Post by FM on Jul 8, 2016 7:04:18 GMT
It's no secret: I've struggled with TXF for a while now. Post-season 6, there's been too much that I have been unable to forgive: the Reyes & Doggett show; Irritable!Scully; treasonous treatment of the Lone Gunmen; and that insult of a second movie. Still, nostalgia drew me to Season 10.
If the opening sequence was the writers' way of recanting, of showing us they were willing to walk the old revered path again, then I was in. Like so many other philes out there, I fan-girled with delight when the episode began with, "My name is Fox Mulder..." and pictures of the best MOTWs (Flukeman, Tooms) and M&S moments (it's been too long; I can't name those episodes anymore) were acknowledged. The old conspiracy theories are summarised for the x-philes' children who are now old enough to watch the show. Reassuringly the original opening credits remain.
M&S, like the philes, have had all this time to grow up and become adults. Scully got what my parents would call a "real job" - but make no mistake, she's still firmly within the bounds of Skeptic!Scully, a medical doctor working in a Catholic hospital. Mulder's irresistable washed-up ennui makes sense because he's lost without her and their work togethe, but the Mulder we love, with his wry sense of humour, is still in there.
It's all going so well - even with the few bumps in the road. Two new characters are introduced and both are too Hollywood!gorgeous. Sveta's abduction marks a little too pre-HD amateurish: poorly made mould of rubbery skin. In minute 13, TXF breaks its own rules of suggestion by obviously showing alien bodies.
We're back on familiar ground all too soon. Scully doesnt get to see the alien replica vehicle, but Mulder does. "Do you miss it at all, The X-Files?" is a question that invites Scully, like the viewer, to acknowledge the deep nostalgia.
There's even a Deep Throat-esque meeting (minute 26), but I must confess I have no recollection of who this bearded man is? Am I meant to remember who he is?
And then the premise of the episode - What if there has never been an alien conspiracy against humanity, but a human conspiracy to use alien tech against humanity so they could "re-set" earth in their own image? This is an incredibly strong idea, something that captures the zeitgeist of our world in this moment in the way that TXF's classic alien conspiracies used to capture the nineties. This is an evolved theory, one that is updated to unify all our current concerns - Henrietta Lacks' stem cell rights violations, climate change, national security, the 'fattening, dulling and sickening' of an increasingly consumerist population, wikileaks. There's a worthy amount to dissect here, with the past two decades having brought an unprecedented level of exposure to what was previously hidden from the public before, resulting in the rising levels of public mistrust which are mobilising new generations against governments and corporations.
The updated conspiracy theory is a fitting reason to bring back TXF, presented in the persuasively eloquent style we've become accustomed to when Chris Carter, whose writing & directing stamp is all over this episode, is functioning at the height of his powers. We leap off the ledge of CC's amalgamated historical facts, into TXF universe of disillusioned, megalomaniacal Illuminati - like the tracheostomied CSM whose closing guest credit is beyond perfect.
Mark Snow's score heightens the nostalgia, and even though there's the tiniest change to the closing track, its never controversial because it originates from FTF.
All in all, "My Struggle I" is a solid X-Files mytharc ep.
FM OEM#115
"Now you've got my number."
- Mulder, "My Struggle I", 10X01
If the opening sequence was the writers' way of recanting, of showing us they were willing to walk the old revered path again, then I was in. Like so many other philes out there, I fan-girled with delight when the episode began with, "My name is Fox Mulder..." and pictures of the best MOTWs (Flukeman, Tooms) and M&S moments (it's been too long; I can't name those episodes anymore) were acknowledged. The old conspiracy theories are summarised for the x-philes' children who are now old enough to watch the show. Reassuringly the original opening credits remain.
M&S, like the philes, have had all this time to grow up and become adults. Scully got what my parents would call a "real job" - but make no mistake, she's still firmly within the bounds of Skeptic!Scully, a medical doctor working in a Catholic hospital. Mulder's irresistable washed-up ennui makes sense because he's lost without her and their work togethe, but the Mulder we love, with his wry sense of humour, is still in there.
It's all going so well - even with the few bumps in the road. Two new characters are introduced and both are too Hollywood!gorgeous. Sveta's abduction marks a little too pre-HD amateurish: poorly made mould of rubbery skin. In minute 13, TXF breaks its own rules of suggestion by obviously showing alien bodies.
We're back on familiar ground all too soon. Scully doesnt get to see the alien replica vehicle, but Mulder does. "Do you miss it at all, The X-Files?" is a question that invites Scully, like the viewer, to acknowledge the deep nostalgia.
There's even a Deep Throat-esque meeting (minute 26), but I must confess I have no recollection of who this bearded man is? Am I meant to remember who he is?
And then the premise of the episode - What if there has never been an alien conspiracy against humanity, but a human conspiracy to use alien tech against humanity so they could "re-set" earth in their own image? This is an incredibly strong idea, something that captures the zeitgeist of our world in this moment in the way that TXF's classic alien conspiracies used to capture the nineties. This is an evolved theory, one that is updated to unify all our current concerns - Henrietta Lacks' stem cell rights violations, climate change, national security, the 'fattening, dulling and sickening' of an increasingly consumerist population, wikileaks. There's a worthy amount to dissect here, with the past two decades having brought an unprecedented level of exposure to what was previously hidden from the public before, resulting in the rising levels of public mistrust which are mobilising new generations against governments and corporations.
The updated conspiracy theory is a fitting reason to bring back TXF, presented in the persuasively eloquent style we've become accustomed to when Chris Carter, whose writing & directing stamp is all over this episode, is functioning at the height of his powers. We leap off the ledge of CC's amalgamated historical facts, into TXF universe of disillusioned, megalomaniacal Illuminati - like the tracheostomied CSM whose closing guest credit is beyond perfect.
Mark Snow's score heightens the nostalgia, and even though there's the tiniest change to the closing track, its never controversial because it originates from FTF.
All in all, "My Struggle I" is a solid X-Files mytharc ep.
FM OEM#115
"Now you've got my number."
- Mulder, "My Struggle I", 10X01