The X-Files

:

Season 10
  • Network: FOX
  • Series Premiere Date: Sep 10, 1993
Season #: 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 271 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 197 out of 271
  2. Mixed: 45 out of 271
  3. Negative: 29 out of 271
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User Reviews

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  1. thirtythr33
    Jan 25, 2016
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Color me seriously disappointed. Rather than building on the air of mystery which made the X-Files so interesting to watch in its early days, the first episode of this short season fills airtime with pseudo-scientific jargon completely irrelevant to its plot and re-hashing past themes and throwing out unnecessary plot twists such as the fact that CGB Spender isn't dead and... oh wait, aliens might not be real. AGAIN. I can see so many ways this episode and story-line could have been tweaked to better it and modern without getting all 9/11-truther on us. Mulder and Scully's characters get some fill-in story for the gap but are not really further developed in any way that makes them more interesting. It's poorly conceived fan-service at worst, a poorly executed set up for a hopefully better season at best.… Expand
  2. nautico
    Feb 1, 2016
    4
    Campy self-parody and low (aka cheap) production values. A big disappointment. I can sense Scully and Mulder chuckling over the ludicrous scripts and the monsters that are just too overt to be interesting. Bad idea to resurrect this show with such a deplorable template.
  3. vreynauld
    Jan 27, 2016
    4
    Another great example of the lack of original ideas these days, along comes X-Files and even more fan-service nostalgia bombing. The first episode was one part catch up, one part infodump, and entirely hokey and predictable. The second episode was a typical monster-of-the-week that would be fine in a full season but is clearly just filler to pad time. Gillian Anderson looks like sheAnother great example of the lack of original ideas these days, along comes X-Files and even more fan-service nostalgia bombing. The first episode was one part catch up, one part infodump, and entirely hokey and predictable. The second episode was a typical monster-of-the-week that would be fine in a full season but is clearly just filler to pad time. Gillian Anderson looks like she doesn't want to be here playing Scully again - she's wooden, boring, pretty much checked out thinking about something else.

    The X-Files should have stayed closed. Anyone who thinks this is good TV is blinded by nostalgia goggles. I can't wait for the day people realize they're being played by an industry bankrupt of ideas so they're limited to rehashing or rebooting old franchises to get eyeballs for their advertisers.    … Expand
  4. Nathonas
    Feb 1, 2016
    4
    If there's one way to sum up the return of one of the greatest sci-fi/mystery shows, it's bad writing. The plot moves way too quickly and a lot of things just don't make any logical sense. The dialogue is pretty bad a lot of the time and sounds out of place. The leaps and connections that certain characters make about the overarching conspiracy plot are silly and ridiculous. The mysteryIf there's one way to sum up the return of one of the greatest sci-fi/mystery shows, it's bad writing. The plot moves way too quickly and a lot of things just don't make any logical sense. The dialogue is pretty bad a lot of the time and sounds out of place. The leaps and connections that certain characters make about the overarching conspiracy plot are silly and ridiculous. The mystery that the show is known for is dispelled with too much information being revealed.

    I think it's worth giving it a chance until the end of the season since it is only 6 episodes long, but if it's the same quality then it's not worth watching.    … Expand
  5. YorkMan
    Feb 10, 2016
    5
    Now we're 4 episodes done on a 6-part mini-series.... It's time for a review.

    When I first heard that there was to be a mini-series follow up to the X-Files show, featuring Mulder and Scully back in business together, I was ecstatic. The X-Files was, for me, a defining piece of televisual entertainment. OK, the monster-of-the-week storylines that made up the bulk of the show tended to    Now we're 4 episodes done on a 6-part mini-series.... It's time for a review.

    When I first heard that there was to be a mini-series follow up to the X-Files show, featuring Mulder and Scully back in business together, I was ecstatic. The X-Files was, for me, a defining piece of televisual entertainment. OK, the monster-of-the-week storylines that made up the bulk of the show tended to vary in quality immensely, but they were just the small parts of narrative and exposition that took us to the really meaty episodes.

    The Alien Mythology Arc, detailing how the US government (and other Governments around the world) have hidden their knowledge of aliens and their actions, and their plans to colonize Earth.
    The abductions, crop circles, reverse-engineered technologies, DNA-splicing experiments, the insidious 'black liquid' and all the machinations of the men in that elite secret cabal who Mulder seeks to expose.

    With that in mind, and that there is only going to be 6 episodes in what may (and I do mean may, as the ratings for the show have in no way guaranteed a second mini-series) be a standalone mini-series, I was hoping for the narrative to concentrate on what everyone really wants to see.
    The opening episode did fulfill that promise, with Mulder and Scully being thrown back into an Alien related tale, with Deputy Director Skinner back behind his desk, and the Cigarette Smoking Man making a brief cameo at the end.... It looked like the X-Files 'ride' was going to be a good one!

