I thought it was solid–in a lot of ways it was like an old-school X-Files episode.
The scene with the kids with the genetic disorders was quite disturbing and the effects were well done.
I liked the scene with Mulder and Sanjay’s friend at the bar. That misunderstanding in the closet (hah!) was unexpected, and something we wouldn’t have seen on the show 20 years ago.
I also liked the scenes regarding Scully and Mulder’s child. They addressed the issue of where the child is, and their ‘fantasy’ scenes showed both their regret at not raising their son and also their fears about what could have happened if they did.
However, I didn’t feel like there was enough information or even speculation about the psychic boy and his sister Molly and their abilities. And the pregnant girl, Agnes, and what happened to her baby. Obviously they don’t have to wrap everything up with a bow, but it felt like there was too much that remained untold. I guess some of that may tie into the bigger mytharc they are setting up.
And what about the MotW episodes? Are they still real? Eugene Tooms, flukeman, Home, advanced murderous AI (several episodes worth), people who can kill with their shadow, vampires, the jersey devil, prehistoric swams of killer insects, underground carnivorous fungi with vitrual-reality hallucinagenic properties, pyrokenetics, etc etc etc. Still real?
I accept that the new show doesn’t want to go into new MotW episodes, but are they going to acknowledge that they really happened? Or just ignore all of them?
Episode 1: I liked that a Fox show made fun of Fox News
Episode 2: Mulder brought the kids together because he was searching for a sister, too. Didn’t he learn anything from the Eve sisters? (That kid Adam was a shout-out to them, or a foreshadowing.)
Yes, all the old MotW episodes are still ‘real’. The new twist on the alien mytharc doesn’t negate the fact–in the X-Files universe–that Tooms and Flukeman and all that other stuff happened. Those were all unrelated to the mytharc then, and they are unrelated to it now, as far as I can tell.
What do you want them to do to ‘acknowledge that they really happened?’ There’s no need to, really, because there’s no reason to think that they didn’t. The show has done NOTHING to disavow any of those stories.
And the new show IS going into new Monster of the Week episodes. Tonight’s episode was maybe sort of a hybrid, but I would bet that the next two are going to be more standalone MotW stories.
As Mulder said to Scully that everything they knew was a lie, or words to that effect. That means Mulder thinks they were actively being lied to and misled.
And “Everything” covers all episodes. When they were “living” an episode, they didn’t know whether they were chasing a Mytharc or a MotW. And the resolution didn’t always make it clear, as much of the evidence disappeared at the end.
Especially as they Mytharc and MotW were not 100% independent of each other. Doubly so because som MotW epsides involved aliens that weren’t Mytharc aliens (or, NotAliens!, as the case my be…).
So just a passing comment somehow, that fits organically in the episode, that the MotW are not subject to revisionist conspiracy-mongering is all I’d need. I’ll probably just watch the old episodes and forget thsi one exists instead…
The second episode was essentially stand alone and was better. Every one of those kids freaked me out and the girl smiling underwater was creepy as hell.
A lot of reviewers hated the first one, I didn’t hate it. It was interesting to see the differences between how society is now vs. when the show first aired.
About episode one. The characters didn’t talk to each other very realistically. It reminded me of the “Lost”, ‘It’s complicated.’ dodge. Especially the scene on the front porch of either Mulder’s house or Sveta’s house (it wasn’t clear to me where they were) between Mulder and Scully - it was just cringe worthy how poorly these two were communicating - what? - to each other.
Yeah, this. The dialogue, or at least their delivery of it, was distractingly terrible. They both sounded like they were reading from cue cards, and Duchovny had the affect of someone participating under court order.
I also found the camera direction (I think?) to be a distraction… too many quick cuts from one face to another, too many close-ups. I never noticed this in the old episodes. It seemed really amateurish.
I’ll watch the next episode, but wow, what a disappointing start.
The underwater scene was creepy, but I think the mother should have been overjoyed that her daughter was still alive, instead of reacting as if she were a monster.
Come to think of it, I’ll bet a lot of people would think of the “underwater breathing” as a nifty superpower, not a reason to think ill of your child. Plus, she was still a cute little girl, and certainly did not look monstrous. But maybe that’s just me…
