X-Files Rewatch
I WANT TO BELIEVE...that the last three seasons do not exist.
SPOILER ALERT if you haven't seen all seasons of the X-files.
The X-Files was a seminal show in my youth. My binders in high school were covered in Sharpie aliens and X-Files quotes. Pop culture was imbued with it, with alien invaders and government conspiracy, and the impending apocalypse. On New Years Eve 1999 I attended an 'End of the World' millenium party. All things felt possible.
I started watching the X-files in high school--both current-airing episodes and re-runs. I doggedly (pun intended) watched season 8 through Mulder's absence. My senior year of high school I studied abroad, and my biggest regret was missing season 9 of the X-Files (this was in the pre-Netflix era) and figuring out whatever happened to Scully's baby.
In recent years, Netflix and Hulu have made the X-Files available again. I had never watched season 9, or the tanked movie in 2008. Truth is I was afraid to. I was afraid that, like so many beloved shows, movies and books, that the show wouldn't hold up to my memory of how totally awesome it was.
I am happy to say that Seasons 1-7 not only held up, they were even better than I remembered, featuring clever writing, well-developed characters, and complex plots that weren't spoon-fed to the viewers. Rewatching, I was able to see how many shows that have aired since were pale retreads, the themes reworked and simplified (dumbed-down) for the benefit of the 'internet' generation. Hulu also afforded the benefit of being able to watch all the episodes in order (unlike TBS reruns) so that I could actually understand the overarching plot.
Verdict: The X-Files is still my favorite TV show of all time, at least seasons 1-7. As far as seasons 8-10...I wish they had never been born.
SPOILER ALERT: Plot points in later seasons of the X-files.
One of the main draws of the X-Files, the heart of a show that was (for TV) unapologetically intellectual, was the relationship between Mulder and Scully. Going beyond the will-they-won't-they, (though to be honest that was a very huge draw for me) Mulder and Scully had a deep, wonderfully complex friendship. Season 7 ends with Mulder being abducted. Season 8 begins with Scully's quest to find him. Agent Dogget, head of the task force to find Mulder, is cleverly introduced. So far so good.
Here's where it starts to go off the rails. It becoms clear that Agent Dogget (aka Terminator) is there to replace Mulder. At first Scully mirrors the viewers' disdain for the idea, and though the showrunners do a good job of changing our minds about Dogget, through Scully coming to trust him, Dogget is no Mulder. The plot line of season 8 keeps viewers watching, waiting with bated breath, for the return of Mulder. At least that's why I kept watching, and that's what the rating reflected. When Mulder does return, his screen-time is cut by the plethora of new characters. His reunion with Scully, and the evolution of their relationship--something the viewers (me) were anticipating--was put on back burner in the showrunners' attempts to shove the new main characters down our throats. (It is still incredible to me that they thought that a show that for 7 years revolved around 2 characters would survive those 2 characters being cut. Didn't they learn anything from Saving the Bell: The New Class?) Mulder and Scully's frienship somehow transitions from friends to lovers with a single kiss. We're told that Mulder is the father of Scully's alien-implanted baby without any explanation or proof (Scully, who is a doctor, doesn't perform a paternity test?!?!)
Then it gets worse. In Season 9, Mulder is gone completely. The show goes back to being episodic, with Dogget and his new female partner solving X-Files with occasional help from Scully. The alien plot line is set aside for Xena supersoldiers. The beloved Lone Gunmen are killed, and Scully gives her and Mulder's baby up for adoption?!?!?! Then, Mulder returns for a highly-anticipated final 2-part episode, which turns out to be 2 hours of exposition where each of the characters tell us about past X-Files during testimony at a BS military tribunal where Mulder is on trial for murdering a super-soldier. At the end, Mulder and Scully discover that aliens are going to invade in 2012, and then they ride off into the sunset WITHOUT GETTING THEIR BABY (whom Scully gave up to protect...but if Scully and Mulder were going to be on the run anyway, surely they could have taken their baby). I felt this plot point was a betrayal to Scully's character. Wanting to have children and her sorrow at being made barren was such a big part of her character. The show spent 7 years building Scully up as an unapologetically strong woman. If she wouldn't give up on Mulder, why would she give up on her child?
But wait, she does give up on Mulder. Season 10 begins with Mulder and Scully as an aged 'divorced' couple. Apparently somewhere along the line Scully (who gave up her baby for Mulder's quest) just gets tired of following him around. Mulder, who was always single-minded and tenacious, apparently loses direction and becomes a shut-in.
I'm still on episode 2 of Season 10. I'm writing this review now because I'm not sure if I can stomach watching the rest of season 10. Why oh why didn't I just stop at season 7. Why didn't Chris Carter stop at season 7? Why did Hollywood have to go and 'George-Lucas' up my favorite show?
TV gods, please don't let this happen to Supernatural. Don't let Deadpool 2 be PG-13.
Meanwhile, I will try to keep watching season 10. But in my heart I'm going to imagine that in the X-Files univers, Scully found Mulder after his abduction, they ran away together with their baby, the alien invasion actually came to pass (no more of this, is it really aliens or just our government?) and they're out fighting the good fight as guerilla warriors against our alien overlords.
