When I finished my last review, I promised myself I'd talk a little about the series as a whole. But I'd been working on this piece for a few weeks already, and I kept stopping and starting over. I dunno how to talk about this show as a whole, because there's just too much to actually address, too much to try and put together into a coherent thesis. So instead, I want to talk about The X-Files and me.
AKA: The End. No, For Real This Time
The end of Season 10 and the beginning of Season 11 were marked by the series giving us a huge, life changing cliffhanger, which it then had to take back rapidly. And I don't want to speak too broadly, but my impression is that everyone hated it. If I was the creator of The X-Files, that would leave me with one major goal for what is the ultimate series finale; Don't go out on an incredibly unsatisfying cliffhanger you'll have to walk back if you get another season.
AKA: Jenna Maroney Starts A Cult
One of the things that happens as a series runs towards the end is they start to get melancholic and a wee bit meta. If it seems like I've said this before, it's because this would be the third time The X-Files has done this (because this is the third time it's come to an end). I will say that however that this time around the plot they landed on, about a pair of people desperate to extend their lifespans at all costs, is a little on the nose for a show that's nearly 30 years old and feels more than a little past its sell by date.
AKA: I Can't AKA This Episode, I'm Too Busy Watching For THAT FUCKING FACE
AKA: Apparently The Title Means "Followers" In Base 64 Code. Yes Wikipedia Told Me That
One of the most maligned episodes of the early X-Files was Ghost in the Machine, and rightly so. While it had the germ of a good idea (a haunted house where the house is an alive computer) the execution and style left a LOT to be desired. But honestly, in the nearly 30 years since that episode first aired, it's only felt more and more prescient, as elements of the internet and AI infect every single aspect of our lives. So maybe it might be worst idea to take another swing at the Evil AI concept.
AKA: Not One Cat In This Episode, Come On
What are we to make of Walter Skinner? He is, unquestionably, the most important heroic character outside of the core duo (sorry Reyes and Doggett) but he's also a very thinly sketched character. His backstory, his broader motivations, his inner world, for a character who first appeared in Season 1, they're all pretty opaque. With the series moving towards it final ending, doesn't it seem like a good opportunity to fill in those gaps?
AKA: This Is Probably The Best Slenderman Movie I Guess
What to do with William at this point? While I don't think he's the character who got the most jerked around by the whims of the plot, he's probably the one who spent the greatest percentage of his time in the show getting jerked around by the whims of the plot. And why not, for the first chunk of his time on the show, he was a literal baby, with no agency or personality. But that was back in 2001 and now that we're rounding towards the end of the show the 2nd time, it might be time to turn him into an actual character.
AKA: I Dunno If Its Lost Dude, I've Seen Rudy Giuliani
AKA: The Shining Twins WISH They Were This Creepy
Creepy Psychic Twins is a horror staple at this point, to the point where the occasionally feel like a cliche (it's also the basis for a pair of my D&D characters, just in case you were wondering what an absolute dork I am). But at the same time, it's a cliche for a reason, it's a good solid premise for a horror story, and it's one that The X-Files tapped into before (wayyyyyyyyy back in Season 1's Eve). But, aside from the endless supply of Revenge From Beyond the Grave episodes, The X-Files doesn't generally like to repeat itself. If it was going to repeat that premise, it would have to go outside the box.
AKA: Love Has Taken Its Toll On Me
It's very hard to get a large fanbase on the same page, but I think it's pretty universally agreed in the X-Files fandom that the Lone Gunmen got a raw deal. Shuffled off to a spin-off the network never really knew what to do with before being dragged sheepishly back to the main show, just in time to get killed off in what is widely considered one of the worst episodes of the show. If I were creating a sequel season to The X-Files, one of my top priorities would be to try and give them a better ending.
AKA: This Is Why You Plan How To Handle A Season Finale Ahead
AKA: An Anti-Vaxxer's Worst Nightmare
If The X-Files is to keep grinding on, it has to maintain a fairly delicate balance; Mulder and Scully can't fail, precisely, but they can't succeed either. If the conspiracy fails, if aliens and supernatural monsters are revealed, then the status quo would shift so entirely, it would be basically an entirely different show. But if the conspiracy feels too all powerful, like Mulder and Scully's actions don't matter, then the show would just get depressing and boring. So you have to use a light touch, a scalpel, if you will. Which is why it's always so interesting to see Myth Arc episodes that just go ahead and use a Buster Sword.
