David Duchovny's directorial debut is absorbing and sweet, if so overly sentimental you could scream. You half expect Kevin Costner to show up midway through. But with that in mind, maybe that was Duchovny's intention? The Unnatural plays a lot like an old-fashioned fairytale. There are a ton of stock characters (scrappy orphans, whimsical baseball coaches), conversations about what it is to be human, and friendships developing over deep divides. It's all pretty trite, but somehow works.I've always enjoyed the portrayal of the young Arthur Dales, and the heart of this episode is found in his budding friendship with Josh Exley, a black star hitter in the late '40s who's secretly an alien. Dales sees a connection with the man, and quickly becomes his protector and bodyguard against threats that are both earthbound as well as extra-terrestrial. Exley, too, is a great character; coming to Earth purely out of his desire to play sports and engage in such overtly human activity as compassion and bonding. To further the feeling of an old-school fable, he even becomes a 'real boy' at the end, just before he dies.
But while most of the flashbacks are fine, the moment of real tenderness arrives in that final scene between Mulder and Scully, which has got to rank up there among the most intimate of flirtatious sequences this show has ever done. Just like Dales and Exley, we have two very different people who were thrust together and found common ground. It's a tender scene, and both Duchovny and Gillian Anderson really come alive.
The Unnatural is an interesting hour, one that cements David Duchovny's talent as a storyteller. But one that also showcases his penchant for cloying corniness. Regardless, it's a fun detour. B
Credits
Guest stars Jesse L. Martin (Josh Exley); Fredric Lane (Young Arthur Dales); Brian Thompson (Alien Bounty Hunter); Jesse James (Poor Boy); Lou Beatty, Jr. (Black Coach); Burnell Roques (Buck Johnson); M. Emmet Walsh (Arthur Dales)
Writer David Duchovny Director David Duchovny
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