Arcadia

Those of us stuck in suburbia and inane neighborhood associations that tout "community" AKA code for: CONFORMITY will find this installment entertaining and too true! Mulder and Scully prove once again to be a winning duo with chemistry and deep character as their investigation leads them down the trail of a mysterious ancient myth set against the surreal enclave of groomed lawns and monochromatic facades.

Aside from "Wrinkle in Time" (Madeleine L'Engle) there are few stories about community control that ring this true. The story features ridiculous rules of conformity that would be laughable if they weren't such a reality in suburban America. As more cookie cutter homes sprout up with less than a foot distance between them, officious Home Owner's Associations will become more of a problem than a solution.

Let's put it this way: the ugliest thing Sculder and Mully uncover is far from mythic. . .it is found in a majority of common suburban neighborhoods across the country.

Angry about poorly run Homeowner Associations (HOAs) whose management of funds are careless & wasteful. Their administration slowly eating away your freedoms as citizens — too much of Big Brother watching over us. Ever get notice, after notice about grass in the cracks of your driveway & wanted to scream, well in Arcadia you'll be dying.

In this Monster-of-the-Week episode you will instantly feel acquainted with The Association-esque tone --if a Bentley Little fan. Mulder & Scully move-in to the little 'burb undercover to investigate several disappearances at the idyllic planned community. To Mulder's amusement the tenants follow every extraneous order strictly, so he begins to defiantly protest as they scatter to correct it for him. Their fear is what one may call a tulpa; the concept of a being or object which is created through sheer discipline alone, come to enact some neighborly love one might expect from a starving cannibalistic tribe. Like most HOAs (or Frankensteinian Monsters for that matter) which fail as a result of the people involved, the tulpa eventually turns on it's creator.

Several couples have disappeared from a prestige neighborhood, a neighborhood where compliance and uniformity are mandatory, Mulder and Scully are sent in to investigate.

A few minutes in, and I wasn't too sure, ten minutes in, and I was captivated. Arcadia stands as one of the most unique things I have ever seen, in general, let alone just on The X Files.

It's almost as if The Stepford Wives was given a twist, and retold, why on Earth are the zany neighbours so scared of having anything out of place, and who are what is behind the strange disappearances?

It's the sheer oddity and strangeness of the story that works, it shows an unrivalled imagination.

Pacing is pretty much spot on, as is the sense of intrigue and mystery, but it's also the mix of wry humour that sets this one apart. We finally get to see how Mulder and Scully would behave if they were a couple, they'd not have an easy union.

Those incredible production values that started with The Movie, continue here, it looks sublime.

A top ten episode, 10/10.

My favorite episode of the X-files, ARCADIA deserves special mention. I love how it begins, with only subtle hints of why our well known pair of FBI agents suddenly have changed their names, married and moved into an expensive closed community which turns out to hide a dark secret.

Acting is great in this one, far better than average in this series. I especially liked the one who played "Big Mike". The episode is very funny, with quite a few bizarre scenes; also, Mulder and Scully pull jokes on each other a lot of the time.

If you don't have a lot of time and only want to watch a few episodes in the series, in my opinion this should definitely be on your watchlist.

Arcadia is a terrific episode and one of the best from season six. It explores the question, "what if Mulder and Scully went undercover as a married couple?" The result is a bunch of cute moments between the two and a very interesting x-file as well. I like the music by Mark Snow in the very beginning. It has a light, fantasy feel to it, as if you've stepped out of the real world and into a make-believe land. And that's what The Falls at Arcadia is, a (seemingly) perfect planned community. It's funny to watch Mulder completely love pretending to be a married couple, while at the same time Scully is visibly uncomfortable. You get an idea as to what's happening in the community with the show that Big Mike is watching right before the monster attacks him. Other great Mulder and Scully moments include when Scully is looking for the Shroeder's dog and she whips out her flashlight. You can tell that Cami Shroeder is thinking, "why does she carry around a flashlight?" Another good one is when Mulder is watching the mailbox through the door but has to use the bathroom and contemplates using the OJ carton. This episode even hearkens back to season one when a way is contrived for Scully to be unable to see the monster at the end. There are plenty of humorous moments in this episode, but they don't override it to the point of becoming a strictly comical episode. I think the monster story is very strong in itself. The guest acting is very well done and the episode is very good all around. Arcadia remains one the top episodes of season six for the eighth year running.