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The joke, of course, is that dweebs like these don't typically get the bad guy or the hot girl. Or the TV series. So it's hard not to wish success on its unaffected, unglamorous stars. And that makes Gunmen even more disappointing. The creative team seems to have forgotten what made these guys such a hoot on The X-Files: setting them against a backdrop of dark intrigue and playing it straight. On Gunmen, they practically have to dodge the flying banana peels. After an X-Files-y pilot, the new series plunges into slapstick that wouldn't have made the cut in a Police Academy sequel, up to and including a that's-not-a-cow-that's-a-bull joke. Similarly, the trio's new sidekicks--an Emma Peel-esque mystery woman named Yves Adele Harlow (Zuleikha Robinson) and a dumb-jock assistant (Stephen Snedden)--are campy mistakes. At moments, the dry interplay among the three leads shines through anyway, but Gunmen would be twice as funny if it were to flail half as hard.
The show may get time to improve, given Carter's pull. He was furious when his virtual-reality thriller, Harsh Realm, died quickly on Fox in 1999, and he's hinted that his continued involvement on The X-Files may hang on how well Fox nurtures Gunmen. Fair enough. But if he and his team can't recapture in a weekly series what made these oddball characters a welcome occasional treat, there will be no grassy-knoll conspiracy to blame.