"My problem with West Side Story?
A guy goes running through the streets of
Spanish Harlem yelling out, 'MARIA!'
One woman comes to the window."
-- Comedian Bobby Slayton
"El Mundo Gira" comes to the small screen from the pen of John Shiban and the direction of Tucker Gates. Lest we forget, Shiban's last effort was the eminently forgettable "Teso Do Bichos," and Gates' directorial debut on The X-Files was "Hell Money," which was the worst X-File ever written or filmed, IMNSHO. Consequently, my expectations for this episode were low, and I was not disappointed. ;-)
A loose translation of the title could be "As the World Turns," and this episode smacked of soap opera. The conflict between two brothers over one woman quickly escalates into a quest for machismo vengeance after the woman dies in the opening trailer. To his credit, Gates did capture a nice mood with his overhead shot of the migrant workers' village, depicting the squalor that must be so much a part of that group of people's everyday lives. Shiban tried to make this an X-File with a bite of social commentary, showing the utter hopelessness of the plight of illegal aliens as they search for a better life for themselves and their progeny. The brothers' cousin Gabriella works two jobs to make ends meet, yet willingly agrees to give money to Eladio so that he can return to Mexico. Shiban also depicted the utter disdain that naturalized Mexicans have for the illegals in the person of an INS agent, portrayed by Ruben Blades. Yet somehow, for some reason, this episode is like a gyroscope: it spins around like crazy, but never seems to go anywhere.
The opening teaser offered such promise, and Gates' overview of the shanty village grabbed my attention. The narration of the story by an elderly woman of the village, told in flashback, was a nice touch. It was the story that fizzled out, like a bottle of soda left open for three days at room temperature. Mulder and Scully run around the California countryside looking for a man (Eladio) who appears to be the carrier of an enzyme which makes common household bacteria grow at an alarming (and fatal) rate. Mulder theorizes that this is the result of a Fortean (or Transient), where space debris ignites in the earth's atmosphere and causes a bright light and oddly colored rain from a cloudless sky. In this case, the rain is yellow, although Mulder reports that there have been recorded instances of red, blue, green and even purple rain. This leads to a cute joke about a movie and album by The Artist Formerly Known As Prince (TAFKAP). There are several other cutesy jokes in the episode, such as the names given by the illegals when they are captured and the reference to Erik Estrada's acting ability. But these forays to wit and charm are lost amid the morass that lies at the crux of "El Mundo Gira." Quite simply, characters which were supposed to be sympathetic came off as being simply pathetic. Someone who should feel empathy towards the brothers (Blades' INS agent) shows nothing but disdain for the legend of the Chupacabras and those who believe in it. Yet, he is the first to spout the machismo tenet that Eladio must die because he betrayed his brother. This was an inconsistency that I could not reconcile. How can he accept the violent,prideful part of his heritage and yet reject the legend of the Chupacabras?
Shiban's heavy-handed social commentary was woven throughout the episode. The barber to whom Eladio goes for help is sitting in a barber chair, watching an Hispanic soap opera on Univision. The barber is depicted as a money-grubbing, uncaring immigrant who has forgotten his roots. The INS looks upon the illegals as a problem for which they have too little manpower and too little interest to pursue. Even at the end, Mulder reiterates the words of the INS agent, saying that, "These people become invisible. It's like they aren't there." Shiban's parting shot is Mulder's reply to Skinner's observation that the brothers pose a serious health threat to a large metropolitan area. "Nobody cares," says Mulder. The implication here is that as long as the brothers are heading to a large metropolitan area in Mexico, we don't care. Personally, I find that insulting.
Shiban seemed intent on making the average American feel guilty about the immigration restrictions we've placed on Mexico. "After all," he seems to be saying, "all they want are the jobs that we don't want, like gardener, maid, migrant worker, etc." Yes, I feel bad for the plight of the illegal alien, or the Mexican who wants a better life for himself and his family. Yes, they have my sympathy. But I didn't make any of the laws of this country, including the immigration laws.
The usually reliable Heather MacDougall missed two glaring mistakes in the post-production editing. The first was when the Lab Guy was showing Scully the effects of the enzyme on a local fungus. He clearly said, "cockoach" instead of "cockroach." Either that, or he was talking about Kramer and Jerry in last week's Seinfeld episode. ;-) The second gaffe was when the old lady who was narrating the story got out of the police car and banged her head on the car door. She even grabbed her head, but she kept on going, and going and going. :-)
"El Mundo Gira" was not a comedy, although it did have some humorous lines. It wasn't a drama, although it had its poignant moments. And it wasn't a ghost story, although it had a creepy side to it. It was a mish-mash of a couple of good ideas, but the better ideas never came to the forefront and the lesser ideas did. It dragged in many spots, and watching it the second time was almost as excruciating as re-watching "Sanguinarium." It didn't hold up under scrutiny, it didn't scare me, and it didn't raise my social consciousness. The long stretches of vocal Spanish with English sub-titles was distracting and the plot was sacrificed for the sake of social comment which was delivered with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. It wasn't very good, and it suffered by comparison with last new episode, Vince Gilligan's superlative "Paper Hearts."
I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it much either.
My Score: 4 out of 10