Search - The Lone Gunmen: The Complete Series on DVD

Anything but "Lone"

E. A Solinas | MD USA | 12/17/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Lone Gunmen finally got their own show -- even if it was sadly short-lived. They were introduced as UFO-chasing supergeeks early in "The X-Files," and soon garnered a cult following -- and eventually a spinoff, complete with tango-dancing kingpins, genius chimps and parallel universes.

The increasingly broke Lone Gunmen are in the middle of stealing a computer chip when a mysterious bearded man -- who turns out to be a beautiful woman, Yves Adele Harlow (Zuleikha Robinson)-- intervenes and gets them caught. After they foil an attempt to ram a plane into a skyscraper, they investigate a geeky golfer's kidnapping, and make a new friend: Jimmy Bond (Stephen Sneddon), a naive young man who gives them financial backing.

With Jimmy as a sort of apprentice Lone Gunman, the boys set out to deal with the conspiracies and strange occurrances: a superintelligent chimp that wants a life of his own, a man who claims to have been abducted by aliens, investigate a Nazi war criminal (who happens to be a little old lady), and search for a car that runs on water instead of gas.

It was a TV tragedy that this funny conspiracy series only lasted half a season. Then again, that's what cult TV is made of. While it lacked the audience and longevity of its parent series "The X-Files," "The Lone Gummen" made up for that in humor and creativity.

Not every episode was so good -- "Three Men and a Smoking Diaper" is just embarrassing, with a none-too-thinly-veiled Senator William Jefferson (Clinton?), a genial Southern womanizer who is just below the angels. Come on, at least TRY to be subtle. However, "Lone Gunmen" hit the mark more often than it missed, with ingeniously offbeat stories that allowed the characters to be goofy as well as serious. ("Prepare to get mooned!")

Certainly the stories tend to be imaginative -- superbrained chimps, trips into prison to save innocent men, and tangoing in competitions. And the humor that cropped up is what makes these stories priceless -- in one episode, poor Langly ends up with his arm up a cow's backside. In others, Jimmy does a spot-on Elvis impersonation, all four guys try to dance (with absurd results), and Frohike toughs it up as a martial arts master (with the help of some wire).

Tom Braidwood, Dean Haglund, and Bruce Harwood all appeared to be having plenty of fun in this series as the geek, the uptight bureaucrat, and the "man of action." (We even get to see all three as kids, talking about what they want to do when they grow up) Sneddon is a great addition as the eager-puppy Jimmy Bond, who seems a lot dumber than he is. And Robinson rounds off the cast as a mystery woman with a ruthless streak and a few vulnerable spots.

Take the funniest episodes of "X-Files," and center them on the Lone Gunmen. "The Lone Gunmen" didn't last long, but it was fun while it lasted -- humorous, goofy, and has Frohike in a bottle-bra."

Conspiracy Geeks at Their Best

Ned | Eldersburg, Maryland United States | 01/21/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Lone Gunman (2001), a trio of computer-hacking conspiracy geeks, was a spin-off from the X-Files. They appeared numerous times during the run of the X-files and for one season they had their own series.

If you like the Lone Gunmen on the X-Files, you should enjoy their 13 episodes.

Episodes:
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1) Pilot - A Mission-Impossible style episode as Frohike and Byers attempt to steal the Octium IV chip from E-Com-Con.

2) Bond, Jimmy Bond - The Gunmen encounter Jimmy Bond, a hapless pawn in a breakaway republic's attempt to fund a nerve gas operation.

3) Eine Kleine Frohike - Frohike disguises himself as the long-lost son of a woman who is believed to be a Nazi war criminal that the Gunmen are trying to smoke out.

4) Like Water for Octane - Jimmy narrates the history of heroes as he talks about his admiration for the Gunmen.

5) Three Men and a Smoking Diaper - Byers and Jimmy are in the crowd at a campaign speech, when a reporter begins asking questions of the candidate.

6) Madam, I'm Adam - The Gunmen meet a strange man who "may or may not" have been transported by aliens from a parallel universe.

7) Planet of the Frohikes: A Short History of My Demeaning Captivity - The Gunmen match wits with an intelligent chimpanzee after it escapes from a government lab.

8) Maximum Byers - On a cruise ship in the Pacific, the boy's chase a man they think is Elvis, still live and kicking.