    However, episode 2 quickly reverted to a standard whodunit involving a plot that (naturally) can't be rationally explained.... Episode 3 was a broad comedy, featuring a 'hilarious' creature who has morphed into a human and doesn't understand the modern world... Episode 4 feels more 'old school' X-Files, but destroys any credibility the storyline had earnt, by coming up with a nonsensical explanation for what was occurring...

    It's disappointing. If you're going to make a 6 part mini-series, and you have actors who aren't willing to sign up to a full 24+ episode season, then concentrate the narrative(s) on what people actually want to see. It's not like the younger audience of today will be transfixed by what they're seeing, and the fact the audience for episodes 3&4 is roughly half that of episode 1 kind of proves that point.

    I just really, really, really, REALLY hope the sixth episode doesn't end with some Alien Mythology related 'cliffhanger'.... That would piss me off immensely!!!    … Expand
  6. CrimsonFlush
    Jan 27, 2016
    5
    This doesn't quite live up to the expectations of the older show and tries to do too many things too quickly. Could have used more episodes instead of just 6. Can't have everything, Ash vs Evil Dead was a pretty good reboot. Hopefully they'll let them do more episodes next season.
  7. MovieMasterEd
    Mar 22, 2016
    6
    Well, I thought, upon completing the first episode of the rebooted The X-Files, it was inevitable. The desperate gambit to revive any show that can be revived, from Twin Peaks to Full House, was destined to ruin something—if not everything—and The X-Files just happens to be the first beloved TV show to come back to life as a flaming dud. With the eerie shimmy of the credit sequence stillWell, I thought, upon completing the first episode of the rebooted The X-Files, it was inevitable. The desperate gambit to revive any show that can be revived, from Twin Peaks to Full House, was destined to ruin something—if not everything—and The X-Files just happens to be the first beloved TV show to come back to life as a flaming dud. With the eerie shimmy of the credit sequence still sounding in my ears, I wondered if this was not a merciless kind of justice. Reboots are a shameless and cynical attempt to grab ratings and attention. If they succeed, we get more of a thing we already had enough of, which we get excited about because it is the human condition to not grok the concept of “enough.” If they fail, they undermine the integrity of the original and our fond memories of it. (Assuming those fond memories had survived The X-Files’ long, incoherent final years in the first place.) Look, the truth is out there and it is hot garbage. It seemed to me there was something so definitive about this that even perpetual searcher Fox Mulder—jolted out of the deep cryosleep of fictional beings because that other Fox, the network, needed some buzz—could appreciate it.

    Then, feeling diligent, I watched the other two available episodes. The third one was pretty cute and funny. What had I been saying? Yay! The X-Files is back!!

    But about that painful first episode. The X-Files picks up in the present day, some 13 years after the FBI shut down the X-Files, the department investigating paranormal activity run by true believer Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and part-time skeptic Dr. Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson). In voiceover, Mulder swiftly asserts that he is still a broken record stuck on the song “UFO Crackpot.” He’s still asking questions like “Are [UFO sightings] really a hoax?” and “Are we truly alone?” It seems that nothing has changed—except everything has. It all has all gotten unbelievably janky.

    The X-Files, like all great conspiracies, drew much of its power from the way it fractured and reset real events, using bits and pieces of accepted history to bulwark a dark, alternate reality. Like all great conspiracies, its power was not so much in being perfectly explanatory, but in being perfectly paranoid: It had a great, contagious style. The first episode of the new season updates and recasts The X-Files conspiracy as one of class warfare—What if the 0.001 percent had alien technology?—which has a certain timely ideological swag to it.

    Even Mulder and Scully’s much vaunted chemistry, all barely suppressed fizz, has gone inert. “The X-Files is closed. We’ve moved on, for better or worse,” Scully tells Tad. “Yes, we have,” Mulder says, before taking a meaningful pause and looking at Scully with shameless puppy dog eyes while repeating, “for better or worse.” The coyness around their relationship, once so provocative and thrilling, now feels like a contrived put-on. Mulder and Scully are middle-aged soul mates who lived together for years: It is not plausible that they wouldn’t speak to each other more openly. Their entendre-filled conversations seem to be strictly dummied up for the audience. I’d rather see them kiss.

