Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster

X-Files humorous episodes were always both critically acclaimed and fan favourites. It all started with Darin Morgan back in Season 2 with "Humbug". He wrote three more masterpieces in the following season and left the show - but Vince Gilligan carried the torch producing some more outstanding comedic hours like beloved "Small Potatoes" (which featured Darin as an lead actor) and "Bad Blood" which I believe it's still the best rated X-Files episode in IMDb.

Now Darin's back and he's done another masterpiece. This is a perfect hour of television. New fans will likely laugh and recgonize how smart the script is, but only people who saw the original run, at least Morgan's episodes in third season, will recgonize the great references to some of the show finest moments - like Scully talking about Queequeg , the homage to Kim Manners, the X-Files ringbell and my favourite, Scully saying she is immortal, just like Clyde Bruckman said in maybe the finest episode of the series back in the third season.

The episode deals with existentialism in a brilliant manner. Mulder's midlife crisis is incredibly funny - he attempting to use new tecnhology is hilarious. The threatment to the transgender girl is certainly respectful and appropriate. The whole commentary about transformation and how awful a human being can be much more awful than a monster is pure genius.

It's a masterpiece of a script, written an outstanding writer who, back in the day, made 4 masterpieces, won an Emmy and disappeared completely from the spotlights.

It's funny, it's heartbreaking, it's smart and it will you touch you in a very emotional way.

A couple enjoying getting high in the woods, spot what they think is a werewolf attack on two guys, due to their state they're both unsure if what they've seen is real. A description of the monster is given, Mulder far from sceptical wonders if they're grey wolves. Investigations lead Mulder to a small Hotel, where the dubious Landlord spots a shape shifting monster.

The more serious tone of the opening two episodes is switched for this week's offering, a story which could have come out of a 1965 comic book, with some truly funny scenes and great dialogue. This episode is difficult to catalogue, to put into a genre as it spans so many.

The scene with Mulder, Scully and the trans-gender hooker was absolutely priceless, so funny. The man on the toilet too, just slick humour. The peeping Tom Hotel landlord perving on Mulder, too funny!

I utterly loved this episode, it had everything, scares, laughs, it felt like a show I would have stayed up extra late as a kid to watch for the scares, who doesn't enjoy a monster story.

I have to say Mr Duchovny is defying his 55 years, fair play to him, he's ageing very well. His X Files ring tone made me change my phone. Had to be done.

Well Impressed!!! Take it for what it is, as mad as a box of frogs. Just great fun to watch, truly fun.

9/10

And it did seem like he was trying to push the comedy, but that's what made it even funnier. Especially with Tyler Labine and Nicole Parker as the "stoners" (from "War of the Coprophages" and "Quagmire"- They haven't changed!) it's just as absurd as those, even up a few notches because of better production value for the gags.

This is over the top, in some of the previous Darin Morgan episodes, maybe he held back. But here, he reaches for levels of insanity that he never attained previously, not even in previous X-Files and MillenniuM Eps. Mostly, he is parodying the absurdity of the times, where in these last few years we have seen an exponential increase of people actually believing things like 1) The Moon Landings were faked, 2) Lizard people have taken over the government, 3) Atlantis will rise from the Ocean and Lemuria will live again, and finally 4) The Earth is actually FLAT. Yes, there are people who believe this! Perhaps some of them rated this episode a 1-star. The sheer bulk of truly insane conspiracy theories that have been floating around on DiscloseTV makes even Mulder look sane. Maybe Darin spent a few days watching the latest Dren from there while writing this. It's possible. But just to be fair to the few valid videos that get uploaded to that station, however mostly it is just conspiracies now, less actual UFO stuff.

To enjoy this Episode is to laugh at what we have become, from Mulder's running Smartphone gags to the idea that Skully will go to town on a guy she's never met and have his baby. Of course, that was "Guy's" (Rhys Darby from Flight of the Concords) Skully-Fantasy, to make up for our own secret Skully fantasies. And Alex Daikun makes another X-Files appearance, his 3rd not including "I want to Believe" as the Squinty-Eyed manager.

The barrage of inanities erupting from Mulder leaves Skully no time to even respond, as he has all of her responses memorized now. So Mulder is really parodying his own character, much like Dave Duchovney did in the vastly underrated, mostly ignored but actually great film "Evolution" where he Moons the screen, and us, while saluting "Russell Woodman" (Ted Levine). David has a great Comedic sense, because of his ability to pull it off with a straight face.

Darin's episodes are so that you have to either love them a lot or scratch your head. But he creates beautiful... Well, they are Fairy Tales mostly, but he adds an almost Christmas quality to it, a very surreal tapestry and in the case of this episode it has threads that go back to earlier in the series. I feel it is his gift to us, and I accept it. But some people can't understand Darin's humor, ergo they hate it. Well, that's not my problem, it's theirs. They probably like Humor that is at the expense of someone else, where Darin has always been self-effacing in his Humor and even humble about it, never actually hurting anyone, while roasting and lambasting ideas like Scientology and other cults. There was a science fiction religion in El Cajon, California, which was based in a bookstore, "Aquarius Bookstore" on the corner of Main and Magnolia. It's long gone, but Darin parodies it in "Jose Chung's". He made fun of the concept but never the people who ran the store.

It is as if we are going to get "One of Each" of the different archetypes of X-Files "cases". so far, we've had the Mythos, the MOTW, and now the Comedy. Which is what makes X-Files so great, there is always something for everyone. And this episode did very well for going on during the Iowa Caucuses!

Easter Egg! Take note of Rys Darbie's suit and hat, then watch "The Nightstalker" with Darren McGavin!

OK, first review of a show I have written, and only because this episode cemented the reasons this show needs a new, full run. Absolutely the funniest episode ever. I rate it above Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose in which Peter Boyle gave a hilarious performance. This should go down as the best X-Files episode ever. Congrats to the writer, the director, and the producer. I hope that following episodes meet the standard that has been set. I knew David could be funny, but Gillian? She really pulled a were-rabbit out of her hat on this one. She showed a comedic timing that I found spot-on and left me wanting to see more. The fox mask in the Motel looking into Scully's room from the hidden passage was magically on the nose.

Since the new "X-Files" is an extremely limited series order of episodes, this throwback comedy (title recalls Universal's lame "Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy" programmers of the '50s) is a waste of limited resources and airtime. Obviously many die-hard fans seem amused, but they deserve better - like trying to hit a homer week in and week out.

So we get to see décolletage in a fantasy scene of Gillian Anderson getting down; and we see both stars' comic timing. Hey, their many other acting hires for the BBC or movies or Showtime give them a chance to stretch - there's no point in cutesy stuff like this as a lull or breather in the forward thrust of this series. If they were cranking out 40 or more yearly episodes like a '50s half-hour series I could understand placing a one-off time-killer on the schedule, but with 6 total episodes, seriously?

If fans were more critical they would file "Were-Monster" close to the jump-the-shark bin. It reminded me of that one-off "Lost" episode where two guest stars mixed up the regular cast with a new premise and were duly killed off (and literally buried) by the end of the hour. Perhaps binge watchers of the future will appreciate this respite from hard-hitting, tense action if they are sitting through dozens of hours of "X-Files" at a sitting, but tuning in I was only mildly amused by the easy targets for satire (most of which undermined Carter's premise for the series almost as an "I don't take this stuff seriously" reminder) and overall felt my time was wasted.