9) Diagnosis: Jimmy - The trio stalks a grizzly-bear poacher in a snowy forest, and Jimmy believes his doctor is a killer profiled on America's Most Wanted.

10) Tango de los Pistoleros - The Gunmen turning the table on Yves for once, and bugging her to follow her on a case.

11) The Lying Game - The Gunmen investigate the murder of a blackmailer and the evidence points to Skinner.

12) All About Yves - The Gunman learn of Romeo 61 which maybe a government agency that may harbor the most sensitive secrets in America.

13) The Cap'n Toby Show - Langly's childhood hero, Cap'n Toby, is accused of being an international spy.
"

A wonderful TV series that should never have been cancelled.

Daniel Geer | Lansing, Michigan United States | 02/07/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Spoiler Alert:

All I really have to say about this release is "Finally." But since this is a review, I'll offer a little more.

Ever since The Lone Gunmen appeared in episode "E.B.E." in the first season of "The X-Files" TV series, the characters of Byers, Frohike and Langly became three of the most coolest characters ever conceived for television. And ever since the episode "The Unusual Suspects" in the fifth season of The X-Files, the creators of the show realized the potential for The Lone Gunmen to carry their own spin-off TV series. By the time The X-Files reached its 8th season, The Lone Gunmen TV series finally became a reality - for a while anyway.

This show was more comedic than The X-Files was. And that was to be expected since the Lone Gunmen were the funniest characters on The X-Files. "The Lone Gunmen" TV series was witty, humorous, it contained good story-telling - and it should never have been cancelled.

The cancelling of this show really showed just how low FOX can get. It was one of the best shows on TV and they just took it away without giving it the chance that The X-Files was given (remember, The X-Files started out small and earned a bigger following as the years went by). Not only that, but the show ended with a cliffhanger. Since it was cancelled, the only way the cliffhanger was resolved was to conclude it in an episode of The X-files called "Jump the Shark" in its 9th season. I didn't mind this so much except that they ended up killing off the Lone Gunmen in that episode! If their spin-off series didn't get cancelled, the Lone Gunmen would never have died.

One cool thing about having this series on DVD will be that fans of the X-files can have a sense of continuity to the series, because occasionally episodes of this series would cross over into the 8th and 9th seasons of The X-Files.

Perhaps the real reason this show got cancelled was because the pilot episode was about someone trying to crash an airplane into the World Trade Center (this show was cancelled four months prior to 9/11/01). Conspiracy, anyone? But I'm glad they're still releasing it on DVD. This is the best news I've heard in a while.

I'll say it again - "Finally.""

It's cancellation was a conspiracy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wayne Klein | My Little Blue Window, USA | 03/30/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Part of the attraction of "The X-Files" were the trio of goofballs that helped Mulder and Scully from time to time who called themselves The Lone Gunmen. These conspiracy theorist, hackers and underground Mother Jones type journalists could always be counted on for humor and for helping to save Mulder's butt. So it's no surprise that these popular characters created by Glen Morgan and James Wong (the duo that created "Space: Above and Beyond" and wrote key episodes of both "The X-Files" and "Millennium") eventually got their own series. The big surprise was how briefly it was on Fox Network; the show was cancelled after 13 episodes. With a much more tongue-in-cheek approach and less emphasis on the supernatural and more on the spy elements that always lurked in "The X-Files", "The Lone Gunmen" quickly found its own tone after the pilot episode. The pilot episode which aired six months before 9/11 had more or less the same "plot"; a group of men are planning on crashing an airplane into the World Trade Center as part of a terrorist attack on America. While the results were quite different, the episode is both spooky for its prediction of what occurred six months later and a highly effective suspenseful episode. After the pilot, the series veered into a more comic direction with the character of Frohike (Tom Braindwood) getting knocked on his butt and the trio's earnest attempt to fight all the conspiracies that try to undermine the American way. With the introduction of Jimmy Bond (Stephen Snedden) and Yves Adele Harlow (Zuleikha Robinson whose character's name was an anagram for Lee Harvey Oswald) the trio had two very different people trying to help them achieve their goal of saving America. In future episodes the Gunmen try and catch a poacher dealing in grizzly bear gallbladders, prevent a tango dancing smuggler from passing along top secret information, help a man recover the house and wife that were stolen from him and other slightly off beat stories. Needless to say this is Chris Carter's whimsical side. His frequent collaborators Frank Spotnitz and Vince Gilligan give the show just the right mix of serious jeopardy and whimsy giving it a distinct identity separate from other Carter produced shows.

