All throughout the X-Files whenever we see things like cigarettes and beer and sometimes even soda pop, the packaging of the product will look similar to a famous product like Coca-Cola or Budweiser or Samuel Adams or Marlboro... but if you look closer, there are apparent differences especially with the actual name of the products on the packaging. We got to see a lot of this in "War of the Coprophages", during Skully's little store meltdown. But here...
This is the first time where they show an actual brand of what we consider import beer (but I assume this would be domestic beer in Mexico), and they even have a good shot of the actual name of the brand when "John Doe's" initial benefactor is drinking in the bar, while excellent and authentic mariachi music is playing in the background. Speaking of John Doe's "benefactor", we develop a little bit of sympathy for "Domingo", as he was actually trying to help John Dogget to some extent... but his reward for doing so was unfortunate.
I have to say they got the atmosphere of this episode perfect: I really believed that this was filmed in some Mexican town, there are towns that look just like this when you get south of Tijuana or Tecate (this is also a hint toward the brand name of the aforementioned beer). Especially if you get into the middle of Baja California, towns really look like this in Central Baja, or, on the coast on the other side of the gulf.
It amazed me to discover just now that this sleepy Mexican town was actually in a suburb of Los Angeles, aka Pomona. I have driven through and it looks nothing like that. Especially 22 years ago it did not look like that. I imagine that the area around that location is a little bit more developed now, there has been a lot of development in the last 22 years.
Highly reminiscent of the film Traffic, which has been one of my favorite movies ever especially with the cinematography, and they did a great job with the direction of this episode but more so with the Director of photography. Everything looks exactly as it should to make us believe that this is happening where we are being told it is happening.
Now, somebody is whining that Monica Reyes "does not look Mexican", sorry but there are Mexicans living in Mexico that do not look Mexican. Maybe she is not literally Mexican as an actress, but as a character she's got the language perfect, she's got the inflections, she's got the slang. And, she knows how to talk to the crooked cop and get what she wants out of him. Also, she knows how to browbeat the crooked John Deere tractor dealer. So there is no issue with the way that the Monica Reyes character is performed in this episode, or my belief in her fictional heritage. Lots of people complain about actors portraying nationalities that they do not actually have a heritage with, but this is Horse Pucky. I think it is a high honor and accomplishment for actors to portray a nationality that they are not, and pull it off, if of course they pull it off. In the X-Files we have seen various nationalities being portrayed, and we have believed it because it was always handled well, using character actors that easily portrayed the nationalities required. One last tidbit needs to be addressed: "Too Much Spanish", what?! When X-Files, or any other television show for that matter, has an episode that occurs in something other than an English speaking country, it is more authentic to have people speaking in the language of that country. You can't have "too much" of it.
Alex Daikon (Who usually plays various Russian characters or creepy characters or hypnotists or an occasional peeping tom hotel manager in the X-Files) is the uncredited "memory vampire".
Wait... What?!?
What is a memory vampire? Well, watch this and find out. Wait... I am mistaken, The memory vampire was played by Zitto Kazan. He looks a lot like Alex. Whether Alex or Zitto, it was perfect casting.
This is John Doggetts breakout episode- well, this episode and "via negativa".
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