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          Blood 2.3


() 90's style   - Ed's boss' wide, patterned 90's tie is trippy - it's like they borrowed the pattern of the steel beams from Donkey Kong. Scully's bangs make an appearance again.

() 90's tech    - The 10-key skills used by Ed at the Post Office are something we should all aspire to.  The bright-red, old school LED display reminds me of ancient cash registers and old gas pumps. Ed's combination analog & digital watch is honestly quite cool.  Large, B&W photos of crime scenes that would almost certainly be digital today.  Scully's Macintosh laptop with all of the propriatary docking and display connectors, complete with modem jack and analog phone line.   Pager sighting! (Though, who among us that's had to carry a pager hasn't wanted to smash it at one point or another?) Followed closely by a description of a fax machine being destroyed.  The mechanic's diagnostic "scope" looksl like something out of War Games - it's like they dressed up a green screen terminal for the prop.  Mulder's crime scene camera looks like a Star Trek: The Next Generation prop.  The department store (which is a whole 90's time capsule itself) has a treasure trove of VCRs, external computer speakers and stand-al
ong stereo gear.  The 'TV Bank' of CRT TVs is honestly something I haven't thought about it about 20 years.  TVs have gotten so huge that they take up an entire wall at a Best Buy or there are only 1 or 2 on a side display - no longer will you stumble upon a 3x2 or 3x3 grid of various TVs.  The Lone Gunmen's night vision goggles are gigantic and less effective than the night setting on a modern cell phone camera.  Also, in the Lone Gunmen's office - A typewriter that looks like it weighs about 7lbs less than a battleship.  I don't know much about small, tube TVs but I'm quite sure they don't spark and explode when knocked off the stand.  Pull out antennas on Mulder & Scully's cell phones - I will never tire of how cell phones 'just work' in this show.

() 90's life    - Office water coolers have not changed in 30 years.  The post office scene is applicable given the plot - addtionally, the phrase 'going postal' would have debuted a year or so earlier.  A small town that close to Pittsburgh having a Flyers pennant? Alongside a Steelers one no less?  Sheriff Spencer makes an O.J. Simpson reference via the 'celebrity with a gun to his head driving through town' line.  Second O.J. reference with the fleeting shot of the white bronco on the TV Bank in the dept store.  The various ways the production covers up logos and brands is always amusing - e.g. "JVD" instead of JVC and a strategically placed sign to cover up the word "Trinitron". The wood paneling in the ambulance was definitely an 80's & 90's thing.



Notes: William Sanderson is a kick ass character actor.  "Kill 'Em All" that shows up on the displays *has* to be an easter egg for Metallica fans, no?