X-FILES SEASON 10 review

So we watched the last episode of Season 10 X-Files last night (because why watch the latest episodes when you can watch what came out two years ago!). As a whole, it was great seeing Mulder and Scully back. I think without a doubt the highlight was “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster”.  We really enjoyed the second episode (the psychic twins one) and the creepiness of the Band-Aid Nose Man.

The other three didn’t really hit the spot. For me it wasn’t so much the ideas, it was the execution. There’s something inherently jarring watching bodies running on fire from a terrorist attack only then to devolve into the ridiculousness of Mulder’s ‘shroom trip (spooking people in the hall, line-dancing). It felt completely off.

And on reflection of the premiere’s new conspiracy angle, it isn’t so much the abrupt shift from aliens to men that bothers me, it’s the speed it was given to us. It was like a dump of information all at once, an abrupt shift of gears, or being shoved blind-folded into a cold shower. And how bizarre to have the next four episodes not touch on or mention it again. For six episodes, you’d think it would be the center focus, like an elongated film or mini-series.

Speed seemed to be the key problem to those book-end episodes. The last episode was jammed: with characters, ideas, theories — and the apocalypse(!) Like watching Star Trek Into Darkness, it felt like it was moving at such a clipped pace, we didn’t have any chance to question the specifics.  We’re forced to just trust that the creatives know what they’re saying. The problem is when you do look too close, it really just dramatically falls apart.

There were weird inconsistencies and implausibilities too: Mulder’s set up as paranoid by having his computer camera taped over but has a cell phone tracker available…on a non-password protected computer; Scully is shown a guy with a rash in a hospital and immediately declares an epidemic; Scully stopping a downtown riot with some calm words. And where the hell is Skinner? The man’s in the opening credits and then pulls a Temple of Doom Marcus Brody for most of the episode. Those bookends left me more empty than satisfied.

But thank god for those other three episodes. Really.