Add to that the introduction of a NEW set of ambiguous villains (or maybe anti-heroes as they and Mulder seem to be on the same side in their desire to stop the Cigarette Smoking Man) and you’ve got an episode that’s so muddied up that there’s no way the only other episode that’s rumored to be solely devoted to this season’s overarching storyline, the finale, will be able to satisfactorily unravel the mysteries of it. Carter’s directing also leaves something to be desired as he forces the episode to move at such a break-neck pace that none of the reveals or character moments are ever given the chance to really land and impact the audience. It’s gotten to the point where it doesn’t even feel narratively earned it just feels vindictive. It’s as though Chris Carter really hates the character of Scully as he keeps throwing awful thing after awful thing her way. ![]() There are some interesting ideas introduced in the episode: mainly that the aliens straight up decided not to go through with their colonization plan (the plan that was concocted in secret between the aliens and the mysterious Syndicate – the evil, shadow government at the center of the original run of the show) because us humans have essentially destroyed the planet beyond repair. In a way, that’s preferable to Carter actually trying to continue the plotline introduced in those first two My Struggle episodes. What follows is an episode that doesn’t particularly care much about explaining what the hell we’d just witnessed in the previous episode and, instead, pretends that much of season 10 didn’t happen. In the season 11 premiere, Chris Carter’s My Struggle III, we pick up directly where the season 10 finale, My Struggle II, ended, except we immediately find out that entire episode was merely a seizure-induced vision of the future had by Scully. ![]() While he should be praised for creating a series as amazing as The X-Files, it’s clear that he no longer understands what has made the show as popular and successful as it’s been. All three installments of the My Struggle saga have had decent ideas but been plagued by pitiful execution both in the writing and directing of the episodes, and his standalone installments, season 10’s Babylon and Season 11’s Plus One, have featured interesting premises that have been let down by Carter’s complete misunderstanding of what makes his lead characters likable and the shared history that exists between the two of them combined with inconsistent characterization between the episodes that take place directly before and after his standalone installments. The episodes he’s written these past few seasons have easily been the worst and most disappointing of the bunch. What’s immediately clear from watching these first four episodes is that Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files, should probably move into a more advisory role than one of actively writing episodes. (Mild spoilers for the first four episodes of Season 11 follow) Davis), and continue to investigate the titular X-Files, a collection of cases that defy conventional thinking and explanation, while searching for their missing son, William, a boy who may just be the key to averting the apocalypse. ![]() Picking up where 2016’s tenth season left off, Season 11 of The X-Files follow FBI Agents Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) as they work to stop an impending apocalypse, seemingly caused by the Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Equally interesting is how the best episodes of the season so far have been the ones that weren’t written by Chris Carter. From week to week, it goes from a really problematic episode to a really enjoyable one, to a mediocre one, and, finally, to a new classic for the show. In a way, this latest season of The X-Files is a return to form for the show.
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