being involved in each case than Carter believed was present in Kolchak. Bib. Me: Free Bibliography & Citation Maker. Select style& search. Select style & search. Search for a book, article, website, film, or enter the information yourself. Bloodline Recap: Like Father, Like Son. Ben Mendelsohn as Danny, John Leguizamo as Ozzy. Photo: Saeed Adyani/Netflix. Part 1. 6Season 2. Episode 3. Editor's Rating. Is there a thematic vision to the second season of Bloodline? As we cross the quarter- season mark, I’m beginning to doubt it. Plenty of themes emerged as the first season progressed, and it was much easier to spot them when looking back at the entire 1. This time around, however, it’s getting harder to believe that everything will come together in the end.“Part 1. Danny Rayburn (Ben Mendelsohn) gets into a car with Ozzy Delvecchio (John Leguizamo), introduced menacingly sucking on a lollipop. We’ll soon learn that Ozzy wasn’t a good influence on Danny; he’s likely to be a loose end that will come back to haunt the family that killed their black sheep. In the memory, Ozzy opens a glove compartment to reveal a gun. Danny told him he didn’t need a weapon and takes the bullets out. They’re planning something, and it looks dangerous. In a clever visual touch for a show that I often wish had more of a visual language, we cut to another scene of two men in a car, with Danny’s son in the passenger seat and his uncle John (Kyle Chandler) in the role of aggressor. Nolan (Owen Teague) is applying for a job, and John takes the chance to belittle him in one of his nastier scenes of the season. He snarls, “Whatever else you’re hiding, I’m watching you. Clear?”Kevin Rayburn (Norbert Leo Butz) is running that pie- based drug deal out of the diner when he runs into a few cops he knows. The typically spastic Kevin acts paranoid; the guy who just exchanged cash for cocaine notices his odd behavior. As Kevin counts his cash, he sees the pie man at his passenger window . They yell at him, wondering if he’s a cop or just tight with the law. Why would they think he’s a cop? Because he got nervous? That doesn’t make sense. Anyway, they realize Kevin isn’t exactly a professional and they threaten to kill him, forcing the dumbest Rayburn to jump from the van and try to escape. Nolan meets with Eric O’Bannon (Jamie Mc. Shane), revealing that none of the Rayburns are talking about what happened to Danny. He’s not going to be able to get them to talk. More urgently, Eric is out of cash. He has an idea, but wants to lay low, so he asks Nolan to deliver something. Will we get a parallel to the flashback of Danny getting sucked into a criminal enterprise? Like father, like son? John gets a phone call in the middle of the night and drives off. They can’t find Kevin. Kevin’s wife Belle (Katie Finneran) panics. John calls Meg (Linda Cardellini), who is headed back to New York City. Sorry, sister. The Rayburn family is like a black hole. You can never really escape it. Jake (Michael Beasley) tells John that Kevin couldn’t make payroll and his business had to be shut down. Just as John starts to wonder what drastic action his brother may have taken, he gets a call that they found a body in the woods. Could it be another dead Rayburn? It’s the dealer whom we last saw abusing poor Kevin. So, what happened here? Just as Meg is making calls trying to find him, Kevin calls on the other line. Meg asks what we’re all thinking: “What the fuck is going on?”Meanwhile, Sally Rayburn (Sissy Spacek) isn’t concentrating enough on running the Inn — even though the shower is still busted in bungalow three! Lenny Potts (Frank Hoyt Taylor) certainly isn’t helping. He asks Sally if she thinks the timing of Nolan’s arrival is strange. Then he suggests that perhaps he should leave. Lenny Potts is one of the most frustrating elements of Bloodline: He’s less a character than a plot device. He serves to remind viewers where we’re at by summarizing story lines with characters like Sally. And he says things like, “Sometimes there isn’t any light at the end of the tunnel.” You know, the sort of thing people only say on TV. Anyway, Sally can’t let it go because she’s convinced Nolan knows more than he’s letting on. We jump back to the Danny flashback and learn that Ozzy gave him the gun to rob a pharmacy. He wants all the drugs, and takes a hostage to make sure the pharmacist loads up a bag with the good stuff. We also learn Nolan knows Ozzy, and that the man who worked the robbery with Danny is still hanging around. Bet he’ll turn out to be trouble, too. He’s going to hang out with Eric for a few days and poke around. It turns out that Eric