The X Files is coming back! (1 Viewer)

[TravisR]

In an interview with XFilesNews, Carter confirmed that "we've lured Darin Morgan and Jim Wong, we're very excited about that and we're working on the rest." Morgan's older brother Glen will apparently be an executive producer on the new run.


Mark Snow will also be returning as the composer. The involvement of Bill Roe and Rob Bowman, as cinematographer and director respectively, will apparently depend on how much overlap there is with the shooting schedule for "Castle".

Thanks for the info and the link. I'm happy to hear about the folks that are/may be returning but the best news is that they're going back to Vancouver.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The New York Times interviewed David Duchovny about the "X Files" reboot, which lead to the following hilarious exchange:

Duchovny: The interesting thing about Mulder is nominally he is law enforcement but he never solved one case in nine years. So he’s the worst F.B.I. agent of all time. As F.B.I. agents, I would say we were not by the book. Especially Mulder.

New York Times: Are you going to solve a case this time?

Duchovny: I don’t know. I hope not. That would really change the show.

 

[DaveF]

I don't how I feel about this. I got into the x-files around season two or three and made it a weekly priority. I quit shortly after Duchovny left the show. The mythology had collapsed under its own weight. Bringing back DD fixes the first problem. But I don't know if they will fix the mythos problem.

And it's been 15 years. I've moved on. Does X Files work 15 years later?

 

[Craig S]

The New York Times interviewed David Duchovny about the "X Files" reboot, which lead to the following hilarious exchange:

Duchovny: The interesting thing about Mulder is nominally he is law enforcement but he never solved one case in nine years. So he’s the worst F.B.I. agent of all time. As F.B.I. agents, I would say we were not by the book. Especially Mulder.

New York Times: Are you going to solve a case this time?

Duchovny: I don’t know. I hope not. That would really change the show.

Duchovny's a riot.

 

[TravisR]

The mythology had collapsed under its own weight... But I don't know if they will fix the mythos problem.

I wouldn't worry about that because they'll have to make these new episodes so accessible that even people who have never seen the show before will be able to watch the new ones. I'd love it if they were that crazy enough to immediately alienate 99% of the audience by requiring a deep knowledge of the series to follow the new ones but I doubt I'll get my wish. So how complex can 6 episodes (not all of which are mythology) get?

And it's been 15 years. I've moved on. Does X Files work 15 years later?

I think the paranoia of The X-Files is even more at home in today's world of everyone obsessively recording each other with cellular phones, traffic cameras & security cameras, even more distrust of the government and all the various forms of hacking & information theft than it was in the show's original time.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I think I might be the opposite of a lot of you guys which I didn't expect. I loved the mythology, but got bored with the monsters of the week.

I remember watching the show when it originally aired with my (then) best friend and when they started with the mythology stuff, we were hooked. But it soon got very frustrating to have it interrupted by these standalone episodes that didn't feel like they added up to anything. It became hard for us to believe that Mulder could come so close time and again to finding his answers, and then go weeks and weeks without even mentioning anything from it. Or how Scully might see something undeniably alien or supernatural in a mythology episode where the only logical response would be belief, and then in next week's standalone, she's a complete skeptic again.

We eventually stopped watching the show, probably not too long after the first movie came out.

Years later, when Fox released the "mythology" DVD sets, I picked those up and rewatched all of those episodes, finally seeing how the mythology and series ended. There were definitely parts of it that were clunky, but on the whole I really enjoyed seeing all of those episodes together. When I think of "The X-Files," that's what I'm thinking of.

I liked the second X-Files movie but not nearly as much as the first. To get them back after so many years off the air was great, but disappointing just to have another monster of the week.

It's an argument I've had with friends for years about what's more important, plot or character. They always say character and think I don't care about characters at all. I don't think that's true, though. I do care about the characters. It's just that, when the characters have uncovered secrets that shake the very foundation of what it means to be human and puts the survival of the entire species in doubt, that ends up (rightfully, I think) demanding more of my attention as a viewer. But to each his own!

I'm happy the show is coming back, but I'm not expecting too much. If it's more like the second movie, it will be a fun but not particularly emotionally involving ride. If it's more like the mythology episodes and first movie, it'll be like reliving the best of part of my childhood. I'm really trying to keep my hopes in check so that I have a chance of enjoying these new episodes for whatever they are, rather than what I'd like them to be.

 

[Sean Bryan]

I thought many of the creepy, standalone episodes were great, but I too preferred the mythology episodes. It's just the form of storytelling I prefer. I've always been more attracted to the "long form" over "short stories".

The biggest drawback of the mythology episodes of The X-Files was that Chris Carter didn't have it all mapped out. I could be wrong, but I don't think he even had a bare-bones outline of where the mythology would go. He just had the basic concept and made it up as they went along.

I'm excited for new X-Files episodes, but six is such a small number. I may be biased because of my preference of the mythology storytelling, but if they are just doing six then I'd hope they are heavily mythology slanted episodes. If it's basically a miniseries, then they should have a cohesive story that runs through the six episodes. If they are just doing six more monster episodes, then what's the point?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I thought many of the creepy, standalone episodes were great, but I too preferred the mythology episodes. It's just the form of storytelling I prefer.

Same here, I think. On my mental list of favorite tv shows, I realize very few of those are primarily standalone.

