The humour that was so evident in the teaser was retained throughout the entire episode and for the most part took the form of a gentle parody of the show and its fans. Lines such as "You've seen this movie 42 times?...doesn't that make you sad? It makes me sad." came a little too close to the truth for many Philes. Similarly Mulder's comment that "the character based on O'Fallon is listed in the credits as "Cigarette-Smoking Pontiff." How silly is that?", is clearly directed at the show. I also wondered whether Mulder and Scully's 'admission' that they were in love with 'Associate Producer Walter Skinner' was directed at the fans who want Scully and Skinner to enter into a relationship and perhaps also the Mulder/Skinner 'slashers' camp. Even Scully teaching Tea Leoni to run in heels seemed to be a joke at the expense of the show which regularly has Scully giving chase in unsuitable footwear AND the fans who comment on Scully's ability to run in virtually any type of shoe.

The very fact that Duchovny is able to put these jokes into his script shows that despite his repeated complaints regarding his disenchantment with the show, he still has a real admiration for The X-Files. Duchovny was poking fun at the show and its fans in an affectionate manner and leaves us with the impression that Duchovny is laughing with us (the fans of the show) and not at our expense. In my opinion at least, the greatest parodies are those written by people with a great deal of respect for the original. It is all too easy to viciously assault a show under the guide of parody. There is not one instance in Hollywood A.D. when Duchovny does this. Yes, he recognises that The X-Files is not perfect and yes, he exploits the more ridiculous elements of the show for humour. But the light-hearted manner in which he does this suggests that he views those oddities as the shows foibles - characteristics, perhaps we could even go so far as to call them flaws which do not detract from the quality of the show but make it unique, the shows' idiosyncrasies if you will. Take for instance Federman's comment regarding the agent's investigative methods "I like the way you guys work - no warrants, no permission, no research. You're like studio executives with guns", of course that is exactly how our two favourite agents operate and must operate due to dramatic necessities. It is something that we have come to accept but by having an outside perspective on Mulder and Scully's activities, " Hey, it's only the Constitution. No big deal." they are suddenly rendered amusing.

However, despite his obvious fondness for the style, Duchovny's humour is not limited to satire. The 'bubble bath' scene which is one of the funniest of the episode relies not on thought provoking parody but on more conventional humour. Scully calls Mulder from her bubble bath and pretends to be packing, Mulder answers from his own bubble bath and pretends to be working at his computer. Skinner phones from his bubble bath below them and informs the agents that he is phoning from a bubble bath in the motel room below them. This prompts Mulder to switch the line to Scully's gleefully telling her "Hey, Scully, Skinman is calling me from a bubble bath" at which point Skinner informs Mulder that he is still on the line causing Mulder much embarrassment. A review of this episode cannot do this scene justice but if you haven't seen this episode, take my word for it, the scene is hilarious and shows that not only can Duchovny write 'conventional' humour but also that all of the actors who are used to far more serious subject matter are able to make the humour work onscreen. Another example of Duchovny writing and performing 'straight' comedy is the telephone conversation between Mulder and Federman where Mulder expresses his preference to be portrayed by Richard Gere - much to the amusement of Federman who suggests Garry Shandling would be more appropriate, before informing an incredulous Mulder that Gere is portraying Skinner. Again, this scene is 'laugh out loud' material proving beyond a doubt that Duchovny has a talent for comedic writing.

One thing that surprised me about the fans' reaction to Hollywood A.D. was the criticisms of the actual case as being wrapped up too quickly and simply. Admittedly, these are fair complaints, but the exact same arguments could have been made against Bad Blood, an episode that seems to be a particular favourite of many Philes. The main focus of both of these episodes is not the case, in both episodes, the case itself is secondary to the main idea of the script. In Bad Blood, the main focus was on Mulder and Scully's differing perceptions of each other, hence the need for a simple vampire story, and in Hollywood A.D., the focus is on the artificiality of Hollywood and the perverse way in which Mulder and Scully's case was presented on the big screen.