    But as most devoted X-philes would tell you, the mythology episodes of the series were never the best ones anyway. After the catastrophe of the first episode come two self-contained installments, each improving on the one that came before. In the first, Mulder and Scully investigate a creepy tech-genius, known as “the founder,” working with children who have rare genetic conditions and/or exposure to alien DNA. It’s less stilted than the first episode, but still weighed down by extraterrestrial baggage.    … Expand
  8. drlowdon
    Mar 17, 2016
    5
    Being a huge fan of The X-Files I was excited as anybody for the return of Mulder and Scully but, to be honest, none of these six new episodes can compare to the best the show had to offer in its 200+ episode original run. The episodes aren't completely without merit but some awkward dialogue and problems with pacing means that its rarely as entertaining to watch as it was in its primeBeing a huge fan of The X-Files I was excited as anybody for the return of Mulder and Scully but, to be honest, none of these six new episodes can compare to the best the show had to offer in its 200+ episode original run. The episodes aren't completely without merit but some awkward dialogue and problems with pacing means that its rarely as entertaining to watch as it was in its prime and, events that the writers clearly want us to feel are important, have a curios lack of weight or depth. It was nice to see one of my favourite partnerships on screen again but it’s hard to imagine fans of the show bothering to rewatch much of this new series alongside their favourites from the 90's.

    Oh well…. At least Gillian Anderson still looks good.    … Expand
  9. Qgal5kap
    Feb 3, 2016
    4
    The first two episodes were nice enough, but episode three, oh my, that was terrrrrrible! It's much more a poor comedy show, rather than an exciting series, exploring the supernatural. Get your **** together X-Files, you might loose a fan very soon!
  10. leelustig
    Jan 25, 2017
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Had a few fun moments but an overall failure. The X-files miniseries (aka Season 10) can be described in 1 word: slapdash. No consistent storyline, zero defined tone, and frustratingly without a purpose. Nearly every element used in these 6 episodes have already been done in previous episodes; Evil aliens invading, the government lying about it, alien technology/DNA being used against the people, summoning a demon or golem to do your killing, etc. We've seen all of this before. Joel McHale was miscast as a serious role and never for a second seemed genuinely concerned about the situation at hand. Some are praising the finale for its cliff hanger element but the reality is that it left a great amount to be desired for true fans. The prior episode was a tonal mess and a travesty of storytelling. On paper, an episode about ISIS and Mulder taking shrooms sounds interesting, but the result was so embarrassing (and racist against Muslims) I'm amazed it made it to national television. Overall, not very disappointing because Carter is the king of 'Hit or Miss'. Now he has officially 'George Lucased' the X-Files. Resurrected it and then butchered the remains.… Expand
  11. TheShatner
    Jun 2, 2016
    4
    The quirky X Files episodes are the best and I give 12 stars for the werewolf episode! Unfortunately, the rest of this season is forgettable. Chris Carter drove the original series to the ground with his preoccupation with government conspiracy, boring procedural meeting room scenes, meetings on park benches, meetings in parking garages, etc. So, now given a chance to resurrect theThe quirky X Files episodes are the best and I give 12 stars for the werewolf episode! Unfortunately, the rest of this season is forgettable. Chris Carter drove the original series to the ground with his preoccupation with government conspiracy, boring procedural meeting room scenes, meetings on park benches, meetings in parking garages, etc. So, now given a chance to resurrect the series, he stubbornly insists on giving the people what they don't want, more of his weak soap box. MEH.… Expand
  12. gtwist
    Nov 27, 2017
    6
    This season of The X-Files was very mixed. I loved most of the episodes, and the season finally was awesome. However, you also had episodes like Babylon, that was complete trash. That episode was a complete disaster, and was a 0/10 in my opinion. I also really didn't like the new characters. It felt unneeded. I still had a lot of fun with this season, but I do with the had more than 6This season of The X-Files was very mixed. I loved most of the episodes, and the season finally was awesome. However, you also had episodes like Babylon, that was complete trash. That episode was a complete disaster, and was a 0/10 in my opinion. I also really didn't like the new characters. It felt unneeded. I still had a lot of fun with this season, but I do with the had more than 6 episodes, but that won't affect my rating.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

29
#29 Most Discussed TV Season of 2016
57
#57 Most Shared TV Season of 2016

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
60

Mixed or average reviews - based on 35 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 35
  2. Mixed: 17 out of 35
  3. Negative: 1 out of 35
  1. TVLine
    Reviewed by: Kimberly Roots
    Apr 6, 2016
    83
    Love for the franchise and its characters likely will blunt the momentary ridiculousness for longtime fans (it did for this one), while newcomers should hang in for the second and third hours--because that’s when the series finds its bizarre rhythm.
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  2. Colorado Springs Gazette
    Reviewed by: Terry Terrones
    Apr 6, 2016
    91
    The X-Files is at its best when dealing with government conspiracies, and that's exactly what you'll get in the premiere episode.
    Read full review
  3. TV Guide Magazine
    Reviewed by: Matt Roush
    Jan 28, 2016
    50
    After a sluggish start in the opener, which dived too deeply into the murky swamp of alien-human conspiracy.... Things pick up the next night with spooky-icky generic manipulation. Now, at the midpoint: "Mulder & Scully Meets the Were-Monster," by Emmy winner Darin Morgan at his whimsical best. [1-14 Feb 2016, p.19]
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