There has been a thought on my mind over my time watching this show, and that is: "when was it that this show became great?" I don't think that there's necessarily an easy answer to this, and a lot of people will probably have different answers, but for me, it's actually an answer that is simpler than you would think. The show has always been great, but it was when it began to fill its writing staff with unique and interesting voices that all had different approaches to their material that it began to really get great. There's no reason for this show to feel like it's the same thing over and over, and with the unique set of writers, it quickly became a show that adhered to the strengths of them all. Darin Morgan, especially, has proven to be one of the show's most unique voices, always sprinkling in his episodes with a level of realism and a big amount of humor. In terms of his fourth overall episode - "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" - he has put the realistic nature of his work in the backseat and has really upped his humoristic tendencies, making for a different, yet remarkably essential piece of "X-Files" history. This episode may be one of the greatest examples of why this show is so unique and why it's able to do what it does so brilliantly, with a storyline that isn't entirely consequential to the overall mythology, but still stays true to the spirit and direction of the show.
This is one of those episodes that is easily skippable, and a lot of smaller "X-Files" fans would probably not watch this on a second watchthrough. But it feels essential in selling the spirit of the show; a show that isn't nailed down to one thing, but has the opportunity to actually spread out its wings and provide an episode that is virtually without consequences and simply based on heavy humor that works. It's nice to see a show take the opportunity for a bit of breathing room and not furiously attach itself to serious and gloomy all the time.
The story is quite interesting though, and the episode utilage of the unreliable narrator is quite fun to try and dissect. If you look too deeply into the episode, it's actually quite confusing and doesn't really leave you with a sense of satisfaction by the end, but that's the exact point of it. It's not based on providing a narrative that has a satisfying conclusion, but rather a setup for this fun bit of banter between Scully and Dr. Jose Chung, who I've gotta say is one of the more fun additions to the show's roster of guest characters.
The writing for this episode is quite brilliant, not just because of the unreliable narrator, but because it so vividly plays to the strengths of the actors. There is such a comedic genius hidden under David Duchovny's layers of seriousness, and the comic bits that he has in this episode are brilliant. The overall execution of the episode is quite brilliant, and the guest stars all have their moments where the audience gets a chance to laugh in happiness or surprise because of what came out. There certainly hasn't been a more entertaining episode in this show so far than this.
And it further adds to the idea that these "monster-of-the-week" episodes are such a great way of levitating between the show's more serious tone in the mythology arcs and having more fun with these monsters. They're mostly serious as well, but Morgan has added a levity to the show that it desperately needed because of its more dreary and upsetting parts. It can get dark and gloomy, but these are spaces where that isn't a necessity to further the story, and Morgan has brilliantly tapped into that and continues to provide some truly great and different episodes of this great show.
"Jose Chung's From Outer Space" is not just great because of its levity, but because it flawlessly uses its medium to just have some fun. There's no need to constantly add to the mythology, and even though this episode does deal with aliens, it does it in a very unique and satisfying way.
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