I’ve been watching The X-Files since 1993. I even watched when Mulder left and was replaced by the Terminator. I wouldn’t call myself a hardcore fan, though. I’ve always enjoyed the show, but I’ve always preferred the monster of the week stories to the overarching conspiracy stories. My favorite episodes are the comedic ones.
Season 11 premiered tonight. I don’t exactly know what to make of it. I mostly enjoyed myself, but all that really takes is watching Mulder and Scully be Mulder and Scully. The whole episode felt like an hour long prelude, but I have no idea what it’s leading to. I’m a little suspicious that some fan theory came too close to getting things right, so Chris Carter decided to double down on the craziness and change everything. I can see where people would hate this episode, but I didn’t mind.
The thing that struck me, though, and the reason I’m writing this, is that the whole episode almost felt like a spoof of The X-Files. While I was watching, I kept thinking about the Simpsons episode where David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson appeared as Mulder and Scully. There’s a scene towards the end where Mulder goes into this speech about how the truth IS out there, and the speech goes on and on, and the visuals suggest several days go by while Mulder is pontificating. It’s a near perfect send up of the X-Files. Tonight’s episode turned that joke into an actual episode of the show. It seemed like the whole hour was taken up with Mulder speechifying, then Scully speechifying, then the Smoking Man, then back to Mulder, Skinner got a short turn, then back to Mulder, then Scully, then some more of the Smoking Man, then more of Mulder. The mysterious members of the Smoking Man’s group even got their turn. The speeches continued during the action sequences, dramatic beats and montages. It was kind of crazy.
Anyway, that was just what I was thinking about while I watched the episode. It didn’t ruin anything, I’ll be right back next Wednesday to watch the next episode. It was just so very weird that I wanted to share and see if anyone else felt the same.
