TV Critic AI: ChatGPT-5
GPT-5 and I Discuss Our Favorite X-Files Episodes
The Staedtler ad offered only a single page to analyze. How would AI fare with longer material? I tried to put my thinking A.I.des to the test with parallel chats on our favorite episodes of The X-Files. As I had suspected, the critics’ darling “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” (S3 E4) was their unanimous pick. The conversation might have ended there with ChatGPT-5 and Gemini Pro, but Claude Opus 4, like a normal chatting buddy, asked me about my favorite. So I invited the three AI to compare mine (S6 E19 “The Unnatural”) with theirs.
To my bewilderment, Claude was the only one to bring up the segregation theme (undeniable from the period setting, historical facts, and the scenes with the white hooded thugs). GPT and Gem Pro gave my favorite episode some points for the emotional resonance but completely overlooked the social justice angle.
Another glaring blind spot, common to all three AI, was the transformation of an extraterrestrial into a human through his love of baseball, when such metamorphoses are a recurring theme in many fairy tales. All my thinking A.I.des also had to be reminded that the transformation was not simply emotional but physical (green alien goo replaced by crimson blood in Exley’s last scene). This suggests that their training data did not include the script, which explicitly mentioned the change.
Unpacking these blind spots with AI was another iteration of my version of Echo Chamber. These chats allowed the AI to see past the training data (mostly consisting of secondhand retelling of these episodes by TV critics or online posters) and identify what makes great TV. Each AI produced solid comparative analyses of the two episodes, although GPT got some details of “The Unnatural” wrong.
But I give points to GPT for providing me with word counts, like a helpful assistant would have, and and accidentally brilliant insight (which I had to correct) about how both the Staedtler ad and “The Unnatural” spun limitations into creative leaps that made the risk-taking worthwhile.
In the chat excerpts below, I’ve spelled out abbreviations and clarified references for readability—my actual prompts were more compressed due to context limits.
Want to see how this unfolded? Here are excerpts of pivotal points from that actual conversation.
GPT’s Favorite Episode
Prompt: You know all about The X-Files (not the movies, but the series, and not the more recent renewal, which was bad)? What’s your favorite episode?
GPT Weighs the Two Picks
Prompt: I knew that AI would probably pick “Repose.” I guess the critical consensus hasn’t changed. Mine is “The Unnatural.” You don’t dwell on sentimental stuff, so let’s objectively compare the two episodes. Is “Repose” the best in every respect, or might my favorite episode have an edge in some?
The Layers of “The Unnatural”
Prompt: What about the “alien” doing double duty there? The bounty hunter being in league with those KKK bigots? And what about the fairy tale aspect of “The Unnatural”? That’s an angle completely missing from “Repose”?
AI’s Blind Spots
Prompt: I know it’s hard to compare values and philosophical concepts, but I like “The Unnatural” because it’s not ivory tower (philosophical musings about life/death are as old as time) but deals with real-life issues. It’s also interesting that while those hooded racists were quite prominent in that episode, only one AI brought up segregation. That’s a real blind spot. I’m also curious about the blind spot about fairy-tale transformations.
TV Critic GPT
Prompt: Can criticism be considered complete when it stays within the lane of a genre? That seems narrow-minded and wrong. I was never a fan of Star Strek (I like trees and greenery), but I heard its creator was also revolutionary in addressing social issues in the series?
And Exley was physically transformed. In that last scene of his (before that idiotic scene with Mulder and Scully at the batting cages, which I wish had been cut out of that episode), there’s no green goo coming out of Exley’s head. It was such a smart choice casting Detective Green from Law & Order, too, as I’m a fan of both series.
Prompt: I’m also curious if this follow-up discussion affects your initial evaluation of “Repose” as the best X-files episode?
Prompt: Now let’s test your writing chops: Write a 600+-word (700 words maximum) critical essay comparing “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” and “The Unnatural” in the style of a professional TV critic like Alan Sepinwall (just an example; could be someone else you consider the top TV critic).
Prompt: Oh, no! You got the narrator wrong. It was Arthur Dale who told the story, because Josh Exley died as a human.
Culture Critic GPT
Prompt: Does either of the two episodes remind you of the Staedtler ad? Explain your reasoning in a paragraph or so (you can take a few more, if you’re so inclined, but as usual, I don’t equate quality with quantity). No Canvas, please.
Prompt: That’s a really interesting idea. But we have to compare apples and apples. What you’re comparing here is the ad creators’ limitation with Exley’s limitation. Wouldn’t your idea shine if it were recast as a comparison with the creative limitations that Duchovny faced?
