Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Mitch Pileggi, Annet Mahendru, Joe McHale, Giacoma Baessato, Hiro Kanagawa, Rance Howard, William B. Davis, Gardiner Millar, Aliza Vellani, Shaker Paleja, Sandy Da Costa, Nneka Croal.
Everybody wants to believe in aliens, it would make sense to the universe to know that on this one particular planet somewhere in the Solar System, right in the middle of the Goldilocks effect, human beings are not the only creatures who are able to make a complete disaster of their home, it would just be so awkward if we were the only sentient beings who actually cared about visiting another race of people’s home and leaving the toilet seat up and having a discussion about whether reality television is the spawn of the inconsequential.
However much someone wants to believe, the truth is out there, again and this time it seems that Mulder might be on the side of the angels when it comes realising that it is all one big con set out by tight lipped government.
The time it seems is right to pick up on old television favourites from the 1990s, the decade in between somehow a void of certain programmes and genres and they certainly didn’t come much bigger at the time that of The X- Files.
The trouble is after so long away, the scripts and production may well be still seething in Chris Carter’s imaginative juices but for David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, time has moved on; not just for their characters, much loved though they are by the programmes adoring fans but for the actors themselves. To come back to the same role after a decade or more away from it is television’s version of going back out on dates with the person you divorced all those years ago; it might work for some but ultimately it will come down to the fact that you haven’t been able to make anything else succeed.
This is odd, especially for Ms. Anderson who has carved out a tremendous career since stepping away from the shoes of Agent Scully, however if the story is right and the conscious is clean then why not celebrate the return of a programme which stated the “Truth is out there.”
The last 15 years have been one of complete bewilderment, the world is arguably a weirder place than when Mulder and Scully filed their last report, welcome back to the X-Files, it will surely fit in fine.
Ian D. Hall