X-files reboot?

I think it’s time for Chris Carter to leave too. His stuff is a mess now.

 

It just seems so low budget now. Up and down friggen stairwells ??? Nothing made sense at all.

 

It's like the show itself has become like Langly in the episode: a simulation of the real thing.

 

Come on, man. You gotta give it up for a show that throws in a Spank Bank reference.

;-)

 

Can we get a contribution from the dude on the Doctor Who thread who hasn’t liked an episode since the 70s, but still writes about how awful and legacy-destroying each new episode is? At length and with much hand wringing? That would fit right in

I’m not crazy about the reboot, sans the Darin Morgan episode last year, but lame X Files still beats every reality show ever made. Bring em on.

 

I thought episode 1 was pretty much a rehash of an old topic but episode 2 was pretty good. I was sorry when they killed off The Smoking Gun years ago and now they figured out away to bring them back briefly in one episode last season and now in this weeks episode

 

We're literally only *eight* episodes (six *two* years ago, and two this month) into the "revival" of this show. And it's *really* bad. Even the cynics are speechless.

I'm stunned by even the "meh, it's not too bad" reviews from this season; I think it might be in part just younger reviewers who don't expect much.

In any event, we've had eight episodes of this show in the last 16 years, so criticizing this show at this stage is not at all the same as complaining about Dr. Who and hating it for I guess 40+ years?

My position is that this new X-Files revival is just bad TV. I don't even care about answering mythology questions anymore (I mean, I sure *wish* they'd do that well too, but that ship sailed during the show's original run). The "X-Files" has a mixed bag legacy and did even during its initial run, becoming convolution in later seasons of that original run. Nobody even expected the revival to be truly great. Chris Carter is just an odd guy when it comes to writing and direction. I liken him a bit to other creators that had one (or maybe a few) really good ideas, like say Robert Kirkman, but maybe not the writing skills to keep the thing going for over a decade, nor enough good ideas to do other new compelling things ("Harsh Realm" was not exactly A-list material either).

I don't follow Dr. Who, but is the showrunner from the 70s still running the show now in 2018? I think "X-Files" still has tremendous potential just as a concept, and I think Duchovny and Anderson *can* still perform well given good material. I get it, Chris Carter probably doesn't have a ton of other viable, green-lit projects, so he'd want to be very hands-on with the X-Files revival. But he (and Fox) should have brought some new blood in to run the show.

I'm currently watching Season 7 of the show, by all accounts *not* its high point. But it has actually grown on me quite a bit. I even didn't mind too much the episode I previously found pretty aggravating, where they address Mulder's sister's ultimate fate and kind of sort of ignore a big chunk of what they build up about her story for *seven* seasons.

 

Finally caught the latest one and it wasn’t bad. Not great but not bad. Interesting idea with the digital duplicates, though I wouldn’t be happy if my duplicate physically aged and didn’t look like I did 16 (or even more) years ago.

 

Personally I would love to see the "Fringe" team on an episode of the X-Files.

 

One of my very favorite tv shows has become one of the worst on TV today.

 

The hyperbole in this thread is strong.

 

Well take a look at all the great television in 2018. The new x files doesn’t even seem to have the quality of style and production values (or script acting and direction) as it had during the first 9 seasons. Tv has come a long way. This x files is embarrassing .

 

Well, a lot of people like it. I don't think it's as good as peak-era X-Files, but it's better than A LOT of stuff on TV. Honestly, to me most network television pales in comparison to good cable or premium programming.

 

I'm still barreling through Season 7 for my umpteenth re-watch of the entire series, and I'm finding it interesting in comparison to the new 2018 season.

The Season 7 episodes get weirder and goofier as it goes along. It reeks of everybody being bored and therefore doing idiosyncratic episodes (and both Duchovny and Anderson writing and directing episodes). There's the one where Scully finds an old professor flame who is in the hospital, and then she just starts wandering around while dated late 90s R&B music plays (not surprisingly, this off-kilter episode is the one she wrote and directed), there's the weird one where Garry Shandling and Tea Leoni are cast as Mulder and Scully in a movie, the one where Kathy Griffin plays two parts, non-identical (but identical) half-sisters who somehow cause everybody around them to break into fist fights, and so on. It gets a lot more goofy and light, bordering on frivolous. It gets very meta, with Mulder and Scully both constantly reminding each other of their personalities. It's a lot of "really, you still don't believe me Scully?" and a lot of "really Mulder, you're still doing the supernatural thing?", and so on.

Anyway, these Season 7 episodes are very much second-tier quality episodes. Yet, they still feel smoother than the new 2018 season. Even when it gets too goofy and they are more or less making fun of the show and not taking it seriously at all, even then the episodes feel like they breathe more and aren't as frantic and chaotic and messy as the new season.

 

I swore I was done after the truly awful mini-season finale last year, but my wife talked me into watching the first episode of this mini-season and boy was it every bit as bad. It's like they're not even trying to re-create the feel of the show. It felt like a subpar episode of 24. That's it! No more for me!

 

And it looks cheap too. Right??

 

Yes. They should have shot on film and brought back the old DP (at least I'm assuming this revival has a different DP) to match the look of the old show at the very least. The pacing issues are more due to the script and the editing. The original series was often much slower paced.

 

I just couldn't believe all the low budget chase scenes in EP 2 throughout the bulding staircases and hallways. Not even good television in 2018.

 

I like it in a way......

But I feel like they are doing it, just cause they can, not cause they want to make some "Primo" X-files episodes.
But looking back, the original series has a lot of great shows, but also some really iffy stuff at times.
Are we unable to view this for what it is? (maybe?)

 

It was a product of its times, when every show besides mini-series was expected to fill an entire September through May TV season of ~25 episodes. That's bound to result in some filler.

 

With Season 7, all involved on the show thought it was the final season; they were burned out and it largely showed (although there are still some terrific episodes throughout), plus ratings had substantially dropped and it was presumed this was the last go-around... but FOX realized it had nothing to replace the show with, so convinced Chris Carter to sign up for an eighth season, and got David Duchovny to appear in half of the next season's episodes in return for settling his lawsuit against them over residuals, whereas Gillian Anderson already had an eighth season on her contract as she had to sign on for one extra year compared to Duchovny in order to get the same pay as him!!!

I've said it here before, but Season 8 is a real return to form and the natural end of the series as a whole; having a whole new character and lead actor in Robert Patrick's John Doggett gave them a creative shot in the arm... that season is up there with Seasons 1-5 in my opinion and a good way to end the show gracefully (and it does for me)... but again, Carter simply can't let go.

 

"For what it is?" Money Grab? The term I hate the most. But maybe true in this case ?

 

I've warmed to the 8th and even 9th seasons to some degree as well, but I thought it was way too much Doggett way too soon. I didn't even know until I read up on it that apparently Gillian Anderson was really annoyed they put so much focus on Robert Patrick on that season. One theory was they were going for a young male demographic due to his previous role in "Terminator 2", which I find bizarre considering the role was almost *a decade* old at that point.

 

The fact that most episodes of even the long 90s seasons were decent, it's even more stunning they couldn't string together *six* solid episodes in 2016.

 

Tonight's episode of Twin Peaks, er, The X-Files, concerns a series of deaths where the "victims were plagued by their doppelgangers". I swear if I hear the word "tulpa" I'm shooting my TV.