Much as I love Season 8, it's understandable why loyal fans were put off-- and insulted-- by its original airing.
In Seasons 1 through 7, Mulder and Scully worked tirelessly to expose the truth, which gave viewers a front-row seat to their efforts and struggles. And, most importantly, to the necessary changes in their personal lives: while both agents fought against the Consortium and the aliens, they weren't the mystery. (Speculation lingered, at most, in the platonic and romantic gray area between them.) Mulder's and Scully's tears, fears, and reasoning were honest and open, a marked contrast to the shadows they walked through.
Season 7's Requiem took the first turn: the writers announced Scully was pregnant, which threw all things's confirmation in a new light. It set up an arc that required resolution, one that demanded transparency for the viewers. A pregnancy in Mulder's absence-- tongue-in-cheek confirmation of their changed relationship-- was filled to the brim with possibility.
And that's when Carter and Spotnitz shot the first bullet in their foot: they no longer had a mystery to bait.
The Syndicate was burnt, the Rebels were fighting the invaders, the writers already stated the old mytharc concluded in One Son. But The X-Files had become famous for the large, looming Unknown which wove through disparate monster and mayhem investigations. Mulder was abducted, but we know by whom and can guess for what reason. No mystery there. Mulder was given brain disease last-second to expand the show's focus; but it was (I believe) so unpopular with fans (and the ratings) that it was dropped by the tail-end of the season. Therefore, the only mystery left was Scully's pregnancy.
However, instead of zeroing in on character building-- more particularly, on the fears and questions they would be facing (as Scully said in Existence, "I feared the truth... about how... and why")-- the writers created an obfuscation around the baby's paternity, subsequently cutting off every opportunity for Mulder and Scully to be explored per the pattern of bygone days.
The "reveal" Spotnitz and Carter were aiming for required two things: faith from the audience and skilled execution-- both of which had been in decline since Season 7. And because, as mentioned above, an honest conversation between two partners becoming parents was now off-limits, they'd effectively reloaded the gun and shot their other unmaimed foot.
CONCLUSION
The X-Files has never been without its writing errors. It's never been without its missteps or miscalculations. And Season 8 is not devoid of brilliant moments. But that half-step of separation between it and previous seasons highlights more sharply its errors.
While Mulder and Scully got their happy ending-- his answers and return, her greatest wish, both moving forward together, both letting the files no longer consume their lives-- it came at the cost of the audience's patience and trust.
I kind of hate even asking this question but I’m going to ask it anyway.
Why do you think CC decided to totally retcon the mythology in the revival? Do you think he was bored of it? Did he think it didn’t fit in with “modern times”?
I know the mythology was kind of a mess at the end but I don’t think it was so bad that it was beyond saving.
It’s just, when you watch the struggles and accept the retcon it makes the Orginal Series feel like a waste of time. I’ve also heard theories that the Struggle episodes are told by an “unreliable narrator” for example CSM is an unreliable narrator in MSIII, Jackson is unreliable in MSIV. That just sounds like a cop out. It all just gives me a headache honestly. 🙁
tl;dr: CC is interested in new ideas; and will always be willing to cast off old ones in pursuit of fresher perspectives. His passion for the latter mythology was born from Dr. Simon's and Dr. Fearon's last-minute theory; but when it got fan backlash, he pivoted the focus from his revitalized mythology to the abandoned William arc. However: because he was chasing tantalizing ideas rather than a focused conclusion, Carter completely fumbled in his attempts to close up old threads in order to start afresh.
A couple reasons:
CC and Spotnitz wrapped up the original mythology in Season 6 (One Son), deciding that it had both blossomed out of control and somehow come together. Mythology wrapped up, they then finished off the Samantha arc in Season 7 and began a new mytharc in Season 8. Season 8's Existence, according to Spotnitz, functioned as the end of the original X-Files as a whole--
Spotnitz: "And the series will be different, whoever comes back for it [Season 9]-if there is another year. We’re still working out what that final story is, but there are a couple of elements that we know are going to be in there. And those two elements close the chapter.”
and,
Spotnitz: Whatever I said, what I mean to say is that 8 years of the series will come to a close this May, regardless of whether there is an X-Files next season. I actually believe most of the important questions about the mythology have already been answered, believe it or not, and you will see some new ones asked in upcoming shows.
--leaving room for Season 9 to begin a new chapter for the show (one no longer centered on Mulder and Scully's evolving story, since it had been concluded.)
That... didn't work. So, IWTB's focus, years later, was on a MOTW instead, with the hope that it would succeed and become a stepping stone to a movie-mythology franchise series.
That didn't work, either. But CC never gave up hope for a 3rd movie.
Then 2015 rolled around and FOX approached him for a revival.
