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‘The X-Files’ Creator At Pains To Insist It’s Not a Reboot, Viewers Should Pretend There’s Been A 13-Year Commercial Break

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 01:40 PST, Jan 28, 2016

The X-Files has had its premiere, and it was fantastic! But one thing fans everywhere need to understand it that it’s not a reboot. Business Insider reports that show creator Chris Carter is very adamant that the new six-episode series is more to him than a simple reboot.

“There’s this trend to reboot shows now. And that word ‘reboot’ doesn’t sit well with me. It suggests that you have an old computer in the closet and you want to fire it up again. That’s not what I think The X-Files is.”

Instead of being a show brought back with the same story and different characters, Carter sees The X-Files as having taken a commercial break – that happened to last 13 years.

“I think The X-Files is a show that took a big 13-year commercial break. I think that’s what I want people to come away thinking — ‘Wow, this is still a great show. The actors look great, and there’s still lots of stories to tell.’ “

Of course, there still have been some big changes in the show, the biggest of which is the presence of Tad O’Malley (Joel McHale), the conservative web-series host who has totally changed how Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) see their mission with the X-Files.

“It takes a big right turn for the mythology of the show and it puts it into a contemporary context that you couldn’t have gotten to without the 12 to 13 years in between the time we went off the air and now. It’s of its time and obviously you couldn’t have done this in 2003.”

So now that The X-Files has premiered, how did it do? In terms of ratings, Deadline reports that the series came out of the gate running and it did well. The Sunday night airing after the NFL football game drew an 18-49 rating of 6.1 and 16.2 million viewers, and the Monday night rating, while diminished, still held a whopping 18-49 rating of 3.2 and 9.6 million viewers. What an incredible start for a show that has been on a 13-year commercial break. Even Mitch Pileggi (Assistant Director Walter Skinner) tweeted his thanks to fans.

The reviews of the first two episodes of The X-Files have been good overall. Many felt that the premiere episode, “My Struggle,” was disappointing. It was slow and seemed to be missing a spark that the original series contained, but they were setting the stage for what was to come, and it was well set. The second episode, “Founder’s Mutation,” was much more like the original series. Check out the promo for the episode.

And here is a scene from the episode.

There was a murder, there was mystery, and there were creepy doctors in an even creepier hospital setting. As Variety reports, Mulder and Scully get back to their roots.

“A marked improvement on the disappointing premiere, Monday’s second episode of The X-Files is a welcome return to the kind of standalone stories that fans have been waiting for. Why show creator Chris Carter chose to relaunch the series with a muddled mythology tale rather than this fresh one-shot is a mystery that not even Mulder and Scully could solve.”

It’s true that The X-Files mini-series is full of nostalgia, but Joshua Rothman, writing for the New Yorker, says this is welcome in the modern climate of television shows where everyone is “bad**s”.

“I, for one, am glad. I would’ve been disappointed if The X-Files had returned as a slick, modern reboot. Today, pop culture worships bad*sses. Everyone cultivates a fashionable, skin-deep vulnerability; underneath, they’re superheroes with jujitsu skills and heads full of put-downs. The X-Files pre-dates this trend. Often, Mulder and Scully were confused and powerless; in the end, the bad guys got away, slinking back into the woods (or the Pentagon) to lurk forevermore. In that sense, The X-Files was pretty realistic, when you think about it.”

Episode three of The X-Files is sure to be a treat!

[Composite image containing photos by Kevin Winter, Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]

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The X-Files Gillian Anderson David Duchovny
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