The biggest praise to heap upon "Fire" is the casting and performance of Mark Sheppard in the role of the caretaker who may or may not possess pyrokinetic powers. Beyond this singular heap of praise, "Fire" is an underwhelming episode that could just as easily have been an example of a great, or at the very least, highly entertaining monster-of-the-week case. There were many episodes in the first season, that despite a poor reputation among fans and critics, I enjoyed greatly for the sheer sense of fun but sadly "Fire" is not quite one of them.
THE X-FILES works best, at least in the first eleven episodes, when Mulder and Scully's dynamic is at play. Unfortunately, for the vast majority of "Fire", Scully and Mulder have little to do. It isn't quite to the extremes of "Space" where our two lead FBI agents just occupy the background but here, a new character is introduced. Enter Inspector Phoebe Green, an irritable old flame of Mulder's played irritatingly by Amanda Pays. The episode is a Mulder episode and it suffers because of it. Not because it is a Mulder episode but rather how Chris Carter tackles this. Here we learn of Mulder's apparent fear of fire after an incident from his youth while we also gain a look at his personal and professional life at some previous point in time. While the latter has potential, the former is a ridiculous plot element that is written with the intent of generating suspense but falls apart. There is little that is interesting about Mulder and Green together and what it enlightens the viewer on Mulder's character is not very much of substance.
Mulder's fear of fire is rather disappointingly executed and dare I say, absurd. It lacks any sense of palpability, heightened by David Duchovny's wildly inconsistent and often bewildering performance (in the scenes where Mulder must manoeuvre through fires as he succumbs to smoke inhalation) that is one of THE X-FILES's most outlandish elements yet! It is at once too cliché and contrived and lacks any real exploration that it is almost entirely disposable. Perhaps disposing of superfluous plot elements in "Fire" could have made a tighter and more entertaining hour of television.
With some rather pivotal criticisms aside, there is enough to enjoy about "Fire" that it is by no means an insufferable experience. Scully is excellent and Gillian Anderson easily charms her way through this episode with an abundance of good energy. So too is Mark Sheppard who is very memorable and entertaining as the charismatic antagonist. The scene in the bar is perhaps the episode's most memorable, being both well shot and superbly acted. Sheppard and Anderson provide a wealth of energy to an episode otherwise bogged down by disappointing and/or generic character drama.
"Fire" is worth the watch but it needed a more pure Scully and Mulder angle that would have done justice to the concept and Mark Sheppard's fantastic performance as the evil little man claiming to control fire. For a really wonderful character based episode, see the next episode, "Beyond the Sea" which is a definite X-FILES classic.
THE X-FILES works best, at least in the first eleven episodes, when Mulder and Scully's dynamic is at play. Unfortunately, for the vast majority of "Fire", Scully and Mulder have little to do. It isn't quite to the extremes of "Space" where our two lead FBI agents just occupy the background but here, a new character is introduced. Enter Inspector Phoebe Green, an irritable old flame of Mulder's played irritatingly by Amanda Pays. The episode is a Mulder episode and it suffers because of it. Not because it is a Mulder episode but rather how Chris Carter tackles this. Here we learn of Mulder's apparent fear of fire after an incident from his youth while we also gain a look at his personal and professional life at some previous point in time. While the latter has potential, the former is a ridiculous plot element that is written with the intent of generating suspense but falls apart. There is little that is interesting about Mulder and Green together and what it enlightens the viewer on Mulder's character is not very much of substance.
Mulder's fear of fire is rather disappointingly executed and dare I say, absurd. It lacks any sense of palpability, heightened by David Duchovny's wildly inconsistent and often bewildering performance (in the scenes where Mulder must manoeuvre through fires as he succumbs to smoke inhalation) that is one of THE X-FILES's most outlandish elements yet! It is at once too cliché and contrived and lacks any real exploration that it is almost entirely disposable. Perhaps disposing of superfluous plot elements in "Fire" could have made a tighter and more entertaining hour of television.
With some rather pivotal criticisms aside, there is enough to enjoy about "Fire" that it is by no means an insufferable experience. Scully is excellent and Gillian Anderson easily charms her way through this episode with an abundance of good energy. So too is Mark Sheppard who is very memorable and entertaining as the charismatic antagonist. The scene in the bar is perhaps the episode's most memorable, being both well shot and superbly acted. Sheppard and Anderson provide a wealth of energy to an episode otherwise bogged down by disappointing and/or generic character drama.
"Fire" is worth the watch but it needed a more pure Scully and Mulder angle that would have done justice to the concept and Mark Sheppard's fantastic performance as the evil little man claiming to control fire. For a really wonderful character based episode, see the next episode, "Beyond the Sea" which is a definite X-FILES classic.