Carter: I had one question thrown out to me at a meeting. [Fox Television CEO] Dana Walden asked, “If there were another series, when do you think you could begin work on it?” It wasn’t an overture, more of a practical issue. That was before the show ever aired and they knew what the ratings would be. There’s been no conversation about doing more of these. With the ratings news, it’s hard to imagine that they wouldn’t come back to us.
I would love to do another movie. Especially coming off that second movie, which had such a heavy weight upon it: A summer-release, low-budget movie, with no promotion, in a crowded field of tentpole fare. I was asked to do so much with so little. And I tried! If we were to do another movie, it would need to be akin to the first movie, which I thought was a story worthy of the big screen. That said, I can’t imagine they won’t want to somehow figure out how to do this on TV.
CC didn't know where to take the show, and only signed on after being told the season would be short (and might give him a movie, which is what he really wanted.) It was Dr. Anne Simon that actually got him excited about the mytharc again: as she tells it,
"What was the Conspiracy? This [Struggle I and II] is the conspiracy. Now, did Chris know that this was the conspiracy [since the original show]? Obviously not-- because I told him what the conspiracy was. But he knew that there was a Conspiracy-- he just didn’t know what it was. But when I told him, when I gave him this idea [plot for MSI/II], he was just, ‘This is amazing’-- I mean, he was so happy. ‘I want more, I want more, I want more!’ And every time I sent him these pages, typed pages, he was just, he was extremely happy. I could tell how happy he was.”
(Dr. Anne Simon's an interesting rabbit hole to go down, btw. Gonna do a post on her contributions in the future.)
He redid the focus of the show in Season 10; and his writers and collaborators and even his actors-- David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, both-- thought it was a well-written season (I know....) But the fans did not.
So, CC made a statement after FOX confirmed S11: shippers had been heard-- there would be more MSR and William. So much so, he brought William back purposefully to give his arc a resolution.
And when that didn't work out-- when CC's 'perfect' ending was hated by fans (and famously, Gillian) for feeling more like a cop out than an address-and-move-forward conclusion, he felt slighted and misunderstood.
In short, Carter wasn't invested in his series anymore-- and, to be fair, neither were David and Gillian: all three (and Spotnitz) wanted to do movies instead. FOX said no; so, they took on Season 8 and 9. When the middling traction from S8 flopped in S9, CC deviated from the mytharc and did IWTB. That flubbed; and he let the matter rest for a few years (still hoping for more movies.) When FOX only agreed to do another series, he didn't know what to do with the mytharc. Then Dr. Anne Simon and Margaret Fearon gave him a direction-- and, yes, both worked on (and cosigned) the mytharc episodes-- and got him excited to do something new; and more of it. And we all saw what happened thereafter.
(Dr. Anne Simon also worked on the OG mytharc episodes, and has nothing but good things to say about them and the Revival. Again, a future rabbit hole.)
In conclusion: once CC's interest is engaged, he loses track of all else and devotes his aspirations to that one thing-- to the detriment of not only the whole picture (i.e. mythology) but also other equally important moving parts (i.e. Gillian's desire to move on.)
Is it just me of does season 8 and 9 feel more like a soap opera than previous seasons? Didn’t Chris Carter work on soap operas before The X Files? Didn’t he at one point vow that he would never turn the show into a soap opera?
This is in no way a knock on the guy, just a funny observation and I want to know if you or anyone else agrees.
I think melodrama, definitely.
Not all of Season 8, but it is present in parts. I think Scully's theme really contributes-- but then again, Gillian worked with Mark Snow to compose it, so she must have liked it.
If I were to take a guess: Season 8 was the first where Spotnitz and CC had to double down and write an over-arching story (they mentioned this once or twice.) It was also the first season where they both decided characterization came first, and serialized that-- in part to explore the characters' growth in Mulder's absence, in part to establish Doggett as a trustworthy replacement when Duchovny decided not to come back. Season 8 definitely had more... emotions; but they were deserved, I think-- Season 8 wasn't ONLY emotions (we'll get to Season 9....) Essence - Existence is where the "soap opera" REALLY peeked through. Hate most of that two-parter with a passion (NO, it did not happen that way.)
If I were to take an even more pointed guess: I think CC equates character exploration ('domesticity") with melodrama; but it's not a Season 8 and 9 exclusive thing. Gillian and David mentioned that they played their characters low-key because A. it was their acting style and B. because so much (shall we say) melodrama happens that it would become absurd, quickly. The purple prose and pastiche language was always there, for example. Season 8 and 9 were the same concepts with fewer guardrails.
If I were to take an even more zoomed-in guess: Season 8 was relying on characterization (in the writers' looser definition of that word) to flesh out the new dynamic in the show. Season 9, however, took those newer aspects and shaved off their substance-- i.e. a good reason for Mulder's absence, a good reason to explore Scully's motherhood, a good reason to follow Doggett as he becomes acquainted with the files and Skinner, a good reason to follow Kersh's new rise to power, a good etc.-- which left us with Cops and Robbers and Crying Mothers.
