I Want To Believe
January 21, 2016 9:03 PM Subscribe
The truth is out there.
They released the first two episodes to reviewers to review. It's explained in the article.
posted by njohnson23 at 9:25 PM on January 21, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by njohnson23 at 9:25 PM on January 21, 2016 [3 favorites]
Because critics get pre-release screeners so reviews can go up before the premier?
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 9:26 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 9:26 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
Anyway, I can't wait for episode three.
posted by valkane at 9:27 PM on January 21, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by valkane at 9:27 PM on January 21, 2016 [3 favorites]
Well, here's the first 63 seconds of the first episode for everyone to see.
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:49 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:49 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
It's been 20 years since Jose Chung's "From Outer Space" (and the Conversation on the Rock), and my three wishes were A. The X-Files comes back B. Darin Morgan writes an episode and C. It is amazing. Early reviews suggest I hit the trifecta. Very excited!
posted by lefty lucky cat at 9:57 PM on January 21, 2016 [13 favorites]
posted by lefty lucky cat at 9:57 PM on January 21, 2016 [13 favorites]
‘X-Files’ Creator Chris Carter Takes Aim At Modern Conspiracies
posted by Artw at 10:00 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Artw at 10:00 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
Rewatching the X-Files: my 50-episode binge
posted by Artw at 10:23 PM on January 21, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Artw at 10:23 PM on January 21, 2016 [2 favorites]
Okay I read one or two paragraphs of this article and it seems to be shitting on the new episodes so I'm gonna stop reading for now.
I've been rewatching the old ones with my son for the last 3 months or so (going to watch the first movie this weekend) and we're kind of looking forward to Sunday. Already pissed that they spoiled the credits thing 'cause that's one thing we've been joking about.
posted by chococat at 10:33 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
I've been rewatching the old ones with my son for the last 3 months or so (going to watch the first movie this weekend) and we're kind of looking forward to Sunday. Already pissed that they spoiled the credits thing 'cause that's one thing we've been joking about.
posted by chococat at 10:33 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
My TV critic friend (whom I befriended back in high school due in large part to shared XF obsession) emailed me "Whyyyy couldn't Darin Morgan have just written all six new episodes, oh why oh why" a couple nights ago after she watched her screeners. Seems like that's the critical consensus.
posted by town of cats at 10:37 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by town of cats at 10:37 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
I have a friend who worked on it, boom man so he was up close, knows the whole story.
SPOILER ALERT:
there are aliens
posted by philip-random at 10:50 PM on January 21, 2016 [3 favorites]
SPOILER ALERT:
there are aliens
posted by philip-random at 10:50 PM on January 21, 2016 [3 favorites]
WTF?!?
posted by mazola at 10:51 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by mazola at 10:51 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
it seems to be shitting on the new episodes
No, only on the first episode, written and directed by Chris Carter, which explains a lot.
posted by Pendragon at 12:57 AM on January 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
No, only on the first episode, written and directed by Chris Carter, which explains a lot.
posted by Pendragon at 12:57 AM on January 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
Darin Morgan is amazing. He is a genius. And his work appears to consist of having written 9 episodes of various TV series, including two episodes of... Tower Prep? What?
I suppose Tesla died penniless as well.
posted by Justinian at 2:14 AM on January 22, 2016 [3 favorites]
I suppose Tesla died penniless as well.
posted by Justinian at 2:14 AM on January 22, 2016 [3 favorites]
But seriously, given they made 6 episodes if it ends up with 1 classic episode and a couple of good ones to go with the Chris Carter Clunker that's totally worth it. TV as good as, say, Jose Chung's From Outer Space or Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose does not come along often.
posted by Justinian at 2:16 AM on January 22, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 2:16 AM on January 22, 2016 [4 favorites]
Sepinwall also found it a mixed bag: The truth is right here: 'The X-Files' revival has a lot of problems:
"The X-Files" returns with such a dire first episode that it almost feels designed to make fans question their love for the series to begin with. The next two installments are better, but the premiere, written and directed by Carter, digs a hole deep enough to run from Area 51 to the other side of the world.posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 2:29 AM on January 22, 2016
[...] The real gem is the third episode, "Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster," from the mind of the series' resident (if non-prolific) genius, Darin Morgan.
Darin Morgan is amazing. He is a genius. And his work appears to consist of having written 9 episodes of various TV series, including two episodes of... Tower Prep? What?
