My Struggle II

Like so many, I was a fan of the original series although I don't recall following it all the way through to the end of its nine-season run in the 90's. I was very surprised but pleased to see it revived for another short, 6-episode run, helmed by creator Chris Carter and peopled with many characters from yesteryear. I enjoyed that there was no tampering with the title sequence or theme music, unlike say, recent episodes of "Dr Who". But would these shows echo the greatness of the early episodes when the programme was new...?

Looking back over the 6 episodes, I enjoyed it more than I dared hope. The big background story was Cancer Man's nefarious plan to kill off everyone on earth with a deadly alien virus bar a select few, including Scully but not Mulder. The cliff-hanging ending, with Scully trying to find the plague-infected Mulder on a gridlocked highway to administer an antidote only to be interrupted by what seems to be a flying saucer, certainly took me by surprise and I do hope that Carter and Co can write themselves out of this particular corner if they get the chance through another series.

In the preceding episodes there was an enjoyable mix of the serious and the light-hearted, the latter no doubt a nod to the "monsters from outer-space" origins of the show emanating from 1947 onwards. The plumb silly episode with the reverse lizard-man featured a voyeuristic image of Duchovny resplendent on a cheap motel bed in a pair of scarlet trunks I can't easily get out of my head together with another fantasy image of Anderson getting ravished in broad-daylight by the creature in human form. Then there was Mulder's Billy Ray Cyrus meets Saturday Night Fever drug-fuelled romp. I also loved the idea of the mini-me Mulder and Scully younger FBI agents who subsequently pair off with our heroes and who just scream "spin-off series". Amongst the more serious stuff, Scully lost her mother and pursued her given-up-for-adoption love-child with Mulder while the duo also got to interact with a truth-telling if sensationalist TV presenter acting as national whistle-blower.

As for the acting, Duchovny has definitely slowed down, almost to the point of coming across as self-consciously mannered although Anderson was just as she should be, long-suffering, sceptical but trusting of her partner.

The six episodes here were a bit hit and miss, but t'was ever thus. On the whole, I was glad to see the old truth-searching gang back again. Because it's still out there don't you know.

I am speechless to read the highest rated review is a 1 star demolition. I thought this was utterly fantastic, it tied together for me what's been an incredible series. My Struggle II was fast paced, gripping, intelligent, brilliantly acted, and left me for one desperate for more. I loved that Mulder's Nemesis Smoking man made a return, great character. Great special effects once again, it felt like a huge budget blockbuster on times. Mulder and Scully Junior were once again good value, I can understand that die hard fans may not like them much, but I found them quite fun. That ending though, please don't leave us hanging there.

This has left me desperate for more episodes, so come on, another series please. 9/10

I used to watch the X-Files, like everyone else back when we only had 3-4 channels open to us; I also had quite a few VHS boxsets but was not a die-hard fan. So the news that it was returning made me interested but not sweating with hype and hope. Even though there are only six episodes here, I did struggle to get through them. In particular the opening couple and the conclusion (although it is anything but) are really poor. There are one or two episodes in the middle which are okay, and of course there is the wonderful lizard- man episode in the middle which has a great sense of fun and energy.

Otherwise though it is mostly po-faced stuff which is clunky in the writing, uneven in the presentation, and presented with low energy by those involved. The connections back to the wider conspiracies of the previous season really don't work particularly well, and they sit uneasy next to the feel of this season as a standalone return. The conclusion is typical of the show in that it feels half-done; it pushes a rushed global threat with call-backs but yet doesn't convince even within itself – and the open nature of the ending is particularly annoying.

The lizard-man episode is so good that it makes the rest almost worthwhile, however mostly this was an unnecessary return for the show. The low quality of it took me by such surprise that it made me doubt if the original was any better or if my memory was just making it feel better than it was.

I know I'm not alone in feeling icky after watching "My Struggle". Chris Carter seems to want us to forget all that happened in the first nine seasons: the black oil, purity control, the alien fetus, the alien rebels, the alien bounty hunter, the missing time, the staging, the supersoldiers, etc. Instead, we're led to believe that there was an alien crash in Roswell, but there haven't been aliens on Earth since then and everything else was just faked by the government with the alien technology taken from the Roswell crash. That would have been OK if done in season 1, but in season 10, it's just rewriting the complete story arc.

I was hoping in "My Struggle II", Carter would reveal to us that everything that we had learned in the first nine seasons hadn't been completely rewritten, but alas, he doubled down on it. There's no group of men conspiring with aliens, but just a group of men conspiring among themselves. I'm not going to reveal what the new conspiracy is, as it's revealed in the reviews with spoilers. Suffice it to say that it just doesn't match up with the first nine seasons.

So this is "The End". Some people may say "Thank Gh-d", and others like me will be depressed. Not much TV is made like this- This is Old School. Old School, but Carter does try to keep abreast of current events, just like the first 9 seasons.

As "My Struggle I" was Mulder's narrative, Part II is Skully's. This gives a nice comparison of Perspectives, as Skully has almost never seen what Mulder has seen (Her head always turned away, or she left the area, or she believed while Mulder didn't believe in one season), the believer and the skeptic always battling it out, resolving it, and solving it. Whatever "it" is at the time. This time, it's about certain events from part I. And, once again "Fringe" is mentioned in this passing narrative, another salute by Carter toward a show that could have been as great as this. Was as great as this, in some respects.

And of course, the return of the young Doppelgangers, and Monica Reyes. Skully and Einstien, the Skeptic vs the Super-Skeptic. Monica and Cancerman. "The world will go on, just in my image, not God's".

Mainly this is Skully's show, it's her kind of x-file, needing her kind of solution. Mulder has his Arse Kicking moves on with Matrix skills, for all the good it does him.

The science in this episode is very interesting, sounding almost plausible. This show has always excelled at giving good background.

The X-Files has embodied for me the best parts of Television, it doesn't take a lot to get me interested, but this show has gone way beyond interest, we get involved in it, which is why people have had such diverse reactions to it, usually because it is telling The Truth at some basic level, sometimes which we don't even know or agree with at the time. In the case of these 6 samples, we have heard things about Climate Change, overpopulation, and man's encroachment into Nature. The X-Files gets my Highest ratings and regards. It has been the subject of heated discussions and speculations for years, and I'm glad I can participate in this in even a small way.

As we go out on this episode, I try to remember all of the things I have ever loved about this show. And they all might be right here in this final offering, this one episode gets back the mysteries of Seasons 1-3, the solutions also baffling.

After my mind returns from initial shock and numbness, I may to edit this a bit, I can't put in words the emotions in me right now, it's too much.

Well, so all of the positive reviews are being down voted and the negative ones are being up voted and, the bad reviews repeated and parroted apparently by different people even though they are the same person. That doesn't mean this episode is bad it just means that there are trolls about