Animated FBI Agents....

Mulder and Scully are Back!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsBX-8vWgCc

It is here! The new trailer for the new series of The X Files (or Season 10 of the show if you are a long-time fan) has been released by Fox (sending X Philes crazy online). After reading some of the critics’ reviews of leaked footage earlier this year, I can't deny that I was a little worried about how it would look, but my fears have been abated. At least for the moment. Nat is still wildly distracted by Scully's hair, but since Gillian Anderson did not want to dye it yet again, we will have to settle for this strawberry blonde wig and as the episodes are rolled out I am sure we can get used to it.

Mulder and Scully are a lot older than the last time we saw them on screen, but I love the idea of them investigating cases when they are more mature. Personally, it bothers me that so many actors and actresses on TV now are so young. It is nice to see the whole age demographic of society represented on screen. Plus Mulder is shown kicking in a door, so you know that he still has energy for an exciting quest.

It does seem as if the conspiracy theme in the show has been updated for our modern times with images of surveillance, satellites and military drones. I did suspect Chris Carter was going to play with our paranoia of constantly being under surveillance (which lets be honest is less paranoia and actually closer to the truth nowadays).  I also think the 'colonisation' storyline (whether it be colonisation by aliens or some creepy covert government organisation seizing control) may still be told in the new series because some of the dialogue in this trailer sounds like it has been lifted directly from the X Files Fight the Future film. Remember the doomed paranoid Dr Kurtzweil? He explained to Mulder how the colonisation of the planet would begin: 'The timetable has been set. It'll happen on a holiday, when people are away from their homes.' The intro of this trailer sounds awfully similar in its predictions....

Other items to note:

It looks like Mulder is still living in the remote farmhouse we saw him holed up in at the end of the last movie (I Want To Believe)

Scully has a smartphone! With caller ID! Which means no more scripted lines of her saying 'Mulder, it’s Me.' Deep sad sigh..... (Also on a side note, all the new technology today might also be a hindrance as well as help to the scriptwriters of the new series. With an iPhone you can now just snap a quick photo of something paranormal and bam! You have the proof. No need to spend hours of TV searching for it)

Scully does not look happy at all to see Mulder in any of these short clips. In fact she looks pissed off for the entire trailer. I hope she at least has a little fun sometime during the new 6 episodes.

I love the shot of Mulder's empty old office with the pencils on the ceiling and the 'I Want To Believe' poster on the floor. But am I supposed to believe that no one in the FBI head office decided to take the pencils out of the ceiling in the last 13 years?

Skinner! Skinner with a beard! I love it! He should have grown facial hair earlier in the series!

Mulder is wearing a pretty snazzy suit, in fact both him and Scully are. Where would Mulder find the money for such an expense after not working for 13 years? Has been publishing criminal profiling articles anonymously online for money? Working freelance as an UFO spotter?

At the end of the video, there is an ominous and sinister hand holding a lit cigarette. Is this the return of Cigarette Smoking Man AKA the Darth Vader of the X Files? But with a wide spread smoking ban in effect in many parts of the USA, how will CGB Spender smoke?! Will he ‘vape’ instead?

Questions that remain unresolved (the Truth is Out There somewhere)..

A lot of the X Files mythology relies on the audience’s perceived mistrust of the government and the powers that control and run our world, but in recent years , people have grown to trust the government more than they did in the 1990s or at least care less about the invasion of their privacy. Or maybe they don’t but they trust other countries and groups like terrorists even less, so how will that be incorporated into the X Files?

What has happened to Mulder and Scully’s son, William? Will he feature at all in the new series and if so, will he be an Uber-teenager who will save the world?

What the heck is going on with Mulder and Scully’s relationship? I know that Chris Carter has stated that they are no longer together (sob) but how do two people who are so close and committed to each other, break up? If alien abduction and 9 years of paranormal investigation failed to separate them, what could they possibly argue about? And will they resolve their problems before the end of Series 10?  (if you want to hear more of my thoughts about this break up of two beloved fictional characters, you can read it here)

And last but not least how will the new series of the X Files compete with the competition on TV and through online streaming? It is less easy to scare people now, people are better informed, there is more information out on the web and TV shows are more violent and extreme. It remains to be seen how the new series will graduate to being more than just a 6 episode trip down the Cult TV memory lane.

Having said all of that, I am ridiculously excited after viewing this trailer and I cannot wait for January. Although in the UK, we are months behind the US, so I will be waiting even longer. Never mind, I have 201 episodes of the X Files to keep me busy before then!

Excited FBI Agents...

Bye for now!
Clara