Patrick Freyne casts a jaundiced eye on The X-Files.
Once there was a beloved television programme about intrepid truth-seekers who travelled the byways of America investigating the paranormal. They were driven by the obsessions of a gruff, often incomprehensible iconoclast who was dog-tired of the system’s lies.
But enough about Scooby Doo.
The X-Files is back.
Yes, the programme that made sci-fi mainstream and pioneered epic story-arcs on television has returned for six episodes. Here’s what you need to know: Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) is an obsessive, conspiracy theorising FBI agent whose laid-back mumble spirals into an excited wordy drawl on exposure to mystery. His sister was abducted by aliens and this has made him weird. He is Han Solo mixed with Comic-Book-Guy. The truth is out there, he believes. He’s a truth addict jonesing for a hit of sweet, sweet truth.
His partner, Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), is a calmly-spoken pragmatist. She investigates the same mysteries as Mulder but sceptically, and in heels. A well-placed science-sigh from Scully always undermines the tinfoil-hatted mansplaining of Mulder (I’d love to have been at the meeting where they decided that having him wear an
actual tinfoil hat was too on the nose).
Tweak this formula slightly and you have a programme about a paranoid shut-in and his carer, but the writers usually had us veer closer to Mulder’s perspective than Scully’s. We wanted to believe. Sadly the ambitious alien-centric mythology slowly spiralled out of control.
Creator Chris Carter has admitted that they never really planned ahead. Episodes became cries for help as the panic-stricken writers tried to extricate themselves from their own fictional cul-de-sacs. It became hard to believe real government officials could create a massive conspiracy when a room of writers couldn’t sustain a fictional one.
In the new series, Mulder, still a ranting misfit, and Scully, a pioneering doctor, are reunited by rich talk-show host Tad O’Malley (Joel McHale). It’s nice to see them again. They have a uniquely warm, witty television chemistry. “Kiss her you fool!” I shout at Mulder as they dawdle on the street. ...
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