The X-Files: I Want to Believe

The new X-Files movie seems to have already been left behind by the internet, a one weekend failure that will quickly vanish from theaters. Now, few people were as big fans of the show as I was, but after watching the film, the major question was why did somebody decide that this was a story that needed to be told? I don’t think there was anything inherently wrong with doing a new film, I was eager to see Mulder and Scully together again, but this film was just so aggressively pointless, it leaves you wondering what Chris Carter was thinking.

That’s not to say it was actively bad. If this was an episode of the show, it’d have been okay, one of the series’ weaker episodes, but not one of its worst. But, coming six years after the show went off the air, and playing in a movie theater, you’ve got to be a bit more than just a decent episode.

The biggest flaw of the film was that, once again, Carter exhibited a seemingly perverse desire to not give people what they want to see, to arbitrarily withhold information for no apparent reason, and tell a story that’s such a boilerplate ‘scary story,’ with none of the fun or excitement of the series at its best. The show is about Mulder and Scully working together to solve these cases, that was the constant, a template flexible enough to span elaborate mythology episodes, really scary episodes and funny episodes.

But, this film gives us essentially no moments of Mulder and Scully working together. Instead, he puts the two of them in a weird relationship, the details of which we’re not quite sure of. Presumably, Mulder has been hiding out in this house for the past six years, just hanging out. Scully wants him to get out, yet is angry at him when he goes back to investigating. What does she think he’s going to do? And, why have they just given up the fight and chosen to stay in this house? That’s an issue that comes out of the show’s messy conclusion. The film wisely avoids referencing most of seasons eight and nine, but it’s hard to reconcile the series’ rather urgent ending with the laid back world of this movie.

And, it really bothers me that they put Scully on the sidelines throughout the whole movie, giving her the subplot with the kid rather than letting her get out there and investigate. I thought the show had laid to rest the idea that Scully was a doctor, not an agent. On the show, she was every bit Mulder’s equal, as he says in the film, he needed her to do his work. So, why isn’t it treated that way in the film? I suppose the plot with the kid is meant to tie into her losing her own child, but that’s all so far in the background, a tossed off bit of information, it’s hard to emotionally engage with the character. I’ve seen reviews that said their kid had died, I assumed the part about ‘losing’ him referred to giving him up for adoption in the series.

Either way, if you’re going to go with Mulder and Scully as outsiders from the FBI, why not have them united, and not do this lame messing around with their relationship. I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with putting stress on their relationship, but the way it’s played, it makes Scully into the domesticated character, not wanting her man going out and doing stuff. There are some nice Mulder/Scully scenes, but considering how tossed off the main plot was, it’s their relationship that the movie hinges on, and there’s no sensical or interesting development with them.

As for that plot itself, it didn’t really work for me. It doesn’t come close to ‘Beyond the Sea,’ an episode that plays a lot of the same beats in a much more emotional and effective way. Plus, the whole aesthetic is so relentlessly downbeat. There’s very few jokes in the movie, and I think the show always did have a strong humor component. I’d have rather seen a story that was a bit more fun. And, for me, there was a huge disconnect between the summer weather outside and the winter world of the movie. I think this would have been better released in the fall or winter.

The problem with The X-Files at this point is that nearly all the compelling supporting characters have been killed. Without the Smoking Man, Kryceck and the Lone Gunmen, the movie universe feels kind of empty. Skinner got perhaps the best role of the film, coming in for ten minutes, kicking some ass, then getting out of the way. But, if you’re going to do a movie with only two characters from the series, it’s got to be better. It’s got to be Jose Chung or Home good. Where the first film was a great expansion of everything the series did well that probably made no sense to new viewers, this film was so disconnected from the series itself, it’d probably play better for people who’d never watched the show, then for people who had watched the whole thing and wind up disappointed that it’s so poorly handled.

The X-Files: Season One Reflections

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been rewatching The X-Files, up through “Eve” now. The series was my favorite show when it was on, and the first TV show I really got into. However, the past two seasons really soured me on it, and obscured a lot of the good stuff that had come before. Watching it today, after seeing shows that were much more consistently successful, I think it’s a little easier to accept the show’s flaws and just appreciate it for what it is.

The show’s greatest strength, from start to finish, was the incredible chemistry between Mulder and Scully. Pretty much any episode with the two of them together has at least a couple of moments of interest. “The Jersey Devil” has a main plot that’s frankly embarrassing, but the subplot with Scully going on a date, and Mulder’s implicit jealousy, makes it worth watching. Late in the series, people might have gotten mad about their romantic entanglement, but right from the start, the show is a story of these two people who have only each other and their work. An interesting story to do would have been an alternate timeline where Mulder never met Scully and wound up either arrested or insane. Scully is his anchor, keeping him from drifting off, and Mulder helps pull her out of a narrow minded acceptance of the system into new ideas and concepts.