For as many faults as Season 8 had, it had a goal and a vision.. By Season 9, Spotnitz and CC outright admitted it was harder and harder to write X-Files episodes; and Spotnitz, at one point, even had to face a potential future of helming the ship alone if CC lost his gamble with the FOX higher ups (pay, position, another season, etc.) That vision for Season 8 excited Gillian and Mitch Pileggi and TLG actors and Robert Patrick-- it did the impossible by (temporarily) reviving GA's dying embers of enthusiasm. Season 9? There was NOTHING for Scully to do, there was no place to take the show-- because CC and Spotnitz wanted a MOVIE for Mulder and Scully (which DD and GA were on board for) and a series for Doggett and Reyes-- there was only barreling burnout.
So: Season 8 had a goal... but what do you do when you have nothing to do? TURN UP THAT MELODRAMA, BABY, TEN FOLD. Thus, S9 Scully weeps without abandon. Thus, S9 Scully can't make a solid choice because it will force the plot to develop. Thus, we are stuck with no forward momentum-- e.g. S8's find Mulder, mourn his absence, keep the pregnancy secret, bury Mulder, mourn his loss, bring him back to life, watch him readjust, watch him and Scully disconnect from the files in order to become parents-- and only the emotions, only the fatigue, only the S9 tears.
I was reading your tags on that FS quote about dd and ga and I was wondering if you would tell me/point me in the direction to info about him him watching memento mori way later and then becoming a shipper? I've never heard that one.
It was when he did commentary on the Memento Mori DVD. I’m joking about him suddenly becoming a shipper, but I feel like he never talked much about any of that kind of stuff (it was black oil this and expensive submarine that; maybe nobody ever asked him but that was my impression). And I just remember this commentary came out and he kept saying things like “Look at all this CHEMISTRY that David and Gillian have! It’s like they’re really looking into each other’s eyes and stuff!” and we were like, Frank, you don’t say.
Ah, here is a page that has transcripts of a lot of what he said, as well as some quotes from Rob Bowman, David and Gillian on Memento Mori. This is the one I was thinking of in particular:
“There’s so much chemistry between David and Gillian, and I’m always struck by it again and again when I watch old episodes of the show. They are so different as private off-screen individuals, but there’s something about them – you just look at their eyes when you watch a scene. They really communicate with each other. Their eyes are moving and they’re really listening to each other. You can watch an episode with the sound off and can just tell so much about the way they feel about each other.”
Not that earth-shattering, but it was funny to hear him remarking on the chemistry as if he was just discovering it, bless. There’s something about them!!
Some bonus quotes from that page:
Rob Bowman, on Gillian:
“Throughout the episode on a daily basis Gillian would impress me with how she told the story of a woman with cancer. I don’t know what research she did, if any. If she did, it paid off. If she didn’t, it’s a tribute to her instincts, which were always remarkable.”
Spotnitz, on David:
“Everyone anticipated that Gillian would do a great job with this episode and she did, but I was surprised by how much David made this episode his own as well…. You’d think that a show where one of the characters gets cancer would be solely that character’s episode, but ‘Memento Mori’ functions very nicely as a Mulder and Scully show, I think in large measure due to the strength of David’s performance and the choices he made in these scenes.”
Oh, and here is a more complete transcript of Frank’s MM commentary. The above quote there is worded slightly differently. I don’t have the DVD in front of me to confirm which is more accurate, but you get the gist.
Since starting my obsession with Kolchak a few months ago I have watched the original telefilms and every episode of the series multiple times. I have read review sites, commentaries, behind the scenes interviews, and countless short stories. I’ve even listened to a podcast that presented the characters in an audio drama and the for the most part no one has gotten the character right since the…
Don't Look Now Baby But Kolchak's Coming Back... In Style!
I recently rediscovered a show from the 1970s that I loved when I was younger, Kolchak: The Night Stalker. I’m not sure what sparked my current interest/obsession sometime late last year or early this year but I searched out and found the original Kolchak TV movies “The Night Stalker” and “The Night Strangler” on YouTube. I was quite pleased to find that all twenty episodes were available on Netf…
Wait. Did tumblr miss the fact that Frank wasn't on board, or at least that it wasn't a done deal? Because that article that was passed around a week or so ago changed its statement. It seems, at least at this point, he's not back on the project. Sadly :/
Oh, did it? I thought we heard he was back, but I guess I didn’t hear the retraction. Well, I could go either way on that one, honestly. I think he’s a nice guy and good at what he does, but I don’t feel like the show can’t survive without him. My biggest sadness at him not being on board is that he was such a booster and so kindly indulgent of all the XF fans for such a long while.
