monster of the week project

Mulder? What's Going On?  (The Plot) [Turns out it's unreasonably dangerous to search anything related to the term "deep throat" on public wi-fi in Panera, even in FamilySafe mode, so more pictures will be added when I have privacy. Whoopsie.] When the episode begins we're in Idaho, watching as a military SWAT team breaks into a home to find the Victim of the Week huddled in a corner, covered in red welts. Back in Washington DC, Mulder runs into a spooky guy in the bathroom who tells him to stop poking his nose into things. Turns out our VotW was a test pilot, and after the SWAT team incident he never returned. His wife reported this as a kidnapping, which is why the FBI got wind of it. Mulder and Scully head to Idaho to investigate. They interview the wife and meet another test pilot who reappeared after similar circumstances and is now behaving strangely. No one wants to talk to them, except a journalist, but they don't want to talk to him.

Mulder? What's Going On? (The plot) The episode starts with a notice that this story is "inspired by" true events. We open to a red-headed woman running through the woods. Spooky stuff happens -- bright lights! strange noises! The woman is identified as being part of the class of 1989. She's got two weird little dots on her lower back. "It's happening again, isn't it?" the local detective on the case intones. Behold, children! An ancient technology! Now we're in the FBI headquarters. Everything is very busy and very nineties. Nineties phones! Nineties power suit! Nineties computers! Dana Scully, bright young medical doctor with a physics background, is being tasked with babysitting self-described "FBI's most unwanted", Fox "Spooky" Mulder. Mulder, an Oxford-educated criminal profiler, has become obsessed with "The X-Files", unexplained cases that come across the FBI's metaphorical desk

Here it is! Here we go! The first post of MOTWP, covering the first episode of the first season of Supernatural. I've got Opinions. Buckle up. THE STORY SO FAR (recap, focusing on monster-of-the-week-related elements) We start with the happy Winchester family: Dad, Mom, Big Brother (Dean) and Baby Brother (Sam, who is a literal baby when this episode starts). Mama Mary gets murdered on the ceiling of Sam's nursery in a horrific firey supernatural bloodbath/fire pool. Cut to the future, where Sam is about to interview for law school (is that a thing?). Fate will not allow it: Winchester Dad has disappeared, and Dean, who's been hunting monsters, is worried. We learn through a scene with a Supernatural Victim Of The Week (TM) that there's a spooky lady who asks men for a ride, makes out with them, then kills them. After some research, we learn that a local woman committed suicide in the 1980's after she accidentally drowned her children. The W

MotWP is dedicated to the folklore* behind episodes of The X-Files and Supernatural. *(and occasionally anthropology, sociology, tropes, history, science, and other real-life details) Why those shows? Because I love contemporary legends and cryptids, and both shows are teeming with them. Because I love the dynamic-duo-fights-local-monsters set-up. Because both shows are popular and long-running enough that they actually informed the way millions of viewers saw certain legends or creatures. When are you going to get around to doing this? This is a little baby passion project at the moment. Mostly I'm just holding the URL until I get the time to start re-watching the episodes I want to tackle. If you're interested in helping, I'm happy to have you! If you have a favorite episode of either show and would like to dig into the folklore behind it, please get in touch. Send me a pitch that best captures what you bring to the table and what you want to write about. Will