The series has an overarching central narrative, but that’s not in place in season one. So, the ongoing narrative arc is the strengthening of Mulder and Scully’s relationship. An episode like “Ice” tells a strong standalone story, but the scene that lingers is the moment where Scully checks Mulder for bugs. I skipped over a couple episodes that I remember as being bad, but through the episodes I watched, there is a clear progression in their relationship.

After 9/11, people said that the government conspiracy ethos of The X-Files was no longer relevant, that the government was good then. Obviously, it wasn’t, and watching the show today, trust no one is more apt than ever. I think a lot of people have issues understanding the way that genre and reality interact, particularly with sci-fi. There’s this feeling that a movie like Good Night and Good Luck can say a lot about our world, but a sci-fi show or comic can’t. For me, genre magnifies the conflicts inherent in reality, and gives us a better understanding of the stakes.

Take a look at Jack Kirby’s brilliant Glorious Godfrey story in The Forever People. That’s a powerful condemnation of the fascistic qualities of the religious right, but most people would just view it as goofy seventies comics. In the same way, I think it’s easy to dismiss the delusional military personnel and omnipresent men in black as relics of 90s paranoid culture. But, the emphasis on an ephemeral truth is perfectly analogous with what Bush has done to our world. Aliens might not be involved, but his government has covered up the truth whenever possible. Who knows what they’re doing that we haven’t heard about yet?

But, reality has shown things in a slightly different light than what the series reveals. Here, the truth is seen as something that can save people if they just find out about it. It’s a weapon that can be used against the government conspiracy. However, what reality shows is that people don’t care about the truth, we can hear about Guantanimo Bay, but we’re so powerless to do anything about it, caring about it seems almost counterproductive. Beyond that, we’ve got presidential candidates actually saying that the torture done there should be continued! That is so hard for me to believe, but Bush has shaped an us vs. them reality and created a war that can never be won. It’s a real tragedy, he has warped the truth, the very weapon that here is Mulder’s salvation.

Yes, there’s an element of quaintness when Max Fennig pops up talking about the JFK assassination. Notably, society has completely marginalized 9/11 conspiracy theory. I’m not saying that Bush attacked the towers, but I don’t think it’s so absurd to not be discussed at all, considering the attack allowed him to enact all the policy he wanted to. But, in this case, the origin of 9/11 is less important than what he did in its wake, and that’s just as evil, if not more so, as the act itself.

I always loved the government conspiracy stuff more than anything else on the series, and it’s those episodes that still resonate. The Litchfield Experiment in “Eve” is fascinating, and believable. “Fallen Angel” is another strong episode, a prototype for the larger mythology episodes to come. I really want to get to those classic mytharc two parters, but for now, I’m just enjoying the standalone stories. The show could have been so much more if guided by someone like Joss Whedon or David Simon, but as is, it’s still consistently enjoyable and frequently thought provoking. At its best, the series is as good as anything that ever aired on TV. But, it was rarely at its best, and certainly wasn’t there in these early season one episodes.

The X-Files: 'Pilot' (1x01)

Having finished Babylon 5, I figured it was time to return to The X-Files and give the series a revisit. I've seen bits and pieces over the years, but haven't watched an entire episode since the show ended. The awfulness of the last two seasons has obscured a lot of the series' merits. The show has a lot of issues, but at its best, it was as good as anything ever on TV. I've been thinking about it a lot lately, largely because of The Invisibles reread. I think the series is as representative of the 90s as any other, and even if Duchovny had stayed with the series, I don't think it would have worked in a post 9/11 era. That's because the conspiracies of the 00s aren't anywhere near as fun as the 90s, and even when they're brought to light, no one particularly cares.

So, it's a nice nostalgia trip to hop back fourteen years to the beginning of the series. The first season was never my favorite, I preferred the massive, baroque conspiracy two parters that started in the second year and continued through the sixth. Those episodes were so great, it was always frustrating to go back to the standalone episodes after. I think the series would have been better served as a three year arc, with only the best standalones still in there. Depending on how things go, I might skip through some of the weaker standalones on this rewatch. It's a long series, and I don't know if I want to give 45 minutes of my life to watch 'Space' again.

