Frustrating finale caps off clunky 'X-Files' revival
Fox's six-episode revival of "The X-Files" ended Monday with, apparently, the promise of more to come. I'm not sure I want more.
The finale gave us an intriguing notion: Agent Scully (Gillian Anderson) now has alien DNA, put there by the government to spare her from a viral apocalypse orchestrated by C.G.B. Spender (William B. Davis), aka the Cigarette-Smoking Man. Agent Mulder (David Duchovny) confronts Spender but refuses to make a deal with the devil and obtain the cure for himself. Scully prepares to administer her own antidote made from her blood, but a UFO shows up - and the screen cuts to black.
Yes, creator Chris Carter gave the audience another cliffhanger, one in which all the mysteries are revealed with clunky, borderline-embarrassing exposition. He kept Mulder and Scully apart for most of the episode (indeed, most of the miniseries), robbing the audience of the pairing they so desperately want to see. After last week's infuriating "Babylon," an hour that began with a horrifying suicide bombing and somehow pivoted to an allegedly funny psychedelic trip in which Mulder goes line-dancing, this overcooked finale was depressingly frustrating.
Carter told The New York Times shortly after Monday's finale that he expects "The X-Files" to return to Fox, but gave no indication of when and in what form. If it doesn't return, one of the greatest TV series of all time will end without resolution. If it does return, will this miniseries' two (three, at best) good episodes be enough to entice fans to return? It's a question I'll be asking myself until the moment Season 11 premieres.
See 'Spotlight' at home
This weekend is your last chance to see the eight best picture nominees before the Academy Awards are handed out beginning at 7:30 p.m. Sunday on ABC, and one of the favorites is newly available for rental.
"Spotlight," now available on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital HD, is named for the investigative unit at The Boston Globe that broke landmark stories about child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. It is not a melodramatic, heavy-handed movie that paints Cardinal Law and the clergy as mustache-twirling villains, nor does it go for cheap sentiment and try to make Hollywood heroes out of journalists doing their jobs.
No, "Spotlight" never strikes a false note. Not in its restrained, Oscar-nominated direction by Tom McCarthy ("The Station Agent"), its thorough, Oscar-nominated screenplay by McCarthy and Josh Singer, or in its incomparable cast, featuring two (you guessed it) Oscar-nominated performances by Rachel McAdams and Mark Ruffalo.
Other films are up for more awards this weekend, but "Spotlight" and its six nominations stand tall over the field, an instant classic that deserves a place on the shelf next to "All the President's Men" and "Zodiac."
• Sean Stangland is a Daily Herald multiplatform editor. You can follow him on Twitter at @SeanStanglandDH.