on." Director Rob Bowman admitted to being exhausted both physically and mentally by the time this episode—the second to last of the season—was produced. This lack of interest later resulted in the episode taking "extra time to finish". Bowman later recalled that the most difficult scene to film was the episode's climax, if only because of the ceremonial mask featured. He explained, "The mask scared the hell out of me only because I thought, 'Boy, if I don't shoot this right, it's going to be silly." Reception "Our Town" was first broadcast in the United States on May 12, 1995, on the Fox Broadcasting Company. In its original broadcast, it was watched by 9 million households, according to the Nielsen ratings system. It received a 9.4 rating and a 17 share among viewers, meaning that 9.4 percent of all households in the United States and 17 percent of all people watching television at the time, viewed the episode. The episode received mostly mixed reviews from television critics. In a retrospective review of the second season, Entertainment Weekly gave "Our Town" a C+, describing it as "scary — but mostly because of what transpires in a chicken processing plant." Writing for The A.V. Club, Zack Handlen rated the episode a B−, criticizing the clichéd opening sequence—"Haven't we seen this before? Like, a million times, in dozens of horror movies, and even on this very series"—the bland characters and lack of humor. However, he did compliment the fact that the plot explained enough of the villain's motives and that the episode had "some sense of a community behind everything". Furthermore, he wrote that the resolution worked well despite again resorting to Scully in danger. Television Without Pity ranked "Our Town" the fifth most nightmare-inducing episode of the show. Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode two stars out of five. The two wrote positively of Spotnitz juxtapositions, praising the idea to frame the themes around cannibalism. However, they wrote that "Spotnitz pushes the metaphor too far", citing the ending scene as evidence. Shearman and Pearson also criticized both Bowman's directing, noting it lacked the flourishes to make "Spotnitz' strange black comedy work", and Mark Snow's score. They noted that Snow was on "autopilot" and that his soundtrack was "the same horn anthem he gives