Reception
The character of Deep Throat has been well received by critics and fans. Entertainment Weekly described Hardin's performance as "world-weary and heavyhearted", and listed his appearance in the character's eponymous début episode as the 37th greatest television moment of the 1990s. However, they felt at times that his presence in episodes such as "Ghost in the Machine" seemed "gratuitous". Reviewing the character's début episode, the San Jose Mercury News called Deep Throat "the most interesting new character on television". Chris Carter has stated that Hardin's performance gave the series an element of "believability" that it needed; and felt that the episode "E.B.E." was a great opportunity to expand the character's role. Writing for the A.V. Club, Zack Handlen called Deep Throat's death "a shocking moment, even when you know it's coming", praising the "desperation" evident in Hardin's performance, although lamenting the "curse of continuity" that led to the character being quickly replaced with Steven Williams' X. Ben Rawson-Jones, writing for Digital Spy, felt that Deep Throat's tenure on The X-Files was "arguably the show's peak", and praised Hardin's acting in the role. Brian Lowry, in his book The Truth Is Out There, has noted that the character "helped establish a tone and undercurrent of gravity on The X-Files that was to provide the spine of the series".
Read more about this topic: Deep Throat (The X-Files)
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)