‘The X-Files’ long-awaited return to television has taken place, but a puzzling direction drags down the reunion party

“You want to believe. You so badly want to believe.”

“I do believe.”

The X-Files was a cultural landmark that hit a fevered status that so few properties achieve. The quirky little supernatural program-that-could which seemed like it was very much banished in FOX’s own basement office ended up lasting nine seasons, two movies, and forever changing the landscape of television. The X-Files wasn’t just appointment television though because of the creepy storytelling that it embraced. It’s engagement with serialization and building a mythos for itself became the blueprint for later programs like LOST and Fringe that prided themselves on such things. Beyond that, the sexual chemistry between Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully was so palpable that the term “shipping” (stemming from the word “relationship”) was created over their prospective romance. There is no denying that The X-Files left its impression on the world.

While X-Files fandom was—and still is—quite severe, the audience’s love for the show certainly cooled off during the programs final seasons, and our last encounter with these characters and this world in 2008’s I Want to Believe left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths (that final post-credits scene still conjures up bile in me—let’s hope Eugene Tooms isn’t around). That being said, I’ve been a staunch supporter of the series right until the end (and I’ll fight you over season eight and nine’s validity to the grave while I wear my What Would John Doggett Do? shirt), and even though pop culture has had such a trigger finger lately for rebooting and sequelizing properties, I was still very much on board with things when this return was announced. The real question then becomes not if Chris Carter and company still have stories to tell (it’s been over a decade and they’re doing six episodes), but rather, ­The X-Files was very much a product of the ‘90s, and if it is capable of transitioning into this post-Snowden world full of cell phones, the deep internet, and corporate hacks. After watching the first episode of the show’s return, I’d say the verdict is still out on how well this series does in our current world.

The series is reintroduced with some rather clunky exposition, which provides much of Mulder’s backstory and an “elevator pitch” of what The X-Files was. Carter was always one for purple prose and heavy, verbose monologues to start off episodes, but this one particularly stands out due to just how long it’s been. Furthermore, none of this information is necessary. If you somehow weren’t aware of these story beats, educated viewers would be able to piece these minor details together on their own. While it might not seem like a big deal, this is the scene that starts off the series! Throwing us right into the action would have been the much more effective way of throwing us back into this world. Not sloppy fire metaphors. Even more disappointing is that Mulder and Scully’s respective returns in the premiere are felt like non-moments. They sort of just appear, with their entrances in I Want to Believe even acting as the more satisfying reunion. I know that a flashy entrance isn’t necessarily needed here, but it’s goddamn Mulder and Scully! They’re icons. Don’t just have Scully mid-sentence in a hospital and Mulder browsing away on his laptop.

Someone who is given a proper introduction here is conspiracy theorist, Tad O’Malley—played by Joel McHale, in a role that’s not that far of a stretch from his The Soup persona. O’Malley enlists Mulder and Scully to get back in the game and address some fascinating information that he’s come across from Sveta, an alleged alien abductee. Mulder and Scully, who have become entirely content with the FBI being a thing of the past and their Kolchak days behind them, are suddenly confronted with evidence that forever changes what they thought they knew about the X-Files. And wouldn’t you know it that Sveta, and what she reveals, ends up being enough to pull these two back into the basement and gripping their flashlights.

While much of this might feel par for the course for The X-Files, the episode inventively runs its main story parallel to one involving the Roswell landing in ’47. It’s an interesting strategy that mostly works in the episode’s favor. It offers up some nice depth to the storytelling here, and seeing how these two stories nearly 70 years apart come together is one of the more satisfying things that “My Struggle” pulls off.

It’s also nice to be in a version of this show now where aliens are straight up being acknowledged and no longer obfuscated in some way. There’s full-out UFO wreckage and beyond going down here and to be past a point where the show is acting all “deny, deny, deny” is a comfortable place for it to find itself. That being said, it’s frustrating to see Mulder and Scully being so critical and brisk to Sveta considering Everything (with a capital ‘E’) they’ve been through and seen together. Mulder’s heart-to-heart with Sveta is actually pretty affecting and a touching scene, however his following admission that she’s “the answer to everything!” has happened more than a few times in the series’ lifespan. For a certain X-File to once again be realized as the key to all X-Files feels a little flimsy for the show’s returning foot forward, but where it all ends up leading is at least reasonably interesting, if not also problematic.

