Blu-Ray Review: ‘The X-Files: Event Series’

The X-Files: Event Series was one of the most highly anticipated television occasions in recent memory. Series mastermind Chris Carter was returning to the series and its rabid fanbase, along with all of his principal cast reprising their roles in an attempt to tie up some of the show’s mythology, while potentially opening the door for the X-Files universe to continue in one form or another. 

Unfortunately, the six episode revival stumbled heavily with its mythology episodes, and only redeemed itself with their more inspired and entertaining stand alone case episodes. The series premiere and finale episodes My Struggle I and My Struggle II did very little to give fans any closure, and even went as far as to confuse viewers’ understanding of the series’ overarching conspiracy by adding a twist that changed everything. To add insult to injury, the series inexplicably closed out on a massive cliffhanger that only left even more unanswered questions, with no current plans for The X-Files to return to television or film to provide any resolution.

Series stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson returned to their iconic roles as Agents Mulder and Scully with mixed results as well. Particularly in the early episodes, the actors seem a bit bored while trying to find their essential chemistry. When the episodes get lighter like the brilliantly comedic Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster, they seemed to find their groove and much of the magic returned to their performances for the rest of the series.

The Blu-ray package comes with a two-disc set featuring all six episodes presented in pristine HD quality that look great for most of the series, but gets a bit murky when dealing with episodes that are in heavily dark environments. But when the visuals work, there are some fantastic cinematography throughout the episodes that provides big budget caliber visuals that could easily be still-framed as a movie poster.

The set has a solid array of special features, with commentary on episodes including Founder’s Mutation with Chris Carter and co-writer/director James Wong, Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster featuring David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Kumail Nunjiani and writer Darin Morgan, and My Struggle II once again with Chris Carter and writer’s assistant Gabe Rotter. They all provide some interesting insight, but Were-Monster easily is the stand-out with Duchovny and Anderson doing one track and X-Files superfan Nunjiani (Silicon Valley) and Morgan doing the enormously entertaining second one.

There’s a fairly deep wealth of behind the scenes looks for fans to dive into, including The Making of a Struggle, Season X has multiple featurettes looking at the series thus far as well as this current one, some forgettable deleted scenes, an extremely fun retrospective of all the show’s most loved freaks hosted by Kumail Nunjiani called Monster of the Week: A Recap of the Wildest and Scariest from the Original Series, a must-see gag reel, and few other less impactful (but still worth your time) features like the short film Grace by the series’ script coordinator Karen Nielsen .

The X-Files: Event Series was full of highs and lows but there were enough good elements to have fans clamoring for more cases that hopefully won’t take years to come to fruition. Some Blu-ray sets tend to skimp on special features, but with the short run of episodes this release doesn’t leave you feeling short-changed. The X-Files: Event Series Blu-ray set provides plenty of in-depth X-Files goodness, providing plenty of content to for those dying for more Mulder and Scully.

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