The X Files: Season 10 Review

The X Files: Season 10 Review

Released by 20th Century Fox Home Ent

The latest season of The X Files comes 15 years after the last and represents a tour de force to those involved.

If you were ever touched by David Duchovny’s laconic FBI Agent Mulder and Gillian Anderson’s cooly detached FBI Agent Scully and their yin and yang partnership as they investigated all things unusual in the 90s, the 6 new episodes would practically have made you wet yourself in glee.

The hook with this season was never to dwell on the fine feeling generated by the nostalgia, but to bring a new generation of fans into the fold and to see it on its way to a new lease of life.

And to a degree, it manages that by saddling the delicate balance between using the show’s alien-centric mythology and stand alone eps in this 6 part outing. While the mythology eps remain a little murky and stuffed with their own self importance, (as well as an irritatingly open final ep that lands on a frustrating cliffhanger) the stand alone eps are equally as mixed too.

More effective is Kiwi Rhys Darby’s entering into the pantheon of the quirky X Files eps with Darin Morgan’s Were-monster ep that mixes both pathos and outlandish to good results. Home Again’s bizarre killer is a welcome diversion, but an ep that starts with 2 muslims bombing an art gallery feels oddly at evens with the show’s usual sensitivities.

But if anything, the limited event series benefits tremendously from Duchovny and Anderson’s chemistry and the show’s revitalised take on its own premise, which is both nostalgic and current.

The set comes with good solid extras that include a gag reel and a look back at the reboot, that further fuel the show’s love.

If there’s to be any criticism, it’s that 6 eps are too short in many ways – and that the 2 mythology eps would have been stronger over a longer run.

That said, the fact there’s even any extra episodes 15 years on from the end and 23 years after it first started is a small miracle.

The Truth is Still out there and it’s well worth diving back into.