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X-Files Returns

ssj

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Watched my first full episode. I didn't follow the show back in the '90s.

Was it a comedy back then, too?
 

ThrowgnCpr

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ha, well, this third episode in the new run was really campy. The X-Files usually had a tiny bit of humor, and occasionally some sillier episodes. The writer who penned this last episode was one of the original writers. His episodes in the 90s were funny too, but not quite this silly.

I enjoyed the humor, but much like the previous two episodes, they are slightly missing the mark by going a little overboard with the conspiracy and comedy.
 

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I watched the first episode yesterday. Scully aged better than Mulder :D
They kept the original intro, which was a cool idea. But the pilot should have been as twice as long imho.
There was too much going on in such a short time.

The worst thing - for German fans though - is the new voice of Fox Mulder.
 

bionicbob

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Ok... Babylon.... I dunno....

Was I just tired and not in the right mind set?
Or was this episode a complete mess?

It seemed to be trying way too hard and not succeeding at any level for me.
The only thing I enjoyed were the Mulder and Scully scenes together, their chemistry is still magnetic.
But everything else... meh....
I did not like the X-Twins... particularly Robbie Amell, I just could not buy him at all in the role.
Mulder's shroom trip went from funny, too silly, to just too far.... man, Duchoveny loves to take his shirt off...lol
Was this Carter's attempt at an After School Message special????

Again, I dunno, maybe I am in a grumpy mood, but I just found the whole episode a giant misfire. I applaud the concept, and give kudos to Carter for tackling the subject matter, but I really think this was a real stinker of a episode, and no amount of Lumineers will make it smell less. :p
 

ThrowgnCpr

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Tonight's episode was definitely a mess. The tone of this entire mini series has been off, but I've still enjoyed it to an extent. I didn't enjoy much about this episode. Sigh.
 

Q2

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ThrowgnCpr said:
Tonight's episode was definitely a mess. The tone of this entire mini series has been off, but I've still enjoyed it to an extent. I didn't enjoy much about this episode. Sigh.

Have to agree. Not only was it overacted, it couldn't decide what it wanted to be. Odd that two two episodes Carter wrote are also the weakest so far.
 

Mark Moore

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bionicbob said:
Ok... Babylon.... I dunno....

Was I just tired and not in the right mind set?
Or was this episode a complete mess?

It seemed to be trying way too hard and not succeeding at any level for me.
The only thing I enjoyed were the Mulder and Scully scenes together, their chemistry is still magnetic.
But everything else... meh....
I did not like the X-Twins... particularly Robbie Amell, I just could not buy him at all in the role.
Mulder's shroom trip went from funny, too silly, to just too far.... man, Duchoveny loves to take his shirt off...lol
Was this Carter's attempt at an After School Message special????

Again, I dunno, maybe I am in a grumpy mood, but I just found the whole episode a giant misfire. I applaud the concept, and give kudos to Carter for tackling the subject matter, but I really think this was a real stinker of a episode, and no amount of Lumineers will make it smell less. :p

Sounds like you've got an achy breaky heart. :p
 

theslime

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Q2 said:
Odd that two two episodes Carter wrote are also the weakest so far.
In my opinion, there's nothing weird about this. Carter has barely worked in 15 years, and he's never been a very good director either. That Wong's and the Morgans' episodes would be better was pretty much a given to me after I Want To Believe. Hopefully Gilligan (and possibly Spotnitz) will return if they make a season 11. And they should hire some actual directors while they're at it. (What's Rob Bowman doing nowadays?)
 

bionicbob

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So.......

Six very mixed episodes, none really capturing the tone or magic of the original run.

However, Mulder and Scully's chemistry is still magnetic and was the best part of the run. In particular, anything exploring their personal history and their son William.

In the end, I did not care for the retro-conned mythology or maybe I just do not understand it? So it was never about Alien Colonization, but "a conspiracy of men"...? How boring. I know I am missing something.... lol

I thought there was waaaaaaayyyyyy too much humour.

