The first episode of the X-Files 2016 was a fun ride. There were many familiar and enjoyable elements for fans of the series, but I felt there were some major problems with the plot that took me out of the story.
Spoilers here:
1. "Alien" abductions are done by humans:
It's not believable that Mulder would not have heard about claims of MILABS abductions before; these claims have been around for a long time. Learning of the possibility of humans, rather than aliens, being the abductors should have prompted Mulder to launch into a monologue about what he already knows about such claims, including whether it's true or whether the memory of humans being involved is really just a "screen memory" to avoid even more trauma to the abductees.
I thought Mulder was always most entertaining when he knew just enough about something to know that he didn't understand it fully. It seemed out of character for him to dive in completely with just a piece of an explanation and act like he finally understands everything. Even when another character asked about a fundamental part of his "understanding" (why the genetic experiments / embryo harvesting), he admits that he doesn't understand that part, yet he keeps acting like it all makes sense. This part of the episode seemed so wrong for the character that I felt I was just watching Duchovny acting (and struggling) rather than Mulder explaining.
2. The alien DNA test:
Scully comments that the Sveta's alien DNA test came back negative....Right, like there's a checkbox on the form at every lab to run that standard test to look for alien DNA in the sample. Any medical professional or anyone who's ever considered the question of detecting alien DNA (e.g. Google Lloyd Pye's Starchild Skull) would know that it isn't believable that anyone could find alien DNA in a sample or two until you've already seen it elsewhere. OK, so Scully did a complete DNA sequence of the genome for both Sveta and herself, in a couple days, and also analyzed the results and determined that she an Sveta aren't totally human (I think that's what she said). It's conceivable that a team of experts could sequence two complete genomes in several weeks or months, and then conclude that there's something anomalous in that DNA. It's absurd that one, non-expert, could accomplish that task in a few days, and then also conclude what that anomaly means.
3. So...what happened in Roswell again?
The nicely-produced flashbacks of Roswell showed us that a saucer crashed there in 1947 and that there was at least one very alien- looking survivor of the crash. After Mulder's "realization", he concluded that "Roswell was a smokescreen". This episode also included a statement like "Roswell was a Russian ARV". Which is it?
I guess it is typical of the series to ask more questions than it answers, but it seemed sloppy to include three different, conflicting "conclusions" of the same event....OK, so maybe we're supposed to be seeing that Mulder's conclusions were wrong, or else the flashback scenes were not Roswell?
Spoilers here:
1. "Alien" abductions are done by humans:
It's not believable that Mulder would not have heard about claims of MILABS abductions before; these claims have been around for a long time. Learning of the possibility of humans, rather than aliens, being the abductors should have prompted Mulder to launch into a monologue about what he already knows about such claims, including whether it's true or whether the memory of humans being involved is really just a "screen memory" to avoid even more trauma to the abductees.
I thought Mulder was always most entertaining when he knew just enough about something to know that he didn't understand it fully. It seemed out of character for him to dive in completely with just a piece of an explanation and act like he finally understands everything. Even when another character asked about a fundamental part of his "understanding" (why the genetic experiments / embryo harvesting), he admits that he doesn't understand that part, yet he keeps acting like it all makes sense. This part of the episode seemed so wrong for the character that I felt I was just watching Duchovny acting (and struggling) rather than Mulder explaining.
2. The alien DNA test:
Scully comments that the Sveta's alien DNA test came back negative....Right, like there's a checkbox on the form at every lab to run that standard test to look for alien DNA in the sample. Any medical professional or anyone who's ever considered the question of detecting alien DNA (e.g. Google Lloyd Pye's Starchild Skull) would know that it isn't believable that anyone could find alien DNA in a sample or two until you've already seen it elsewhere. OK, so Scully did a complete DNA sequence of the genome for both Sveta and herself, in a couple days, and also analyzed the results and determined that she an Sveta aren't totally human (I think that's what she said). It's conceivable that a team of experts could sequence two complete genomes in several weeks or months, and then conclude that there's something anomalous in that DNA. It's absurd that one, non-expert, could accomplish that task in a few days, and then also conclude what that anomaly means.
3. So...what happened in Roswell again?
The nicely-produced flashbacks of Roswell showed us that a saucer crashed there in 1947 and that there was at least one very alien- looking survivor of the crash. After Mulder's "realization", he concluded that "Roswell was a smokescreen". This episode also included a statement like "Roswell was a Russian ARV". Which is it?
I guess it is typical of the series to ask more questions than it answers, but it seemed sloppy to include three different, conflicting "conclusions" of the same event....OK, so maybe we're supposed to be seeing that Mulder's conclusions were wrong, or else the flashback scenes were not Roswell?