The Post-Modern Prometheus, part two: Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves.
I was watching the premiere of the new season of Fringe the other night, and man, that show is still… it’s just not there, you know? There’s a nice little reference to The X-Files in the episode, entitled “A New Day In An Old Town,” and while watching it, I kept thinking back to The X-Files, and The X-Files when it was at it’s height, mind you. It’s not hard to let your mind drift like that when you consider how decent the production values on a show like Fringe are, and how horrible the writing is. That, and I was still thinking about the idea of Frankenstein, and that reminded me of the episode from season five of that series, “The Post-Modern Prometheus,” otherwise known as “the black and white episode” in which Mulder and Scully go hunting for a modern day Frankenstein monster in the heartland of America…
Though highly gimmicky, it’s actually one of my favorite episodes of The X-Files, both funny and weird, but still really getting to the core of the show. In fact, looking back now, you could almost say that the show did it’s fluffy light-hearted fare than it did some of the paranormal elements? Maybe.
This is how we all started to feel towards the end of this show, but when it was good, it was damn good.
I don’t want to say too much about the episode, other than it involves a Elephant Man/Frankenstein monster that’s not all that he seems, and who has a serious love for Cher, and it was from the season right before the movie came out. The season after the movie was an interesting one if, for nothing else, you could tell that Chris Carter was seriously bored with the show and just doing whatever he could to keep himself awake (examples being the body switching two parter with Michael McKean, which was excellent, and Mulder’s time travel Nazi hunting vacation in the Bermuda triangle, also excellent).
There’s a whole fansite, called Goodnight, Dr. Frankenstein, and it’s devoted to just this episode alone. Very interesting. Good stuff. I’d suggest you check it out if you get the chance and as for Frankenstein, I’m not done talking about the monster yet, or the literary mad scientists who created it…
