In anticipation of watching this I re-watched season 10 and documented my thoughts on that so if you like you can read that here. The X-Files - Season 11 is the second offering to the The X-Files reboot and I hope it's a better showing because season 10 wasn't all that impressive or satisfying and I doubt they gained any new fans with it, this could be their last chance to finally wrap this thing up and give it the send-off it deserves, let's see what they do! This is my episode by episode review of The X-Files - Season 11, enjoy!
Episode 1 ''My Struggle III''
So, apparently, the father of Scully's son isn't Mulder as we'd presumed, it's actually the smoking man himself or Carl Gerhard Busch as his name is revealed to be. I didn't need to know his name, but it's Carl, knowing it seems to have served no purpose. My favourite episodes have always been the mythology episodes but this wasn't good, at all! Not only does the episode take place before last season's finale, it doesn't even get past it and as far as I'm aware that whole episode was just a dream or some sort of vision in Scully's head.
They just can't escape the believer/sceptic dynamic at all, Scully's had this vision and tries to tell Mulder but for some reason he's doubtful about it, he's sceptical! I'm not on board with Monica Reyes being a villain now either, what's the motive there, what the fuck happened, where's Doggett and why does she continue to light cigarettes for a man clearly capable of lighting his own cigarettes? What happened to the smoking man smoking out of his neck as well and how did he managed to survive that explosion at the end of season 9?
This was a bad episode all round, the dialogue was terrible, it's nothing but exposition and awkward delivery and nothing is even close to believable with it's poorly executed scenes to the point where it doesn't even feel like this was put through any sort of editing process. The smoking man, or ''Carl'' I should say, is William's father, Monica Reyes is a bad guy, Mulder and Skinner have a cringe worthy interaction, no one's motives matter at this point, we get a glimpse of William at the end and Scully's still yet to see a spaceship! 3/10.
Episode 2 ''This''
Langley from The Lone Gunman turns up in some sort of digital Black Mirror-esque afterlife, just him though neither of the other two make an appearance. This episode sort of continues where episode 1 left off but it seems to also be it's own thing, kind of. Assassins turn up to kill Mulder and Scully out of nowhere and then Russian soldiers turn up after that forcing Mulder and Scully on the run, I don't really know what's going on, there's a conspiracy to destroy mankind and then this episode happens and it ends on a cliff hanger, it's another 3/10.
Episode 3 ''Plus One''
This is one of those episodes where it's hard not to be disgusted by Scully's completely self-righteous attitude in the face of anyone asking her to believe something strange, she was a bitch in this episode! Other than that it was a decent enough episode, it has the same sloppy writing and delivery but with a lot less at stake so it was slightly more tolerable. Scully, after being called old, starts to feel self conscious about being old and apparently would like to have another child, this show's all over the place! It's a pretty forgettable episode, 4/10.
Episode 4 ''The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat''
As the title suggests this episode has a more lighthearted/comedic tone to it and those episodes have always been my least favourite, however, it's the most solid episode of the season so far! Having been introduced to the idea of the Mandela effect prior to watching this episode it was fun to see it acknowledged on The X-Files, although it's not as fun as just watching a 15 minute video about it on YouTube. It's a little too lighthearted for my liking but I still enjoyed it, there's no payoff though, the ending was just terrible! 5/10.
Episode 5 ''Ghouli''
This episode gives us our first real look at a now teenage William, it was decent I suppose, nothing special and nothing particularly gripping but it was okay. Is it just me or does it sound like Gillian Anderson has had a sore throat in the last couple of episodes, her voice sounds strained! I'm not sure how Mulder and Scully even came to the conclusion that this was their kid, but, he is! The smoking man, AKA Carl, has returned to Skinner's office, Skinner's caught between the cracks again and Mulder and Scully were completely off their game, 4/10.
Episode 6 ''Kitten''
I enjoyed this one! I've always liked Skinner as a character and this episodic entry into The X-Files universe centres around his time in Vietnam and a friend he had who went mad after being exposed to some sort of MK Ultra-esque government issued mind control gas. Haley Joel Osment returns from the early 2000's as a grown up to star in this episode as well and he does a good job! This felt like one of the most well rounded and generally well executed episodes so far and although it's far from perfect it was pretty good, 6/10.
Episode 7 ''Rm9sbG93ZXJz''
This was an interesting episode, it had very little dialogue but the silence was deafening! It's about A.I. taking over our lives but they used some really cheap looking robots to represent A.I. They looked like something out of Robot Wars! It was a good episode but it definitely felt a little out of place in regard to the world it takes place in, it felt more like a Black Mirror episode than something in The X-Files universe and I wasn't into the obvious message at the end, look up from your phones, and, of course, always leave a tip, lest you die! 6/10.
Episode 8 ''Familiar''
Mulder and Scully tackle witchcraft in this episode! It was another fairly solid offering, nothing particularly special but it worked, I think the reduced amount of episodes and not so smooth transition between episodic and mythology has been the downfall this season, it went from we must find and protect William at all costs to ah he's probably fine a little too quickly! Scully continues to act smug about everything as well which is just interminable, she watches a women burst into flames in this episode but still, nothing! I'll give this one 5.5/10
Episode 9 ''Nothing Lasts Forever''
The fact that Scully is a devout Christian is extremely irritating, she's so smug about everything else despite having witnessed more than enough to at least be open to things but happens to believe in God! We find out in this episode it's just for some bullshit, I prayed for my brother to live and he did, sort of reason as well, fuck her and fuck her beliefs, we're in this for Mulder! This was an okay episode I suppose, the idea of living forever but having to eat people to do it, it's a little slow and ultimately forgettable but it's okay! 4.5/10.
Episode 10 ''My Struggle IV''
They had a chance to finally wrap this story up but all they've done is squander it! Yet again, for the eleventh time now, The X-Files has ended on a bullshit cliff hanger, I hate cliffhangers! They're cheap, they're easy and they're completely unfulfilling, Chris Carter had a chance to complete this story and all he had to offer was some soap opera-esque reveal about the smoking man, or Carl as we can now call him, being William's ''real'' father. I think Chris Carter just doesn't know how to end storylines, he opens them and then just fucks off!
As of now there's no confirmation of a 12th season but both Chris Carter and David Duchovny are open to it, Gillian Anderson however has confirmed that she isn't, and I don't blame her! She was in the Hannibal T.V. series recently, this has been a big step down for her and it's clear that Chris Carter has nothing left to say, this whole reboot hasn't really done much for the series as a whole, it's just more cliffhangers and storylines that go nowhere, I have no interest in William as a character either, the whole thing just feels amateur!
The Cigarette Smoking Man, or fucking Carl, should have been dead after Season 9, he came back, he's now dead again but I'm sure he'll turn up in Season 12 if it happens, Monica Reyes, a villain now, is supposedly dead, Skinner's dead, probably not though right, and William was dead until they brought him back immediately, fuck you! I don't care about William, I don't care about Scully suddenly being pregnant again and that whole final scene was just badly executed, there's nothing more to see here! They had a chance and squandered it! 2.5/10.
Summary
All in all this was a very disappointing season with some of the worst mythology episodes I've ever seen! It's about in line with season 10, slightly worse mythology-wise given that it's possibly the last season ever! It had a few decent standalone episodes and as always Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny were great together but overall it's been a disappointing reboot all around and it hasn't done much in the way of successfully re-introducing this series to a new generation, imagine starting the series here! You'd think it was terrible! I'm gonna give this a 5.8/10.
What did you think of The X-Files - Season 11?