The Lone Gunmen (2001) – The Lying Game, and The ‘Cap’n Toby’ Show

Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) shows up in The Lying Game, written by Nandi Bowe. This episode first debuted on 4 May, 2001. Frohike (Tom Braidwood), Byers (Bruce Harwood), and Langly (Dean Haglund) get pulled into a murder case, immersed in secrets, a government investigation and lies. And at the heart of it, Walter Skinner…

Mission: Impossible (1969) – Fool’s Gold, and The Commandante

Ken Pettus pens Fool’s Gold which first aired on 26 October, 1969, and sees the IMF team, led by Phelps (Peter Graves) to stop a counterfeiter, Igor Stravos (Nehemiah Persoff) who has enough printed cash to purchase the entire gold reserve of a country, which would allow him to topple the government. Paris (Leonard Nimoy)…

The Lone Gunmen (2001) – Pilot, and Bond, Jimmy Bond

The second X-Files spinoff series launched on 4 March, 2001, and was written by Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz, John Shiban and Vince Gilligan, all of whom share a created by credit for it. The series follows Mulder’s ‘friends’ Frohike (Tom Braidwood), Langly (Dean Haglund), and Byers (Bruce Harwood), their magazine, The Lone Gunmen, and their…

The X-Files (1998) – The Pine Bluff Variant, and Folie a Deux

The Pine Bluff Variant, the first of the two episodes this week, is more of a conspiracy thriller, and gives us an X-Files episode without any supernatural or paranormal leanings. Written by John Shiban, the episode first hit the airwaves on 3 May, 1998. Scully (Gillian Anderson) is suspicious of Mulder’s (David Duchovny) behaviour, especially…

The X-Files (1998) – The Red and the Black, and Travelers

“Resist or Serve” Series creator, Chris Carter, serves as a director of this mythology episode which he co-wrote with Frank Spotnitz. It debuted on 8 March, 1998. While Mulder (David Duchovny) struggles with his belief, and is convinced his life has been wasted pursuing a lie covering a government agenda, Scully (Gillian Anderson) undergoes hypnosis…

The Sniper (2021) – Chang Kuo-Li

Taiwanese author Chang Kou-Li delivers an action thriller this week. With its North American debut, The Sniper, is available now from House of Anansi Press, features a translation by Roddy Flagg and reads like the best of Hong Kong cinema. There are action beats, police investigations, involving characters and a weaving story that takes you…

Millennium (1997) – Sense and Antisense, and Monster

Sense and Antisense, written by Chip Johannessen, sends Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) and the Millennium Group in a slightly different direction, when he gets drawn into the search for a missing man, known on the street as Zero (Clarence Williams III), who seems insane, spouting conspiracy theories, and seems to be infected with some sort…

The X-Files (1997) – Redux II, and Unusual Suspects

The conspiracy works to protect itself in this episode, the third part of the season finale/opener that rocked many of us on our heels. Written by series creator Chris Carter, Redux II first aired on 9 November, 1997. While Scully’s (Gillian Anderson) cancer begins to appear to be terminal (or is it?), Mulder’s (David Duchovny)…

Fortune (2020) -Ian Hamilton

I discovered the writings of Ian Hamilton in April 2015. Before that, I had seen his books in a variety of bookstores and I kind of innately knew that I was going to read them sooner or later. So when I came across the first six books in one go, I picked them up in…