My gym just updated their gear this month and one feature of the new cardio equipments it that you can watch your own tv shows or movies via iPods, smartphones or any old USB for that matter. Now I've never been able to stay on them machines longer than 20 minutes because it's just boring as hell. But now I can watch something and I've decided to revisit the X-Files. I've not seen them since they orginally aired here in Iceland in 1995 (we were late with TV shows then. Now we sometimes show popular TV shows the day after they air in USA or the UK).

So many things in modern television can be traced back to the X-files that I thought it might be interesting to note down a little bit about each episode as I work my way through them one cardio session at a time. I don't intend to recap them as they have been recapped well enough. I just want to jot down few things that I find interesting about each episode. Please feel free to correct me or add to my musings. I would love any input you have on the X-Files.

Pilot - S01E01

Plot:
Rough episode. The acting was stiff and the story was weak. It's the episode where Mulder and Scully are teamed up and they investigate the death of teenagers who had disappeared in the forests around an Oregon town. The story had it all, conspiracy, alien abduction, Roswell, The Smoking Man, Scully in her underwear. Ultimately though it was a ho hum of a story witch reminded me of sub par Dean Koontz story which is in my books a sub par Stephen King.

Trivia:
William B. Davis appears in his role as the The Smoking Man, puffing on his herbal cigarettes. Or did he start with tobacco and the move over to herbal cigarettes? I used to know these things when I watched the show eons ago.

X-File Rating: XX
Not bad but still finding it's footing. All the elements are there and the deep background impressed me. I would love to see the story bible they set out with. How deep into the rabbit hole did Vince Carter go before he started shooting the show?

Deep Throat. S01E02

The X-Files theme - One of the greatest TV theme song in history.

Notable Guest Stars:
Seth Green - In one of the funniest moments of the episode Seth Green playing a UFO watcher/stoner predicts the government is experimenting with something flying the army is going to roll out for Desert Storm II to drop bombs on Saddam. Chris Carter is talking about drones and the second Gulf War in 1993.

Scully and guns: - Dana leaves her firearm on the table when she leaves her motel room when her phone line is not working. Did the FBI not teach this stuff in school?

X-File Rating: XX
Ok episode but nothing to write home about.

Squeeze - S01E03

Plot:
Tooms was this genetic mutant who hibernated for cycles of 30 years and then needed to consume livers to sustain his chemical imbalance. He was a stretchy little fella. Then he got caught…

Notable Guest Stars:
Donal Logue: As the slimy FBI go getter Tom Colton. Wow... Donal Logue as a young man! What a journey from this to his performance in Terriers.

Doug Hutchison: As Victor Tooms. Creepy then, creepy later (might remember him in The Green Mile as Percy Wetmore) and creepy as fuck today (when he married an 16 years old girl).

Scully and guns: Scully has a holster for her firearm, but before she climbs down a hole in the wall she puts her gun in her pant string. Tsk, tsk...

X-File Rating: XXX
The first episode I remembered from seeing it originally. Creepy and with a lot of low budget cinematographic tricks.  Loved the throwback montage when Mulder and Scully are doing old fashioned investigation through archives and microfilms when they use the film noir flashing documents and graphics floating over them like in the old detective movies of the fifties and sixties.

The third instalment of the Joan Wilder saga has been green-lit. We have the budget. Kathleen Turner is getting in shape with trainers. All principal actors have signed on the dotted line... Production starts in Q2 2014.

First we had Romancing the stone, then Jewel of the Nile, now we will have...

The Pearl of the Orient!

But we need a story...

...

Al Madrigal is the son of Juan (from Romancing the Stone). Raised on Joan Wilder books and stories about the legendary Jack T. Colton he uses his fathers moderate wealth to hook up with Ralph and make his move. His goal is to go after the legendary "Pearl of the orient"....