The first thing we see in the series is the logo, no opening credits yet, then a title that claims the episode, or perhaps the entire series, is based on actual documented events. I think that's playing pretty loose with the facts, but I'm assuming the goal was to show that this was a different kind of sci-fi series, one that played by the rules of a cop show. That's how most of the episodes were structured, a crime happens, they go in and solve it. I'm not interested in procedurals, shows that do the same thing every episode. That's largely because I'm so aware of the manipulative techniques writers use to build character, there's very few people I can care about after only 45 minutes. If the mytharc wasn't part of the show, I wouldn't have been interested in watching it.

I actually didn't start watching the show until 1998. After the movie came out, there was so much press, I was like, I should just check this out. I saw an episode called "Mind's Eye," starring Lily Taylor, and enjoyed it. Then I watched "The End," which hooked me. I didn't know what was going on, but I saw pieces of this massive conspiracy and wanted to know more. The Smoking Man was always my favorite character and he had me hooked right from the start.

This was the first drama I loved. I hunted down every episode and caught up by the start of year seven. I stuck with it through the bad days of the last two seasons, always hoping for a return to quality. It wasn't until I watched Twin Peaks and Buffy that I realized a show could have a really high level of continuity, and a uniform story vision. The X-Files, for all its good traits, always felt like they were making it up as they went along. I would argue that the show actually concluded in a satisfactory fashion, season six was the climax and season seven was a fine denouement. 'Requiem' would have been a perfect season finale, perhaps with a movie as wrap up. But, it just kept going, and that really tarnished the legacy.

But, we're not there yet. The story of the first episode is fairly standard stuff for the show, a mysterious murder, a wide variety of suspects and a conspiracy within a little town. It's not bad, but it's not great. Particularly after seeing the whole series, this isn't anything special.

What is special here is the chemistry between Duchovny and Anderson. If Chris Carter had cast his show like Babylon 5 (i.e. poorly), it would have never been a success. B5 was a success because of JMS, The X-Files succeeded because the two leads are just so much fun to watch. In this episode they're not as strong as they'll become later, but that star quality is there. Duchovny has a more unhinged quality than he does later, seemingly provoking Scully with his sometimes ridiculous lines. Clearly the goal is to portray him as a guy who's a bit off in the head, but that fades a bit as the series progresses. It's odd to hear about Mulder's backstory, which also fades. This episode feels the need to justify why he's working on these odd cases, but coming to the series later on, I just accepted it, and I feel like the audience would here too. After all, we've chosen to watch a show about weird stuff instead of a standard cop show.

Most pilots have some kind of a standalone arc, leading the foundation of the series' premise, but also working as standalone pieces. Studio 60 told a complete three act story in its pilot, a story that was better than what the series would become. Here, we pretty much get that, by the end, Scully is believing that Mulder's ideas may have some validity, and she's ready to support him in his work. We also get some nice development of the bond between them in the two hotel room scenes. The scene where she shows him the bites on her back sets the ground rules for their relationship, they're close enough that she can go there in just her underwear, but there's never a thought that they might cross to a romantic relationship, for now at least.

One of the things I like about the pilot is the way they throw in a bunch of random weird stuff. There's the time loss, the troubled digital readouts, the sort of things we didn't need to see later in the show, but it's nice to get them. The time loss in particular is a cool scene, with Mulder's ecstatic reaction at experiencing something weird. I think they got numb to that as the series went on, but here it's still a thrill to actually encounter something weird.

The series' skeptic/believer dynamic became the foundation for countless future TV partnerships, and it's a strong one. The basic conflict is the same we see in From Hell, between reason and wonder. Scully is looking to fit everything she sees into a pre-existent paradigm, Mulder is totally open to anything, wanting to create a new paradigm. I found myself really identifying with Mulder's excitement at everything that was happening to him. The character is really fun here. I also like how this episode keeps things somewhat ambiguous, there's no clear evidence of alien involvement, so Scully's continued skepticism makes sense. After a while, they stopped bothering to give any credible alternate explanation for what was happening.

The other great thing about this episode is the omnipresent government conspiracy. I always loved the idea that Mulder was battling this vast impersonal force, and right from the start, The Smoking Man is covering everything. His episode closing journey through the vast evidence room is fantastic, and prefigures so much of what's to come in the series. It gets a bit frustrating after a while to constantly have the critical evidence, the 'key to everything,' destroyed, but it's still fresh here.

The show does feel a bit dated. Mulder uses a slide projector, not a powerpoint, and all the computers seem to be running DOS. Plus, Scully is a victim of some early 90s fashion, though not as bad as what she'll be subjected to later in the season. This episode was shot a year after Twin Peaks went off the air, and you can definitely see the influence. Mulder is a lot like Cooper, the eccentric, but ultra-skilled FBI investigator who rolls into a small town and turns it upside down. The series' tackling of dark topics also owes a debt to Twin Peaks.

