Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Bad Blood? What Bad Blood?

So I did an X-Files marathon the other night that included, as it always does, my very favorite episode of television ever, "Bad Blood."  Of course a Robin Hood episode shares that title so I thought it might be interesting to explore whatever parallels I could find and the truth is there aren't any.  The end.  Oh, yeah, like that's stopped me before.  How long have you been reading this blog? 

They actually start in a similar fashion with altercations in the woods.  The biggest difference I could see (aside from the whole being set several centuries apart and one being landmark television and the other not) was the humor.  "Bad Blood" is beloved among XPhiles because it's hilarious.  The more I thought about it, though, there were a couple of things that made me go huh, including these.

1.  Our Heroes get down and dirty.  Guy and Robin are challenging each other, as usual, while Mulder is fighting a Winnebago.  Guy and Robin both just wind up looking totally filthy while Mulder looks fetchingly mud-spattered and vulnerable (as you do when you lose a fight with a Winnebago).

2.  Our Heroes deal with pointy things.  Arrows, swords and blow-gun sticky thingies vs. stakes and fake vampire teeth.  Mulder fashioned the stake himself and then overreacted with it, leading to the discovery of the fake vampire teeth.  Scully performs a couple of autopsies with substandard scalpels, leading to the discovery of our next item. 
 
3.  Our Heroes get dosed with knock out drops.  Courtesy of Robin's dad with a blow-gun full of sticky thingies for Guy and Robin and they just wake up tied up and irritated. Scully gets some tainted coffee from Sheriff Lucius Harwell and wakes up alone and unharmed.  Mulder eats pizza, fights off a vampire with sunflower seeds and wakes up singing the theme from "Shaft."  Have I mentioned that I love Mulder?

4.  Our Heroes hear a tale from a mysterious stranger.  Robin's dad, intent on saving his other son though he may be, isn't nearly as compelling as Luke Wilson in a Sheriff's uniform.  I mean really.

5.  Our Heroes try to explain themselves to an incredulous audience.  The Gang's many outraged sputtered questions aren't nearly as effective as Skinner's one raised eye brow.  He didn't even have to say a word before Mulder and Scully were both using the "I was drugged!" defense. 

Kind of makes you wonder if RH's writers were watching the X-Files, doesn't it?  Just me?  Okay, I'm gonna go watch "Humbug" now.  There were no jigsaw tattooed bald side show geeks in RH, right?  Might take some further research there.  I'll let you know.  Today's song by Screamin' Jay Hawkins was a big part of "Humbug."  Enjoy and have a great day!

2 comments:

  1. I love the RH "Bad Blood," too. Is this another stab at not writing about Richard Armitage?

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  2. I didn't bring him up once and my stated adoration is for Fox Mulder.

    Love,
    Cleopatra

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