AKA: I Did Not Want An X-Files Version Of 24
AKA: Jiggity Jig? I Dunno Why It's Called That
The revival season of The X-Files has a weird relationship with its age. It wants to constantly call back to the original series, reference their tone and monsters and just let us have fun with Mulder and Scully again (let's not kid ourselves, these two seasons didn't get made because they had a bold continuation of the story that needed to be told, they got made because people were nostalgic for The X-Files). But it's also clearly aware of how much time has passed, how much the world has changed since 2002 and to its credit, it does feel like the show wants to move the story forward, engage with those changes. It just might find out that those two desires don't go together great.
AKA: Okay The Episode Title Is Already Too Close To An AKA Title I'd Use
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| Is this a better DVD menu shot? Let me know in the comments |
In order for a writer on a tv show to become a household name, they usually have to be a constant presence in the credits. Darin Morgan is therefore a bit of an anomaly among TV show writers. Most X-Files fans know his name, despite only writing 4 episodes on the original run (and punching up the dialogue on a 5th). Still, his episodes were so popular, so critically acclaimed and so frequently imitated, that the entire fanbase basically knows his name. So when it was announced that he was returning to pen an episode for the revival season, his first episode written since season 3 20 years ago, people were hyped.
AKA: New Founder's Mutants, Oh God That Was Awful
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| Sorry bout the awful DVD menu pics, Season 10 doesn't have episode menus |
Much like seasons 8 and 9, the real test of the revival wasn't going to be the big plot focused episodes, it was going to be seeing how Mulder and Scully handled being back on the Monster of the Week plots, since those were the major draws for a lot of viewers. But the dynamic has changed; With a lot of plot and character work to cover and only 6 episodes (10 in Season 11) the new Monsters of the Week have to share a lot of space, which might throw off the balance.
AKA: Oh, It's All Of Our Struggle
Reviving a series that has been dormant, by and large, for over a decade, is a risky proposition. Yes, every so often you get something like Twin Peaks: The Return (and yes, maybe I will marry David Lynch, thank you for asking) that completely reshapes your existing knowledge of the show and brings the story to a close. Most of the time, you're aiming for something more along the lines of Fuller House, just more of the show that was already popular (and I don't get either Full House or Fuller House, so don't ask me).
Sometimes though. Sometimes you get something else.
AKA: Jesus Is That The Plot We're Going With?
It's impossible to really gauge how much Twin Peaks DNA is in The X-Files (it's a lot, but how much exactly is up for debate) but there are some eerie similarities between the initial end of Twin Peaks and the initial end of the The X-Files. Both shows ended on cliffhangers, and both, when presented with the opportunity to resolve that cliffhanger in a movie, elected instead to make a side story refocused on the characters. Unfortunately, someone should have reminded Chris Carter that while Fire Walk With Me eventually got to be known as one of the best movies of David Lynch's career, it began life as a critically disdained box office dud.
AKA: We Can Definitely Handle The Truth
In the end, I don't think there was ever going to be a good ending to The X-Files, at least not going into the finale off Sunshine Days. By that point, the deck was too stacked against it, the plot too out of control and the lore too much to cobble together at the last minute to actually have a finale that holds together or ties up the series properly. The best they can really do is try to do something that the fans will like. To use a somewhat overly dramatic metaphor, the landing gear is busted, so the plane is coming down hard, the best thing you can do is try to protect the passengers.
AKA: The Navidson Bunch
As The X-Files faces down what was, at the time, its ultimate ending, it kind of went through its own stages of grief. Improbable feels like denials, Jump the Shark could be viewed as depression, Scary Monsters as bargaining, even Hellbound as anger although I'm really pushing the metaphor well past its breaking point at that point. But here, in the penultimate episode of Season 9, the last Monster of the Week of the original run, we have acceptance.
AKA: I Really Don't Like That Title, Can't Explain Why