The big revelation that this premiere holds onto as Mulder continues to shout that they’ve “been deceived for years!” is one that rests not on aliens, but rather the corrupt side of the government masquerading as such. At moments this feels kind of ridiculous considering that the show’s mythology not only proved the existence of aliens, but several kinds that were warring against each other. At the same time, the show isn’t retconning these aliens or the Syndicate’s work with them, but rather insinuating the flashier cases of alien abduction—the house calls that Mulder and Scully would so frequently take throughout the show—were in fact the government using alien technology for their own ill-gotten gains. While I think this still appropriately connects with everything the series has told us so far, it’s definitely the boldest move they’ve done to the continuity and the one that feels the most like it doesn’t jive with the rest of the mythos that the show spent time establishing (although it’s nice to hear the term, “Sixth Extinction” uttered once more). As crazy as everything got in the past, it still connected and respected everything that had been built, whether you realized it or not. Regardless of this, the table is now appropriately set, with Mulder and Scully’s target no longer being little green men, but rather the men in black.

This isn’t as interesting a repositioning as the show thinks it is, but it is a big enough fresh trajectory to constitute the show’s return. It gives the series some new material to pull from rather than ever-complicating the already ever-complicated alien mythology, but hearing Mulder and O’Malley endlessly regurgitate dates and moments from history isn’t exactly thrilling either. The bigger game here involving this shadow government trying to take over the world like some cliché super villain, with all of our problems in the past years being a result of their machinations is a lot to swallow. I almost think alien abductions are the more plausible of the two ideas. It’s nice to see the show taking some big swings here, but it’s absolutely going to get people laughing in their direction and acting ever the Scully. Perhaps this initial skepticism and Scullyization of the audience is part of what the series is going for in its premiere, but I doubt it. This in many ways does feel like the first half of a two-part episode though (which it is), and surely the details gleaned from the next entry will help give a better idea of this direction’s merits. It also feels like a premise endlessly designed to jerk us around, continually going back and forth on if this is aliens or not, and while that sort of rug pulling can be fun when it’s done right, it can also be very, very frustrating. Thankfully the monster-of-the-week episodes in between will help this material breathe some before the end.

On the topic of such—and it wasn’t exactly my intention to bring them up here—but the (at one point) canonical X-Files season ten comics (which have now even entered a season eleven) seemed to actually do a better job at jumping back into this world than this premiere did. It seems the two have gone in completely different directions, with the comics’ version of season ten practically doubling down on the show’s mythology (featuring a grown up Gibson Praise leading a new version of the Syndicate). With the comics being supervised by Carter, and even some of the earlier ones being plotted by him, too, I’d be curious if this was the original blueprint that he had in mind for more X-Files. They’ve certainly done a wonderful job at capturing the spirit of the series while also servicing up the show’s mythology in satisfying ways. Again, it’s still too early to be judging the television tenth season of the show, but these comics present an interesting paradigm (that still has the Chris Carter stamp of approval) that provides a very appealing alternative to those that might be dissuaded by what’s going on here.

With this much-anticipated premiere being titled “My Struggle,” it seems only appropriate to try to interpret the significance behind that and whose struggle the title is referring to. Initially it seems like it would be Mulder’s struggle, however he finds conviction pretty early on in this episode and stands by it throughout. Scully is continually in disbelief here, with the title making a lot more sense to relate to her, but the episode hardly seems to be falling within her perspective enough to feel like it’s corresponding to her either.

If anything, it’s most representative of Sveta’s life and the tug-of-war between reality and fiction that’s dominated her existence. As much sense as this makes, it feels slightly off for the title’s namesake to be Sveta considering the episode also is not from her point of view. In the end—and this is the answer that I dread the most, but I fear might be right—is that this might be America’s struggle; the public’s struggle. Every single one of us is the “My” in “My Struggle,” with this new attack on our planet being relevant to us all. These discoveries are our problem, and learning how twisted and corrupt the government can be is the struggle we’re dealing with. Yes, this sort of meaning behind the title is heavy as hell, but so is a lot of this episode.

Ultimately “My Struggle” didn’t hit me nearly as much as I hoped that it would, and like I said, I’m a pretty big X-Files apologist. However the movements made here hit me the flattest out of any of the larger decisions that the program has made. It feels so much like them intentionally trying to mix up the show rather than it happening organically, and that’s never the series’ best suit to wear. Thankfully though, things get appropriately mixed up once more (ie. we get jerked around again) in the episode’s closing moments (which was almost enough for me to bump this review up an extra half-grade). Perhaps the status quo isn’t as obliterated as we thought.

It’s still too early on to tell exactly where all of this is heading, but I’d like to give the show the benefit of the doubt that it will ultimately be a satisfying experience by the end of all of this. The cynical, post-9/11, anti-America voice that the series seems to be currently clinging to isn’t the best fit for the show, and it runs amok with this a little too much for its own good. The episode makes a point of telling us that “We’ve never been in more danger” than in our current climate, and it doesn’t hold back from rubbing our faces in it. Rough patches aside though, it’s just nice to have these characters back, hear that all-too familiar theme music return, and have the start of something big going down once again. As rocky as this start is, I’m still optimistic that these six episodes will amount to something memorable.

After all, I want to believe.