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By Chris Snellgrove | Published
Have you ever seen an hour of quite mediocre television that is only rescued by a guest star murdered? Sometimes, even professionals in the television industry will be the first to admit that they were given a rather mediocre script and that the only thing that maintains the united story is the strong performance of the guest actor of that week. For example, the director who worked in the “Roland” episode agreed that the performance of Željko ivanek helped save what would otherwise have been a very little remarkable episode of The X files.
Željko ivanek with the episode of X-Files “Roland”
In case you have not seen it or simply need a review, “Roland” is an episode in which the titular character is an intellectually disabled man who is being manipulated in murderous actions by his cryogenically frozen twin brother. Even for the standards of this spooky show, this story was the soap opera of the 90 Schlock at its expression. Many who worked in this episode believed that Roland’s star Željko Vivanek really saved this X-Files Episode, starting with director David Nutter, who said that “when I knew I had it, I thought it was important to boost that as much as possible, to help overcome fragilities in the script.”
One of David Nutter’s greatest criticisms of the script of this episode is that his villain was “a bit abstract.” That is because Big Bad was a guy in cryogenic stasis whom we cannot even see until about the end of the episode … It is not exactly a tangible threat as the man who smoked cigarettes that stalks in the corner. However, once he realized what extensive acting chops Željko ivanek had, the X-Files The director placed more emphasis on Roland’s character, which resulted in an episode that thought that “it was a really strong piece of character.”
Chris Carter generally agreed with this evaluation, noting that “for me, (the representation of Željko ivanek) converted the episode” into one that X-Files Fans will never forget. Specific praise was offered to “David Nutter and writing staff for falling and making the episode really work.” In fact, Carter loved Roland so much that he allowed one of the tacit musical rules of the program to break completely.
According X-Files The composer Mark Snow, David Nutter, “said that a small strange theme in the piano would be great for this character,” but Snow knew very well that Chris Carter “was really not in melodic music,” so I knew I had to get this song “Just.” The result is “this simple, very childish piece, slightly sad and sad” … of the type that highlighted instantly in the midst of the most spooky and most atmospheric clues of the program. Fortunately, Carter loved the song, which perfectly encapsulated the internal struggle of the main character.
In retrospect, it is easy to see how the creative staff behind “Roland” really put all his chips in the performance of Željko ivanek. He obtained a fleshy screen time, a personalized song and an unforgettable final arch. And that made him a prominent character in a season that included the first fans of fans like The Lone Gunmen and Walter Skinner.
At the end of the day, David Nutter’s instincts were right: the powerful performance of Željko ivanek was really the highlight in one another in another way mediocre X-Files episode. Fortunately for the cast and the team, this was a show built around great personalities, and the Roland character of Ivanek managed to be as convincing in his limited time on the screen as the FBI agents of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. And that makes this episode worth seeing again once or twice before putting it on ice (preferably cryogenic freezing).
