The X-Files (2018) – Rm9sbG93ZXJz, and Familiar

“We have to be better teachers.” For an episode that doesn’t have a lot of dialogue, this is an important message. It’s also important to remember how we treat those who can learn from us. In this episode written by Kristen Cloke, and Shannon Hamblin, Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) learn that manners…

The Medium (2021) – Banjong Pisanthanakun

Thailand delivers a moody, atmospheric character piece, shot in documentary fashion that explores spirituality, faith, belief, family and vengeance. Initially, the ‘documentary’ is supposed to be about shamnisim and focuses on Nim (Sawanee Utoomma), and how she serves as a vessel for a goddess that has selected females of her family for generations. Through Nim,…

The X-Files (2016) – My Struggle, and Founder’s Mutation

Eight years after the second feature film, I Want to Believe, and almost fourteen years after the season nine episode, The Truth, The X-Files returned to screens with a six episode limited series, now christened Season Ten. And while I Want To Believe may not have been the film fans wanted (hoping for more on…

The X-Files (2000) – Hollywood A.D., and Fight Club

David Duchovny writes and directs Hollywood A.D., that sees Mulder (Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) being misinterpreted on the big screen. First airing on 30 April, 2000, the agents find themselves involved in a strange case involving an item known as the Lazarus Bowl, which may have the words Christ spoke to raise Lazarus from…

The X-Files (2000) – En Ami, and Chimera

William B. Davis, the Cigarette Smoking Man himself, pens En Ami, which pairs CSM with Scully (Gillian Anderson) in this episode that first debuted on 19 March, 2000. CSM approaches Scully after she and Mulder (David Duchovny) both recieve information about a supposed miraculous healing of a young boy who was suffering from cancer, but…

The Day She Died (2021)- S.M. Freedman

Dundurn Press delivers S.M. Freedman’s thriller, The Day She Died, to my summer reading pile, and it is a gut punch of a book, exploring dark secrets, while exploring the concept of forgiveness of oneself. It’s a captivating read that pulls you in, and drags you along at full-throttle on a white knuckle ride that…

Millennium (1999) – Seven and One, and Nostalgia

Here we are, the penultimate installment of Millennium, the first spin-off from Chris Carter’s The X-Files, and as we close in on the end of the series, the solid episodes just keep coming. Seven and One, written by Frank Spotnitz and series creator Chris Carter, is scary, unnerving and fantastic. First airing on 30 April,…

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2009) – Niels Arden Oplev

Back in 2009 it seemed everyone was reading and talking about the late Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy. I read each one voraciously, absorbing each and every detail and loving the dark, thrilling world he created, and the fantastic character of Lisbeth Salander, a brave and powerful heroine with a sense of justice and her own…

The Sittaford Mystery (1931) – Agatha Christie

The next mystery novel, The Sittaford Mystery aka Murder at Hazelmoor, from Agatha Christie didn’t feature any of her familiar characters, in fact it introduces us to a firebrand of a young woman named Emily, though she doesn’t enter the tale until a quarter way through. This time around, murder most foul strikes near Dartmoor,…