"How the Ghosts Stole Christmas." by Caroline O’Connell

Spoilers!

"Do you realise how seriously disturbed that man is?"  Maurice to
Scully.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.  Jack Frost nipping at your 
nose... Yes, It’s April so that must mean ‘A Very Christmas X-File’.
After two viewings, I’m still trying to decide exactly how I feel about

it.  I don’t dislike it, but other than high production values, it
didn’t 
have much to it.  

Continuing the thread from the last few episodes, we’ve now ventured
from comedy into caricature.  How is it you know a Chris Carter script 
a mile off?  Characters are forced into giving long-winded speeches 
that don’t trip easily off the tongue and use words like 
‘paramastabatory’... Huh?

And what’s with Scully?  After creating such a positive female
rolemodel, 
Carter resorts to the worst kind of cliche - put her in a haunted house

and she turns into a giddy, squeally, irrational girlie.  This is a
woman 
who has faced down Alien Shapeshifters, mutants, killer pussycats and 
psychopaths and yet she screams at a lady in a white nightie!  Come on 
Mr. Carter, Scully deserves better and so do we.

Mulder on the other hand, sits through a deconstruction of his psyche. 
 We’re told he’s a narcissistic, over zealous, self-righteous
egomaniac.  Ed Asner’s Maurice offers some hurtful - if accurate - home
truths.  When it’s boiled down to the basics, Fox Mulder is a social
misfit, a lonely man.  The same conclusion reached by Maurice Fletcher.
 If so, where is he?  Where’s our dark, broody, angst ridden Mulder? 
The recent run of episodes, whilst entertaining (in parts) are far from
classic episodes.  None of these episodes comes close to the comedy of
‘Bad Blood’ or ‘Jose Chung... ‘, no matter how hard they try.  And what
I wouldn’t give for another ‘Paper Hearts’!  

Before you run away screaming that I hated this episode, I'm now about
to say something nice!  Two things, actually - Ed Asner and Lily Tomlin
clearly relishing their roles as the malevolent ghosts intent on
convincing Mulder and Scully that eternal life together is better than
living this life alone.

Despite being out of character,  the performances made this a better
episode than it deserved to be.  This is Diet X-Files.  It looks like
The   
X-Files, but it doesn't taste quite the same and leaves a strange
aftertaste. 

Maybe it’s the solar influence.  Everyone’s hanging out in the sun,
soaking up the rays, man, and having too good a time.  Maybe we should
cart them all back up to Vancouver until they give us an episode that
will truly scare the hell out of us!

6/10


Random Stuff

"I'm not gonna do it!  It's my new year's resolution"  Yeah, right! 
Which year?

Any moment now, the Lone Gunmen are going to turn up in the Van, and
the Scooby Doo homage will be complete.

Fart Jokes?  We get words like paramastabatory... or whatever and they
resort to fart jokes?

Typical of a woman!  Scully sees a corpse and the first thing she
notices is they're wearing the same outfit!  Oh the embarrassment
indeed.

Nice to see Mulder got his view back after that nasty brick wall
popping up out of nowhere in the movie.

Ever get the feeling Fox Mulder loves Halloween?  Scaring Scully with
the flashlight was a good one!  Imagine him Trick or Treating.

Things I learned from The X-Files:  On hearing a classic song, bad
things are gonna happen.

Cal

"This is embarrassing!  Amateur kid's stuff."