I've finally figured out why Glen Morgan and James Wong didn't do a commentary track for the second season of "Millennium"; they came up with the original characters of The Lone Gunmen and while they are credited as creating the characters themselves, they didn't participate in the production/writing/direction of the show nor were they credited as "creators" of this particular series. I'm sure that probably caused hard feelings between Morgan & Wong and Carter. Regardless, The Lone Gunmen were always a highlight of any "X-Files" episode and here with the show all to themselves, they do a fine job of creating enough havoc and solving enough mysteries to keep fans of "The X-Files" (and fans of this series) happy. The best part is one of the most popular villains from "The X-Files" Morris Fletcher returns in one of the best episodes (also featuring a cameo from David Duchovny) "All About Yves".

As usual an extremely good transfer from Fox. Clearly there was no conspiracy to make this series look bad on DVD. With a sharp, crisp transfer and vivid colors "The Lone Gunmen" actually looks better than the Fox flagship series "The X-Files". With less episodes per disc side, that's not a surprise. Although not a dual layered DVD, it's clear the short cuts that Fox took with this set didn't hurt the image quality. The surround sound mix is also quite good taking advantage of the 2.0 surround format.

A generous helping of extras for this fine but short lived series makes up for some other shortcomings. We get a retrospective featurette with the stars of the show and producers/writers Spotnitz & Gilligan as well as director Rob Bowman and others discussing the failure of the series to find the audience it needed to survive. It's also clear that the Fox Network made a commitment to the series but failed to give it a chance just as it had "The X-Files" and "Millennium". It's a pity because, as much as I liked "Millennium", "The Lone Gunmen" clearly was the more inspired, original series crossing "Get Smart" with "The X-Files" in a unique way. There's also four promo spots included for the show as well. Fox has thoughtfully also provided the season finale which never aired as part of the original show. "The Lone Gunmen" was cancelled after just 13 episodes so Chris Carter and his crew decided (as they did with "Millennium") to conclude the series and show the fate of the characters in a vastly underrated "X-Files" episode entitled "Jump the Shark". It's a funny, sad sent off for some of the most memorable characters from "The X-Files". It's a pity that the tone of "Millennium" didn't allow for "The Lone Gunmen" to show up on that show as well-perhaps the two shows might have generated a synergy and made the two more successful.

The negatives about this set are few but substantial; the boxed set (like "The Pretender") features three single layered, dual sided discs with all 13 episodes, the bonus episode from "The X-Files" and extras on them. The packaging leaves a lot to be desired. While I like the design overall, two discs are housed in a single slimline DVD holder facing each other. This increases the chance of damage to the discs. The third disc is housed alone in the second holder. It wouldn't have cost all that much extra to put each disc in its own holder and it also would have ensured better care of the discs. I'm a bit surprised that Fox has instituted this cost cutting move and I wish they would abandon it in the future for other series.

We get commentary tracks featuring writers/producers Spotnitz, Gilligan, director Rob Bowman as well as the actors from the series. The pilot episode commentary track is one of the best as the writers and director ruminate on the shortcomings of the episode, what they liked best about the performances and the chilling fact that they predicted what would occur on 9/11 nearly six months to the day before it happened (although the outcome was quite different). "Bond, Jimmy Bond" is also an outstanding commentary track with stars Haglund, Braidwood, Harwood, Snedden, Robinson and director Bryan Spicer giving each other a hard time about their performances and having a grand old time busting each other's chops. It's clear that the trio from the "X-Files" and their cast mates had a great working relationship. It's a pity that more commentary tracks aren't as good as those included here. Curiously, Carter is completely absent in the commentary section. Perhaps it's because at this stage he was spending more time on "The X-Files" after having been away from his flagship series for the debut season of "Millennium". It also leads me to believe that Carter had less to do with this spin-off than "Millennium".

A delightful, funny and entertaining series that never found its audience, "The Lone Gunmen" finally arrives on DVD (the hold up might have been the residual feelings about 9/11 and the similarity to the plot of the pilot episode). It's a terrific series that deserved better.


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