The craziest thing about “The X-Files” is actually easy to believe: Gillian An💮derson half as much money as David Duchov꧃ny for the new six-episode revival. Never mind that she’s twice as good an actor.
That discrepancy was always there, but it’s grown more obvious over the years as Anderson’s deepened into an actress of torꦑmented substance while Duchovny’s remained a monotone mumbler stuck in a state of adolescent irony.
When the pair had scenes together in Sunday night’s premiere, it was almost painful to watch. Duchovny’s always looked as if he thought he was spewing nonsense — never mind that said nonsense made him famous. The episode was🤡 titled “My Struggle,” which could have applied to Duchovny’s approach to delivering his lines.
And yet it was a thrill to have Anderson’s Scully𝔉 and Duchovny’s Mulder back, as if we were in the most delicious time warp ever.
First episodes are notoriously hard,𒆙 even when they’re a restart after♔ a long hiatus. Yet overall the new “X-Files” batch has been fairly satisfying so far.
“My Struggle” was a so-called mythology episode, meaning it was about aliens and the coverup of their existence. Or rather it was about a new theory agitating Mulder: that a nefarious human conspiracy has been using alien technology since 1947 (referencing Roswell, of course) to abduct people and wreak havoc on the world. Helping to smooth the reentry were appearances by old favorites the Smoking Man (William B. Davis) and FBI Assi꧟stant 🐎Director Skinner (Mitch Pileggi).
The episode was actually half of a “two-night season premiere.” Strangely the other half — which airs Monday evening and is titled “Founder’s Mutation” — doesn’t neatly follow. Rather it belongs to the “monster of the week” genre, a self-contained horror tale in which Scully and Mulder tackle a paranormal case. The one thing linking both is the special “X-Files” sauce: a tone that’s simultaneously cartoonish and dead serious.
Back with the FBI, the pair has to solve a case involving genetic mutations (cue hideously disfigure𒐪d children), creepy gore (pregnant women, beware!) and telekinetic attacks (think “Carrie”). Perhaps even more unsettling are fantasy sequences of Mulder and Scully as parents, linking back to the son they put up for 𒁃adoption 15 years ago.
Despite a patchy script, “Founder’s Mut꧙ation” is the better of the two, because the acting is less unbalanced — monster-of-the-week episodes have always suited Duchovny’s sarcasm-drenched style better than mythology ones. Who knows? He might raise his game to half of Anderson’s paycheck one day.