Welcome back to another edition of This Week in Streaming, the cord-cutters guide to the week that was—without a cable subscription. This week, we'll be going over some brilliant lo-fi animation and a few of my favorite episodes of the X-Files in preparation for the new season. We'll also take a peek at SyFy's expanding catalog of shows, some clips from the debate, and a handful of other bits from around the web that made me smile.

World of Tomorrow

Recommended dosage: One bite of a homemade edible and roughly 20 minutes of alone time.

I was first introduced to Don Hertzfeldt in the last throes of my college “career,” some time between wearing a 12-pack for a helmet at parties and walking to class in a robe.Rejected, an Oscar nominated short from 2000 absolutely blew me away.

Hertzfeldt's crude drawings were perfect. The concept was phenomenal. I loved it and I couldn't wait to see what he'd dream up next.

Cut to fifteen-some-odd years later and he's released a slew of absolutely brilliant and critically acclaimed films, a book, and even the weirdest Simpson's couch gag of all time. Yet, somehow I missed all of it.

In his latest, and now recently Oscar nominated offering, Don Hertzfeldt gives us a 16-minute meditation on humanity, their clones, the universe, and time. I've watched it half a dozen times this week and expect I'll be keeping all of his collected works on rotation until I upload my consciousness into a little black cube and shoot it into space. He's a national treasure.

X-Files

Recommended dosage: A bag of Alien Fresh Jerky and a pack of Morleys.

In anticipation for the new mini-series starting this Sunday, I went back and watched a handful of episodes to reacquaint myself with the X-Files universe. The thing that jumped out immediately was how many random guest stars throughout the series are now huge stars. So to get you hyped for the six new episodes is my six favorite cameos from the original run.

• Ryan Reynolds - Season 3 | Episode 13 - "Syzygy"

Ryan Reynolds is kind of a pudgy kid in a town essentially decimated by Mercury in retrograde. Hopefully Deadpool will be better than this.

• Lucy Liu - Season 3 | Episode 19 - "Hell Money"

One of my all time favorite episodes. A bed-ridden Lucy Liu lays around while her father bets his life in a sweet-ass ancient Chinese game of "Got Your Nose."

• Luke Wilson - Season 5 | Episode 12 - "Bad Blood"

A classic. I mean look at this...

• Bryan Cranston - Season 6 | Episode 2 - "Drive"

Vince Gilligan writes a perfect vehicle for Bryan Cranston in one of the best episodes of the shows run.

• Aaron Paul - Season 9 | Episode 5 - "Lord of the Flies"

I'll be honest, "Lord of the Flies" was one of the last great episodes, and everything after that felt like a parody of itself. Aaron Paul plays a kid auditioning for "Dumbass," a "Jackass" rip-off. Flies are everywhere!

• Jack Black & Giovanni Ribisi - Season 3 | Episode 3 - "D.P.O."

I've never been a fan of the way Giovanni moves his mouth, or more accurately, refuses to move his mouth while talking. It's infuriating. Somehow when this episode aired he was a bigger star than Jack Black who plays his somewhat dim-witted friend at the local arcade. Sparks fly in this tale of unrequited love.

The Expanse

Recommended dosage: Some Mudder's Milk and Two Hours in the Holodeck.

The Expanse is a show destined to be defined by people’s impressions of all of the other shows that came before it. Everyone’s pitch for me to watch it followed a very simple pattern.

“Did you like Firefly?”

“It’s like Battlestar.”

“It’s this generation’s the Next Generation.”

Someone actually told told me that. And honestly that’s what hooked me. Well, that and the billboard... It’s a pretty sweet billboard...

The first half of the pilot is hard to follow. The pacing is slow, there’s a ton of characters, every few minutes you can’t help but be surprised that the SyFY channel put something together that works on this scale. The second half launches into hyperdrive and gives you a glimpse of the action and suspense you can expect from such an expansive show. It has a lot of flaws, but I fully expect to rip through every episode of season one once they're all available on Hulu later this year.

The Democratic Debates

Recommended dosage: Fistfuls of Ambien

These debates are brutal to watch. I think Bernie summed it up best with this reaction that got more views than the actual debate: