Warning. This review contains many spoilers on the 10th season of the TV show “The X-Files”!
On February 22 in the USA “The X-Files” 10th season (or if you prefer event mini-series) ended. It marked the revival of one of the TV shows that marked the ’90s. David Duchovny reprized his role as Fox Mulder, Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully and Mitch Pileggi as Walter Skinner.
Years have passed since the events of the movie “X-Files – I Want to Believe” and the lives of Mulder and Scully seems distant from those of years spent working for the FBI. Instead, in the first episode “My Struggle” Skinner contacts Scully to try to arrange a meeting between her, Mulder and Tad O’Malley, who runs an online program about conspiracies.
The meeting triggers a series of events that throw Mulder and Scully again in the middle of plots, perhaps real and perhaps false. Especially, the audience are thrown into a frantic-paced narrative in which many events follow each other and especially many potential twists about the show’s mythology.
I confess that I had strong feelings at the beginning of the episode but with a cool head I must say that in many ways is yet another mess added to the mythology. At least part of what happened in the TV show turns out to have been built to bring Mulder far away from the truth. It’s a mix of possible conspiracies with pieces of historical events, starting with the the September 11, 2001 attacks. In short, an episode to titillate the old fans and wipe out some of the old mythology’s baggage.
The second episode, “Founder’s Mutation”, has a classical theme of “The X-Files”. Mulder and Scully, back into the FBI in an incredibly short time, have to conduct their first new investigation. As usual in the series, in the end the answers are limited and the protagonists must stop in front of obstacles too big for them.
In the episode the recurring theme in this revival of the family is introduced, in this case focused on William, Mulder and Scully’s sun. The two of them wonder how he’s living and imagine how their lives would be if they hadn’t been forced to give him up for adoption. It’s a strong connection with the past at the same time reminds us that it’s been years since the end of the show.
The episode “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” takes us to the surreal – demented tones of some old stories. The script was originally written years ago for the remake (horrendous and rightfully canceled after a few episodes!) of the TV show “Kolchak: The Night Stalker” and recently adapted for “The X-Files” revival. It’s no coincidence that the were-monster in his human aspect is dressed like Carl Kolchak.
As often happens, these comedic episodes conceale profound themes. In “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” there’s also a reversal of the point of view regarding the monster, meaning that his monstrosity comes from the fact that it was “infected” by humans.
“Home Again” is the episode in which issues related to family, life and death are more explicit because of the subplot about Scully mother’s death. This event gives the episode importance in the character’s personal history. The among people which is not particularly developed.
In “Babylon” profound issues, in this case it even talks about terrorism, are developed again in an episode that has often a comedic tone. The plot is crudely developed, based on stereotypes and with no nuances. The introduction of Agents Miller and Einstein, younger versions of Mulder and Scully, brings the risk of making all the Agents their own caricatures.
After five episodes in which they are mixed in an uneven way virtually all the themes seen in the previous nine seasons, we reach what is supposed to be the grand finale, “My Struggle II”. The story picks up from the first episodes with apocalyptic developments going deeper into the conspiracy. I’m sorry to say that I found embarrassing the fact that they sunk to a level that would include chemtrails and vaccines because it means that either they really ran out of ideas or they just tried to attract the more gullible conspiracy followers.
The season ends with a cliffhanger and, also considering the very high audience in the USA, we can assume that the revival will continue. Showrunner Chris Carter stated that there won’t be 20-episode seasons like the old days but probably other 6-episode mini-seasons.
The reduced number of scripts should be easy to handle, instead this tenth season seemed based only on the nostalgia effect and a very mixed quality but verging on the low level. That kind of effect lasts so long so if they want to continue to make money from “The X-Files” I hope they can think of something more adequate for the future.
