The Amazing Maleeni

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PLOT: A magician literally loses his head and gains the attention of Mulder and Scully.

Magic has always been entertaining to watch, but something I personally never took seriously. Then, I watched the act of a magician called David Blaine, and he not only amazed me but all my friends who watched his special with me. He did some of the most amazing illusions I had ever witnessed and in front of people right off the street. One of his more famous ones was levitating about 3 inches off the ground on a regular sidewalk. He actually stumped the entire Dallas Cowboys football team with his illusions. Emmet Smith, Deion Sanders, Troy Aikman...their eyes just became as big as silver dollars. He did a stunt in the summer of 1999 where he was laying in a glass coffin and buried under water on a Manhattan street for a week while passerbys witnessed him basically sleeping most of the time. Like most magicians, Blaine has one distinct trait that sets him apart from the average joe off the street: charisma.

Besides entertaining, magicians always grab a person's attention, because they fuel the very essence of the human condition: curiosity. No matter what we may feel about any person (i.e. hate, love, contempt, pride, etc.), there is that common trait among all of us where we are curious about what they do, why they do it, and for anyone with charisma or the skill of illusion, *how* they do it. Thus, "The Amazing Maleeni" grabs that very trait and puts a nice twist on it.

I loved the rather mundane teaser. At first, we see this rather old magician who is showing us nothing new. A would-be heckler decides to make it interesting by trying to frazzle the performer's nerves. Instead, the magician lives up to his moniker by amazing the audience with a neat head trick that (trust me) is impossible. All this seems harmless enough until after the show when the same magician loses his head. This is the part that intrigues me. Where did Maleeni hide his brother during this whole time? And since he doesn't appear to have "lightening fast" describe his actions, how in the world did he switch bodies in what appears to be a span of less than 2 minutes? See the curiosity level?

The plot was rather well-layered and surprisingly easy to follow. The heart of magic is misdirection as Mulder points out. So, from the very beginning, what appeared to be a mystery of Maleeni's severed head actually turns out to be an elaborate ruse to not only frame a known bank robber but to have access to a federal agents' badge number and thumbprint. In this particular case, it is Mulder who is part of the misdirection. Fortunately, he figures most everything out before the actual real culprits, Pinchbeck a.k.a. Maleeni and LaBonge, can fully carry out their plan.

The most amusing part of the episode was how Mulder and Scully were trying to one-up each other on magic tricks. One has to wonder if they went out and bought an "Idiots Guide to Magic" when they took breaks from the case. Mulder obviously understands what magic is truly about and how to figure out some rather rudimentary misdirection, but even he can't figure out how Scully was able to turn her arm 360 degrees. Yet, Mulder somehow knew that Pinchbeck and LaBonge were going to use his ID badge and thumbprint to steal as much money electronically as possible. So he "pockets" Pinchbeck's wallet with the playing card he touched.

The most disappointing thing about this episode is that it really isn't an X-File. For all accounts and purposes, there was nothing paranormal about the severed head. Everything else involved a "Sting-"like con involving two very skilled magicians. True that federal agents would eventually be involved because there was a federal bank that was robbed, but that is totally out of Mulder's and Scully's interests. Though, the actual ruse was not so far above their heads that they easily spelled it out for Pinchbeck and LaBonge. This could have been an amusing episode for "NYPD Blue" or "Law & Order" but not the X-Files.

I must admit that the casting of Ricky Jay as Maleeni was inspired. For movie buffs, he was the cameraman in "Boogie Nights" and the technical expert for Elliot Carver on "Tomorrow Never Dies." He is an actual magician who has also consulted on many a movie involving magicians/slight of hand tricks. Jay gives both a nobility and a naivette to the role of Maleeni. In the end, it was never really about a bank robbery but about revenge, yet another great misdirection by the superb writing team of Gilligan, Shiban and Spotnitz.

For all it's cuteness, Maleeni follows a disturbing trend of "X-Files Lite" in the past couple of seasons. Small wonder that after six straight years of getting nominated as best drama on both the Golden Globes and the Emmys, the show has turned up dry this time around. Even Gillian hasn't been nominated for a Golden Globe. Shows such as the excellent "Sopranos" and "Law and Order:Special Victims Unit" have taken center stage in the realm of TV drama. The X-Files used to *set* the standard, not be left behind. There is nothing wrong with an occasional comedic episode to off-set such emotionally compelling hours as "Amor Fati" and "Millennium," but when you get one a month, it gets a bit old. Let's hope that February sweeps puts the "drama" back in the show and leave "cute" out.

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