I wanted to believe, but 🅘the truth is out there: The rebooted “X-Files” just didn💫’t work.
Kudos to Fox for trying. Though I was underwhelmed by four of the first five episodes of “The X-Fi꧅les” redux, I held off on any final judgments until Monday night’s season finale, which turned out to be silly and disappointing. So it’s obvious (at least to me) that what seemed like a fun idea devolved into a megahyped “event series” with only intermittently engaged/engaging stars (David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson) that failed to ignite any of the spark asso♒ciated with the original series, which broke new ground on Fox from 1993 to 2002.
The dubious Fox Mulder (Duchovny) would probably disagree, but you really can’t catch lightning twice, as TV has proven time and again with forgettable reboots. (The list includes “Arrested Development” and “Hero🐻es” — and God knows what🍎 to expect from “Twin Peaks” when/if that fabled revival ever makes it to the finish line.)
From a business standpoint, Fox (the network, not Mulder) has good reason to consider another round of “X-Files” episodes, however long that might take or in whatever form it might appear. “They’re going to ask for more,” series ❀creator Chris Carter . An💞d why not? Ratings for the six-episode reboot were solid (Monday’s finale drew 7.6 million viewers), so the interest is obviously there. Perhaps a long layoff between Reboots I and II will even help whet viewers’ appetites.
Maybe they’ll even consider building an “X-Files” spinoff series around Agents Einstein and Miller (Lauren Ambrose, Robbie Amell), who fit snugly into the new “X-Files” universe, were prominently featured in♌ the final two episodes and 🦹were fun to watch.
Maybe that’s what Carter had in mind all along.
But from an artistic standpoint? “The X-Files” franch♏ise, as we know it, should — to quote that famous Monty Python line — “cease to be.” The original series did spookiness and biting, dark humor like nobody’s business. Not every episode rocked it (what series does?), but the ’90s-era version managed to retain its cachet ဣnearly to the bitter end, when Duchovny left — appearing only intermittently — and was replaced by Robert Patrick as Agent John Doggett.
This “X-Files🔯” series virtually limped along from Episodes 1 through 6, the lone exception being Episode 4, “Home Again,” which ratcheted up the creep factor and was genuinely scary (a painted figure literally comes to life and rips people to shreds). Using the original series’ opening credits was a nice tou🌸ch, and Duchovny had his moments, particularly in the “Babylon” episode, when he took an acid trip (or so he thought) and did some mean (and comical) line dancing.
But this time around, I wasn’t buying Muld💟er’s world-weary cynicism and convictions regarding government coverups, conspiracies, et al. It sounded too scripted, delivered by an actor who seemed to be going through the motions. Duchovny was surprisingly overshadowed by Anderson, who seemed more❀ into her role and was particularly moving in Scully’s scenes with her comatose, dying mother.
Monday night’s season (series?) finale left us with a cliffhanger (a UFO hovers over Mulder and Scully as a pandemic threatens to destroy the world) and many unresolved questions among its jumble♐d mess of a plotline.
I’m not so sure anyo﷽ne will care about the answers.