told him what went down with Danny at the Inn. Let’s hope there’s more to Ozzy as a character than just fuel for the Rayburn fire. It’s an encouraging sign that his scene ends with the line, “I got my own thing with the Rayburns.” Perhaps he’ll be more than a plot device. Meg finally gets to Kevin, who’s in full Bug mode in a motel. He’s high, paranoid, and wants to confess to Meg. Not long after, John gets to the motel and discovers a whole new level to Kevin’s stupidity. Kevin tells him that he kept some of the stolen drugs and has been selling them. It’s hard to believe John wouldn’t just punch him in the face, especially after he hears about all the people who could identify Kevin. Could this season be about Kevin being a bigger problem than Danny ever was? Might Bloodline be suggesting that every family needs a black sheep? That Kevin is more than misguided enough to step into Danny’s shoes? At this point, “Part 1. Lenny and Nolan meet and the investigator learns that Nolan doesn’t know a whole lot about what John and Kevin did at Danny’s apartment. John goes to meet with Chelsea O’Bannon (Chlo. Kevin calls Belle to tell her that he’s fine but he can’t leave where he’s hiding and can’t tell her anything. Of course, she hangs up on him. Run far away. John follows Nolan to get to Eric, then picks up Danny’s former buddy. John is going to use Eric. He orders him to do what he tells him. He’s not going to help anyone else. He’s not going to protect anyone else. John is interested in protecting his family above all things — everyone else can drown. They bring Eric in, even getting Chelsea to encourage him to help. With Eric in custody, John goes to Lowry (Glenn Morshower), saying that O’Bannon will give him up and what he knows. Lowry ain’t buying what John’s selling, and it’s easy to see why. This is John’s leverage? An easily discredited informant? The bigger issue is that Eric being in custody and Lowry’s cocaine being back on the street might spook Lowry’s superiors into doing something rash. So, John is basically threatening Lowry. He’ll strike a plea, protecting Lowry’s family, but only if he gets Danny’s tape. Back in the flashback, Ozzy bursts into the pharmacy much more violently than Danny did. After he learns that someone tripped the alarm, he pistol- whips the guy, spattering blood all over his shirt. The woman Danny was using as a hostage looks shell- shocked, and that’s the moment when I realized she’s played by Andrea Riseborough, who plays Nolan’s mother. Was she in on the robbery all along? Lowry comes home to find his front door wide open. He yells at his family, generally freaking out a bit. He runs outside, increasingly paranoid. Cut to the police station. Lowry will play along. They agree to a deal that aims to bring down the network of drugs and trafficking running through the Florida Keys. Not so fast, though. While Meg is on the phone with her New York bosses (whom she failed to call earlier in an unbelievable bit of plotting), Kevin runs. Dumb move, Kevin. Sally admits to John that she asked Lenny to look into things, and that she’s suspicious. She knows Kevin and John went to Danny’s apartment before he died. John comes up with a story about giving the stolen drugs back to Danny so that he could return them. He risked his career to protect his brother. That’s the story. For reasons I don’t fully understand, the typically skeptical Sally believes it. She has always hoped that her kids would look out for each other, and John’s story is certainly easier to believe than the truth, but it’s still tough to buy. Finally, Kevin is driving as we hear the great “Liar” by Henry Rollins. Pay careful attention to one particular line: “I’ll turn you into me.” Kevin has become Danny. Actually, he’s much worse than that — Danny was significantly smarter than Kevin ever will be. He’s been dragged into his dead brother’s world, but may not have the street smarts to survive in it. Other Notes: The best scenes in “Part 1. Ben Mendelsohn haunts the show. The season’s twists and turns are increasingly frustrating to watch. Does the Lowry/Kevin/pie story line make any sense? Despite those screenwriting issues, there’s still reason to believe Bloodline can right itself. The ensemble is undeniably strong, and I remember being uncertain at this point in season one, too. Let’s hope they start tying things together soon. Andrea Riseborough is a fantastic British actress. Check out her work in Brighton Rock and Shadow Dancer if you get the chance. Hearing “Liar” reminded me of one the best Beavis and Butt- Head clips of all time.
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