201 DAYS OF THE X-FILES: chipping away at the behemoth...

Resuming after an unabashedly long period of silence...

I, myself for many years have wished to watch from the beginning to the end of the cultural phenomenon that is The X-Files, but to no avail...

So when a new mini-series was announced to continue where it left off a whole 13 years past its ending, with FOX launching a campaign to watch an episode every day until it's première, it couldn't be a better time to start, right?

The show's quality is unquestionably good overall, excelling to great at points, with some episodes becoming genuinely disturbing or unsettling. (Here's looking at you, The Host.) But, here I am in the midst of season 2, no longer being able to deny that episodes can potentially range from being bad to as aforementioned mind-bogglingly great. As for every episode like The Host or very early on in season 1, Squeeze, there's a Firewalker waiting for you, and while it never reaches the levels of unwatchable, they really do struggle to pull me in for their running time.

Quality aside, I complain about the show but I can't bare to pull myself away from it, a definitive first-world problem arises: 201 episodes is a lot to stomach. That is what previously put myself and other friends off of watching The X-Files. However, once you break into it and pass the first season, you're in flying colours and at least myself can't stop watching. An episode a day isn't enough, sometimes I can sit through 4 or 5 in one day. It's an insatiable demand with plenty of supply, only stopped by mortality... primarily sleep deprivation. Watching now is in all likeliness the best way to do it, as when it approaches January next year and it continues, the understanding of all of the show's past nuances and lore can only be rewarding. A time investment that pays off with even more of an investment of said time.

What more is there to say? If you love or even passively like television to some extent, which probably accounts for almost everyone, put the X-Files on your watch list, hell, start it right now. 201 episodes sounds like a lot and believe me it sure is, but believe me again, it sure is worth it.

WE GET THE WORLD WE DESERVE: season 2 of True Detective comes to a close...

For once, I adhere to the namesake of this blog... there will be spoilers!

With the 90-minute spectacle "Omega Station", the somewhat unsteady yet somehow riveting second season has ended. Did it redeem itself? The answer to that is merely a mix of yes and no.

Continuing on from the pilot that so many called disappointing, it received similar criticism for later episodes, but for me, the time investment really paid off when it hit the climax of episode 4: the extravagant shoot-out that only starts the slippery slope for our morally ambiguous heroes. However, up until that point, the episodes were still largely entertaining, but suffered from some surprisingly major detractors.

For example, the end of the second episode. Velcoro is seen to be shot twice in the stomach point blank by a shotgun upon finding Ben Caspere's illusive hard drive, for the week-wide cliffhanger to be clumsily resolved by the reveal of non-lethal riot shells, not buckshot. It did serve the purpose of the story and made sense within its context, but if that wasn't a horrific bait, I don't know what was. In terms of misplaced cliffhangers anyhow, it still doesn't reach The Desolation of Smaug's levels, not by a long shot.

The slow start is the main issue that most had with this fledgling second season and to a certain extent, I agree. When it starts to kick out its shockers, it never lets go. The aforementioned shoot-out in episode 4, the subsequent backlash and time jump in 5, the bizarre and nightmarish orgy sequence in 6, the death of Woodrugh in 7 and now here we are: the final nail in the coffin for a majority of our surviving leads.

One last attempt at cracking the case is made before our characters realise that the hydra is unstoppable, you cut one head off, another one grows in its place. They need to get out before they follow Woodrugh's fate as Velcoro is framed for his murder. Both Velcoro and Bezzerides are fugitives, on the run from the long arm of the law. However, what eventually culminates by the show's closing minutes is utterly heartbreaking. There is one last glimmer of hope as all of the loose ends are tied and they can all make their escape from the toxic noir that is Los Angeles, but emotion and human weakness shatters that illusion and it all comes tumbling down. 

Frank is ambushed by the side he least expected and is left for dead in the desert, stumbling through all of his visions of nay-sayers throughout his life, all of the people who said he could do no good, striding past them, leading up to his one reason to live - his wife. In a twist of fate, when Frank says to her that he has to keep moving, she struggles to retort: "you stopped moving way back there". Reminded of his wife only being a vision, Frank passed before he even got to her.

Velcoro is tracked down after letting down his guard to see his son one last time, throwing away his chance to escape. In his last chase and ditch attempt, he sends a voicemail to his son as a goodbye and to explain to him that it is nothing like it seemed. After an exchange in bullets, just when you think he may actually make it, reality kicks in and he is shot to pieces by his boss Lieutenant Burris, Woodrugh's killer and overall scum bag and his squad. His phone is last seen, with a message that reads: "Failed to Upload Recording to chadvelcoro@gmail.com", his son will never hear his heartbreaking last goodbye as his wife discovers that Chad really is his son, getting back the paternity test.

As after all, the second season of True Detective doesn't succumb to what the twists and turns of the case are, it's about the people behind it and your hope for their success. Cohle and Hart from the first season may have survived, but they never even scratched the surface of the conspiracy that they attempted to uncover. The higher-ups and those responsible will never be accounted for as they left it too long unsolved. The final message that this season poses wraps it up ever so perfectly as the current conspiracy becomes too much to handle and comes back and ruins our heroes chances of a new life, absorbing them. While Frank's wife and Ani get away with Velcoro's second child, they are left no more satisfied. Ani lays down all of the evidence they had, knowing that it will most likely never even make a dent on the unsolved conspiracy. 

Incredible performances from Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams, Taylor Kitsch and of course Vince Vaughn all hold this up past the sometimes questionable dialogue and slight holes in the plot to create an overall touching experience that is as good as the season that preceded it. The bad guys win, and we all do get the world that we deserve...