The monster episodes I did not find that scary. Again, nothing really matched the spookiness of the original run or felt very memorable.

But despite all that, I would still love to see Mulder and Scully return and get another kick at the can. :D
 

Vultural

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I have resisted viewing this.
Your comments are persuasive as far as continuing avoidance.
 

ThrowgnCpr

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bionicbob said:
So.......

Six very mixed episodes, none really capturing the tone or magic of the original run.

However, Mulder and Scully's chemistry is still magnetic and was the best part of the run. In particular, anything exploring their personal history and their son William.

In the end, I did not care for the retro-conned mythology or maybe I just do not understand it? So it was never about Alien Colonization, but "a conspiracy of men"...? How boring. I know I am missing something.... lol

I thought there was waaaaaaayyyyyy too much humour.

The monster episodes I did not find that scary. Again, nothing really matched the spookiness of the original run or felt very memorable.

But despite all that, I would still love to see Mulder and Scully return and get another kick at the can. :D

My assessment is pretty much the same. The series was fairly disappointing, but it was still nice to see Mulder and Scully back in action. The tone of this short run was really weird. They tried to cram too much in too little time, and I agree that there was waaaaaayyyyyy too much humor (most of which was not great). I really liked the Founder's Mutation (the closest in tone to the original run) and the Were-Monster episode (which was really silly, but actually pretty funny).

I was planning movie edit of the two bookend episodes, with various footage from other eps, but the finale put me in a bind. I guess I need to wait to get some official news...
 

bionicbob

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ThrowgnCpr said:
I was planning movie edit of the two bookend episodes, with various footage from other eps, but the finale put me in a bind. I guess I need to wait to get some official news...

Would you colour correct Scully's hair? :lol::lol::lol:
 

ThrowgnCpr

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bionicbob said:
Would you colour correct Scully's hair? :lol::lol::lol:

hahaha. They were making a big deal about her hair color, but it was still kind-of red. It wouldn't be on my to-do list ;)
 

bionicbob

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Yeah, the wig she was wearing seemed to be different shade of red in each episode...lol

Someone over on the TrekBBS raised the hilarious point about why was Mulder's (the most paranoid man on the planet) laptop not password protected and why would he have a tracker on his phone????? LOL!

I thought I would like the return of Cancer Man, but it just felt tired. Plus, it didn't make sense to me that he would be the ultimate mastermind since he always seemed to be more a soldier of the Syndicate rather than one of its leaders.

Though I must admit, I did like the concept of making Reyes the new Deepthroat. Though I kept expecting her big secret being that Cancer Man had William and she has been raising him for the past 15 years.... that might be good twist?
 

Gaith

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Vultural said:
I have resisted viewing this.
Your comments are persuasive as far as continuing avoidance.
Yeah, as someone who vaguely respects but has never really seen much of the show's good years, I can't say as I'm interested in bingeing this mini-season anytime soon. Sounds like a completists'-only affair.
 

Vultural

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Gaith said:
Yeah, as someone who vaguely respects but has never really seen much of the show's good years, I can't say as I'm interested in bingeing this mini-season anytime soon. Sounds like a completists'-only affair.

The "good years" would be S02 and S03.
S04 still boasted mostly excellent episodes, but the audience had exploded and long time fans knew there were tensions.
For numerous reasons, commented on in dozens of joints, the tailspin started in S05.

I might pick n choose a couple episodes from this mini-series later, but I'm unsure.
Feels like dating your girlfriend from 20 years ago, who does not look the same, has an ex, two kids, and cracks jokes about how she needs to meet someone with money.
 

bionicbob

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They're back!!!

