Wednesday, January 10, 2018

What I’m Watching: The X-Files (Season Premiere)


The X-Files: Season 11, Episode 1 “My Struggle III” (C)

I had forgotten that this show was returning nearly two years after it went off the air following its six-episode event series, itself broadcast almost fourteen years after the show wrapped its nine-season run. I’d still put at least a few dozen shows ahead of this one for a reboot, particularly since nothing about the most recent installments indicated that it’s captured what was great about this show back in the day or introduced any new element that has proven worthwhile. I couldn’t remember how things left off in the season ten finale, and I’ve completely forgotten any of how Scully got pregnant and what happened to that baby. Though he’s still not featured in the opening credits, William B. Davis’ Cigarette-Smoking Man is now taking center stage, narrating and explaining things in a much clearer way than I think we’ve ever heard, revealing the shocking but not all that interesting truth that Scully’s baby is both an alien and his, not Mulder’s. Lines like “they would be dismissed as so much fake news” don’t sound right since it doesn’t seem possible that the Cigarette Smoking-Man and our friends would exist in a world like the one we’re living in today – their universe is already surreal enough. I welcome any chance to see Annabeth Gish, whose Agent Reyes is apparently working on the wrong side of things now. I really shouldn’t bother with this show, but there’s a part of me that still wants to believe, especially since Robbie Amell and Lauren Ambrose stuck around for this iteration.

No comments: