The Truth is Still Out There.

I think it has to do with the conversations with the old man and seeing the arv. I suspect there's more to it than we know at this point. Plus she told him it was men abducting her and not aliens.

I personally never cared much about the X-Files "alien invasion arc" episodes.

I greatly preferred their "Monster of the Week" episodes which seemed to have more humor and light moments. My wife preferred those as well.

My problem with the alien arc is that it was not internally consistent. After a while it became obvious that they were making it up as they were going along.

They never fully explained who the bounty hunter / rebel aliens were and why they were against the green aliens, or why they disappeared in the later seasons. Also the alien life cycle was confusing.

They start out as some primitive reptilian species, then they become black oil, then they turn into green aliens?

It got more convoluted as it went on.

^ I agreed with you though in some ways I think the "making it up as you go along" can be kind of cool".

I know that the big deal now is to have Babylon Five style arcs where every episode is considered just another chapter in a book that lasts for five seasons or so.

But sometimes I miss the original Star Trek (and some of TNG) that seemed to go along with the idea of "If it sounds cool and you can write a good story, go with it".

I mean who can top "The Devil In the Dark" where Janos Prohasta shows up in Gene Coon's office (IIRC) with this big, weird rubber suit (the Horta) and Coon asks him "What is it?" and Prokasta says "I don't know. It can be anything you want it to be". And Coon hammers out a story in four days.

Wow. That stank. I am suddenly reminded why I stopped watching somewhere past season 4.

Aren't they making it too obvious that Scully is actually an alien wearing a thick rubber mask?

Funny you should say that. I suspect that the big reveal at the end of this miniseries will be that Scully has been working for the Conspiracy all along.

Scully is part of the conspiracy, which Mulder doesn't yet suspect, but what she doesn't know is that Mulder is also part of the conspiracy.

The big reveal will be when they realize they've wasted 15 years trying to fool each other.

That would be horrible.

The Krychek will show up and do something that pisses everyone off and CSM becomes the hero who saves the day.

Some folks at TBBS did a full rewatch of the series, and they say they were surprised to see that the conspiracy/alien arc actually WAS completely consistent. It's just easy to get lost in the muddle when watching over 9 years.

They linked to an online explanation:

The second episode was great too.
Duchovny looks a lot better now than he did in the first episode. Anderson sounds like she's got a soar throat.

Ok, episodes 1 and 2 sucked, but 3 was absolutely brilliant.

What a fun and funny episode. Absolutely classic. Boy how I've missed the X-Files. I love how Mulder's ringtone is the theme and Scully mentioned she's immortal, a reference to a season six episode I just happened to watch today. I wonder what other Easter eggs there have been.

Kim Manners' grave was nice.

http://www.vulture.com/2016/02/x-files-easter-eggs-weremonster.html

The two stoners in the beginning played stoners in season three.

Yay! I'm liking the new episodes, especially the goofy MOTW one. I hope we'll get more than six (although quality is more important than quantity).

They were planning on 8 but one or both leads had conflicts after 6

Eight would have been great. True Detective had eight episodes and I feel it was just enough to tell the story. I'm wondering how they'll finish off the mythology with only three episodes left?

I understand Chris Carter did a lot of rewriting to tie things up.
Of course, he's hoping the numbers are nice enough to 1)convince Fox to invest in another "miniseries" and 2)ditto to the leads.

They won't. Carter has already said the series finishes in an open ended manner - made more obvious by the fact that only the final episode will deal with the mythology.

In that case.

The wit and comedy gold of Darin Morgan (wrote ep 3 of the new season along with some of the best/funniest of original seasons 2 and 3) is still the reason I tune in and sit through the mythology and arc episodes.

Fuckin awesome ep., very entertaining.

With but a 6-episode run, it seems near impossible that they ride off the rails with the mytho arc/backstory.

The band aid nose man was pretty cool, but the character moments were great. I'm ready for more mythology though. It really feels like we might get more seasons. I just hope they have a plan. I doubt Duchovny and Anderson would want to go another long run though. Maybe another season or two? I can't believe how much I missed this show.

So basically they fucked up the first two episodes and from early reports they apparently knew it, too. I wonder what happened to put them with their backs to the wall so they would rather start this season with two failures rather than reshoot or recut or repair or reschedule.

I disagree, but to answer your question, I'm guessing the knew they had to start with alien stuff no matter what. I don't think the first two episodes were bad though.

As far as reshooting, again, time constraints. They didn't have time to reshoot.

So episode 4 was even better. This thing is all over the place. But even if they couldn't help episodes 1 and 2, and 1 had to be 1 for the mythology, why on Earth wouldn't they at least continue with one of the good ones as #2?

Great episode. Mulder line dancing was funny as hell. Agent Einstein, not as hot as Scully, but I'd definitely hit it. I definitely want more X-Files.