2x20: Humbug

[wendelah1]

This is Darin Morgan's maiden voyage as a writer for The X-Files. He previously appeared in season two in "The Host" as Flukeman. I haven't watched it yet (World Cup!) so let's see what I remember. Well, Scully eats a cricket. They exhume a potato. Mulder looks hot. It's the first episode conceived to be humorous, as opposed to having a quip or two

Comments

[badforthefish]

ONE OF US. ONE OF US. GOBBLE GOBBLE. GOBBLE GOBBLE.

Just as Ice drew its inspiration from The Thing, it is pretty obvious Humbug draws its inspiration from Tod Browning's amazing 1932 film: Freaks. And just like Freaks, Humbug is a tale about acceptance and rejection

[estella_c]

Not yet up for the deep stuff, but when M & S observed the carni chaos at the funeral, that was NOT a wake. It was a funeral. This is proven by one of my favorite lines, uttered by Mulder after everyone has roared off and several chairs have fallen: "I can't wait for the wake."

After Mulder receives the PC lecture from Mr. Nutt, I examined his later babbling about having seen the Conundrum. There's just this hint of "damn, gotta be careful. Could have been, etc."

Darin Morgan hiked the show up several notches. Then he disappeared. Call me, Darin! We could have a romantic relationship based on old movies and never seeing each other.

[wendelah1]

Disappeared? For someone who disappeared, he sure has a long list of credits at IMDb, including executive producing credit on Fringe, and a couple of shows after that.

Darin Morgan.

[estella_c]

He disappeared from THE X-FILES! That's what matters. sob...

Long list of credits, huh? Should check.

[murielle]

This is the episode that turned me into an X-Files fan. I don't believe I'd ever watched an episode before, and, in fact strictly speaking I didn't watch that one either. I came in just before Scully ate the bug. The show, while being satisfyingly creepy made me laugh. After that I began watching the series regularly.

I never had too much patience for Mulder, so I didn't ship him with Scilly. My favorite characters were Skinner and Mulder's mother. I shipped them a few times. As I'm sure a lot of people can say, my first fanatic was a short X-Files fic.

Love the expression on Mulder's face when Scilly "ate" the bug.

(Posted from my kindle).

[wendelah1]

I love hearing how people became fans of the show.

"My favorite characters were Skinner and Mulder's mother. I shipped them a few times."

Now, that's a rare pairing. I really like Teena Mulder, too, but I'd never thought to ship her with Skinner.

"As I'm sure a lot of people can say, my first fanatic was a short X-Files fic."

My first fanfic was for The X-Files as well.

[murielle]

While I loved Teena Mulder, I hated that name. For a long time we didn't have a name for her, couldn't find it in cannon, or in fic. But I read somewhere that her name was Elizabeth. That seemed to fit better so I regarded "Teena" as a nickname, when it finally surfaced. And yeah, loved the idea of her and Skinner. They were both seemed to be from an older generation, not just in years, but in attitude. Both suffered in silence. Mulder didn't suffer in silence, he suffered in neon lights with a marching band. :-)

[estella_c]

I suspect that look was spontaneous. She really did chow down on that bug!

[estella_c]

My thinking about the Files is that they expanded their audience dramatically by adding comedy to the repertoire. I'd like to think DD kind of created the idea, because as we know he is a wellspring of wisecracks and probably adlibbed a few. Darin, the little flukey tagalong, turned out to be a genius at it, and I believe the two were friends.

"Humbug" is representative of DM's work in that there is a sweet and sympathetic center to all the craziness. Like most funny people, Darin felt the dark side intensely. This was especially obvious in CBFR, which is IMO his best ep.