9-11 and the Lone Gunmen

The Lone Gunmen was the short-lived spin-off series starring those scene-stealing conspiracy theorists from The X-Files. To recap, there is buttoned-down Byers (the bearded, relatively normal-looking one, played by Bruce Harwood), the "man of action" Frohike (the short one who had the hots for Scully, played by Tom Braidwood), and master hacker Langly (the one with the long blond hair, played by Dean Haglund). They also meet some new characters who both help and hinder: a female agent calling herself Yves Adele Harlow (and other anagrams for Lee Harvey Oswald, played by Zuleikha Robinson), who always seems a step ahead of them, and James "Jimmy" Bond (Stephen Snedden), the dimwitted benefactor who thinks that the Gunmen give him a purpose in life.

The series lasted a mere 13 episodes, and in retrospect probably plays better now than it did in the spring of 2001 when the peak years of The X-Files were still fresh in the memory. Thanks to direction and writing by the same creative talent and music by Mark Snow, The Lone Gunmen has the feel of Chris Carter's signature series, though without the impenetrable mythology and the sexual tension (Robinson is beautiful, but let's be serious). The episodes are generally stand-alone affairs reflecting the goofy humor that made the trio part of the comic relief in The X-Files. Light-hearted topics include a blind football team and a super-intelligent chimpanzee, but the closing episode dealt with the familiar themes of alien abduction and government cover-ups (a thread that after the series' cancellation had to be concluded in an episode of The X-Files, which is also included in this set). And particularly chilling is the pilot: aired six months before 9/11, it deals with an attempt to fly an airplane into the World Trade Center. The Lone Gunmen couldn't match the brilliant inspiration of The X-Files (few shows could), but for fans it might just be the next best thing. --David Horiuchi