Cult TV Blog

I suspect that our culture has a thing about newness and novelty, which naturally the classic TV blogosphere contradicts directly by not feeling the need always to be watching something new or blogging about the latest thing. When periodically I worry whether I will ever run out of cult TV to watch and blog about here I remind myself that I can of course blog about everything all over again if necessary, since it isn't necessary to have new classic TV continually found in a TV station in Ghana. There is nothing wrong about writing about an established 'canon' of TV shows. There is also nothing wrong with noticing the shows that I don't tend to write about here, and Ripping Yarns is one of them. I'm not sure how it has somehow managed not to appear here, but this is an omission which needs to be corrected instanter. In the unlikely event that any readers of this blog haven't heard of the show, of course it was written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones, and parodie...

The introduction to this series of posts about the American dream as depicted and criticised in The X-Files can be found here: https://culttvblog.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-american-dream-in-x-files.html?m=1 Now you may say that it is slightly ridiculous that I left this series of posts for a break and since then have only managed one general round up post and have come back again. All I can say is that it was like that time Patsy Stone gave up drinking: it was the worst eight hours of her life. And also like heavy drinking, I think I will need another break after this one. 4x01 Herrenvolk (Core Mythology) Of course the reason I've returned to these posts is that the events of the last week made me think of one aspect of this episode in particular. That aspect is the alien bounty hunter, and since the phrase 'I hope the bondsman has a good bounty hunter' has been rather thrown around the internet in the past week, it made me look the subject up. I had assumed that bounty hunt...

 I do like this blog to bear at least a resemblance to the TV I'm actually watching, and while I've obviously been watching a lot of X-Files recently, the other things I've been watching haven't really appeared here, so this post is by way of a catch up. I've been watching odd episodes of The Prisoner. This is partly because I've been reading Ali Jaffer's Official Prisoner Companion on the canal bank on rare sunny afternoons and he's got me thinking about the theory that Number 6 is placed in the Village by the authorities as a plant to test the security measures. You may even find this approach being tested out here in the form of a series of blog posts at some point. I'm also interested in applying Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey template to the series (helpfully there's even a version with seventeen stops); although I have so far not resolved the problem that I'm not sure which order to follow for this one. And that's even wit...

The introduction to this series of posts about the depiction and criticism of the American dream in The X-Files can be found here: https://culttvblog.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-american-dream-in-x-files.html?m=1 I have now gone through three series of the show in detail, looking out for possible references to the American dream. I am going to pause after this post to decide on whether or how to continue, because I'm finding it very difficult and really don't understand the subject. I would also predict that fewer episodes from now on might reference the dream, so may just do selected episodes. Here, therefore are some impressions and conclusions that I have drawn so far. I have been surprised in my reading to find that the idea of the American dream is endlessly mutable, and its nebulousness is one of the things which has made this series of posts difficult. I have also been surprised to find that the show deals with the idea of the American dream I had to start off with (details...

The introduction to this series of posts about the depiction and criticism of the American dream in The X-Files can be found here: https://culttvblog.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-american-dream-in-x-files.html?m=1 I am delighted to announce that Mitchell Hadley of itsabouttv.com describes this series of posts (or possibly me, I do hope so) as provocative, which is one of the nicest compliments I could have. To undershoot and merely be controversial would be such a waste. He also made me realise something in the comments he helpfully left on my last post which I'm going to have to try to weave in. 3x19 Hell Money (Monster of the Week) The obvious connection to the American dream here is that of immigrants going to America so that they can improve themselves. However the episode also depicts Chinese immigrants in that exact position who are also at risk from the perceived danger of their home culture. I am a bit surprised that I haven't seen this in any of the commentary on this epis...

The introduction to this series of posts about the depiction and criticism of the American dream in The X-Files can be found here: https://culttvblog.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-american-dream-in-x-files.html?m=1 3x14 Grotesque (Monster of the Week) No apparent reference to the American dream. 3x15 Piper Maru (Core Mythology) The episode reflects badly on US justice with the suggestion of government complicity or corruption when the investigation of SCully's sister's death is halted despite new evidence being uncovered. At this stage I'm not clear whether Krycek is supposed still to be an FBI agent but he and Jeraldine are selling government secrets so there must be some source within the government for them. Once again we have the impact of the US military-industrial complex on its own citizens: I'm not sure whether this model for military being exposed to radiation was publicly available in the nineties but again a real world example of this actually happening would be t...

The introduction to this series of posts about the depiction and criticism of the American dream in The X-Files may be found here: https://culttvblog.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-american-dream-in-x-files.html?m=1 3x09 Nisei and 3x10 731 (Core Mythology) These two series mythology episodes were intended to be a single Monster of the Week episode, based on the atrocities of the famous Unit 731 run by the Japanese in occupied China from 1937 to 1945. The experiments on humans were just as cruel as the experiments the Nazis were carrying out in Europe and of course you know the reason it's appearing on this show is that the US paid the scientists involved for their research and paid them stipends. We're back in similar territory to Operation Paperclip.  As depicted here the experiments are adapted for the series mythology - an alienification if you like - to involve alien autopsies. Although the commentary on these episodes has tended to be that they depict the erosion of public confi...