Topic: The X-Files

[Stupot]

So, who has seen the season 11 premiere yet?

Overall I quite liked it. Much better than My Struggle I and II but not without its flaws. A lot of people were really pissed off about the twist (mostly Mulder/Scully shippers). I thought it was quite a clever twist. What did you guys think? (Spoilers hidden please)

[SilverSpook]

I thought the season 11 premiere was pretty good, and a smart update for 2018. The pivot from, "I want to believe" in XYZ paranormal thing or "Let's get to the bottom of this/that conspiracy" formula that was the bread and butter of the 90's incarnation into a more, "Ok, the UFO stuff, yep, there's some scheming elites, yep, that's happening, let's fight it," was a smart move, in my opinion. It's a different approach from the original, but different in a good way that makes it relevant to 2018.

The only thing I thought was a little iffy was the sections with Mulder's internal narration track that didn't really work for me in the way that the Blade Runner cut with Harrison Ford narrating the film didn't work for me. But it's not a make-or-break deal, I think. Still give it four Roswell news clippings out of five.

[Danvzare]

Wait, they've just premiered season 11?
Thanks for the heads up!

[Jack]

I've seen it now, and boy, is that some way to follow a difficult cliff-hanger

Spoiler: ShowHide

It was all an hallucination!

Why has no one thought of that yet? I liked season 10, but this episode was pretty bad compared to that. The voice-over didn't fit at all. Based on the ham-fisted continuity I am pretty sure the twist is just some melodrama, and that he's lying.

[Jack]

Those last two were a lot better, as good or better than season 10, as I recall.

I only saw a few seasons of The X-Files when it was originally aired, a long time ago. I don't remember Mulder being so Hank Moody, is that new?

Did everyone take their bread pills?

[Stupot]

I only got around to seeing “This” yesterday and just watched “Plus One” 5 minutes ago. Both pretty solid episodes, reminiscent of old X-Files and without the cheesy time stamp references to smartphones and Google that plagued season 10. Plus One is especially old-school. My only gripe was the overacting of the guy who played Chucky. I know was supposed to be mentally ill but it was quite OTT.

I’m no big shipper but I’m glad Chris Carter is addressing the relationship, if only for the fact that he has finally shut the psycho fanfic shippers up for a while.

[Stupot]

My only gripe was the overacting of the guy who played Chucky.

Well colour me gripeless, because it just came to my attention that not only is ‘the guy who played Chucky’ not a guy, but is in fact the same actress who played his sister Judy (who is also known among fans for playing the mother in the amazing episode ‘Home’).

I won’t retract my ‘overacting’ comment but knowing she played both parts does change it a bit. And clearly she played a dude well enough to fool me so I’m impressed.

[Jack]

x1 x2 x4 x8

This ride never ends.

[Kumpel]

"The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat" was HILARIOUS!
There were soooo many ideas, topics, gags, easter eggs and even great flashbacks. One big fat homage to the awesomeness this show once owned and still does!

Did you guys get that huuuge USA criticism behind the career of Reggie Something?

Chapeau, Darin Morgan!

What did you guys think?

[Khris]

I just watched episode 7 and it was incredibly bad. The lowest point so far, like a café's "No WiFi, look at each other" sign in episode form.
Not sure why they keep aiming so low, it feels like they want to appeal to the casual viewer way too much.

[Stupot]

I haven’t seen 7 or 8 yet. It seems like they’re really trying to recreate the mixture of good horror/cheesy fun that the original series had. On that, I think they are succeeding. But they’re not taking into account that TV drama in general is just so much better now than it was in the 90s. The cheesy/fun episode just don’t hit the mark like they used to. There is so much more life in The X-Files, with or without David and Gillian, but if they keep making more they are going to have to start playing it straight otherwise it will become a parody of itself.

[Mandle]

Well, I just finished watch the 2018 series and...

It was really good on the whole!

One major gripe though concerning the ending:

MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!!!

Spoiler: ShowHide

WTF?! It ends with Mulder and Scully having a quiet hug together as the camera pulls slowly away. Okay, now, aren't they even the least bit concerned to go and see if Skinner is alright?! I mean, he's obviously NOT alright and they know it! They heard him shooting and the sounds of the cars crashing, followed by silence. Mulder even says "Skinner!" at this point so he knows he was in some kind of danger. PLUS Skinner hasn't shown up at the dock even though many shots have been fired there. Did they just have their nice, long hug and then 5 minutes after the camera panned out slap their foreheads and say "Oh, right! Skinner!" and go looking for him like a scene from The Simpsons?!

I read a few reviews of this episode and no reviewer even mentions this!

I'm very bugged by this, especially as there is a chance this might actually be the final, final end of the whole show!!!

[Stupot]

I finally caught the last two episodes on DVD. I’d been watching them on shitty streams during its TV run but wanted to watch the finale in slightly better definition, so I forced myself to wait until it came out on DVD.

I sooort of knew the basic gist of how it would end. But had managed to remain basically spoiler-free.

Things I liked:

Spoiler: ShowHide

I liked that we got more William. It just makes sense. Ever since Baby William’s spinning mobile trick it was always something that needed to be addressed, and we finally got a proper William episode.

