The Lone Gunmen
I have not been reading as much this summer because, quite frankly after moving and a semester of school, I needed a break. So after finals I spent about a month watching seasons one through five of the X-Files (I go on a X-Files bender every couple years). Now, as I have said before, as far as I am concerned, the X-Files ended with the film. After that, it just got waaay too convoluted and silly. I own season one through five and feel no pang of longing to own any more.
However, I did miss out on one of the briefly lived spin off series: The Lone Gunmen. The Gunmen: the jaded black-ops Frohike, smart-ass hacker Langley and earnest analyst Byers were created mainly as a place for Mulder to get information that he could not otherwise access. Satellite imaging, classified technology, illegal hacks into classified databases, the word on the street in conspiracy circles, these were things the Gunmen provided as well as occasional henchmen services whenever Mulder (and most especially Scully) needed help. They also made a counter point to Mulder in that they made him look sane, as well as providing the occasional comic touch. As well written and well-played as they were, they quickly gained a fan following of their own and by 8th season, got their own half season series. I had always loved the characters and had been intrigued by the prospect of their own show, but hadn’t gotten around to watching it until the last couple days when I discovered that my video rental place carried it.
Well, that was...it didn’t quite work for me. Part of me me liked it and part of me was disappointed. I had to warm up to it and it had to find itself. At first the comedy was too broad, relied on threadbare clichés. The feel of the show was too goofy, too much buffoonery. The Lone Gunmen of the X-Files were much smarter than The Lone Gunmen of their own TV series and that was disappointing. Example: In the X-Files Langely is hacking DOD satellites. In the Lone Gunmen TV series, he has to call in his "super hacker pal" to get inside government agency mainframes. WTH? I also find it hard to belive that the X-File Lone Gunmen got snowed the way the TV Series Lone Gunmen did. But they did seem to be finding their feet about halfway through, making steps toward striking the right balance between thriller and comedy (always a great combo vis-à-vis Sneakers).
I did find Jimmy annoying at first, though he did settle down and mature some by the time the series ended, but Eve was cliched and very over-used. She was a plot device in every single episode continually playing the role of either deu ex machina or making the Gunmen look foolish, often both. The Gunmen looked foolish all by themselves (that's kind of the point of unlikely heros), they didn’t need assistance. What we needed was for the Gunmen to find their nobility, to triumph through their inexperience and mistakes, for the audience to come to respect and admire them despite their outlandish and sometime foolish acts. Not get their backside saved every week by an escapee from a 007 villainess training camp. Plus the Gunmen were the stars of the show, Jimmy and Eve should have remained in the supporting cast. By the end of the series they were taking up waaaay too much screen time for a couple of cliches.
It was as if the producers, having fought to get the Gunmen the series, didn’t have faith in them to carry it.
But still, the plots/mysteries were smart, the comedy well executed, the drama well written and the acting great. It’s a shame this series barely got a chance to find it’s feet in it’s half-season run before Fox yanked it in it’s rush to move into the mainstream. What is nice about the DVD set is that they included the Gunmen’s last stand in the X-Files episode “Jump the Shark”, so you get closure from the abruptly ended series (which ended with a cliff-hanger) and you get to see the Gunmen go out on a "high" note, such as it were. The “Making Of” featurette also includes a short section of the writers, producers and actors tell us about their reaction to 9-11 after the Gunmen’s pilot episode, which aired in March of 2001, centered around the Gunmen thwarting a plot to fly an airliner into the WTC.
Which must have been really…creepy, scary, strange….much like the X-Files themselves.
"We're just hollywood writers. If we thought of this, we assumed someone in the Department of Defence had throught of it too and come up with counter measures..." Sadly, the military is not known for it's imagination.
Still, the series was amusing and entertaining. Cute. Not fulfilling for the raw materials the producers had in their hands. It could have been so much more and perhaps had they a full season, they might have found their way there, but taken on it’s own as a comedy, it’s entertaining.
Sorry, I did not feel like dealing with anything serious today. :D
However, I did miss out on one of the briefly lived spin off series: The Lone Gunmen. The Gunmen: the jaded black-ops Frohike, smart-ass hacker Langley and earnest analyst Byers were created mainly as a place for Mulder to get information that he could not otherwise access. Satellite imaging, classified technology, illegal hacks into classified databases, the word on the street in conspiracy circles, these were things the Gunmen provided as well as occasional henchmen services whenever Mulder (and most especially Scully) needed help. They also made a counter point to Mulder in that they made him look sane, as well as providing the occasional comic touch. As well written and well-played as they were, they quickly gained a fan following of their own and by 8th season, got their own half season series. I had always loved the characters and had been intrigued by the prospect of their own show, but hadn’t gotten around to watching it until the last couple days when I discovered that my video rental place carried it.
Well, that was...it didn’t quite work for me. Part of me me liked it and part of me was disappointed. I had to warm up to it and it had to find itself. At first the comedy was too broad, relied on threadbare clichés. The feel of the show was too goofy, too much buffoonery. The Lone Gunmen of the X-Files were much smarter than The Lone Gunmen of their own TV series and that was disappointing. Example: In the X-Files Langely is hacking DOD satellites. In the Lone Gunmen TV series, he has to call in his "super hacker pal" to get inside government agency mainframes. WTH? I also find it hard to belive that the X-File Lone Gunmen got snowed the way the TV Series Lone Gunmen did. But they did seem to be finding their feet about halfway through, making steps toward striking the right balance between thriller and comedy (always a great combo vis-à-vis Sneakers).
I did find Jimmy annoying at first, though he did settle down and mature some by the time the series ended, but Eve was cliched and very over-used. She was a plot device in every single episode continually playing the role of either deu ex machina or making the Gunmen look foolish, often both. The Gunmen looked foolish all by themselves (that's kind of the point of unlikely heros), they didn’t need assistance. What we needed was for the Gunmen to find their nobility, to triumph through their inexperience and mistakes, for the audience to come to respect and admire them despite their outlandish and sometime foolish acts. Not get their backside saved every week by an escapee from a 007 villainess training camp. Plus the Gunmen were the stars of the show, Jimmy and Eve should have remained in the supporting cast. By the end of the series they were taking up waaaay too much screen time for a couple of cliches.
It was as if the producers, having fought to get the Gunmen the series, didn’t have faith in them to carry it.
But still, the plots/mysteries were smart, the comedy well executed, the drama well written and the acting great. It’s a shame this series barely got a chance to find it’s feet in it’s half-season run before Fox yanked it in it’s rush to move into the mainstream. What is nice about the DVD set is that they included the Gunmen’s last stand in the X-Files episode “Jump the Shark”, so you get closure from the abruptly ended series (which ended with a cliff-hanger) and you get to see the Gunmen go out on a "high" note, such as it were. The “Making Of” featurette also includes a short section of the writers, producers and actors tell us about their reaction to 9-11 after the Gunmen’s pilot episode, which aired in March of 2001, centered around the Gunmen thwarting a plot to fly an airliner into the WTC.
Which must have been really…creepy, scary, strange….much like the X-Files themselves.
"We're just hollywood writers. If we thought of this, we assumed someone in the Department of Defence had throught of it too and come up with counter measures..." Sadly, the military is not known for it's imagination.
Still, the series was amusing and entertaining. Cute. Not fulfilling for the raw materials the producers had in their hands. It could have been so much more and perhaps had they a full season, they might have found their way there, but taken on it’s own as a comedy, it’s entertaining.
Sorry, I did not feel like dealing with anything serious today. :D
posted by KiplingKat | 1:35 PM
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