Having said that, personally I found the case itself an extremely engaging one and one which could easily have served as the basis of a 'normal' X-Files episode. The subplot where O'Fallon attempts to hide a gospel that disagree with his faith was particularly reminiscent of the movie Stigmata, this in itself is not necessarily a bad thing. Despite a general panning from critics, in my mind at least, Stigmata is an excellent and thought provoking film (except for the last twenty or so minutes, which are a direct steal from The Exorcist, except for the fact that they take place inside a flaming room) and the same ideas that made Stigmata such an interesting film, were also able to benefit the plot of Hollywood A.D. and also added a great deal of depth to the character of O'Fallon.

As Mulder himself notes, O'Fallon was a "...flawed, beautiful..." person. A far cry from the stereotypical 'bad guy' that the 'movie' portrays him as. O'Fallon is a man who we are allowed to empathise with, we are able to understand and relate to his dilemma without condoning his actions Even his inability to destroy the documents that he loathed so much makes him seem so much more real than the two dimensional characters that tend to populate other television shows and films. Hoffman's description of O'Fallon as a "...a decent man but with an overweening pride and sense of responsibility...he believes in God, but not in man...he has Christ in his brain, but not in his heart" is a perfect one, as is the Jesus/Judas analogy which comes to fruition with the murder suicide which Scully reports at the end of the episode. O'Fallon cared far more about the institution of his Church and its teachings than the 'truth' which he believed was contained in the heretical gospel and ultimately he was prepared to sacrifice his own life to protect a lie. Of course, the majority of us would not agree with this action. However Duchovny allows us to appreciate why O'Fallon took such extreme methods "...he exploded a bomb in my heart. The Christ that I'd loved was not the Christ in these texts." Despite his faults, O'Fallon is a man who was prepared to sacrifice everything for his beliefs, however misguided those beliefs seem to be to us. In this way he serves as a parallel to the series' major 'villain' - the 'Cigarette Smoking Man'. Perhaps O'Fallon's designation in The Lazarus Bowl as 'Cigarette-Smoking Pontiff' was intended not only as a joke about The X-Files tendency to give characters descriptive names (for instance 'Well Manicured Man', 'Gray-Haired Man' and of course 'Cigarette Smoking Man') but also as a way to highlight the similarity between O'Fallon and the 'Cigarette Smoking Man', two men who make decisions and sacrifice themselves as well as others to what they believe is an important cause, namely keeping the truth from the rest of the world.

Hoffman too is a complicated character. Far from being the hero Mulder believes that he is, ultimately Hoffman is revealed as little more than a terrorist (although I suppose that the difference between terrorists and freedom fighters is only in the eye of the beholder). Despite this, we still get the impression that he too believed in what he was doing "I thought throw in the towel and go to law school or continue to fight and become a forger of scandalous religious documents". This statement makes it clear that Hoffman created the forged documents for a reason other than monetary gains - to create a Christ more suited to his own world view, eventually he even comes to believe that he is this Christ which was why he decided to destroy his forgeries.

As we can see, for an episode with far less time than usual devoted to the actual 'X-File' Hollywood A.D. still managed to have two of the most interesting and realistic characters in the history of The X-Files 'Monster Of The Week' episodes. A great achievement, especially as the show avoids the two dimensional characters that litter other shows.

Perhaps it is unfair of me to separate the episode into two parts (the case and Mulder and Scully's time in Hollywood) as the two 'parts' were not really disparate at all and were in fact closely intertwined with significant themes running through both of them. To me the most interesting of these was the examination of the crassness of Hollywood. Federman acts as the representative of Hollywood and argues that "...fiction is quicker than truth and cheaper", this attitude is reflected in the finished film which like so many summer blockbusters is aimed at the lowest common denominator. One of the most profound character notes in this episode is the fact that Federman - a man who lives in word based on artifice, appears unable to truly distinguish reality from fiction. After encountering the 'dancing' bones he comments to Mulder and Scully "No, I didn't hallucinate. That was mechanical or C.G.I." and after having Mulder point out that his experience wasn't a movie it was real life, Federman tellingly remarks " The difference being?"

