The two-night, two-episode season premiere — after a 14-year hiatus of The X-Files — finds itself catering to two audiences: fans of the original iteration of the show, and newcomers looking for an opportunity to enter the world for the first time. In fact, each episode of the premiere seems to focus on capturing the attention of one of those two audiences.
“My Struggle” kicks off the new series trying to bring new fans into the fold, reintroducing the characters and major plot points from the original series in smart but not particularly subtle ways.
Dr. Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) are contacted by FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) to meet with a conspiracy theorist named Tad O’Malley (Joel McHale), who believes he has evidence of a government conspiracy connected to extraterrestrial life. Naturally, O’Malley wants to speak with the two people he believes will lead him closer to the truth.
After following up on the clues that O’Malley provides, including an introduction to a young woman named Sveta (Annet Mahendru) who claims to have been abducted several times throughout her life, Mulder comes to believe that his entire career with the FBI has been an elaborate plan to mislead him away from the truth. He is now convinced that a secret, multi-national conspiratorial group has been using alien technology against other humans in an attempt to take over the United States, and eventually the world — and Sveta is the key.
The first episode doesn’t feel much like an episode of The X-Files; it’s more a prequel than a true first chapter of the season’s new story. “My Struggle” is trying to set the story arc in motion, but misses out of the investigative feel that so much of The X-Files was based on.
New viewers learn that Scully believes she’s been abducted by aliens in the past, that Mulder and Scully have had a past relationship, and that they have a child together who was taken away at birth “for his own protection.” But little is solved, it lacks the creepiness factor that came to define the original series, and the episode progresses too quickly to build much drama, despite the dire circumstances Scully and Mulder find themselves in.
The true X-Files feel truly returns in the second part of the premiere, “Founders Mutation.” True to its traditional, episodic convention, the episode starts by introducing the case Mulder and Scully will be working on as a researcher in a genetics lab commits suicide after hearing a mysterious, piercing sound in his head.
Mulder and Scully’s investigation leads them down a path of genetic manipulation of children by the founder of the genetic lab, children with devastating genetic mutations but also strange and sometimes incredible abilities. As the two FBI agents learn more, they are reminded of their own child, taken away at birth, and of the suspicious circumstances surrounding Scully’s pregnancy. Was their son one of these children?
Though connecting loosely with suspicions of a conspiracy that arise in the first episode, “Founders Mutation” will feel more like the X-Files fans of the original series fell in love with as a mostly self-contained episode filled with scenes that leave your spine tingling and make you want to look around the room, just to make sure you’re alone.
The X-Files two-part premiere walks a fine line between appealing to a new crop of viewers while staying true to the aspects of the original show so beloved by its fans, and it manages to appeal to both audiences. New viewers will have to accept that they won’t always understand some of the references that are scattered throughout, and old veterans might have to swallow some rehashing of old storylines, but overall it seems that this reboot is moving along the right track for new and returning fans alike.
The X-Files premieres Sunday, January 24 on Fox.
We want to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Write a comment below or submit an article to Hypable.