The X-Files

[Chris L]

I had been reluctant to watch the rebooted X-Files, largely because of the mediocre reviews it got last season. But the current season has been getting better reviews and I finally gave in, bingeing random episodes on Hulu. (Actually, they weren't so much random as they were the ones AVClub liked best.)

It's not the show that it was at its peak (which was probably Season 5, midway through the original nine seasons. But aside from David Duchovny's weight problems and odd loss of vocal flexibility, it's better than I had any right to expect. Gillian Anderson is still wonderful. And the show continues to do what the original did best, which was being playful. It plays with its tone, it plays with its premise, it even occasionally plays with its characters. And the writers have kept up with both technology and politics. In one episode, clearly influenced by Black Mirror, Mulder and Scully are attacked by every networked smart device they encounter, from a self-driving Uber that refuses to let Scully out until she gives it a good review on Yelp (both names changed to protect against lawsuits) to a smart refrigerator that attacks by shooting ice cubes out of its automated tray. All of this, in an episode that's almost without dialog or other actors, comes about because Mulder refuses to leave a tip at a robotic sushi bar.

The writers aren't afraid to reference the tension between the FBI and the White House. And in one episode a character suggests to Mulder that his operative slogan "The Truth Is Out There" has become meaningless in the era of alternative facts. Nobody cares about truth anymore and wouldn't recognize facts if they saw them.

As always, the show alternates between horror and comedy, sometimes combining the two just like it did in its heyday. I've shied away from watching the badly reviewed episodes, so what I've seen probably isn't entirely representative of what the show has become (apparently series creator Chris Carter's "mytharc" episodes are awful), but when the reboot is good, it's almost as fun as it ever was.

[DiveMilw]

(apparently series creator Chris Carter's "mytharc" episodes are awful), but when the reboot is good, it's almost as fun as it ever was.

They are soooo bad.  And sooo full of DRAMA!!!!
X-Files is best when it is funny.  The funny episodes are "laugh out loud even though you're alone in the house" hilarious. 
I didn't care too much for the Black Mirror episode, probably because Black Mirror does that so well.  However, if I had never seen Black Mirror I would have loved it.  And the lack of dialog was interesting and different.  It also highlighted how much we use our devices even though it didn't show Scully and Mulder texting each other when they are in close proximity.  

[Chris L]

(apparently series creator Chris Carter's "mytharc" episodes are awful), but when the reboot is good, it's almost as fun as it ever was.

They are soooo bad.  And sooo full of DRAMA!!!!
X-Files is best when it is funny.  The funny episodes are "laugh out loud even though you're alone in the house" hilarious.
I didn't care too much for the Black Mirror episode, probably because Black Mirror does that so well.  However, if I had never seen Black Mirror I would have loved it.  And the lack of dialog was interesting and different.  It also highlighted how much we use our devices even though it didn't show Scully and Mulder texting each other when they are in close proximity. 

(For the record, Amy and I never text one another when we're sitting together, though occasionally I'll text her when she's in the bedroom.)

I broke down and watched the first Chris Carter episode last night, "My Struggle" (part one of a continuing "My Struggle" arc). It was strangely at odds with some of the other episodes, which have had Mulder struggling with his own convictions about aliens and bizarre phenomena. It was still the same serious Mulder convinced that the government was using alien technology to manipulate the public. Yet two episodes later, in the comedy episode "Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster," Mulder was starting to dismiss all those same pursuits as immature, though the "were-monster" somewhat revived his enthusiasm. (Scully: "That's the way I like my Mulder!")

The X-Files is really all over the place now, even more than it used to be, with Carter's episodes representing their own separate continuity that the other writers don't seem to have been briefed on and, refreshingly, don't seem to be required to honor. I loved the Black Mirror episode precisely because I love Black Mirror and I thought The X-Files put its own spin on Charlie Brooker's themes. Yet it was probably the most standalone episode I've ever seen. A viewer who'd never watched The X-Files before could drop in on it and all they'd have to know is that Mulder and Scully were two people who have dinner together. (I did love Mulder's line "Why is your house so much nicer than mine?", though, because I'd been thinking the same thing, and the line was probably funnier if you knew the show.) And the lack of dialog was ingenious. Mulder's joke was probably the only complete line of dialog before the final scene.

[Chris L]

I just watched the second Chris Carter episode, "My Struggle II." While I can see why people hate these mytharc episodes, I'm enjoying them thoroughly. Say what you will about Carter, he's never been afraid of going large, of creating unashamedly pretentious, often nearly incoherent episodes. As much as I love The X-Files when it's funny, I also love it when it's pretentious and Carter is really going for it.

Did the original series ever establish that Cigarette-Smoking Man is Mulder's father? I know that fans speculated about it during the original show's run and it's hinted at here, but nobody actually comes out and says it. Not so far, anyway, but I have more to watch.

EDIT: Okay, they just came out and said it, so I guess they did.

[Chris L]

Well, that was a disappointment. After last season's apocalyptic finale (which everyone but me seems to have hated), this season's finale barely registered on the excitement meter (unless you enjoy David Duchovny making repeated U-turns). Maybe they can spin off a new show about William, a shape-shifting, people-exploding anti-hero with father issues. Gillian Anderson has said she won't be back (though how many times has she said that before?), so I guess this is finally the end. And just when I was starting to like it again.

If Carter has done anything right here, it's that he's finally managed to summarize the mytharc in four episodes, instead of dribbling it out a few, often contradictory, droplets at a time, as in the old show. I think I finally understand it.