Because of the lower quality of the last few seasons of the series and the attempts at bringing it to the big screen I was a little hesitant when it was announced there would be six new episodes airing at the beginning of 2016. While the six episodes were not a failure they were not a rousing success either. It was great to see Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny back together again and interesting to see how their characters have changed, but the storylines themselves were not of the high quality the series has brought to us in the past.
The first episode or two try to catch us up quickly as to what has gone on for Mulder (played by David Duchovny) and Scully (played by Gillian Anderson) over the past few years. The Smoking Man (played by William B. Davis) is back in all his evil creepiness along with the murky FBI higher up Walter Skinner (played by Mitch Pileggi). Alien theories/conspiracies, monster based stand-alone episodes, Mulder and Scully repartee – it is all there.
It even seems to take Duchovny and Anderson a few episodes to get their feet beneath them. Meaning they take an episode or two to settle back into the rhythms of their characters. Also the alien mythology seems to have suffered in its time off. Meaning that they don’t seem exactly sure what to do with it. Dump it? Continue on? As such the more accomplished episodes are the monster ones. They are creepy and funny – hallmarks of the better X-Files episodes.
The bottom line is that overall the six episodes are a success. And leave you with a cliffhanger and wanting more.
Special Features:
Commentary on Founder’s Mutation features Chris Carter and James Wong.
Commentary on Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster features David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Kumail Nunjiani and Darin Morgan.
Commentary on My Struggle II features Chris Carter and Gabe Rotter.
Deleted Scenes (1080p; 5:21)
43:45 – The Making of a Struggle (1080p; 53:35) is a multi-part series of five featurettes which detail this reboot.
Season X (1080p; 23:16) features 13 brief featurettes and is both a look back as well as an overview of this year.
Gag Reel (1080p; 9:38)
Monster of the Week: A Recap of the Wildest and Scariest from the Original Series (1080p; 10:54) is hosted by Kumail Nunjiani.
The X-Files: Green Production (1080p; 2:44) documents the efforts to make the show an ecologically aware production.
Short Film – Grace – by Karen Nielsen (1080p; 9:36) is by the series’ script coordinator.
