Pornokitsch

AV Club writer Todd VanDerWerff recently posted a thoughtful take on the classic X-Files episode "Home" (aka "the creepy incest episode").  The comments, unusually for the typically unruly AV Club, also tend towards thoughtful and interesting, including one commenter's note that the premise of the episode is fairly Lovecraftian.  Both rely on a) fear of rural isolation and b) the disappearance of such in the face of encroaching cultural homogenization.  (I'm thinking in particular of HP's story "The Terrible Old Man," but "The Dunwich Horror" and "The Colour out of Space" also apply, among many others.)

The X-Files imprinted on my adolesence indelibly, and no episode more so than this one - which I haven't seen since but remember with surprising clarity.  I'd just begun my senior year of high school when "Home" aired (Wiker-peedja sez Oct 11, 1996); the X-Files was still showing on Friday nights and, because I had unavoidable Friday night commitments (pep-band for my high school football team; yes I was that cool), I had to tape it and watch it the next day.  My friends and I talked about it for weeks.  "Home" also introduced us to Johnny Mathis, although the version of "Wonderful, Wonderful" that provides such creepy atmosphere to the episode is apparently a cover.  The X-Files began its long slide towards the ridiculous during the same season (when it became clear that creator Chris Carter was losing control over his show's mythology) but that episode remains one of the highlights of my tv-viewing career.