The X Files

[domino harvey]

Every review I've read says the third episode is the best of the lot. I am definitely ready for another Darin Morgan episode in my life

[Ribs]

I don't believe reviewers have seen beyond the third episode yet, though.

[domino harvey]

Whoa, I just Googled the Darin Morgan episode and realized it's a reworking of his unproduced Kolchak episode, the script of which was floating around the internet for years. Assuming it keeps the basic premise, Morgan cleverly subverts the conventional werewolf mythos by

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having the werewolf be a monster cursed with turning into a human instead of vice-versa

[Werewolf by Night]

It's too bad Charles Nelson Reilly is no longer with us so Darin Morgan could bring him back as Jose Chung.

[lacritfan]

I definitely had some twinges of nostalgia and I'll watch all them but I'm glad there are only six. I haven't seen the series since it finished but I don't know how many times Mulder can have the "revelation" that

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there are aliens but the real danger is the government/shadow organization is using them as a smokescreen.

[Luke M]

I'm impressed with the first 2 episodes. It manages to feel nostalgic while simultaneously feeling fresh and current. It's disappointing there's only 6 episodes.

[domino harvey]

Darin Morgan's episode was probably a little too broad in parts but I enjoyed it and all the little in-jokes poking fun at the series (my favorite was how it upended the overused trope of Scully getting herself in trouble and needing Mulder to rescue her), though with stuff like Mulder sleeping in the red speedo, the ep was def paying out a lot of fan service (though, who else is this revival for?)

[mfunk9786]

Just don't watch the last two [Chris Carter scripted] episodes. Save yourself.

[domino harvey]

I only bothered with the Darin Morgan ep, from what I've heard I'm not really missing out otherwise

[mfunk9786]

Alan Sepinwall: "Chris Carter should also never write or direct another episode of the show, assuming the actors agree to return for another abbreviated season." [article contains finale spoilers]

[Werewolf by Night]

Chris Carter should have had his own franchise taken away from him a long time ago, before the first feature film even. That final episode was abysmal.

[Adam Grikepelis]

You mean they managed to top the end of season 9!?

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

I only bothered with the Darin Morgan ep, from what I've heard I'm not really missing out otherwise

You could do a lot worse watching the other two non-Carter eps which I think even bested Darin Morgan's! James Wong's "Founder's Mutation" is a classic era model X-Files episode but with a monster of the week and conspiracy combined. Glen Morgan's "Home Again" mines Scully family territory like Beyond The Sea and with the season's best performances from Duchovny and Anderson. I think the golem side story could have been developed more but it's consistently creepy. What I appreciate about both is how Wong and Morgan create and sustain the tone to such good effect while exploring the season's theme of familial loss. (It's too bad Morgan never directed anything on Hannibal.) Both paid better homage to the show than Carter which isn't saying much but if you watch either one I think you'll see how much better the season could have been.

[domino harvey]

Fox has ordered ten more episodes-- have Darin Morgan write all ten pls

[Lost Highway]

Fox has ordered ten more episodes-- have Darin Morgan write all ten pls

Or at least don't have Chris Carter write any more episodes.

[denti alligator]

did anyone watch season 11? Big fan of the show and I even like the later series, but the first episode was among the worst TV I have ever seen. Ever. I just couldn't go on.

[domino harvey]

I haven't, but I see Darin Morgan wrote and directed another episode, so I'll at least be watching that

[Big Ben]

I haven't, but I see Darin Morgan wrote and directed another episode, so I'll at least be watching that

Guess what! The episode he did got rave reviews! I haven't seen the X Files in years but seeing people rave about it gave me hope the show wasn't always going to be a resuscitated corpse in this decade. The name of the episode in question is "The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat".

[Cameron Swift]

Yes, the first episode was horrifically bad. Just one of the most poorly edited things I've seen on television. I was ready to give up on it but thankfully the show picked up with some decent episodes and Morgan's fun aforementioned one.

[Murdoch]

I have heard excellent things about “The Lost Art Of Forehead Sweat.” I've only seen the premiere of season 10 so far, which was an interesting play on Mulder's conspiracy obsession but played out like a mid-season filler episode rather than the restart of a series that's been off the air for ~15 years. I liked the original series mainly for it's fun one-off episodes so I'm just hoping the reboot delivers those. I can't say I have much interest in any resolution to the series' convoluted story arc though.

[domino harvey]

You can watch Morgan's episode for free of Fox's website, FYI. I thought it was suitably ridiculous and maybe the laugh out loud funniest thing Morgan's done (though it doesn't even begin top the overall brilliance of his Millennium satire of Scientology, which it is my duty to once again remind you is still the most audacious thing to ever air on network TV). The whole thing's a play on the Mandela Effect (or the Mengele Effect, as one character insists) in which a sweaty man named Reggie (played by Brian Huskey, the bald dude from all those Sonic commercials) claims to have started the X-Files with Mulder and Scully, and the agents don't remember because They erased their memories. They being Dr They. This leads to a montage of Reggie inserted into classic and not so classic older episodes, including "Teso dos Bichos," in which he proclaims, "Guys, if this turns out to be killer cats, I'm going to be very disappointed." The Trump jokes near the end are creaky, but I loved the extended scene set in a bizarre sculpture park in which Mulder and Dr They get to the bottom of, well, nothing and everything. As in the previous Morgan episode, he gives every fantastical allegation plausible deniability in the end, but it hardly matters. Morgan's done his homework overall, with stabs at the Berenstein/Berenstain Bears controversy, but many of the funniest lines are free-standing from the premise, like the junk shop owner's response to whether he has a certain item, or how Mulder is spending his free time when Scully calls him at the outset of the episode. And then the ending line, in which Morgan throws shade on the very vehicle in which his episode appears? Beautiful. As I say every time this show gives Morgan an episode: how does Morgan not have a movie or TV show of his own?

Also, apparently in the previous "normal" episode of this season,

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A picture of Reggie's FBI file was shown on-screen by Skinner, further adding credence to Skinner's one line!

[denti alligator]

Yeah, it was a great episode. But are any of the others worth watching? The new overarching conspiracy plot is really really tedious.

[Lost Highway]

I think the ongoing conspiracy plot has been tedious since at least season 4 or 5 when it became clear Chris Carter had no idea where to take it. The X-Files has always been about the stand alone episodes for me, which made up the vast majority of the show anyway. I always found it odd that despite the fact that The X-Files was primarily a monster-of-the-week show, many people keep talking about it like it was mostly serialised, when that has become the weakest aspect of the show not far into its run.

[domino harvey]

This is one (of many) arenas in which Fringe topped the X Files-- for a while it looked like the show was just making things up as it went along like Carter's show or Lost. Yet by the end, not only did everything make sense, but it turns out if one goes back, the overall storyline was thought-out and planted from the start of the series. Truly impressive longform television payoffs there and a refreshingly confusing conspiracy that ultimately had answers for every cryptic thing we saw along the way!

[Murdoch]

Agreed, Fringe has become my go-to recommendation for friends that cite Lost, X-Files, and others as favorites. It's a shame Carter's series still overshadows it. Even with Abrams' subsequent mega-success it remains obscure.