…got Mulder? (X-Files Reviews: Within and Without)

As if we didn’t know, the season premiere of “The X-Files” is this Sunday. And, lucky media whore that I am, I’ve already seen the first two episodes. My local Fox affiliate was having a big promotional bit for it — I got to see the show, and The Pageant (a new nightclub/concert venue, that’s only been open for a couple weeks). Both were spiffy. For a news-ish impression of the new season, visit this here news story. For my somewhat less enlightening, but hopefully more-fun, interpretation thereof (replete with minor spoilers), see below.

So, where to begin. Probably at the beginning of the episode – Robert Patrick, as “the new guy,” somehow comes in and gets an instant “in” with the opening credits, after Duchovny and Anderson. Mind you, it looks like Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) is gonna have a pretty big role in this season, or at least the mythology-related episodes, but he’s still not in the opening credits. But new-guy Patrick is. Oh well. The “falling Mulder into the giant eyeball” bit is pretty cool at least.


Oh yes, John Doggett. He starts out acting like a total, by-the-book dick under the less-than-loving thumb of Skinner’s new boss, Deputy Director Kersh. (Yeah, that Kersh. It’s hard not to feel the love.) By the end of the second episode of the season, well, I still haven’t exactly accepted him, but at least I can tolerate Doggett.


The role-reversals are a lot of fun — we get to see Scully as the “believer,” and Doggett doggedly holding to his skeptical beliefs, even when confronted with things that are plainly impossible (characters falling off cliffs, then getting up and running away; the infamous Alien Bounty Hunter, as Scully, confronting the real Scully).


All that, and Gibson Praise too. There’s just fun for everyone. Though it’s too early to tell with any certainty, it seems as though this season should hold up to the X-Files reputation for quality entertainment (and I’ll try to live up to my reputation for unabashed hyperbole).