It was really fun to revisit this first episode, and it made me eager to rewatch some of the show's best times. It's been so long since I've seen it, stuff that once felt tired again feels fresh. I won't be writing up every episode, but I'm sure I'll cover some more of my thoughts on the series as I'm going along.

Top 20 TV Shows

Picking up on another blog trend, here's my top twenty TV shows of all time.

1. Twin Peaks
Best Episode: Finale (2x22)
Best Season: 1

Nothing ever made can match the moody weirdness of the first fifteen episodes of this series. Most shows you remember good characters or an interesting storyline, but with Twin Peaks, it's the atmosphere that lingers with you. After I finished the show, I remember missing the town, like it was a real place, and even now, just hearing the theme song puts me back in that mindset.

2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Best Episode: Restless (4x22)
Best Season: 6

I've never been as hooked on a show as I was on Buffy during the fifth and sixth seasons. This show is the perfect example of something that's simultaneously thought provoking, demanding of analysis and thoroughly entertaining. Once you get hooked, the show will define your life for a while.

3. Six Feet Under
Best Episode: 'I'm Sorry, I'm Lost' (3x13)
Best Season: 3

Six Feet Under has my favorite TV character of all time, conflicted lead Nate, as well as the most consistently sharp writing and cinematography on TV. I think the show hangs together perfectly as one 63 episode long story, with the perfect finale.

4. The Sopranos
Best Episode: 'D-Girl' (2x08)
Best Season: 5

The most consistently frustrating show on TV, watching these characters struggle through their lives is sometimes funny, sometimes painful. More than any other show on TV, this one feels like the writers had perfect control of what they're doing, creating a many layered narrative.

5. Cowboy Bebop
Best Episode: 'The Real Folk Blues' (2x13)
Best Season: 2

The moodiest show I've ever seen, this was like Wong Kar-Wai making a series. No other show has used music as well as this, to create singular moments that define the characters. There's subtle evolution of the arc through a series of seemingly unrelated episodes, it's only when you reach the end that you realize how every single piece of the show was building to the catastrophic finale.

6. The Office (UK)
Best Episode: 'Christmas Special II' (3x02)
Best Season: 2

It's simultaneously the funniest show in TV history, and one of the saddest. That's quite an accomplishment, in only twelve episodes, Gervais and Merchant sketch an entire world, then tear it down. The final moments of the Christmas special are some of the most emotionally rewarding in any work of fiction.

7. Angel
Best Episode: 'A Hole in the World' (5x15)
Best Season: 5

The show had a couple of off seasons, that's the only thing keeping it from being ranked higher, because at its best, season five in particular, this stood with the best of Buffy. And, unlike Buffy, they went out at the absolute top of their game, with a final episode that perfectly captures what made the title character so unique.

This makes the end of the shows I would consider masterpieces. After this, there's some really great shows, but they don't quite match up to the preceding shows, which represent the medium at its absoulte best.

8. The X-Files
Best Episode: 'Jose Chung's From Outer Space' (3x20)
Best Season: 3

At its best, The X-Files is my favorite show of all time. There's moments that have a scope and grandeur that eclipse anything else in TV history, but the show will always be flawed by its total disregard for plot and character continuity, and the fact that there were way too many uneven standalone episodes next to the brilliant mythology stuff. But, the show had enough good stuff to remain one of my favorite shows.

9. Freaks and Geeks
Best Episode: 'Discos and Dragons' (1x18)
Best Season: 1

The most accurate depiction of the highs and lows of high school life in any medium. The subtle character development and consistent growth over the season was great to observe, and each of the episodes works wonderfully on its own. If this had kept going, it would probably be much higher on the list.

10. Gilmore Girls
Best Episode: 'A House is Not a Home' (5x22)
Best Season: 5

Like Buffy and Six Feet Under, this show is notable for the way it tracks characters on the journey of life, covering a vast period of time that you just couldn't do in film. The show has gotten slightly darer as it's gone on, sharpening into a still funny, but more poignant exploration of Lorelai's loneliness in the fifth and sixth seasons. Lauren Graham is one of the best leading ladies in TV history, totally carrying the show.

And 11-20...

11. Arrested Development
12. Battlestar Galactica
13. 24
14. Seinfeld
15. Samurai Champloo
16. Babylon 5
17. Spaced
18. The Prisoner
19. Carnivale
20. Trigun