As the Nerdy Girl Express has noted before, we have been beyond excited for the return of the X-Files. Last night it finally happened, but not before FOX must have been taken over by the government and aliens; which is the only explanation I can come up with to their terrible handling of the show’s premiere.

The big networks have a system. They like to pair up new shows with big time events, especially sporting ones, to ensure big ratings and hopefully new fans of the show. The X-Files was no different even though it is an already successful show. Usually when this happens, you’ll see tons of promos for the show. The announcers have to talk about it. You may even see some of the stars at the game and they may be interviewed. We got a few TV spots (but no more than say the new show Lucifer or even the very non-FOX The People vs OJ Simpson movie), no interviews or actors showing up to the game and the announcers only spoke about it after the game.

Why after the game? Because for some reason FOX thought it would be a great idea to make people wait on a Sunday night to see their new show. They seem to forget most people have to get up early on Mondays and go to work. So not only did we have to wait through the game (which was a blow out so I’m sure many people turned it off before the end), but then we had to wait ANOTHER half hour while they made a huge production of the Panthers getting to go to the Super Bowl. It was ridiculous. The team didn’t win the Super Bowl, just the right to go. They actually showed fans leaving the stadium because even they didn’t give a crap about all of this.

So instead of showing at 8PM, we had to wait until 10:30PM for an hour long show that no one had seen in decades all knowing we didn’t want to watch this craptastic postgame-fest and that we had to get up for work soon. It was no surprise to me then that the ratings were much lower than anticipated, a 5.1 when it easily should have been double that. Now I remember why I usually find my shows on channels that are not run by the big networks.

Moving on from that bit of idiocy, let’s get to the actual show. Be warned, there are many, many spoilers below.

Overall I thought the show did very well and threw us, along with Mulder and Scully right into the thick of things again. The show had to modernize though and it took pains to make sure we knew it was set in the present. We even saw Mulder using Uber. With that time passing we found out that Mulder and Scully are no longer together (but do have a son together-although we do not get to see him) and that the X-Files have been shut down.

Everyone has tried their best to move on and some have done that better than others. Scully as pragmatic as always, is a surgeon in a hospital in DC helping unfortunate children (loved the plug to Native Americans, as the show has always had a special place for them in their mythos. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Navajo’s had a bigger part to play yet). Mulder likes to stay in his old house and be depressed (much like in the 2008 movie). We also got a lovely montage of pictures from Mulders early life and how he’s still trying to find the truth about what happened to his sister. It reintroduced old fans and let new ones know what the core of the show is about.

Scully gets a call from her old boss Skinner and she and Mulder meet up with a man named Tad O’Malley (Joel McHale). He has become famous for having a television show that tells the ‘truth’ of the world but is generally fear mongering. How very modern of you X-Files. Both Scully and Mulder point this out, but Tad remains adamant that it’s a vehicle for him to learn more of the truth, that he is really just like Mulder. Mulder points out that his pursuit of the truth was never so lucrative. Burn.

Tad ends up letting them meet a girl who has been abducted many times. She has scars from where they impregnated her and took her babies. She sounds scared and exactly like all the crack pot conspirators that are convinced they too were abducted. Scully agrees to test her blood for alien DNA though and gets out of there before Mulder can become more passive-aggressive towards her.

Tad and Mulder make another pit stop later to a secret facility where Mulder finds a group of scientists working on a UFO or as they call it ARV. It runs on zero energy, something the government has known about since the 1940’s (Roswell), but have made sure we’re still dependent on fossil fuels because money of course.

The show throws us into not only this story, but an older one too seen through a series of flashbacks of the Roswell incident. We see a doctor being brought in by a secret agent with a case of serious crazy eyes. He sees the wrecked UFO and they find a little gray alien still alive and crawling from the wreckage. Being American government agents, they immediately shoot it to death. The doctor is appalled and we see him take the alien to do an autopsy. The two stories come together towards the end of the episode when we find out the young doctor is the old man Mulder has been speaking with about the truth.

Mulder spends more time with the girl and Tad. I don’t think Mulder especially cares for Tad, but he is showing Mulder many of the things that he has always wanted to know about (conspiracies) and Mulder sincerely wants to help the young woman, because it’s Mulder that’s why. He does seem to fall for all of Tad’s conspiracy theories and they wind them all together into a crazy nightmare that is already happening and we don’t know it yet.

Mostly that it is a footnote that aliens exist (they’ve moved on from that original plot line of the story-good for them) and that now the government has been using the alien technology and DNA against people. That abductees weren’t taken by aliens, but by the government. Why? To be tested on and have their alien hybrid babies? Scully of course calls their BS on it and walks out.

The two try to explain that this is all for a total takeover although that makes no sense to me since the government runs our lives anyways. But conspiracy theories are never supposed to fully make sense. I have seen review after review complain of the convoluted nature of the writing and they haven’t realized that was the point of it. It sounds enough like the truth that maybe it is true. There is some evidence but never enough to actually prove anything. But does that mean it’s false? What is the truth? It’s the entire point of the show!

But Erica you say, how can I ever figure this out? To which I will always answer, find the truth. You have to keep watching as Mulder and Scully find clues that will lead them through a puzzle that may never be fully answered. The X-Files, unlike many of today’s shows does not spoon feed its audience the answers to the plot points. It does not neatly wrap things up, especially its biggest mythos of ‘what is the truth?’ It leaves itself messy and with loose ends on purpose because that’s how life, truth and conspiracies are. Are you seeing the pattern yet?

Our government isn’t an open book and it does do some things that go against our morals, but does that mean it’s villainous? I loved that the X-Files wasn’t afraid to take that route in the middle between the screaming conspiracy theorists and the screaming hardcore patriots. Most shows will not do that, afraid of angering the wrong people in this day and age. But the X-Files have always been a show about discovery, the sinister line that you can never quite see, and thinking. So much thinking. I encourage you to keep watching and thinking. But for those worried, we will have some easier plot points in the next couple episodes that are of the ‘monster of the week’ variety while Mulder and Scully slowly find out more of the bigger plot (and hopefully each other again).

For the end of the episode there were several big things that happened. The first was that the girl retracted her story but we later see her being what looked like abducted again, but instead they blow her and the car up. Soldiers also find the secret hangar of the UFO and blow it and the scientists up. Someone squealed I bet. We find out that the girl had no alien DNA, but Scully admits to Mulder that it’s different and that she isn’t the only one.

Meaning Scully’s DNA matches hers (as we had seen earlier Scully testing herself). Scully says it isn’t right and because of that and their son she wants to find out the truth and stop them too. Finally we find out that the X-Files have been reopened and that this is a problem. For whom? Why the smoking man of course; still smoking even though it’s through a trachea now (gross).

The next episode is tonight! It comes on FOX at 8:00PM and will be its normal time slot from now on. Here’s to hoping for better ratings and FOX not screwing it up again. Here’s the promo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3U0Sw9qxQ0

 

What did you think of the first episode? What are you interested in seeing? Tell us about it below in the comments or start a conversation on twitter where you can find us @thenerdygirlexp and my personal account @quietlikeastorm. We will be live tweeting the episode tonight, so make sure to join us for that!

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