Coprophages

A look into The X-Files season 3, episode 12, "War of the Coprophages."

This episode has so many things going for it. I truly enjoyed watching this one on many levels and in the end there are no answers found; it's just great story telling. I want to parallel this blog with Alfred Hitchcock's, "The Birds," and why I personally did not like, "The Birds" for for the same reason of no answers in the end.

First let me mention why I did not like, "The Birds" out of the way and I will focus more on the reason I do like this X-Files episode even though both end without everything being answered. In the movie "The Birds," you get no answers at all, there is no character development, no ideas to why the birds are attacking or why they stop, why the characters are there. It plays more like a music video with eye candy. I never was scared for the characters because I had no attachment to them. They simply went through this small ocean front town and left. In the end I did not like it because it didn't focus on the birds and why they were attacking and it did not focus on why the characters were doing what they did.

The basis of the X-Files story has Mulder disappearing to a small town to clear his head and getting pulled into local reports of killer cockroaches. (Which is a borrowed situation from Hichcock of the unsuspecting hero in the wrong place at the wrong time.) The fear of cockroaches is a very common phobia since roaches live on every continent ~ Katsaridaphobia. In the opening scenes an exterminator gives his rant on bugs and history there of and is quickly consumed by roaches (Note the character that hires the exterminator he reoccurs and I missed that fact the first time I watched this.) From the very beginning you are hooked into finding out what is going on, yet this is not a story of the bugs, this is a story of how people react to bugs. The roaches are in fact the, "McGuffin," a mere means for the characters to be brought together so that the story can focus on developing the characters. You can take this formula and plug anything into the slot that grabs the viewer or readers attention. (In Psycho you have the stolen money that gets lost in the story because it isn't about a money theft ~ Psycho is about the characters. The Birds isn't about the characters, and oddly enough, it isn't about the birds ~ See where I'm going?) Other examples are Hellraiser being about the characters and not the box. In Poltergeist it isn't about the poltergeist, it's about the characters. In the original Aliens, it rarely shows the alien because it's about the characters. Plug whatever you want in the McGuffin slot, and write about the characters, tell of their reaction to it. Like I said at the top of the blog I enjoyed this episode on many levels, and this being the center of why. This episode as well as all The X-Files can be found on Netflix.

Toklotox Forluna Tansikna Wun Yoleeblah Morlee & Morlee Itox Ithno Yoleeblah Inx Youloth Crunum Wonnay. With that said, "Sleep with one eye open and have a 'Horrific' day." B)
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