It's back! For what looks to be six possibly amazing episodes! Let's talk about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEhpmuXHmRQ
The X-Files is an American science fiction drama television series created by Chris Carter. The program originally aired from September 10, 1993, to May 19, 2002, on Fox, spanning nine seasons and 202 episodes. The series revolves around FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) investigating X-Files: marginalized, unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. Mulder believes in the existence of aliens and the paranormal while Scully, a skeptic, is assigned to make scientific analyses of Mulder's discoveries to debunk his work and thus return him to mainstream cases. Early in the series, both agents become pawns in a larger conflict and come to trust only each other. They develop a close relationship, which begins as a platonic friendship, but becomes a romance by the end of the series. In addition to the series-spanning story arc, "Monster-of-the-Week" episodes form roughly two-thirds of all episodes.
The X-Files was inspired by shows which featured elements of suspense and speculative fiction, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Tales from the Darkside, and especially Kolchak: The Night Stalker. When creating the main characters, Carter sought to reverse gender stereotypes by making Mulder a believer and Scully a skeptic. The first seven seasons featured Duchovny and Anderson equally. In the last two seasons, Anderson took precedence while Duchovny appeared intermittently. New main characters were introduced: FBI agents John Doggett (Robert Patrick) and Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish). Mulder and Scully's boss, Assistant Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), also became a main character. The first five seasons of The X-Files were filmed and produced in Vancouver, British Columbia, before eventually moving to Los Angeles, California to accommodate Duchovny. The series later returned to Vancouver to film the 2008 film The X-Files: I Want to Believe, as well as the 2016 six-episode event series.
The X-Files was a hit for the Fox network and received largely positive reviews, although its long-term story arc was criticized near the conclusion. Initially considered a cult show, it turned into a pop culture touchstone that tapped into public mistrust of governments and large institutions and embraced conspiracy theories and spirituality. Both the show itself and lead actors Duchovny and Anderson received multiple awards and nominations, and by the end it was the longest-running science fiction series in U.S. television history. The series also spawned a franchise which includes The Lone Gunmen spin-off, two theatrical films and accompanying merchandise. After the final theatrical film in 2008, fans continued to push for a third movie to conclude the series' plot lines. In March 2015, it was announced the series would return as a miniseries, with Chris Carter as executive producer and writer, and David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Annabeth Gish, William B. Davis and Mitch Pileggi all reprising their roles.[6][7] It premiered on January 24, 2016.[8]
The first one back and the show was a proverbial whirlwind, that didn't seem to pause for breath. Mulder's gone and stuck every conspiracy meme/theory ever known in a blender on high, all the while having that 'bi-polar manic episode' look in his eyes once more, whilst Scully again tries to keep poor old 'Muldy on a sanity leash.
Or has he? Knowing Chris Carter, by episode six the whole cast could end up right back where they started. I'm going to stick with this reboot though,
the reviews seem good.
Posts
Do... Re... Mi... So... Fa.... Do... Re.... Do...
Forget it...
Not anymore than anyone else, such is the nature of the X-Files. Basically, if you think you know something, eventually the series subverts that and most episodes are pretty self-contained in my opinion too.
Here
QEDMF xbl: PantsB G+
I remember fuck all about the show and never saw the second movie, and I was fine. The first episode has a five minute recap of everything you need to know going in.
The first ep was about as meh as I'd been led to believe, but it was fun watching Mulder and Scully back together. Fingers crossed that it gets better, as I've heard.
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
Law and Order ≠ Justice
X-Files is like Charlie Brown and the football.
"Obamacare"
"Uber, Mulder?"
(things offhandedly said by the two)
The writing so far has been kind of bad and annoying.
They're just off hand quips or wisecracks, Mulder always did that - just not with referencing any cultural artifacts. It's silly because it doesn't actually show them being adapted into a 'modern age', which is something you don't really need to show. I mean, why would anyone assume that they wouldn't be. It's not like they vanished for the last 15 years. Why does Mulder need to tell us he is familiar with Snowden?
Somehow the show writers thought that this was something that needed to happen, pepper the dialogue with quips like this. What does it matter that Mulder arrived to meet Scully in an uber ride?
It's not a big deal in isolation, but the rest of the show has been not great so far. There's something lacking in comparison to the previous series. I've been rewatching it recently, and it just has so much more style, especially the first half. It's almost like paranormal noir. The new series just kind of feels like a generic procedural stylistically. Everything is so clear and HD. Mark Snow's music was so much more atmospheric and almost like another character, now it seems quietly relegated to an almost ambient state.
Still, I am getting a kick out of the new angle. Some group is using alien tech to control society.
I really liked this angle. X-Files was mostly a great show, but the more that was revealed about the main conspiracy the lamer it got (IMO). Alien bounty hunters, alien rebels, alien colonization of earth...it just got more and more ridiculous as the series went on. So to have them basically come out and say, "yeah, it was all a big lie" was a pretty good thing to do.
All things considered I'm glad it's back, even for a short run. The first episode was better than the final seasons and both movies. I just wish they hadn't killed off the Lone Gunmen though.
What? I liked those things, Xfiles always had pop culture call backs.
pleasepaypreacher.net
pleasepaypreacher.net
pleasepaypreacher.net
And Mitch Pileggi looks the same and is 10 years older than both of them.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Nintendo Network ID: PhysiMarc
Law and Order ≠ Justice
Also, the first episode felt too rushed & chopped. Like they felt they really had 2 or 3 episodes worth of material that they had to cram into a single one. When watching the original series, I always enjoyed the methodical pacing that was used. I think it would have enjoyed if they spent the first episode focusing more and expounding upon on where Mulder & Scully are now with regards to their separate lives, and how they deal with each other, and having an event occur that eventually pulls them back in. What we got seemed to be trying to just get us up to date with them as fast as possible, while trying to to set up the new conspiracy story as fast as possible, so that Mulder & Scully get reinstated to the X-Files as fast as possible.
The fact that they just made a new X-Files season is even better!
Honestly, I don't think it would improve them much. After the rewatch I have all the more appreciation for often amazing prosthetics and makeup which still hold up in HD.
Yeah, I feel like some of the abruptness is due to there only being 6 episodes and likely no more.
I'm really liking it.
They already did it in season five though. It's kind of a redundant choice now. I mean, it's a little different I guess. In season five it was Mulder being convinced there were no aliens at all, and everything was faked by the government. Now it's the illuminati is using alien technology for oppression. It kind of makes whoever will be on the villainous side of things a little too villainous, in a way. I mean, CSM and the syndicate were ultimately desperate people trying to make a sacrifice so that at least a very small group of people would remain alive. Some, like CSM were twisted into sinister figures because of this desperation (and the isolated life he had come to lead because of it). They weren't noble, but they were a little more complicated than just being a group of evil shadow conspirators.
The new plot point doesn't really work all that well with Mulder's previous characterization, or I can't think of why he would be so willing to trust in this idea already. He's went through a lot of falsehoods and manipulations in the series, it doesn't seem believable that he would, in a matter of days(?) trust in this new idea that a few people told him about. Even seeing the military craft, which he's already seen before, just not up close, could be a smokescreen. Mulder just seems too trusting at the moment.
I'm half expecting the last episode to suggest that this new conspiracy is just a ploy to keep Mulder from the original, real conspiracy (the one from the main series).
Nintendo Network ID: PhysiMarc
I'm not really taking it "seriously" like getting super deep into analyzing the plot, just kinda taking it in.
It was kind of refreshing in a nostalgic way.