If the show ever comes out on Blu-ray, I'll get it, and I am looking forward to rediscovering some of those creepy great standalones. (as well as seeing some for the first time) I remember one early on that had a guy who could stretch and climb down chimneys and stuff, and they ID'd him from his stretched out fingerprints...that creeped me out and might have given me a nightmare back in the day. So I shouldn't say all the standalones were wasted on me.

 

[Oliver Ravencrest]

Glad they're going to film in Vancouver again, So Cal didn't provide the same atmosphere that Canada did. I prefer the Monster/stand alone episodes, the mythology/aliens stuff felt convoluted and stretched. If these six episodes turn out good, hopefully they'll lead to more.

 

[davidmatychuk]

Glad they're going to film in Vancouver again, So Cal didn't provide the same atmosphere that Canada did.

Yes, we Vancouverites are aliens. In fact, years ago my girlfriend was one of a bunch of X-Files aliens who were killed and dumped into a pit. She never held it against them though. Welcome back Scully and Moody!

 

[TravisR]

The biggest drawback of the mythology episodes of The X-Files was that Chris Carter didn't have it all mapped out. I could be wrong, but I don't think he even had a bare-bones outline of where the mythology would go. He just had the basic concept and made it up as they went along.

Yeah, they'd just keep adding new pieces to the mythology after others had run their course. The new stuff would work with what came before but it was so far removed from what came before that it never felt cohesive.

Glad they're going to film in Vancouver again, So Cal didn't provide the same atmosphere that Canada did.

I loved the look of Vancouver but they did manage to make lemonade out of lemons when they moved to Los Angeles. The show didn't have the same atmosphere but by taking advantage of what LA had to offer in terms of locations, they still made the best looking show on TV at that time.

 

[Sean Bryan]

I remember one early on that had a guy who could stretch and climb down chimneys and stuff, and they ID'd him from his stretched out fingerprints...that creeped me out and might have given me a nightmare back in the day. So I shouldn't say all the standalones were wasted on me.

Toomes was his name. Yeah, that was a great, creepy episode.

 

[Oliver Ravencrest]

I agree they made a great looking show once in LA but So Cal can be too bright compared to Vancouver, which affected the atmosphere of the show a bit. Same thing with Twin Peaks in season 2 when didn't film scenes in Washington State.

Yes, we Vancouverites are aliens. In fact, years ago my girlfriend was one of a bunch of X-Files aliens who were killed and dumped into a pit. She never held it against them though. Welcome back Scully and Moody!

I thought you guys were more like ghosts. I have a relative who lives in Vancouver and when he comes down to visit, he was so pale compared to the rest of us. He looked like Caspar lol

 

[davidmatychuk]

Back in the 1990's, when The X-Files was filming here in Vancouver, we were walking around downtown on Robson Street (roughly, Vancouver's Rodeo Drive) when we saw David Duchovny and a tiny stick-figure woman walking up the sidewalk in our direction, holding hands. Mr. Duchovny looked like himself, and normal-sized, but you could only tell who his tiny stick-figure ladyfriend was by looking directly at her face. My girlfriend didn't recognize her until we passed by them, and I remarked "Well, I guess he's going out with Winona Ryder", and she said "That was HER?". She hadn't wanted to stare at the poor, tiny creature. Not long after that, my girlfriend was wearing an alien head and hands and laying in a pit full of dead alien bodies having white powder shovelled onto her in an X-Files episode. Coincidence? The truth is out there...

 

[DaveF]

I think I might be the opposite of a lot of you guys which I didn't expect. I loved the mythology, but got bored with the monsters of the week.

i loved and watched for the mythology. But it collapsed under its own weight.

I've yet to see a show survive 8 seasons with strong, mythos-driven writing. In hindsight, it's not really a unique criticism of X-Files. It's modern american TV and the need to crank out 22 episodes a year, year after year after year.

Today, I'd hope for a bbc-like 10-episode run, for a few seasons. If it's going bigger, I hope for Breaking Bad, where it can conclude on the shows on terms.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Mitch Pileggi has signed on for the revival

 

[Bryan^H]

I hope for anything else that they recapture the magic of the first few seasons. The chemistry of Mulder, and Scully. The humor, the frightening aspect that made the show so special to begin with. In short, I WANT TO BELIEVE!

 

[Sam Favate]

I hope for anything else that they recapture the magic of the first few seasons. The chemistry of Mulder, and Scully. The humor, the frightening aspect that made the show so special to begin with. In short, I WANT TO BELIEVE!

Indeed. The first four seasons of the show were, by far, the best. The show started losing some of its edginess in the fifth season, as it became a huge phenomenon. But those first four years were vital television, as good as anything that came before or after.

 

[TravisR]

With the first season, you can see the show finding its way (though being a big fan, I enjoy watching those episodes to see that growth happen) but the second to fourth seasons are amazing. Especially when you look at what else was on TV at that time.


Every season has wonderful episodes but overall, I find the seventh season to be the weakest year of the series followed by the ninth season. That being said, one of the great things about the show is that it always continued to grow and get better on a technical level.


And I have to bang the drum for the vastly underrated Season Eight (when David Duchovny left and Robert Patrick came aboard), I think the lack of Duchovny lit a fire under the writers' asses and they made some really solid scary stories and the mythology episodes were interesting because they revolved around finding Mulder and not around shoehorning more elements into the mythology.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Frank Spotnitz is also returning for the new run as a writer-producer