"Dreamland Pt 1" A review  by Caroline O'Connell

Spoilers!

"Mulder, you are acting bizarre." Dana Scully - Dreamland.

"There's a very thin line between clever and stupid." 
Nigel Tufnell - Spinal Tap.


And it was all going so well (sigh).  Dreamland offered up a glorious
opportunity to get Mulder into Area 51 and find out more about the
Consortium and all the goings on that he's been so desperate  to find
out all his life.  But no.  We get a comedy and not a very good comedy
at that.

The first 20 minutes give us what we've come to expect from The
X-Files.  An unexpected event of a strange and/or paranormal kind -
namely the consciousness-swapping of Mulder and Maurice Fletcher giving
rise to some wonderful looks of confusion, but the outbreak of
VanBlundht Syndrome went rapidly down hill from there.

We know the X-Files can 'do' comedy, we know David Duchovny can be
funny, but there's a world of difference between the smartass
one-liners of Drive  or the physical comedy in Triangle and the
embarrassment of the mirror dance and the cliched Fletcher family. 
Technically the mirror dance was brilliant with great choreography from
both men, but I haven't cringed that much since Post Modern Prometheus.
 For all The X-Files forays into comedy, this was the most contrived
and least effective.

I'm not completely against this episode, though.  It did have it's good
points.  I loved Michael McKean and the ease in which he took to his
new life as Mulder, much to the horror and confusion of Scully.  But
surely someone as astute as Dana Scully would have copped on before she
did.  The little things, like smoking, calling her Dana, actually
following orders... Surely she would put that down to more than drugs
or a head injury.  Watching Gillian Anderson vent her exasperation
raised a smile more than any of the comedic pratfalls.

If Triangle was "The Wizard of Oz" then Dreamland was  Mulder  through
the Looking Glass and a nightmare version of domestic bliss complete
with the nagging wife and the 2.4 children from hell.  No wonder he
opts for soft porn on the Barcolounger.  Faced with Nora Dunn, who
wouldn't.  I'm sure Ms Dunn is a very gifted comedienne, but I don't
think I can remember a worse performance in the entire series (and I
include the killer pussy cats and the gorilla in that list!).  For all
the good David Duchovny brought to the part - the "I'm not the man you
married" speech was particularly sweet - Dunn sapped the life out of it
with her over the top, grating, spurned housewife routine.

It picked up in the final third with Maurice setting Mulder up and the
penny finally dropping for Scully.  We can but hope that Dreamland Pt 2
is an improvement.

5/10.

Random Stuff.

Are all those shirts and ties too constricting in the LA heat for
Casual!Mulder?

Return of the Eeww factor.  Man stuck in rock and man stuck in floor. 
Eeww!

Maurice Fletcher - Man in Black.  How much more black could he be? 
None.  None more black.  (Oh please!  You have to indulge me one Tapism
in honour of the great David St Hubbins.).  With all the attempts at
humour, I'm surprises they didn't chuck one in for good measure. 
Spinal Tap?  Now that's funny!

Kersh!  You leave that poor woman alone!

Jeff Smooge (cool name, btw) - CSM lite.

A Viagra joke?  Oh you 1013 people!

Beam me up, Scotty and take your comedy contrivances with you.


Cal