The impression I always got was that he's a genius who super-prone to burnout because he throws everything he has into each script. And those scripts are masterpieces, but they nearly kill him.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:55 AM on January 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
The impression I always got was that he's a genius who super-prone to burnout because he throws everything he has into each script. And those scripts are masterpieces, but they nearly kill him.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:55 AM on January 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
I commented on Twitter at one point that the new series should have just been six episodes that each turned out to be another one of Jose Chung's books. I stand by this.
Chris Carter, in retrospect, reminds me a lot of George Lucas. He's a guy who successfully captured lightning in a bottle and absolutely nailed a particular cultural zeitgeist, but has since utterly failed to understand what worked about his creation. (Hint: not the tedious myth arc shit.)
posted by tobascodagama at 5:02 AM on January 22, 2016 [4 favorites]
Chris Carter, in retrospect, reminds me a lot of George Lucas. He's a guy who successfully captured lightning in a bottle and absolutely nailed a particular cultural zeitgeist, but has since utterly failed to understand what worked about his creation. (Hint: not the tedious myth arc shit.)
posted by tobascodagama at 5:02 AM on January 22, 2016 [4 favorites]
This morning's review on NPR was kind of a mixed-bag. Duchovny and Anderson? Really good and comfortable in their roles. The shows themselves? Meh. Better off watching reruns of the old show.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:08 AM on January 22, 2016
posted by Thorzdad at 5:08 AM on January 22, 2016
I started rewatching X-Files a while ago, with the goal of paying attention to the aliens plot arc, so that I could finally understand what was going on with the mythology stuff.
But then I ended up skipping most of those episodes and just watching the monster ones because, really, who gives a shit?
posted by ryanrs at 5:09 AM on January 22, 2016 [3 favorites]
But then I ended up skipping most of those episodes and just watching the monster ones because, really, who gives a shit?
posted by ryanrs at 5:09 AM on January 22, 2016 [3 favorites]
I am super happy that Kumail's episode is the best of the bunch so far. Listening to his podcast you can hear how super, super worried he is about doing a good job.
Also, I hope Rhys Darby is playing his alpha werewolf from What We Do In The Shadows.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:52 AM on January 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
Also, I hope Rhys Darby is playing his alpha werewolf from What We Do In The Shadows.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:52 AM on January 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
Unsurprisingly:
Gillian Anderson: I Was Offered Half Duchovny’s Pay for ‘The X-Files’ Revival
(she eventually got equal pay, but had to fight for it)
posted by tocts at 6:13 AM on January 22, 2016 [6 favorites]
Gillian Anderson: I Was Offered Half Duchovny’s Pay for ‘The X-Files’ Revival
(she eventually got equal pay, but had to fight for it)
posted by tocts at 6:13 AM on January 22, 2016 [6 favorites]
I've also been rewatching the original series, with just a few episodes into season 3. (I just watched Paperclip the other night; it may deserve another viewing.) I admit, the alien/cancer man/deep throat story arch is what keeps me coming back, although I do enjoy the scary monster and other WTF episodes. I'd like to find a viewing guide that focuses on the larger government conspiracy narrative.
posted by slogger at 6:19 AM on January 22, 2016
posted by slogger at 6:19 AM on January 22, 2016
OMG I AM SO EXCITED
posted by desjardins at 6:24 AM on January 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by desjardins at 6:24 AM on January 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
Mrs. Fleebnork has been watching episodes all week in preparation.
Her general mood right now is "squeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
posted by Fleebnork at 6:38 AM on January 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
Her general mood right now is "squeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
posted by Fleebnork at 6:38 AM on January 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
Gillian Anderson: I Was Offered Half Duchovny’s Pay for ‘The X-Files’ Revival
Which is madness - Duchovny was just sitting around waiting for this, Anderson has an actual career!
posted by Artw at 6:48 AM on January 22, 2016 [5 favorites]
Which is madness - Duchovny was just sitting around waiting for this, Anderson has an actual career!
posted by Artw at 6:48 AM on January 22, 2016 [5 favorites]
Gillian Anderson: I Was Offered Half Duchovny’s Pay for ‘The X-Files’ Revival
SO TELL THEM TO FUCK OFF AND GO MAKE MORE THE FALL
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:50 AM on January 22, 2016 [5 favorites]
SO TELL THEM TO FUCK OFF AND GO MAKE MORE THE FALL
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:50 AM on January 22, 2016 [5 favorites]
Mulder not being a dick would not be Mulder.