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRdrt8nPyy8[/video]


Is it weird that my focus was on what shade of red Scully's hair would be this time?  :rolleyes::p lol

Seriously though, again it is 10 episodes.  Of which, 8 are suppose to be stand alone with the other 2 being Mythology eps.
Though 2 Mythology episodes seem very short to deal with the apocalyptic consequences of the last season's finale?
Not sure if I am excited or not for this new season, as the last one was so mixed with the Carter helmed episodes being the weakest and most frustrating.   Then again, its really the chemistry of Mulder and Scully that keeps bringing me back.
 

bionicbob

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Watched the Season 11 premiere....

WARNING... VERY MINOR SPOILERS....

Holy crap!  At first, a bit frustrated/confused with the resolution to the season 10 finale... I have grown tired of the tv reset trope... but afterwards I rewatched the S10 finale, and yes, it seems it was set up that way all along.   Well, at least Bobby Ewing didn't show up in Scully's shower lol.

But still confused.  So it is ALIENS?   After last season saying it was all Government?  Or both????

And Colonization, the entire mythos of the seasons 1-9, they even gave an exact date for it in the finale, was cancelled due to pollution and lack of natural resources?  Lame.

Way too much and way too long typical social commentary monologues by Carter.

I did not like the Mulder voice overs.  They were absolutely painful to listen to, like really, really bad b-movie detective noir.  In fact, Mulder sounded and looked extra lifeless and expressionless than normal.  Did Duchovny get MORE nip/tuck work done?  He just looked "odd" to me.

And just when you think Cancer Man could not be more evil, he out does himself.  The big twist/reveal was a shocker for me.  And again, I quickly rewatched the season 7 episode referenced, and yes, all the seeds for this reveal were there.  Still, no matter how you dress it up with science jargon, it is still rape.   Did the show really need to go there????   

Skinner definitely brought his "A" to the show.  He seemed to be the only one with any real energy or drive.

So a middling experience for me.  Anderson has stated this is her last season as Scully, so they better bring some resolution to this series.
 

ThrowgnCpr

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I agree. 

What I liked:
  • The cinematography is much improved from season 10. A little less daytime TV and more cinema-like
  • Potential to bring some resolution to the series

What I didn't like:
  • The incredibly frenetic editing style. Way too choppy and rushed. I think this is the main reason why Mulder's voice overs were so painful. He had them in the original run, but the editing was executed in more of a slow-burn style.  You had time to sit with Mulder's thoughts, not try to take them in before the scene changed 3 more times
  • The big twist/reveal felt more like a soap opera than a devious twist. Maybe we should march the characters onto Maury and find out who the daddy really is...
  • It feels like they are trying to cram way too much in a short amount of time. Like they're trying to squeeze the content of a full ~24-episode season into the new ~6-episode format.

I wasn't expecting much, given how weak season 10 was (although there were things that I really liked), but I was really hoping for some closure and enough material to be able to work on a film edit. I'm hopeful now that there will be enough in seasons 10 and 11 to make a halfway decent movie that will be a fitting finale to the series. I'm exciting about the idea of working on it.
 

Q2

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ThrowgnCpr said:
It feels like they are trying to cram way too much in a short amount of time. Like they're trying to squeeze the content of a full ~24-episode season into the new ~6-episode format.

It's actually 10 episodes this season.

I didn't feel it was too frenetic and I thought it was a bit refreshing after last seasons dull pace. I think they may have done this for two reasons: set up this season quickly and the remaining episodes will follow a more traditional X-Files pace, and because todays audience is stupid and can't stand for a shot to go on for more than 2 seconds. While I did enjoy this episode I don't want it to become like 24; it would be nice for it to slow down and take its time for the remaining episodes.

I still don't see how they resolved season 10's cliffhanger on the bridge. I went back and re-watched the opening 5 min. or so and all we got was a half second shot of the bridge and the space craft and that was it. There was no resolution as far as I can tell.

That all said, I'm hopeful this season wraps up and doesn't leave us with yet another cliffhanger that goes unresolved. It's time to start wrapping some of this up.
 
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