The X Files

PopOptiq’s official TV podcast is finally here, with a look at the hilariously divisive and strange revival season of The X-Files.

This season of the show has certainly not been a total loss, and there’s plenty to be thankful for, but the best reaction anyone could have to “My Struggle” and “My Struggle II” is to forget them entirely and forever.

“Home Again” doesn’t exactly hit all the notes it’s aiming for, but it at least attempts to do two important things that The X-Files is capable of doing on a good day: 1) establish an emotional connection between the audience and the central characters and 2) scare the hell out of people.

There are very serious episodes of The X-Files that involve supposed monsters. This is not one of them, and it succeeds more so than the first two episodes of the season because of a commitment to being entertaining in its own way.

The X-Files all but defined the 1990s. As a television show, it was not only a cultural phenomenon for the majority of its run, but it also set a template for the serialized storytelling that is dominating the current landscape. Beyond that, however, it also defined the decade by helping, for good or ill, to crystallize the …

Like any good hour of television, “Founder’s Mutation” shows that it has the capacity to be funny, interesting and moving all at once, generating a huge sigh of relief for fans

Unfortunately, the miniseries/season ten premiere forgets what was fun about The X-Files and tries to make up for it by being loud and vague.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published on July 16, 2015 Approximately four months ago, X-Files fans everywhere collectively freaked out as Fox announced its plan for a six-episode revival of the series, more than a decade after the show had ended. An actual UFO sighting could doubtfully cause such an effect from hardcore aficionados …

Very few hit television shows make the transition to the big screen. Even fewer make it while the show it still on the air. The X-Files had that distinction in the summer of 1998 when it’s first movie, dubbed Fight the Future for marketing, was released on June 19. At a hearty length of 122 …

A guide to the very best of one of TV’s most definitive genre series.

Admit it. A little part of your soul died when you heard Netflix greenlit a 13-episode revival of Full House. Sure, it was all fun, flannel, and Doc Martens when Showtime announced they were bringing back Twin Peaks and Fox agreed to re-open The X-Files. But then Coach got inexplicably thrown back in the game, …

Things are about to get weird. Again. Fox has officially announced the revival of The X-Files, with series creator Chris Carter and original stars David Duchonvy and Gillian Anderson all on board. The Wrap reports 20th Century Fox Television and Ten Thirteen Productions will film the six-episode limited series this summer, but an air date …

In the contemporary landscape of supernatural investigators on television—high school cheerleaders adept at martial arts and chiseled GQ hunks offering quips with every shot of a silver bullet—Carl Kolchak would appear to be an anomaly. The name itself is likely unknown to the younger generation, lest they faintly recall handsome Stuart Townsend briefly playing the …

The X-Files Annual #1 Writers: Frank Spotnitz, Gabe Rotter & Shannon Eric Denton, Dave Sim Art: Stuart Sayger, Andrew Currie Colours: Matheus Lopes Letters: Neil Uyetake Editor: Denton J. Tipton Executive Producer: Chris Carter Publisher: IDW Purchase: http://shop.idwpublishing.com/comics/series/t-z/the-x-files.html Last year, IDW, working closely with Chris Carter, successfully launched the tenth season of The X-Files in comic …

A week after James Gandolfini died, we lost another Jersey boy: novelist, short story writer, film and TV screenwriter Richard Matheson. His was not as well-known a name to the general public as Gandolfini’s, certainly, and perhaps only familiar to sci fi and fantasy fans, the genres within which he scored some of his most …

Effective shot composition is a key component of filmmaking, sometimes resulting in the only interesting aspect of a bad film, and elevating a good film into a great one. Good cinematography, however, unfortunately goes unnoticed a lot of times, no matter how well it enhances a movie. Larry Wright of Refocused Media, however, has turned …

While investigating the death of a backwoods cannabis farmer, Nick glimpses what he thinks might be a Blutbad living alone the in the woods. This links to a case Hank has never forgotten: the unsolved disappearance of a little girl. Grimm Season 1, Episode 7: “Let Your Hair Down” Written by Sarah Goldfinger and Naren …