posted by Artw at 6:52 AM on January 22, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by Artw at 6:52 AM on January 22, 2016 [4 favorites]
Scripts by Morgan and Wong? AWESOME... Even if not paired... Their work on the original series, Millennium, The Lone Gunmen and Space: Above & Beyond are some of my favorite media moments... (Although, do I have the wrong Wong?)
posted by jkaczor at 7:03 AM on January 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by jkaczor at 7:03 AM on January 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
@slogger --
I started watching the original show last year. You can easily see what's compelling and groundbreaking about it, but in a number of elementary craft areas it's mediocre -- for one thing, the dialogue is embarrassing most of the time, which is largely Carter's fault. And Duchovny's performance is a mixed blessing. When he gets into it, as in 'Paper Hearts' (a season-4 peak), he's excellent, but his flat-of-affect delivery is... Well, I'm not his director. He has charisma and intelligence, but they're not enough, as the hardworking Gillian Anderson demonstrates. Well, whatever.
But I gotta say, people who moan about the 'mytharc' eps are much more tedious than the episodes themselves.
Complaints about coherence are misplaced; unlike (say) Lost, which turned out to be a fantasy show after promising in and out of the text to be something else, The X-Files is pretty clearly a fever dream shot in (what Chris Knowles, to whom I linked above, refers to as) a documentary style. One of the producers said in an interview that 'every episode is a mythology episode.' The stuff about aliens -- ancient and otherwise -- is just one way the writers played on, to borrow a phrase from Tricky, 'pre-millennium tension.' Taking the show's content literally, even as a dramatic provision within a single episode, is a mistake: it's a Fortean show, which doesn't mean 'rains of frogs' but rather radical epistemology and a celebration of deeply Weird marginal Americana. Hence 'Humbug,' and 'Home,' and the Jersey Devil played for melancholy, and the whole hamfistedly creepy tong episode, and the gorgeous image of Mulder cradling Max Fenig's head during a seizure.
That last image, by the way, is why I'll give the overrated Carter a pass every time -- Max Fenig (a season one 'NPC') talking about his utter loneliness is the heart of the show.
So I don't find the mytharc 'tedious.' Predictable, yes, but I'm free of the need to pat myself on the back for that. What it is, to me, is 'visionary' -- which in this case also means clumsy, fragmentary, richly ramifying, of its time and very much not, expressionistic, weirdly personal, its reach exceeding its grasp, its high points (e.g. S1's 'Duane Barry') often literally twinned with its low points (the following episode, 'Ascension,' simply hapless).
Basically, you'll get way way way more out of the show if you read the goofy/sinister eliptonic source materials, Charles Fort most of all. To do so may disincline you to bitch about the mytharc. Or it may not, I dunno. It's only television, it doesn't matter really.
posted by waxbanks at 7:10 AM on January 22, 2016 [7 favorites]
I've also been rewatching the original series, with just a few episodes into season 3. (I just watched Paperclip the other night; it may deserve another viewing.) I admit, the alien/cancer man/deep throat story arch is what keeps me coming back, although I do enjoy the scary monster and other WTF episodes. I'd like to find a viewing guide that focuses on the larger government conspiracy narrative.Here you go.
I started watching the original show last year. You can easily see what's compelling and groundbreaking about it, but in a number of elementary craft areas it's mediocre -- for one thing, the dialogue is embarrassing most of the time, which is largely Carter's fault. And Duchovny's performance is a mixed blessing. When he gets into it, as in 'Paper Hearts' (a season-4 peak), he's excellent, but his flat-of-affect delivery is... Well, I'm not his director. He has charisma and intelligence, but they're not enough, as the hardworking Gillian Anderson demonstrates. Well, whatever.
But I gotta say, people who moan about the 'mytharc' eps are much more tedious than the episodes themselves.
