Cold Cases (The X-files, #1)

by Joe Harris

[jamiereadthis]

1. Parts of this are kinda cheesy. Parts of this are kinda terrible. Parts of this are kinda great. There’s some head-canon stuff they make canon (Lone Gunmen faked their deaths! I knew it!) and the whole explanation for why characters keep getting resurrected for the miniseries(es) is actually pretty damn clever. I could run with it to make some new head-canons. And I shall.

2. I wish David and Gillian had recorded their lines together. What’s missing is that spark where they bounce off each other and elevate even the worst lines of the script. Put them in the same room and that would have been there, even without the visuals.

3. Gillian seems ready to retire Scully for good after the last miniseries in January, and I can’t say I blame her after some of lines she’s asked to deliver. I don’t bash Chris Carter because for every three bad ideas, he has a really, truly great one, but that man does like an overwrought sentence.

4. I liked the CSM episode! The flashbacks with Bill Mulder were… kinda lots of fun.

(Although they keep saying “Spender” for Cigarette Smoking Man, and I know we know now that’s his name, but every time I thought they were resurrecting rat bastard Jeffrey Spender until I heard William B. Davis’s voice.)

5. Kryyyyyycek. Damn, I wish Nick Lea had done the voice. Mitch Pileggi berating Krycek for being a scum-sucking weasel is one of life’s greatest joys, and it’s just not the same without Lea lashing back. Mitch gave it his all though.

(Believe it or not, it actually makes sense why Krycek returns after being put down by Skinner. Possibly the coolest development in his mythology yet. See point #1.)

6. Tom Braidwood is possibly my favorite voice to hear again, but goddamn it, Frohike would NOT forget there’s Mulder/Scully offspring in the world. “Oh yeah, you guys had a baby, I forgot.” NOPE.

7. LOL at how Mulder and Scully couldn’t care less about Doggett and Reyes.

8. Scully calls her boys “buster.” (Mulder, and then Krycek and Frohike.) I don’t know if this is a script thing or a Gillian thing but I like it.

9. During the part where Mulder’s dialing up the Lone Gunmen from an internet cafe, I realized I had a grin on my face, and it had been there for the past half hour. As the kids say (I think? I’m old like Fox and Dana now), I am trash for this show. Always have been, always will be. In whatever form— mortal or immortal— it may take.

10. I’m obviously gonna remember the great stuff and forget the terrible stuff, so three stars it is.

P.S. to Chris Carter: I don’t care if it’s in audiobook form or in the miniseries, but I want a Bill Scully appearance DAMMIT.