X-Files EW review: Never better, never worse | EW.com 

From a galaxy far, far away straight to your inbox, get all the latest news on the \'Force Awakens\' right here.

The X-FilesRoswell, 9/11, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Kimmel, Faraday Cages, the military-industrial complex, kids without ears, the...

The X-FilesDrama, Crime, Sci-fi and Fantasy09/10/1993Roswell, 9/11, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Kimmel, Faraday Cages, the military-industrial complex, kids without ears, the...2016-01-19

Genre: Drama, Crime, Sci-fi and Fantasy; Starring: Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny, Mitch Pileggi; Series Premiere: 09/10/1993; Broadcaster: Fox; Status: In Season; Seasons: 10

'X-Files' creator admits second movie was a mistake

Could 'The X-Files' address the theory that Scully is immortal?

David Duchovny & Gillian Anderson try to explain their 'X-Files' tension

'X-Files' revival has controversial new theories, links 9/11 to UFOs

Roswell, 9/11, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Kimmel, Faraday Cages, the military-industrial complex, kids without ears, the military-industrial complex, JFK, Henrietta Lacks, Saddam Hussein, “Mission Accomplished,” the Patriot Act, Edward Snowden, communism, terrorism, fascism, the Venus Syndrome, “They’ve reopened the X-Files.”

There, I just spoiled “My Struggle,” the rebooted premiere of

and one of the single strangest episodes of anything ever. “My Struggle” is a chain-gun barrage of catchphrase paranoia and midlife-crisis crypto-Randian anti-philosophy. It’s like creator Chris Carter took 13 years of pent-up ideas and printed them on Froot Loops. Here’s a typical throwaway comment from the premiere: “Since 9/11, this country’s taken a big turn in a very strange direction.” I’ll say!

Meet, again: Dana Scully and Fox Mulder. Gillian Anderson’s bemused skeptic is still in the hospital where we left her in

, the only movie to ever truly waste Xzibit. David Duchovny’s believer is in a depressive funk. They’re called back into alien-hunting by Tad O’Malley (Joel McHale), an alarmist, Glenn Beckian newsbag. O’Malley is a 9/11 Truther, a Roswell Truther, and probably a Beyoncé Truther. He may also be right.

He leads Mulder and Scully to a woman who — well, I could try to explain what happens, but nothing really

. There is technobabble, shouted exposition, looney-pulp non-dialogue. At one point O’Malley declares, “If I’m putting my ass out there, I need to know it’s hanging by more than just a very slender thread.” Logic question: Who has ever hung an ass with anything?

feel more like an angry middle-aged version of itself than its loopy portrayal of the internet. The characters all watch O’Malley’s show on a fake version of YouTube called “mindQUAD.” Sometimes, they use a fake Google called “Finder Spyder.” Early on, Scully asks Mulder if he’s been watching Tad O’Malley “on the Net?” I haven’t heard anyone say “The Net” since

was influential — and disappointing. The show’s central conspiracy arc dead-ended into one blind alley after another. (The show’s newest Deep Throat informant explicitly states that most, if not all, of the original mythology was “nonsense”.) Now that every show is serialized, the stand-alone

episodes actually look better, and stranger. Go to Netflix right now to watch “Squeeze,” “The Post-Modern Prometheus,” “Bad Blood,” “Triangle,” “Home,” “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose,” and “Jose Chung’s

WANT MORE EW? Subscribe now to keep up with the latest in movies, television, and music.

RELATED: David Duchovny jokes that Mulder is actually the worst cop ever

was the best TV drama of the 1990s. It was always a mixed bag — all television was, with 24 episodes per season! — but

uses the standard operating Mixed Bag-ness of television as a laboratory for ideas and narrative concepts. It helped that creator Chris Carter had a murderers’ row of embryonic TV greats, with writers like Vince Gilligan and Darin Morgan and James Wong working alongside episode directors like Kim Manners and Michelle MacLaren. In their hands,

could be anything: Funny and scary, romantic and cerebral, gorgeous throwback black-and-white, or handheld found-footage. And there was a blunt-force transgressive paranoid thrill even in the show’s worst episodes.

worst episodes — and “My Struggle” is actually worse. It could only get better. In the second episode, “Founder’s Mutation,” Mulder and Scully investigate a mysterious doctor performing shady experiments that involve pregnant women: You’ve seen this

. But “Founder’s Mutation” will be fun for fans of the show — an improvement over the premiere, which is fun for no one.

Still, nothing could have prepared me for episode 3. Written and directed by the famously gonzo Morgan, “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” — actual title! — is a wild, playful, brain-twisting, heart-pulling, and above all

episode of television.  In one respect, it’s a vintage Monster-of-the-Week episode. The agents head to a corner of woodland America that looks like Vancouver. There are reports of a lizard-man killing people; confusingly, said lizard-man is wearing tighty-whities. But in another respect, “Were-Monster” is

monster-of-the-week episodes, a lighthearted but very smart self-dissection. (

spoil a daffy plot everyone should enjoy. Suffice it to say that “Were-Monster”

you remember. Duchovny and Anderson both seem more relaxed, finally rediscovering their old zip-zap chemistry. Guest stars Kumail Nanjiani and Rhys Darby are delightful. It’s scary, then funny, then existential, then shockingly moving. (There’s even a 9/11 joke — and it’s funny!) “I forgot how much fun these cases could be,” says Scully. Me, too.

\'Agent Carter\' bosses answer burning premiere questions

Jennifer Lawrence to play Fidel Castro\'s lover in \'Marita\'

LCD Soundsystem, Pearl Jam, Dead & Co. to headline Bonnaroo 2016

This Is What the \'From Dusk Till Dawn\' Premiere Looked Like

19 TV Stars Much Older Than Their Teenage Roles

All the Red Carpet Arrivals From the 2016 Critics\' Choice Awards