Complaints about coherence are misplaced; unlike (say) Lost, which turned out to be a fantasy show after promising in and out of the text to be something else, The X-Files is pretty clearly a fever dream shot in (what Chris Knowles, to whom I linked above, refers to as) a documentary style. One of the producers said in an interview that 'every episode is a mythology episode.' The stuff about aliens -- ancient and otherwise -- is just one way the writers played on, to borrow a phrase from Tricky, 'pre-millennium tension.' Taking the show's content literally, even as a dramatic provision within a single episode, is a mistake: it's a Fortean show, which doesn't mean 'rains of frogs' but rather radical epistemology and a celebration of deeply Weird marginal Americana. Hence 'Humbug,' and 'Home,' and the Jersey Devil played for melancholy, and the whole hamfistedly creepy tong episode, and the gorgeous image of Mulder cradling Max Fenig's head during a seizure.
That last image, by the way, is why I'll give the overrated Carter a pass every time -- Max Fenig (a season one 'NPC') talking about his utter loneliness is the heart of the show.
So I don't find the mytharc 'tedious.' Predictable, yes, but I'm free of the need to pat myself on the back for that. What it is, to me, is 'visionary' -- which in this case also means clumsy, fragmentary, richly ramifying, of its time and very much not, expressionistic, weirdly personal, its reach exceeding its grasp, its high points (e.g. S1's 'Duane Barry') often literally twinned with its low points (the following episode, 'Ascension,' simply hapless).
Basically, you'll get way way way more out of the show if you read the goofy/sinister eliptonic source materials, Charles Fort most of all. To do so may disincline you to bitch about the mytharc. Or it may not, I dunno. It's only television, it doesn't matter really.
posted by waxbanks at 7:10 AM on January 22, 2016 [7 favorites]
The overall arch started falling apart when they introduced The Syndicate since those were portrayed as the people on top of the whole conspiracy hierarchy. And what did they do? They'd all meet each other in person almost always in the Northeast part of the U.S. You'd watch it and you'd think "One accidental gas explosion and this fictional universe's version of 'The Illuminati' would be gone." It really began falling apart then and there.
posted by I-baLL at 8:30 AM on January 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by I-baLL at 8:30 AM on January 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
I think the mytharc is absolutely vital to the feel of the show. The season 2-3-4 run that really delved into the mythology and built it up out of a series of seemingly disconnected cases was the best the show ever was.
But, at the same time, I think the mytharc also killed the show's longevity. Because, at some point, you got enough little teasing pieces to put everything together, and then you realised that it made no sense at all. The inevitable comparison to LOST explains exactly what I mean. By the end, that show actually did explain all of its mysteries. It's just that the explanations were way less interesting than anybody's theories about what the explanations could be.
Same with the X-Files. Knowing that there was a sinister conspiracy about and getting occasional glimpses at it was intriguing. Finding out what the sinister conspiracy actually wanted was always going to be massively disappointing, and I think the show would have benefited a lot from leaving it in the background even more than it did.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:36 AM on January 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
But, at the same time, I think the mytharc also killed the show's longevity. Because, at some point, you got enough little teasing pieces to put everything together, and then you realised that it made no sense at all. The inevitable comparison to LOST explains exactly what I mean. By the end, that show actually did explain all of its mysteries. It's just that the explanations were way less interesting than anybody's theories about what the explanations could be.
Same with the X-Files. Knowing that there was a sinister conspiracy about and getting occasional glimpses at it was intriguing. Finding out what the sinister conspiracy actually wanted was always going to be massively disappointing, and I think the show would have benefited a lot from leaving it in the background even more than it did.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:36 AM on January 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
I don't think the mythology really ran off the rails until season 8 when they really, really, really needed to let it go and just... didn't. And then in season 9 you get the super soldiers nonsense which never made any sense and which the show didn't even really seem to be that interested in.
And I'm someone who actually liked season 9 (definitely more than season 8). I think that the show could have ended a lot better if they had fully committed to Doggett and Reyes and written Scully out of the show. It was hilarious seeing them even stop the pretense of justifying why Scully was showing up at the crime-scene-of-the-week.
posted by Automocar at 9:04 AM on January 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
And I'm someone who actually liked season 9 (definitely more than season 8). I think that the show could have ended a lot better if they had fully committed to Doggett and Reyes and written Scully out of the show. It was hilarious seeing them even stop the pretense of justifying why Scully was showing up at the crime-scene-of-the-week.
posted by Automocar at 9:04 AM on January 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
I enjoyed it in a nostalgia-riffic kind of way. As gingerbeer pointed out, they managed to cram all the most annoying tropes about Mulder and Scully's relationship into like 15 minutes (e.g., Mulder calls her and proclaims he has something urgent to tell her and then says he can't possibly talk to her right then) and WOO HOO! Cigarette-Smoking Man! Smoking through the trach tube! ("They don't work like that!" says a friend on fb; "It's the X-Files, they work however they want!" I reply.)
