the second one kind of falls apart in the end, as far as the episode's plot goes (that's not how computers work and the coda explains it for us), but at least demonstrates a comprehension of what a plot and characterization look like
but it gives us actual action, with the comedic acknowledgment that Mulder is _not made for action_ because he looks like he's gonna vomit and then die
then it has actual Mulder/Scully banter, jokes about Scully that come off as eye-rolly and a little funny without being offensive by modern standards, references good parts of the original (grave of informant character!), gets Skinner in there without him being overwrought. and Mulder has a house! and it's very Mulder-like
there's a brief moment that has forced connective tissue to a seasonal overriding plot that's luckily forgettable
don't watch the first episode unless you just want to kill time or can pay partial attention
― mh, Thursday, 11 January 2018 03:49 (six years ago) link
this is probably better duchovny than he or we should expect, and we don't deserve modern gillian anderson in a tv series with this much baggage
― mh, Thursday, 11 January 2018 03:51 (six years ago) link
That first episode (and yes, I'm still stewing) was like one of those YouTube videos where someone's mom explains Star Wars without having seen Star Wars except instead of someone's mom it's some dumb guy who knows a little about the X-Files (like the main characters' names and that they're in the alien police or whatever) but has fairly open contempt for it and is given a whole bunch of money to film his idea of what an X-Files episode is like, and instead of being charming it's kind of an insulting slog where you're just like, dude we gave you a bunch of money, we hoped you'd at least put some effort into it. Except the twist is that the dumb and contempuously uninterested dude was the actual creator of the show the whole time.
And yes, I've seen bad X-Files episodes before and yes, I watched last season and acknowledge that the Carter episodes were previously probably the worst of the series. This was worse.
― the smartest persin in the room (Old Lunch), Thursday, 11 January 2018 04:05 (six years ago) link
what, you don't love no-stakes poorly-filmed car chases?
I thought second episode Mulder and Scully gunfights were off-character but I think it was filmed really well!
― mh, Thursday, 11 January 2018 04:19 (six years ago) link
I did like the "chaos" - "control" joke though.
― nickn, Thursday, 11 January 2018 05:43 (six years ago) link
It felt like one of the Adult Swim action show parodies.
― the smartest persin in the room (Old Lunch), Thursday, 11 January 2018 12:54 (six years ago) link
Oh boy. I just watched the first episode. It had the feel of a two hour premiere edited sloppily down to one hour. I think I was too distracted by the poor filmaking to follow what Cancer Man’s plan is. He just wants to kill everyone except select people he’s injected with alien serum? There was a certain elegance to the character back when we thought he was a guy who resignedly did evil stuff for the preservation of the human race, but now he’s just a supervillain. And wtf with that retcon about knocking up Scully? So William is half human/half alien but with two human parents? And why was Mulder wearing sunglasses half the time?
― President Keyes, Thursday, 11 January 2018 14:24 (six years ago) link
I'm already working on erasing it, and the prior season finale, from my mind
If you forget the original series finale too, then CSM appearing alive doesn't even need an explanation
― mh, Thursday, 11 January 2018 14:52 (six years ago) link
lmao @ "alien police"
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 11 January 2018 14:53 (six years ago) link
When/if I'm feeling particularly masochistic, I may have to rewatch the premiere and 'live'blog everything that's bad and wrong about it minute-by-minute. It really is a masterclass in how to create garbage entertainment.
― the smartest persin in the room (Old Lunch), Thursday, 11 January 2018 14:56 (six years ago) link
if you do, please let me know if Scully crashed her car two or three times. I'm thinking it was two, but much of the episode was just Scully crashing her car
― mh, Thursday, 11 January 2018 15:00 (six years ago) link
the little Mulder/Skinner schoolyard fight at the end was hilarious
― President Keyes, Thursday, 11 January 2018 15:01 (six years ago) link
I think Carter has been watching Scandal and thinks he needs a heel turn or a shocking reveal every five minutes
― President Keyes, Thursday, 11 January 2018 15:02 (six years ago) link
wrt both of the new episodes, the resurgence of the Skinner distrust is so goddamn 'come the fuck on already'. Every one of you has been compromised by the CSM multiple times over at this point, you know how this shit goes, and Skinner has saved your asses or put his neck on the line approximately 815 times over the course of a quarter decade. Cut him a little slack for the love of Christ.
― the smartest persin in the room (Old Lunch), Thursday, 11 January 2018 15:05 (six years ago) link
If I were him I'd be like, yeah, best of luck in all future endeavors you paranoid mofos, peace in the middle east.
