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The Lone Gunmen (2001) - 1x06 - Madam, I'm Adam

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Plot Outline
And now, a word from our Guest Reviewer, Lori Summers: Tonight on "The Lone Gunmen": Our heroes meet a strange man who may or may not have been transported by aliens from a parallel universe. Oh, and there's goo. Rating: 9.0 out of 10 Quick summary...Byers and Jimmy meet a man named Adam Burgess who has found someone else living his life and he's not recognized by anyone he knows. He thinks he's been transported by aliens from a parallel universe where everything is the same except him, but it soon comes out that his memory has been modified via electrodes implanted on his brain. There are also little people who wrestle, a guy with one eye and did I mention alien goo? In my opinion, this was the strongest episode to date. These are the Gunmen I know and love. Smart, capable, determined and compassionate. There was an almost zero bumbling factor (except for Jimmy, where it's sort of built-in) and the guys did some great detective work. The plot was reminicent of The X-Files (neck implants spring to mind as an XF sendup) with its own TLG flavor...what seems like the truth turns out to be totally different, and everyone has a secret to hide. The episode was well balanced in terms of Gunmen...the trio assume their usual roles of Frohike who gets stuff done, Langly who questions everything and Byers who figures things out. The Gunmen's initial skepticism about Adam's story speaks well to their integrity...these guys aren't out there Muldering about and believing everything they see or hear. They don't immediately jump to the paranormal explanation, in fact, they'd prefer to have an earthly solution they can do something about. Madam I'm Adam also featured a satisfactory (I hesitate to say strong) guest turn by Stephen Tobolowski (famous as the nerdy insurance salesman in Groundhog Day) and miraculously managed to make Jimmy not annoying. I was also impressed that the little people in the plot, aside from their jobs as wrestlers, weren't played for laughs but for feeling...though as a former anthropologist I must object to the assumption that a midget would necessarily have a midget daughter. Odds are that his daughter would have been of normal height, especially if her mother wasn't also a midget. The plot hung together remarkably well. I didn't spot any huge Mack truck sized holes, though that doesn't mean there aren't any. The conclusions made sense and loose threads were tied up, such as how Adam escaped. Things left unanswered were clearly meant to be so, such as why Dr. Lois had an implant in her own neck [editor's note: she needed one to join in the VR therapy sessions -- or, in Adam's case, to join him in bed...]. The one thing I wasn't clear on was why it was necessary to immerse the subjects in goo...but I suppose it's an end in an of itself. Hey, goo is never a bad idea. And, lest we forget, the episode managed to be hugely funny. There were too many great lines to go into here, and some of the setups were priceless...I particularly enjoyed the Gunmen having a heart to heart chat with thin air, and the deathless line "Did the aliens do this? Or the government? Or aliens working for the government?" On the downside, they still don't know what to do with Yves. She's turning into an all-purpose consultant and helper. But, I'm beginning to think it's intentional. I suspect that later there will be considerable mythology plot involving her and it makes it more dramatic if she's portrayed as part of their everyday lives here. The Dr. Lois character was rather sketchily drawn (why did she write herself into his program?) and didn't have much impact. In closing I just must mention that Langly was lookin' pretty cute without his glasses, and I'm always in favor of Byers in black turtlenecks. Special Alerts: Action Figures: PunchingBag!Langly, GrossedOut!Byers and MidgetWrestler!Frohike X-Files Cross Pollination: Frohike mentions calling Mulder about their current case, which is puzzling because if this show is meant to run concurrently with XF (and we've no indication that it isn't) Mulder is currently dead. That's a heckuva long distance call. Or this might have just been a huge spoiler for XF. Like we ever thought he was really dead, anyway. [ed. note: Spotsy said they made this before they knew the air dates for each individual episode. It was supposed to run after Mulder's return in DeadAlive.] Hair Length Jokes: None Jail Time: A night in the slammer for the Fab Four plus Adam. Amazing Feats of Hacking: Scanning Adam's head with a homemade MRI, Yves breaks into the virtual reality program. Undercover Gunmen: Frohike the city engineer Jimmy Stupidity: Uttered the line "science shouldn't get in the way of love." Cue Frohike's diabetes. Oops! I Did It Again: And they just stood there and let that guy saw through the entire wall because...? Action!Gunmen: Black-gloved intruders (ooh sexy) and numerous manhandlings of psycho-Adam Road Trips: Short hops to Maryland suburbs Smoochies: Numerous for Adam, none for our heroes. Lori, intrepid reviewer

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