The episode also illustrates how Hollywood can seduce ordinary people. The most obvious example of this is Skinner who receives an 'Associate Producer' credit and consulting fee for his work on The Lazarus Bowl. As Mulder notes "I think this whole Richard Gere thing is going to Skinner's head". Certainly during his 'dressing down' of our favourite agents, Skinner seems to be subconsciously portraying an exaggerated version of himself as the stern Assistant Director, even going so far as to ask Scully "...if I'm carrying Marilyn Monroe's purse do you assume that I slept with J.F.K.?" and commenting on her "...trigger-happy scalpel...". Although both Mulder and Scully comment on Skinner's seduction by Hollywood, neither of them are totally immune from its charms themselves. Mulder is visibly excited at the news that a character based on him will be in The Lazarus Bowl and both he and Scully live the Hollywood life, phoning from their respective bubble baths while drinking wine (or in Mulder's case beer) and feel the need to lie about the fact. Indeed, after hearing that Skinner is phoning from a bubble bath, Scully comments "Wow, he's really gone Hollywood", a comment that could apply equally well to both her and Mulder given their circumstances at that time.

Speaking of Mulder and Scully, as with Duchovny's writing/directing debut The Unnatural, the Mulder/Scully interplay in Hollywood A.D. is excellent. The witty banter that we have come to expect of Mulder and Scully was present in abundance (for instance the conversation about 'Sister Spooky' and the agent's conversation about "...the gentler side of the undead"). The episode also gave us continuity (a rare feature in The X-Files) with the increased level of intimacy between Mulder and Scully that we observed in all things once again showing itself. If anyone is really interested in my thoughts on whether or not Mulder and Scully made love in all things, they would be well advised to read my review of that particular episode. However I'm not necessarily referring to sexual intimacy here. Regardless of whether or not Mulder and Scully did sleep together, it is clear that they were able to break down many of the barriers between them that have existed for the past seven years. Scully actually talked to Mulder about her innermost feelings for once and fell asleep on his sofa, regardless of whether or nor she is in love with him, she loves him (be it platonically or romantically) and he loves her. It is that caring, tender type of intimacy which they rarely show each other that is evident in this episode. Take for instance the scene in Mulder's apartment where Mulder and Scully sit next to each other and discuss Plan 9 From Outer Space. The intimacy between the two agents is apparent, as it is in the ending scenes when Scully attempts to comfort Mulder, essentially telling him not to be too concerned with how people will view the dead because of The Lazarus Bowl or how they will view him and herself in the future. Without ridiculing his fear of being viewed inaccurately she tells him that "...the dead are beyond caring what people think about them. Hopefully we can adopt the same attitude", before coyly showing him a Bureau credit card that Skinner gave them to use for the evening. Mulder and Scully leave the set holding hands and laughing. Rarely do we get to see those two happy but maybe as they begin to realise and accept that their future is with one another (again not necessarily in a romantic context but perhaps as companions or kindred spirits), they will be able to enjoy more genuinely happy moments like this one and the ones at the end of The Unnatural and all things. Let's hope so.

Despite the well deserved praise that I have heaped upon this episode earlier in the review, there are a couple of things about this episode that I really did not like. One of these was Scully's answer to Mulder's question about why zombies seem intent on devouring the living "...Because people can't really come back from the dead...ghosts and zombies are just projections of our own repressed cannibalistic and sexual fears and desires". This is one instance where Scully's scepticism really irritated me. This is the same Scully that actually shot a zombie in Millennium, incidentally the same episode where she appeared to be more open to 'extreme possibilities', even remarking "He was dead and then, somehow, he wasn't". Yet here Scully is back to her non-believing self. We can think of ways to explain this - maybe she was just playing 'devil's advocate', but frankly after seven years I'm sick of having to create plausible reasons for inconsistencies in the show. It isn't narrative coherency holding The X-Files together, it's the bloody-mindedness of the fans (myself included) who constantly find ways to explain and excuse errors. The other thing which I really did not like was the scene with the dancing 'zombies' at the end of the episode. It may have fitted in with "...the gentler side of the undead" argument but it still seemed completely gratuitous and rather silly to me.

Still, both of these are relatively minor quibbles in an otherwise excellent episode. Despite these flaws Hollywood A.D. is a truly exceptional episode and I feel that it is going to be one of those episodes (along with episodes such as Jose Chung's From Outer Space, Bad Blood, The Unnatural and all things) that we are all going to be talking about long after the series has ended. David Duchovny has worked magic for a second time.