posted by rtha at 8:57 PM on January 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by rtha at 8:57 PM on January 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
The whole thing confused me. Particularly how Scully didn't like the Joel McHale-as-Alex Jones guy, but then later was chilling with him and a glass of wine in his limo. Then Mulder was at the Hispanic woman's house late at night. Were the two of them trying to get some booty? They're both single and middle-aged and this is probably the first opportunity in a while for either of them to meet new people. But the show didn't go into that further. I have other problems with the episode, but this is the main one on my mind after spending the day watching football and drinking.
posted by riruro at 9:47 PM on January 24, 2016
posted by riruro at 9:47 PM on January 24, 2016
I' pretty sure that was at Mulder's house where Sveta peeks out through the door when Mulder and Scully are arguing. Why else would Scully be (un)surprised to see her there? Also pretty sure it's Mulder's house where O'Malley arrives in the helicopter.
posted by clorox at 10:51 PM on January 24, 2016
posted by clorox at 10:51 PM on January 24, 2016
@Automocar --
Again: understood as a conventionally satisfying modern genre serial, this is a hopelessly hamfisted mess of a show. Understood as something much much closer to the expressionist bizarro world of, say, Twin Peaks -- which I take to be closer to its intent, based on the language of the show itself -- it holds together remarkably well. And packs a bigger punch.
posted by waxbanks at 4:41 AM on January 25, 2016
I don't think the mythology really ran off the rails until season 8 when they really, really, really needed to let it go and just... didn't. And then in season 9 you get the super soldiers nonsense which never made any sense and which the show didn't even really seem to be that interested in.Carter actually started in stories about super-soldiers and veterans weirdly preyed upon during the first season. The late-season panspermia/alien astronauts stuff also points back to tales from the very start of the show. The turn in the 'mythology' toward actual mythology may've been forced upon the writers by circumstance, I dunno (and don't really care anymore), but it's not like that material came out of nowhere. It comes directly out of the previous years of the show. It's right there at the show's core.
Again: understood as a conventionally satisfying modern genre serial, this is a hopelessly hamfisted mess of a show. Understood as something much much closer to the expressionist bizarro world of, say, Twin Peaks -- which I take to be closer to its intent, based on the language of the show itself -- it holds together remarkably well. And packs a bigger punch.
posted by waxbanks at 4:41 AM on January 25, 2016
I'm not sure I agree. In my opinion, the problem with the mytharc is that it ultimately tries to be more... Dan Brown than David Lynch. Yeah, there's a bunch of convoluted conspiracy stuff going on under everyone's noses, but it's meant to be intelligible, if Byzantine. The X-Files conspiracy stuff that actually works is the stuff that's like, "Why the Hell are these smoky backroom guys interested in THAT?"
Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man is a great episode, but I think to a certain degree it marked the beginning of the mytharc's collapse. One you get to see inside that mystery, it can't ever really be mysterious again.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:38 AM on January 25, 2016
Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man is a great episode, but I think to a certain degree it marked the beginning of the mytharc's collapse. One you get to see inside that mystery, it can't ever really be mysterious again.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:38 AM on January 25, 2016
(I really do enjoy that episode, though. I'm a sucker for "bad guy tries to go clean but fails" stories.)
posted by tobascodagama at 7:39 AM on January 25, 2016
posted by tobascodagama at 7:39 AM on January 25, 2016
Fanfare isn't quite the right place for this, but -
I'm having fun watching this interview from 2013 - a Paley Center interview/panel with David and Gillian to celebrate the 20th anniversary. The moderator isn't the best, but it's great fun watching their rapport. They're coming across like they were high school buddies who had a crush on each other and never acted on it and now it's the reunion, and there's still a spark there but they're also way older and they think that maybe it'd be weird so eh....
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:59 PM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm having fun watching this interview from 2013 - a Paley Center interview/panel with David and Gillian to celebrate the 20th anniversary. The moderator isn't the best, but it's great fun watching their rapport. They're coming across like they were high school buddies who had a crush on each other and never acted on it and now it's the reunion, and there's still a spark there but they're also way older and they think that maybe it'd be weird so eh....
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:59 PM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
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posted by grumpybear69 at 9:19 PM on January 21, 2016