Squeeze (The X-Files) - Broadcast and Reception

Broadcast and Reception

Guest star Doug Hutchison based his critically acclaimed portrayal of Tooms on Anthony Hopkins (right) in The Silence of the Lambs.

"Squeeze" premiered on the Fox network on September 24, 1993, and was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on October 3, 1994. The episode's initial broadcast was viewed by approximately 6.8 million households and 11.1 million viewers. "Squeeze" earned a Nielsen rating of 7.2, with a 13 share, meaning that roughly 7.2 percent of all television-equipped households, and 13 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode.

Glen Morgan was very pleased with Hutchison's performance, describing him as an "ace in the hole" and calling his work "outstanding". Morgan went on to write "Tooms", another first season episode in which the character returns. The Vince Gilligan-penned second season episode "Soft Light" would also make reference to the character. Hutchison wrote a prequel to "Squeeze" titled "Dark He Was and Golden-Eyed" and sent it to Carter, but the script was returned unread for legal reasons. "Squeeze" has been described as the first episode of The X-Files to branch out into horror, which came to be one of the defining genres of The X-Files. The plot of "Squeeze" was adapted as a novel for young adults in 1996 by Ellen Steiber. The episode also inspired "Folding Man", a first season episode of the television series Sanctuary.

In a retrospective of the first season in Entertainment Weekly, "Squeeze" was rated B+; it was called "an important episode", and Hutchison's portrayal of Tooms was described as "profoundly creepy". However, Thomas Sutcliffe of The Independent was more critical, deriding the premise as "entirely ludicrous", and sarcastically described Mulder's deduction of Tooms' abilities as "clearly another triumph for the deductive method". An article in the Vancouver Sun listed "Squeeze" as one of the best stand-alone episodes of the show, saying, "The X-Files became known for its creepy, monster-of-the-week episodes, and Squeeze was the one that started it all", and that, together with "Tooms", it "remains one of the scariest things ever seen on television". Connie Ogle from PopMatters listed Tooms amongst the greatest monsters of the series.

Keith Phipps, writing for The A.V. Club, praised the episode, rated it an A−, and described Hutchison's role as "the part that would launch as a go-to character actor for creep parts". Phipps felt the climactic scene in which Tooms infiltrates Scully's home is "the scene that makes the episode", noting that there was "a real sense of peril" despite it being clear that Scully, a lead character, was not going to come to harm. Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, note that the episode's premise is the first in the series "not to rely upon accepted urban legends". It conveys its "absurd" plot through suggestion, leaving any special-effects sequences of Tooms' abilities until the audience is "already suitably adjusted to the absurdity". However, Shearman and Pearson found the monologue likening the crimes committed by Tooms to the Holocaust, given by the retired detective Briggs, to be "not only unnecessary but tasteless to boot". They rated the episode four stars out of five. Mumtaj Begum, writing for Malaysia's The Star, described "Squeeze" as "the episode that really sold The X-Files idea to the masses", and called it "simply brilliant".

The character of Eugene Tooms has also attracted positive criticism. In a guest column for Entertainment Weekly's 1000th issue, author Neil Gaiman listed Tooms as one of his favorite monsters, while UGO Networks listed the character in a countdown of the "Best TV Serial Killers", and described Hutchison's acting as "uber-creepy". IGN's Christine Seghers listed Hutchison as the fourth-best guest star of the series in a top-ten countdown, complimented his "brilliantly perverse" performance, and wrote: "Even when he doesn't appear to be doing anything, Hutchinson can still make your skin crawl with his dead, shark-like stare".