Founder's Mutation

True to the original X-Files theme, because Chris Carter is back at the helm. Number 1 show in America. Just like wine, it gets better over the years and this is true to the new episodes. Outstanding. I see a full season coming up.

The ratings are beyond excellent for a TV Show, 93 million viewers, 2nd episode 97 million.

Thanks for bringing it back. I am glued to the TV once again.

I am also glad to see they used the same intro as the old series. I think a new intro would have ruined the persona of the new series.

I hear FTSP is already looking into expanding beyond the 10 episode order.

This episode was a very solid standalone episode which will be remembered best for its disturbing imagery. Right off the bat, the opening scene has you pretty creep-ed out. It's a standard episodic hook, but a well executed one. From there, the plot and a lot of the twists are pretty standard, but the visual storytelling and the characters are so compelling here that you get wrapped up in it and forget to critique it. Some of the shots from this episode won't be leaving me soon. Especially the final shots of the second last scene. Real nightmare fuel. The ending to this final sequence cut off in a way that felt slightly anti- climatic, but it was used for a good moment of humour.

The only really weak link in the episode is the scene that explains some of what happened between Mulder and Scully in the time gap. What should have been a heart-wrenching story left me grinding my teeth in disappointment at how stale it seemed. The actors also didn't seem to really be in it. I just wish it had been executed a little better, since it is such blatant foreshadowing to a twist in future mythology episodes. In the end, it's just one scene that felt a little out of whack in an otherwise masterfully balanced episode. Written and directed by X-files alumni James Wong, this is in my opinion better than "My Struggle", an excellent episode.

The season 10 continues with "Founder Mutation". After dedicating mostly of the great premiere "My Struggle" in getting the band back together, now the X-Files are open again we can get back to the classic "monster-of-the-week" format and this one here works just like the good old days.

"Founder Mutation" wouldn't be out of place in the first three seasons of X-Files. It's weird, dark and very, very violent. Possibly the most graphic violent X-File since "Chinga" in Season 5.

It brings successfully back many elements of the early years of the show - the characters Mulder and Scully met in the case are lonely, damaged, outsider people; there are flashlight investigation moments; there are autopsyes; a crime happening in an office; scary hospitals, mutants. All done with a modern tone, touching on current subjects, adjusting itself to 2016 without any issue.

David and Gillian are again the best thing here. Their chemistry is unbelievable. You can never go wrong with Mulder and Scully and are truly heart-breaking moments in the episode.

It's only getting better

I'll echo the consensus here that this episode was better than Chris Carter's first episode. Sure, it's not any more original. Where "My Struggle" was largely an inferior redo of season 5's "Patient X", "Founder's Mutation" redoes season 2's "Red Museum".

I'm not ready to count this as a purely MOTW episode. Like "Red Museum", it does seem at least partially connected to the mythology, though the events of "Red Museum" never really panned out, so maybe both of these are standalone episodes merely containing elements from the mythology. Either way, it's a fast and fun episode.

This really does a better job of showing the emotional states of Mulder and Scully than "My Struggle" did. William is mentioned prominently, which perhaps could be setting up his return to the mythology. I thought from the beginning that the best direction for the series now would be to feature William forming a resistance against the alien invaders, so perhaps Chris Carter will redeem himself after the ridiculous new direction of "My Struggle".

Hopefully, the third episode will move past these two "best hits" episodes and do something original.

It is evident now that Chris Carter really needed Morgan/Wong to pull this off. I respected "John Gilnitz" (John Shiban, Vince Gilligan and Frank Spotnitz) - But sometimes they just seemed to get bogged down. They did occasionally produce some outstanding episodes of The Original X-Files Series. Or actually of this series, as I don't consider the 14 year hiatus. Morgan and Wong (And of course Darin Morgan) had an extreme creative streak that always benefited any show they worked on, and I think they are as intrinsically attached to The X-Files as Carter himself.

At first I thought this was related to Mulder's experience in "Biogenesis" (1999-S6E22) when he came into contact with a piece of metal from an Alien Spaceship that happened to have a verse from Genesis carved into it. What happens here to Dr Sanjay (Christopher Logan) is almost exactly like what happened to Mulder. And then Mulder has it happen, but no piece of Metal. Something else is going on.

People who had written other reviews for S10E01 were worrying that our beloved Mythos had been Deconstructed. Well, fear no more, many of the facets of Mulder and Skully's previous experiences are referred to and reflected, and even repeated, especially experiences with the De0partment of Defense, locking down their investigations.

Darin Morgan had used the name "Gupta" (IE, Juggernaught Onan Goopta) in the excellent MillenniuM Season 2 episode "Jose Chung's Doomday Defense", Wong uses it here, maybe this is a private joke between them- Too Bad Jose Chung would not be able to appear in any of these episodes, as he was killed off in that MillenniuM episode! Heh. But small details like this, that can erupt from just the mention of one character's name, are what makes this new collaboration between Carter and Morgan/Wong great.

Now, to the details, of course it is all a Macguffin, Mulder is being played, he does not know by who. We are brought through hospital wards filled with extremely deformed children. And we hear the stories of some of them in the course of this X-File. Some of this relates directly to Skully's abduction. I don't think she has ever forgotten Emily, her possible daughter from her abduction, and I'm sure she has not ever forgotten her son William. In fact both Skully and Mulder seem to have flashbacks of how life would have been with William, but it always ends the same way with both of them, William is himself abducted at the end of these visions, in much the same way Samantha Mulder was.

So I don't think Carter has re-written the Mythos one bit, not one iota. In fact, I think this short series gives him the opportunity to answer some of these questions, for us. And maybe even ask some new ones.

Some people might be shocked by some of the graphic scenes in this episode, but what's the problem, don't you watch Walking Dead? And that show is run by "John Gilnitz" even. Enjoy the uniqueness of each of these humble offerings, and some of the earlier X-Files seasons were just as graphic, it's just the state of realism is much better in Season 10. And of course, Mulder is appearing to be much smarter than he had been previously, this time making sure that there are "traces" of the X-Files saved.