I liked that Monica sooort of redeemed herself, or at least she showed some remorse towards the end and managed to give Mulder and Scully a little tip-off.

I liked that Mulder actually got to kill CSM (one assumes he’s really dead this time). It always should have been either him or Scully to finally finish him off, so I was pleased with that.

Things I didn’t like:

Spoiler: ShowHide

Oh, Scully’s pregnant again. Cheap writing. For someone who’s meant to be barren she’s doing pretty well. I made that three now.

I didn’t like Skinner’s ending. He seemed to jump in a way that made it seem like he knew what he was doing and then we just saw his legs. I concluded that he was playing dead, but then the show just forgot to address it. If he really did die then they really messed up The Skinman’s ending.

I didn’t like that Scully came jogging up behind Mulder after all the action had taken place on the dock. She should have been more an actual part of the final showdown but instead she missed everything. Again.

I didn’t like that William kept running from everybody when he could have easily turned into someone else. There’s no mention at all that using his powers makes him weak or anything, so in theory he could just walk around pretending to be some random guy the whole time. So all the chase scenes seem a bit rubbish. At one point he even does turn into a random man to lose his tail, but I don’t get how he even has a tail.

I also don’t like that a large portion of the fandom (mostly the very vocal and frankly insane shippers) responded very badly to Gillian’s announcement that she will not be returning. They said they will not watch any future episodes without both her and David. Sure enough, Fox soon said that they have no plans for a season 12. Well done to those idiots.

I consider myself a real fan of the show. Have been since I was a little boy. Gillian and David are my heroes. But there is a whole filing cabinet full of unexplained cases and a world full of conspiracies. I seriously think the X-Files could thrive with a new set of agents, but those selfish shippers may have killed it.

Mind you, it seems Disney now own The X-Files, so anything could happen.

[Mandle]

That was a joke about Disney, right?!

I pretty much agree with everything you said except:

Spoiler: ShowHide

I thought the way Mulder "killed" CSM was pretty stupid: Shoots him 4 times in the torso and pushes him in the water?! Come on, Fox! The dude survived being blown up by a missile! He obviously has superhuman regenerative powers from some alien science (confirmed by Chris Carter and also explains why he can chain-smoke with no effect for 50 years or more now that I think of it) so why not an extra one or two in the head to be sure?! Or, better yet, dive in, retrieve the body, and friggin' burn it to ashes!

Just watch. If the series ever does continue the CSM will be back.

Also, for me, I don't think I would continue watching if either Mulder or Scully left. I stopped watching the first time around after Mulder left.

The Mulder/Scully characters and their chemistry are the main reason I watch the show: That feeling like I'm seeing old friends again. And the one-off mysteries. I must admit I don't really care anymore about the overarching main story. For me they botched that one up and made such a complete mess of it so many times that I can only think they are using it at their convenience and make up any BS they like to make the plot go where they want.

With a real mystery it should be immutable and the plot should react to that. But with X-Files it just always feels like the mystery can become whatever at a moment's notice to suit the plot. (I'm talking about the "main story" here not the one-offs: They can be as crazy as they like (within limits. See below)!)

You didn't mention my main gripe above. Didn't that bother you?!

Another thing I didn't mention that really weirded me out was:

Spoiler: ShowHide

The A.I. gone crazy episode! While it was entertaining it did NOT feel like it belonged in The X-Files. More like a modern Twilight Zone episode. They were just stumbling around reacting to what happening. They weren't investigating anything. Out of all the people in the world this could happen to it just randomly happens to them?! Felt more like the writer had written this as an unconnected short story and recycled it into an X-Files episode.

I mean, I get that the city being deserted all night was to represent the isolation of people living in the virtual world of devices, and that's fine but the metaphor should still not take over all logic.

How are there suddenly self-driving car services in the world?! We don't see self-driving cars anywhere else in the series! And, even if they are a thing, then why are Mulder and Scully surprised when the door opens and there's no driver?!

Why did Mulder not know how to get home from the restaurant even though he had driven there in his car?! Even if he had just blindly followed the navi on the way to the restaurant he is an FBI agent FFS! Could he really be dumb enough to not have even the slightest idea how to at least get back to an area he recognized or to not realize he was being led back to the restaurant until literally the moment he arrived there!? I get that it's to show how lost we are without our tech but, please, not at the expense of turning established characters into complete idiots.

And why are they living in separate houses when we clearly saw them living together earlier in the series?! Okay, let's say they have seperate houses as well as a house together somewhere. Then why is Mulder so surprised how nice Scully's house is?! Has he never been there before even once?! Then how did he know how to get there so fast?! His GPS navi was going haywire and we already saw he was clueless without it. And how does Scully afford what looks like a multi-million-dollar house on an FBI salary?!

Why do they just pretend nothing happened the next morning?! Again I get the metaphor here that they have woken up from their tech-addiction and are seeing the real world again, but this is FOX AND DANA FFS!

This is what should be the START of an X-File for them. Not the end!

I was honestly thinking that the only way they could end the episode was the whole "it was just a dream" escape route but they already played that card once in this series...

A little bit too insane and out-of-place even for a one-off for my taste.