“I stand right on the line that you keep crossing.” – A.D. Skinner.
F. EMASCULATA [Standalone] Aired April 28, 1995
Episode: 2×22 / 46 Overall
Director: Rob Bowman • Writer: Howard Gordon & Chris Carter
As Scully investigates the spread of a deadly contagion at a prison, Mulder tracks down two escaped convicts infected with the disease.
Long running sitcoms like How I Met Your Mother and That ’70s Show had one director for every episode. I imagine this would be a huge benefit to show, making visual and stylistic continuity infinitely easier to maintain. While these are half hour sitcoms with far less elaborate setups and half the running time of The X-Files, I have still often wondered why the series had so many one time directors instead of sticking with a core group of regulars. Perhaps they feared that sticking with the same director on a long term basis would cause the series to go stale. After all one of the secrets of the shows success is that within a basic framework, from episode to episode they were able to cross multiple genres and stylistic approaches that made every entry, at the very least, feel like a fresh experience. However, this also increases the failure rate by relying on directors who are perhaps less experience than others or just less familiar with the tone of the series. A clear example of this visual inconsistency can be seen when comparing the direction of the previous episode, The Calusari, by Michael Vejar, a one time director with no internal ties to the show. To the this far superior entry by Rob Bowman, series producer and director of multiple episodes, including the 1998 feature film. The difference is noticeable from the very opening shot, it’s immediately more engaging thanks to his direction, the camera angles and movement have a much more cinematic feel to them. This episode felt more like a mini movie. Of course this isn’t so much a criticism against Vejar as a director, rather it’s to point out that directors who’ve had more experience on the show, Bowman, Carter, Manners, Nutter, tend to produce better episodes simply because they seem to understand the tone of the series more. As such, this episode ranks among the top end for series two, it’s a monster of the week but with a bigger scope than we’re used to. It almost feels like a mythology episode especially with the inclusion of the Cancer Man.
The makeup work by Toby Lindala is perfectly disgusting, as victims stricken with the virus grow huge exploding pustules on their face and neck. It’s designed to gross out the audience and it certainly does the trick. But there’s more to this episode than just the special effects. The scale of the production feels much larger than the previous episode, this is a story you could really see working well on the big screen. In fact the producers were a little wary of running the episode so close to the film Outbreak as they share similar themes. The addition of the Cancer Man to a stand-alone episode is rare, Carter has said that he didn’t like mixing MOTW and Mythology episodes but his inclusion helps to give scope to this story. The screenplay is tightly woven as they make full use of the 44 minute running time, each scene feels like it’s progressing the story there’s nothing superfluous here. Both Duchovny and Anderson are given something interesting to do, they spend most of the episode apart but their characters contributions to the story are equally important and engaging. The guest stars are another element which attributes to the success of the episode, particularly Dean Norris, who much later will play a major role in X-Files producer Vince Gilligan’s Breaking Bad and also Charles Martin Smith as Dr. Osbourne.
When the X-Files really hits the mark it’s comparable to the best television being produced today. Aside from the odd effect here and there and perhaps some dated clothing styles, the series has aged exceptionally well. Thematically a story like this still feels fresh and the execution, thanks largely to Bowman’s direction, is as visually engaging and dynamic as the productions values we’re used to from feature films. A strong highlight for season two.
★★★★☆
The X-Files Retrospective Project 