Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.0

The X-Files: The Event Series Blu-ray Movie Review

The truth is overrated.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 15, 2016

If you were to conduct a poll of diehard The X- Files fans, my hunch is the majority (and maybe even the vast majority) of them would admit (potentially under duress) that the series had a somewhat precipitous drop in quality the longer it remained on the air. These same aficionados might also generally agree that the pleasures of the show’s follow up films The X- Files: Fight the Future and The X-Files: I Want to Believe were intermittent at best, and (in best X-Files tradition) raised as many new questions as answered old ones. The putative tenth season of the show, now rebranded as The X-Files: Event Series, may strike some as analagous to getting together with an old friend you haven’t seen in years, only to realize, “Wow, we’ve both changed. A lot.” This latest half dozen episodes can still deliver at least vestiges of the magic that often infused at least the early years of the original series, and it’s undeniably great to see David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson recreating their iconic roles of Mulder and Scully, but for this particular die hard X-Files fan, a lot of this newest iteration just doesn’t land as emphatically as it should (or at least as I would have hoped), and the early going functions largely like one of those info dumps you get when indeed you reconnect with a long ago acquaintance you haven’t been in touch with for a while.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and posit a theory that is perhaps counterintuitive for those who made the original The X-Files appointment television back in the day (and, again, I was definitely one of those people, as I recounted in our original The X-Files: The Collector's Set Blu-ray review). As fascinating as the show’s slowly gestating “mythology” inarguably was, I’d make the point that in many ways it was the “monster of the week” episodes that often generated the most heat, both in terms of the spookiness of any given episode, as well as what is after all the foundation of the series, the relationship between its two focal characters. Perhaps that’s one reason why this latest season tends to get off on a somewhat lethargic foot, for it tends to emphasize the now (nearly?) impossible to follow labyrinth of backstories that the show and subsequent films built over the course of several years.

What pretty much amounts to a “previously. . .on The X-Files” monologue initiates the first “info dump” as the tenth season opens, and it’s only slightly less lengthy and circuitous than John Galt’s infamously unending diatribe in Atlas Shrugged (a book which could have seriously used some genetically altered bees, and, yes, I’m kidding). (The episodes subsequent to the season premiere actually do use the "previously" tactic.) It’s a kind of risky gambit, and a not especially visceral artifice with which to begin the show, and unfortunately it’s only the first such moment that tends to weigh down the season opener. That said, there’s an interesting if illogical mystery at play here, one that involves hints of Roswell and that good old X-Files standard, alien invasions and/or abductions. However, the season opener (written and directed by Chris Carter) has a central conundrum which is at its core perhaps unfathomable. While the episode strains to create ambiguity as to whether all the hoo-hah (a technical term) about aliens has merely been a smokescreen of sorts, this selfsame episode makes it clear that one way or the other, there are aliens. It’s a weird piece of cognitive dissonance that Carter never seems to really want to address, at least not in any meaningful fashion.

As halting as the series relaunch is, there are still wonderful things going on, including a late denouement involving Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis) as well as a new, improved reason for Mulder to think Scully is out of this world. And vis a vis my comments above about “monster of the week” episodes, fans of those particular outings will probably enjoy the central set of episodes which emphasize that approach. “Founder’s Mutation” is a great throwback to some of the better outings of the earlier X-Files, with a kind of cool take on a kind of supernatural tinnitus. Somewhat sillier, and an episode that would have been a perfect Halloween entry had the series aired in the fall, is “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster”, an outing whose title pretty much sums up the proceedings. “Home Again” traffics in the paranormal once again, but is suffused with a bit more melancholy that relates to both the show’s mythology as well as to the history between Scully and Mulder. The last of the central set of episodes is “Babylon”, a rather interesting effort that seems to be plying some unusual contemporary political territory that is not typical X-Files fare.

Perhaps less felicitous was the choice to return to the developments of the season’s first episode in a kind of pretzel-ly loop as the season comes to a close. There’s an almost palpable struggle to get the show to a series of denouements and (predictably) a cliffhanger, with the competing alien theories fighting for breathing space, but the episode seems pretty haphazard and even random, basically throwing a lot of new mythological detritus on the wall to see what sticks. If not as satisfying as this particular fan had hoped, this latest season does have its pleasures, albeit in perhaps less consistent fashion than would have been optimal. Performances are generally excellent, though it does seem like Duchovny and Anderson are a little “out there” themselves in the early going, needing some time to find their characters again after such a long hiatus.

The X-Files: The Event Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The X-Files: Event Series is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is another recent release whose technical data isn't properly listed on the IMDb, and I'm once again loathe to definitively state whether this was shot on film or digitally captured and then tweaked with digital grain to give it a filmic appearance (as I've stated in previous reviews, if anyone can point me to an authoritative source, I'll happily update the review—two online sources I found seem to point toward digital capture, but I don't consider them authoritative). One way or the other, this has the same cinematic look that has often typified The X- Files, with a healthy palette and excellent detail levels. Fine detail is often exceptional in close-ups, offering clear views of things like pill on fabrics, Mulder's unkempt stubble in the early episodes or Scully's occasional flyaway hairs. Some of the more whimsical CGI (notably in the Were-Monster episode) can look fairly soft when compared to the bulk of the presentation. There are no issues with image instability and contrast is generally strong, though a few isolated scenes, notably some of the series' patented "dark and stormy night" sequences suffer from slightly inadequate shadow definition.

The X-Files: The Event Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The X-Files: Event Series' lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track has some impressive bursts of surround activity, as well as some fulsome LFE, but perhaps unexpectedly this miniseries' sonic design tends to be a bit more subtle than some might have hoped for. Dialogue, effects and score are all offered with excellent fidelity and smart prioritization, and when episodes do offer opportunities for over the top moments, the track can achieve considerable impact. There are no problems with distortion, dropouts or similar issues.

The X-Files: The Event Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• Commentary on Founder's Mutation features Chris Carter and James Wong.


• Commentary on Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster features David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Kumail Nunjiani and Darin Morgan.

Disc Two

• Commentary on My Struggle II features Chris Carter and Gabe Rotter.


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 5:21)


• 43:45 - The Making of a Struggle (1080p; 53:35) is a multi-part series of five featurettes which detail this reboot.


• Season X (1080p; 23:16) features 13 brief featurettes and is both a look back as well as an overview of this year.
• Gag Reel (1080p; 9:38)


• Monster of the Week: A Recap of the Wildest and Scariest from the Original Series (1080p; 10:54) is hosted by Kumail Nunjiani.


• The X-Files: Green Production (1080p; 2:44) documents the efforts to make the show an ecologically aware production.


• Short Film - Grace - by Karen Nielsen (1080p; 9:36) is by the series' script coordinator.

The X-Files: The Event Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I had an old high school Health teacher who was attempting to caution a bunch of teenaged boys about their first "intimate" experience by telling us, "The anticipation is often greater than the realization." That same feeling may attend many viewers' experiences with this reboot of the venerable series. I personally reacted much more favorably to the "monster of the week" episodes with this supposed tenth season, while finding the mythology increasingly more of a slog to make it through. While this may not be up to the best moments of the series' early years, it's probably still better than some of the lamentable developments in the last couple of seasons, but that may be damning with faint praise or setting the bar relatively low. For those willing to set the expectation bar fairly low, there are some intermittent pleasures to be found here, and for those folks, The X-Files: Event Series comes Recommended.