Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
TVBuzz is open for new registration.

Join our community!

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
The X-Files; Season 11
Topic Started: Jan 4 2018, 04:06 PM (404 Views)
Dax
Admin
[ *  *  *  * ]
Ten new episodes.
-
1.
My Struggle III
Writer/director Chris Carter

D.

Marginally better than last season’s finale for making some of the final things we saw a seizure hallucination of Scully’s, but only a wee little bit. Played like bad parody, and also a long car commercial.

Every story beat was totally ridiculous.

New status quo is ‘everybody wants William’, but he’s still hidden away somewhere. Jeffrey told Scully the adoptive family’s name is VanDeKamp. Okay. CSM (awful narration gives us a new ‘real’ name to go with those CGB Spender initials we got awhile ago, it’s ‘Carl Gerhard Bush’ now..) tells Monica he’s William’s real father. Gross. William is superhuman thanks to some alien dna, and the answer to... um. I don’t know, I guess a cure to the virus CSM wants to unleash to wipe the world back to nothing (except those immune to the virus).

I hate the mythology.

Hope there are some good stand-alones coming.

Gillian Anderson says she is DONE... and now Carter says there’s no more without her, but he DOES want more, so... this might be it, for good. We’ll see.

http://collider.com/the-x-files-season-11-chris-carter-interview/#gillian-anderson

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
bilki
Elite Members
[ *  *  *  * ]
I thought it was pretty bad, too, but I was mentally prepared going into it. Every review I'd read panned it. All of those ridiculous conversations and the laughable attempt at creating an air of mystery. The kindest review I read said that perhaps this is how Carter wants the show to look now.

CSM being the father of William was just the cherry on top of how bad things can be.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
bilki
Elite Members
[ *  *  *  * ]
Are viewers still invested in scenes in which the heroes are shot at repeatedly and never take a bullet? It feels outdated but that's probably just me. I guess it's all about the "bad guy" ass-kicking that follows.

At least this one was kinda fun. Barbara Hershey got to posit a few interesting ideas. But I didn't get why they were so eager to destroy that technology because of a couple weird, static-riddled phone calls. The villains made them do it?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Dax
Admin
[ *  *  *  * ]
2.
This
Writer/director Glen Morgan

B-

Yeah, kinda fun. More than a few strains of credibility, and yeah, I’m not sure Simulation Langly’s ‘we’re all digital slaves’ speech was THAT compelling a reason for Mulder and Scully to be so driven to shut it down, but... whatever.

The Russians/‘executive branch’ friendliness was worth a laugh.

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
bilki
Elite Members
[ *  *  *  * ]
Is this show becoming a parody of itself? That one made me laugh towards the end only because it was so stupid and predictable.

The next one was the one the critics praised after they watched the first five. Hopefully, it will be a fun one but my interest is waning. I don't feel like I need seven more episodes.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Dax
Admin
[ *  *  *  * ]
3.
Plus One
Chris Carter/Kevin Hooks

C+

The story was okay. The dialogue was pretty bad. Kinda fun that Karin Konoval (the twins) was in two of the best-remembered episodes, Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose & Home...

I didn’t really ‘like’ it, but I liked it better than you did...
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Dax
Admin
[ *  *  *  * ]
4.
The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat
Writer/director Darin Morgan

A-

http://uproxx.com/sepinwall/the-x-files-spoilers-the-lost-art-of-forehead-sweat-recap-darin-morgan-interview-review/

Very enjoyable hour. I'm not quite as enthusiastic on it as Sepinwall is, but I did like it a lot. Great performances, good jokes.

My favorite comedy episode is still probably Gilligan's 'Bad Blood', which I haven't seen in a long long time, but expect holds up well.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
bilki
Elite Members
[ *  *  *  * ]
It was a fun episode. I think I went in with residual effects of the stink of the last three episodes, so I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped. But I did love them editing in that character into all of those old scenes as if he'd been there all of the time.\

I'll turn it on but I have a feeling tonight's episode will be more like background noise.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Dax
Admin
[ *  *  *  * ]
5
Ghouli
Writer/director James Wong

C+

I liked the set-up.

I don’t understand the portrayal of William/Jackson... he does this awful, horrible thing making his girlfriends try to kill each other, but then he’s not shown to be ‘evil’...he’s nice enough in explaining himself to one of them, but... ‘I tried to control it, but I couldn’t’... it was an accident? Yet he has much better mastery over his powers when he’s escaping just a short time later... was that all the practice he needed?

It was weird.

Fun to see François Chao from Lost as William’s appear-to-Scully disguise.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Dax
Admin
[ *  *  *  * ]
http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/the-x-files/interviews/a849103/x-files-chris-carter-season-11-gillian-anderson/

Not surprising that Carter would change his mind and say 'oh, you know what? We COULD do the show without Gillian...'

