FIGHT CLUB

        At first I thought "Fight Club" was going to be your typical run of the mill X-Files episode and if it was it would have been a decent episode, instead it did a complete U-turn about half way through the episode and became a comedy. Of course, I should have figured out that it was going to be a comedy right from the start when we had the look-alike Scully and Mulder using Anderson and Duchovny’s voices. I put this down to wishful thinking on my part that Chris Carter could write an episode without blowing it somehow. After the debacle of "Syzygy" which was televised after the excellent "War of the Coprophages" , "Fight Club" has the same problem of coming after the excellent "Hollywood A.D.". Also, Carter just isn’t good at it and Marc Snow didn’t help with the music that was used to stress the point, "Hey, this is supposed to be funny". Did anyone else think of the old paradox (sometimes used in time travel stories) that when two of the same people meet chaos ensues? As a fellow X-Files fan said to me, "Didn’t Star Trek already address this?" Which they have as I couldn’t stop thinking while watching "Fight Club". Not that there are too many original ideas out there, but if you are going to do the old twin story line you should at least make it interesting and not just cute.

        "Fight Club" is another one of those episodes you keep wishing would get better and can’t help thinking it should be better. The problem was one couldn’t figure out what the episode wanted to be, a commentary on the nature of violence or trying to make fun of how everyone has an opposite out in the world and if they meet disaster happens. This episode was as schizophrenic as Betty Templeton and Lulu Pfeiffer because of this factor. About half way through the episode the twin thing was old and I wanted them to wrap it up and get to the point which wasn’t too hard to figure out.

        Now some miscellaneous comments on "Fight Club":

-  It appeared to me that one of those Missionary people hadn’t ridden a bike in ages by his wobbly driving skills.

-  Good to see Chris Carter did the old stereotype of Missionaries by dressing them in white and looking alike (oops, sorry I forgot that was the theme of the episode). Though I did find it interesting that they rode bikes instead of riding a car then walked around the neighborhood. I also found it interesting they didn’t go house to house, but seemed to pick houses randomly. How will they remember what houses they have already gone to?

-  So this is what has happened to Kathy Griffin after "Suddenly Susan" was mercifully canceled. Here is an actress who was miscast in a role. Griffin did her best, but I think she had a hard time with the role because of the way it was written. Since Griffin is known as a comedian actress she had to be cast because of this, but she just wasn’t right for the role.

-  Just before the look-alike Scully and Mulder start beating each other up I kept trying to figure out how the two Missionaries beating each other up was considered a hate crime. They both are doing the same things, but this was the best excuse Carter could come up with. Also, Carter must have thought it was funny to have two Missionaries beat each other almost to death then start beating up the police who were trying to stop them.

-  An episode always gets an extra plus whenever the slide projector is brought out. This was the best scene in the whole episode where Scully goes off on all the possibilities of what is going on in the case and then asked Mulder what is the final clue. These are the scenes that work where Scully and Mulder acted like each other and are not used for laughs.

-  What’s this, Scully using Mulder’s line from "The Pilot" episode, "That’s why they put the I in F.B.I."? Just another one of those funny lines. Also, I found it annoying every time Mulder said this is her case so he’ll do what ever she says. Actually this was kind of true since it was Scully who figured out everything without us seeing her doing any real legwork such as when she came up with two Kathy Giffins in the same town and what they have been doing the past 12 years. She got all of this in one afternoon after visiting one of the twins homes. Let’s not forget how just by using the internet she was able to figure out both women had the same father and were conceived artificially and that the father was in jail.

-  I’m confused how is it that Scully and Mulder get to the bar with the unconscious Bert Zupanic before an ambulance. What where they psychic and knew that was were to find him? These are the type things I hate because it was done more to move the plot along instead of having any logic behind it.

-  Shouldn’t Scully have been a little bit worried where Mulder was since he hadn’t contacted her for hours after he fell in the manhole. Since this was TV Mulder’s car should have been parked out front where she would see it. (I’m assuming they both had cars since they split up and weren’t worry about how the other is going to get a ride). Oh yeah, Mulder deserved to be thrown into a manhole since he was stupidly standing in the middle of the road talking on a cell phone. He’s lucky he was thrown into a manhole and didn’t get hit by a car.

-  Was the scene with the screaming father supposed to be funny? It sure wasn’t funny, instead it was more disturbing.

-  Doesn’t one need to close the Xerox machine cover so you don’t get a black background?

-  Could Scully have her blouse opened any further? I guess that fake X-Files movie with Tea Leoni influenced her to be more open.

-  I’m surprised we didn’t get one of those guest appearances by a wrestling celebrity at the big wrestling match since they are popping up in every TV show in existence.

-  Who didn’t figure out the wresting audience was going to end up in a big brawl.

-  Why exactly was Argyle Saperstein in Washington, D.C. with Scully and Mulder? Hmm, maybe to explain to us what the whole point of the episode was and to get one last punch line of seeing a beaten up Scully and Mulder.

- Chris Carter should watch a few "Buffy, The Vampire Slayer" episodes to understand how to write an episode that can be funny and dramatic at the same time.

        "Fight Club" just continues the long line this season of episodes that had potential, but are ruined by bad writing. The music didn’t help either. It just wouldn’t have been such a bad episode if Carter hadn’t gone for laughs. Another disappointment in a season of disappointments.

Claudia

E-Mail: Claudia.Cauchon@unh.edu

05/09/00

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