― the smartest persin in the room (Old Lunch), Thursday, 11 January 2018 15:06 (six years ago) link
"I'm going to an X-File on this bran muffin"
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 12 January 2018 22:42 (six years ago) link
"open"
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 12 January 2018 22:44 (six years ago) link
the first episode was painful, so much exposition-dumping and explaining I fell asleep in the middle of episode 2 but Mr Veg didn't mind it.
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 13 January 2018 08:13 (six years ago) link
honestly at this point I care so little about the main story. Carter's just writing bad fan fiction now. all I'm really interested in are the monster-of-the-week episodes
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 13 January 2018 08:16 (six years ago) link
Feel like I'm the only one here who's still watching this. We got a Carter-penned MOTW episode this week. Does anyone know when he contracted his degenerative neurological condition and if there's a foundation where I can send a check? Based on the evidence of these past two seasons, it must be a brutally debilitating illness. God bless Fox for throwing him some work when less charitable folks would have likely judged him unfit to construct a coherent narrative or responsibly handle the IP he created when his brain still worked good.
― the smartest persin in the room (Old Lunch), Monday, 22 January 2018 17:07 (six years ago) link
whew, I was thinking that the doppelganger one was by Wong or one of the Morgans and was disappointed and confused. knowing it was written (thankfully not directed) by Carter is actually a relief
holding out hope that the next two are the best of this run
my lingering question is: Where. Is. Dagoo?!?
― mh, Monday, 22 January 2018 17:14 (six years ago) link
Spoiler: at one point, the camera hones in on a character eating a brand of chocolate pudding named Dookie apparently just for the sake of justifying the inclusion of multiple utterances of 'flinging Dookie'.
That's where we're at, folks.
― the smartest persin in the room (Old Lunch), Monday, 22 January 2018 17:15 (six years ago) link
Karin Konoval could've been pretty great in this episode if they had discouraged her from playing her twin as a complete cartoon character.
― the smartest persin in the room (Old Lunch), Monday, 22 January 2018 17:17 (six years ago) link
my lingering question is: Where. Is. Dagoo?!?same place Queequeg was in non-Darin Morgan episodes
― Haribo Hancock (sic), Monday, 22 January 2018 19:31 (six years ago) link
fair enough
― mh, Monday, 22 January 2018 20:03 (six years ago) link
In the belly of a Loch Ness Monster? Poor Dagoo...
― the smartest persin in the room (Old Lunch), Monday, 22 January 2018 20:15 (six years ago) link
Been watching Series 3, and also Sons Of Anarchy. Not only is AD Skinner white nationalist guy Darby but now Piney has just turned up as er, Roky Crikenson (!) in Jose Chung's "From Outer Space".
― Noel Emits, Tuesday, 23 January 2018 19:34 (six years ago) link
This week's was an improvement but I think I would've been much more receptive to a batshit Darin Morgan episode if the rest of this season's episodes didn't feel so much like IDAGF self-parody.
― Senior Soft-Serve Tech at the Froyo Arroyo (Old Lunch), Saturday, 27 January 2018 05:33 (six years ago) link
"improvement"
The jokes are elderly and embarrassing.
― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 27 January 2018 06:03 (six years ago) link
Well, yeah, it was possibly my least favorite Morgan episode, but they've set the bar so incredibly low this season that any episode that evinced a degree of effort was gonna be an improvement.
― Senior Soft-Serve Tech at the Froyo Arroyo (Old Lunch), Saturday, 27 January 2018 13:38 (six years ago) link
are these any good? I honestly stopped after episode 1. I don't think I'm going to bother until I've consumed every other form of visual entertainment in the universe.
― akm, Saturday, 27 January 2018 18:24 (six years ago) link
I can't really recommend it, no.
One thing I did appreciate about this episode was the commentary on how the entire premise of the show is kinda depressing and unfun now in relation to the active dissolution of consensus reality.
― Senior Soft-Serve Tech at the Froyo Arroyo (Old Lunch), Saturday, 27 January 2018 19:14 (six years ago) link
The jokes were definitely more predictable (maybe just being used to Morgan's style at this point but the They reveal was so obvious) and the Trump stuff was annoying. But everyone was enjoying themselves, I still laughed at a lot of the dumb jokes, and I liked the Eels/Hugh Everett shout-out, I'd say it's worth a watch if you don't mind it not being up to the standard of the classic Morgan episodes.
― JoeStork, Saturday, 27 January 2018 19:37 (six years ago) link
for some reason the classic title sequence with “Reggie Something” added seemed hilarious
― mh, Saturday, 27 January 2018 19:51 (six years ago) link
What if Black Mirror but as a silent(ish) comedy? You know what? It was great and the season highlight by several orders of magnitude.