Ratings have been poor. I don't think Fox is going to want more, at least any time soon.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
bilki
Elite Members
[ *  *  *  * ]
The two girls fighting each other and thinking the other was the Ghouli was fun and caught my interest. But by the end of the episode I was rolling my eyes again.

The kid they picked to play William felt like he was acting in almost all of his scenes, which was disappointing considering it would seem the show has access to a more skilled actor. Plus, we've been waiting to meet him for years.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Dax
Admin
[ *  *  *  * ]
Yeah, it would have been lot stronger as a monster-of-the-week. The personal angle killed it.

Agree the kid wasn't great, but... I don't know, he wasn't 'awful'... but... yeah. No, I agree. Came off as inexperienced. Whatever the reputation is of this revival season in the future ('better than the one before, but that was a very low bar'), William was an important role... Miles Robbins... this is his most significant credit to date, looks like. One episode of The Get Down, three of Mozart in the Jungle... he's in the upcoming Halloween reboot...

Title of tonight's is cool - 'Kitten'. Return of Kersh (James Pickens Jr.) from Seasons 6 and 8-9, last seen closing the X-Files in the finale.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Dax
Admin
[ *  *  *  * ]
Haven't seen 7 yet, but heard and read good things. Looking forward to it...

Haven't seen 8 yet, that was on last night.

Two left to air.

6
Kitten
Written by Gabe Rotter, Directed by Carol Banker

C+

This one was okay. Kinda fuzzy-memoried on it now, a few weeks later. Liked that there was a focus on Skinner, but the story wasn't particularly memorable. It is an effective spooky happening, the suddenly-losing-teeth thing...

Pileggi's nephew played young Walter. Cool.

Writer Rotter is a producer, getting his first script credit. He was a writers' assistant on S9.
Director Banker was a script supervisor on the original series, and directed an episode of The Lone Gunmen. Carter probably didn't give her this job until Anderson loudly complained about the lack of women writers and directors...
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
bilki
Elite Members
[ *  *  *  * ]
After Ghouli, I felt like the show was falling off my radar. I've quit reminding myself to sit down and watch, or even record the episodes. I noticed that Sepinwall was praising Episode 7, so I decided to sit through commercials and all and watch it OnDemand. It was amusing at first, and there were few cool moments (Scully's ride in the RoboCar) along the way but it didn't go anywhere that I found exciting or thought-provoking.

I know, I know...it was all about the hand-holding moment at the end. We keep saying that those human moments are what really matters, yet we continue to go deeper and deeper into our reliance on technology. Perhaps we can't have one without the other, and maybe that was the point of the episode but I didn't get that feeling while I was watching. I just thought it up as I typed this.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Dax
Admin
[ *  *  *  * ]
7
Rm9sbG93ZXJz (Followers)
Written by Shannon Hamblin and Kristen Cloke
Directed by Glen Morgan

A-

Cloke is Morgan’s wife, and starred in 4.5; Hamblin was Morgan’s assistant.

I was greatly amused by this one. It’s silly and extreme, but my laughs were genuine. The chefs REALLY wanted that gratuity.



8
Familiar
Written by Benjamin Van Allen
Directed by Holly Dale

Van Allen was an assistant last season and a staff writer this season, this is his first script credit.

B

I liked this one, too. Story won’t stick in the memory long, I’m sure, but some good creepy imagery with Mr. Chuckleteeth and the Bibble-Tiggles.

-

9
Nothing Lasts Forever
Written by Karen Nielsen
Directed by James Wong

B+

Nielsen was the script coordinator for Seasons 10 & 11, this is her first script credit.

I liked this one. Dark, gory story, and some funny bits. Fine character bits for Mulder and Scully and their relationship.

The show is Mulder & Scully investigating weird shit, often with flashlights. This is the show.



I suspect I’ll agree I should do what Sepinwall was tempted to do, and skip the finale... let this one be the last, but...

A Facebook friend posted ‘dear God, the X-Files finale’... yeah. I’m sure.



Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Dax
Admin
[ *  *  *  * ]
10
My Struggle IV
Written and directed by Chris Carter

F

It’s a load of nonsense throughout.

At the end...
Kersh may have fired Mulder and Scully and shut down the X-Files again.
Reyes and Skinner may be injured or dead from a car crash. (Oh... reading a review, I see that Skinner shot Reyes in the head. Okay. Well, it was dark..)
Smoking Man kills William (thinking he is Mulder, because he is wearing Mulder’s face).
Mulder shoots Smoking Man several times and he goes into the water.
Mulder and Scully now understand that William was not really their son. But - surprise - Dana is pregnant now.
Last shot - William is alive.

http://ew.com/tv/2018/03/21/x-files-finale-chris-carter-interview/

http://tvline.com/2018/03/21/the-x-files-finale-recap-scully-pregnant-season-11-episode-10-chris-carter-interview/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/x-files-finale-skinner-dies-mitch-pileggi-interview-1096403






Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Create your own social network with a free forum.
« Previous Topic · Primetime Shows · Next Topic »
Add Reply