Author Archives: Liz Shannon Miller
“The X-Files”: The Skip It/Watch It Guide
Okay. So. This guide, officially, has been available in eBook form (along with others!) for a little while. But now was the time, with the revival coming towards us like a freight train, and with friends making an effort to rewatch hung up on misadvised installments, to release it to the people. Because now is the time, for the people to know that they maybe should not watch (or rewatch) all 201 episodes of “The X-Files” that have already aired. That maybe, just maybe, this seminal show, this series of delights, had some rough patches over its nine-season run.
Also, allow me to preface this guide with the following disclaimer: This guide is subjective. This guide is heavily influenced by my personal history with this show. This guide has a crush on Mulder and little patience for Reyes. This guide is at least 70 percent focused on identifying all the super-flirty episodes, and 30 percent focused on avoiding the really stupid stuff. This guide will be ignoring the existence of The X-Files: I Want to Believe.
This guide is here to help.
UPDATE: At long last, in celebration of the show’s official 30th anniversary (Sept. 10th, 2023), I have finally added Seasons 10 and 11 to this list. Spoiler alert — expect a lot more skipping than watching.
DUNE: Liz Tells Frank Live Ep. 6
Dear Frank,
Let’s just get this out of the way — when you and I last got together to talk about the world of Dune, a young man named Timothee Chalamet was at that point best known as the actor who played the teenage version of Casey Affleck in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. That’s why we never dig into Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming adaptation of Frank Herbert’s seminal work in the latest installment of Liz Tells Frank Live! — though, to be fair, David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation gave us plenty to discuss!
As you and I get ready for the first-ever digital Liz Tells Frank Live experience(!!!!!!!), it’s a thrill to look back at how much fun these were to produce in meatspace. Special thanks to producer David Nett, live-tweeter Jason Merrell, guest introducer Jay Bushman, the live studio audience for attending, and as always, you for listening!
Love,
Liz
PS: Again, did I mention that Liz Tells Frank Live is coming back?! That feels important to mention again! May 1, 2021, 5 PM PT! Live on YouTube!
Coming May 1: ‘Tenet’ LIVE!
Hey friends! It’s been way too long since Liz sat down with her friend Frank and told him what happened in something while other people watched, and on Saturday, May 1, 2021, we’re gonna fix that!
Rather than in a lovely gym in North Hollywood, though, this time Liz, Frank, producer David Nett and some special guests will be using this thing called the internet to talk about a little film called Tenet — live! Can Liz succinctly explain the plot of Christopher Nolan’s latest masterpiece? Will Frank find it hard to remember the name of the film’s protagonist? Will we somehow invert time at some point and find ourselves doing the whole thing again backwards? Will there be a Quibi joke? (Spoiler alert: There will definitely be a Quibi joke.)
We’ll be streaming live on YouTube, and tickets will be free — we simply ask that you acquire your ticket in advance on Eventbrite so that we a) know how many people will be watching and b) can send you the stream link when we’re ready to go live! This pandemic has been, everyone can agree, a very bad thing, but a growing sophistication when it comes to live audience events in the digital space is one of the notable upsides.
Liz and Frank haven’t seen each other in person in over a year. They miss each other. They also miss you. So hopefully we’ll see you May 1 at 8 PM EST/5 PM PST for some laughs and some deeply nerd discussion of 2020’s 12th highest grossing film at the box office. Get your tickets now! (Seriously, do it. There might be something special in it for you if you’re one of the first to sign up!)
MAD MAX: Liz Tells Frank Live Ep. 5
Dear Frank,
Five years ago, in a much more sane time, you and I got together in front of a live audience to talk about the Mad Max films! It was a really long night! We had a lot of fun! The James Bond movie Goldeneye came up a lot more than expected! And you can now relive the magic, with the audio recording here!
So much material was featured in this recording, and I am so honored to finally have the opportunity to share it! Special thanks to producer David Nett, Nerdstrong Gym for hosting, live-tweeter Megan Westerby, our bell-master Aimee Jones, guest introducer Meredith Berg, the live studio audience for attending, and as always, you for listening!
Love,
Liz
Liz Tells Frank What Happened In “Bones” Seasons 2-7
Hello! This installment was originally written for the first volume of “Liz Tells Frank What Happened In…: The Book.” But as that was published in 2012, it feels like it’s been long enough to warrant resurfacing. (Does it warrant actually covering seasons past Season 7 in the future? That’s a mystery not even BONES could solve.)
Dear Frank,
As you remember, in 2006 the first thing I ever told you about was an episode of the now-long-running crime drama Bones — in fact, I told you about a large percentage of the first season of Bones, because you asked nice.
But at the end of the first season, I became convinced that the show was too wary of the Moonlighting curse (AKA “They can’t get together — it’ll ruin the show!”), and stopped watching it. I did, however, pledge to pick it up once again if its main characters started banging: Since that day, the people I appointed to tell me if I should re-add it to my DVR never alerted me to a change in this circumstance. So today I delve into the bowels of Wikipedia summaries and episode guides, to see what we’ve missed since I stopped telling you what happened.
To remind you, Frank, Bones is about a forensic anthropologist (nicknamed Bones) who, with her team of lab techs, helps solve gross murder crimes with Angel from Angel (nicknamed Beau in my original retellings, because apparently that’s David Boreanez’s real nickname and it made me laugh).
To make things easier, let’s take this season by season, starting with Season 2, where these appear to be the big things that happened: Read the rest of this entry
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”/”Angel”: The Unified Skip It/Watch It Guide
Buffy & Angel 4-Evah
This was originally published in the 2013 ebook “Liz Tells Frank: The Skip It/Watch It Guides”, but it’s been a few years and people are still out there watching “Buffy” and “Angel” on Hulu with no idea how to do so properly, so what the hell. It’s almost Christmas. A perfect time to check in with these two iconic series.
It still astounds me that there are people in the world who haven’t watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I mean, what were you doing in the late 90s and early 00s? Not watching one of television’s great complex achievements? For shame.
It is less shocking when I find out that people haven’t seen Angel. “Vampire private detective” might sound like an easy pitch, but the show was always a weird nut, and never got the recognition Buffy did, despite hitting some magnificent highs over the course of its five season run.
While the two shows eventually took on separate paths — even eventually airing on separate networks — Buffy and Angel, much like their titular heroes, remain forever connected.
This guide attempts to capture not only which episodes are best avoided when watching both series, but how the two shows interacted during their initial airing — the one thing binge-viewing can’t quite capture without a little guidance.
Liz Tells Frank What Happened In... 