― Bimlo Horsewagon became Wheelbarrow Horseflesh (aldo), Thursday, 1 March 2018 20:28 (six years ago) link
I kind of wanted a little more dialogue, but overall, not bad for a conceptual episode
Looking forward to meeting you all. Love, blobfish aka William #bts #TheXFiles pic.twitter.com/fq7k6yW8bN— Gillian Anderson (@GillianA) February 28, 2018
― mh, Thursday, 1 March 2018 20:34 (six years ago) link
Funny, 40 minutes in, it's that knock knock "banana" joke that keeps going and going. Show looks great, though.
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Friday, 2 March 2018 00:06 (six years ago) link
I'm glad I stuck around for one more episode.
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 5 March 2018 19:10 (six years ago) link
isn't this over yet
― akm, Monday, 5 March 2018 20:08 (six years ago) link
Finally finished this last night. What a pile of garbage this revive has been. Cool to watch Mulder casually mass murder his way through the final episode. I think he shot more people to death in 60 minutes than he did in every other episode combined. And it was probably the least worst Carter episode of the past two seasons.
So yeah, if you've been on the fence, continue to avoid. Except for the episode aldo mentioned in the last revive. That was pretty good.
― Orbital Ribbonbopper, Inventor of Flying and Popcorn (Old Lunch), Thursday, 5 April 2018 14:35 (five years ago) link
disagree, don't care about the season opener or closer since those have been useless since about season 5, but this season was very satisfying... it felt like the x-files.
― erry red flag (f. hazel), Thursday, 5 April 2018 16:11 (five years ago) link
this mini-season was worse than the last one
― alvin noto (mh), Thursday, 5 April 2018 16:16 (five years ago) link
it was bad enough that my stance is now that the X-Files, a pretty good if sometimes ridiculous show, ended after its seventh season in the year 2000
― alvin noto (mh), Thursday, 5 April 2018 16:18 (five years ago) link
Yeah seasons 8-10 are pretty dire, but even 10 had Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster, and Home Again was pretty fun.
― erry red flag (f. hazel), Thursday, 5 April 2018 16:42 (five years ago) link
The Carter-written episodes have generally been awful (the hangman episode was fun, though still not exactly good), the others have ranged from decent to occasionally brilliant. The main problem is, passable genre exercises just don't really stand out after all this time.
Carter was never the show's best or most consistent writer, but it's depressing how bad he's got. He'll always be a major reason for the show's success, and the diversity of stories it could tell. The funny thing is, I can actually kinda see what he was trying to do with the new mythology - I find the idea of humans exploiting and experimenting with alien biology and tech scarier than some barely comprehensible invasion plot, as the Anasazi/Paper Clip and Nisei/731 arcs demonstrated. It's just that the guy who once wrote Deep Throat and (Millennium episode) Lamentation seems to have forgotten how to write an episode of television altogether.
― Duane Barry, Thursday, 5 April 2018 16:56 (five years ago) link
why did people have to keep yelling about chemtrails
― alvin noto (mh), Thursday, 5 April 2018 17:19 (five years ago) link
Yeah, that was really the grossest part of the whole endeavor. I was never quite sure if the relatively value-free references to the increasingly pernicious conspiracy-mindedness of our culture were just ill-advised (I mean, Joel McHale as Glenn Beck/Alex Jones analogue was basically a hero) or if they were actually a reflection of where Carter's mind has gone in his dotage.
― Orbital Ribbonbopper, Inventor of Flying and Popcorn (Old Lunch), Thursday, 5 April 2018 22:32 (five years ago) link
he might have brain wormsI kind of assume most old dudes have some sort of brain worms, though. That would make for a decent x-file
― alvin noto (mh), Friday, 6 April 2018 00:13 (five years ago) link
Did you see his Amazon pilot from a couple years ago, alledgedly set in the Xfilesverse? Something to do with the apocalypse and the devil in LA. Was major, major yikes.
I haven’t caught up with the reboot at all - just the Darin Morgan episodes and the one Aldo mentions then?
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 6 April 2018 00:18 (five years ago) link
I sort-of-watched all of last season, and this year just the Darin episode, the Lone Gunmen one by Glen, and the Black Mirror-y one. Your impression is basically right, but save The Lost Art Of Forehead Sweat, this year's Darin ep, for last.(Or for a real flavour of how awkward S10 was without getting REALLY terrible:S10e04S10e03S10e05S11e02S11e07S11e04-in that order.)
― just noticed tears shaped like florida. (sic), Friday, 6 April 2018 05:16 (five years ago) link