Why So Blu?

The X-Files – The Event Series (Blu-ray Review)

I guess it all depends upon what you want to call it, The Event Series or Season 10, but make no mistake about it, The X-Files was revived some 13 years later and came back stronger than ever this past January on prime time television.  If you suffered with me through my epic Blu-ray review of the massive 55-disc box set last year (found right here), then you’ll know fans don’t get any bigger than this guy right here.  I freaking love everything about the show, even putting up with the stupid mythology episodes when I have to, which did hamper this short 6-episode “season” a bit, but I digress.  However, when it comes to The X-Files, I’ll take what I can get.  You hearing me, Scully?  That’s why I’m overjoyed not only to have six new episodes on the Blu-ray home media format, but also honored to once again to be covering/reviewing a television “event” series like this that’s so near and dear to my probably cardiovascular diseased heart.  I want to believe and I know so do y’all so let’s get started.

Season

So I’m about as happy as a pig in slop to kick things off here.  So here’s the deal!  It’s almost 14 years after the original series run, and the next chapter of The X-Files is back with a thrilling, rather satisfying, six-episode event series from creator/executive producer Chris Carter.  Best of all stars David Duchovny and my college years crush, Gillian Anderson, reinhabit their roles as iconic FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Mitch Pileggi also returns as FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner, Mulder and Scully’s boss.  If you remember this bald man, he’s the only who always walks a fine line between loyalty to these Mulder and Scully and accountability to his superiors, most notably the Cancer Man (William B. Davis — as pictured below), as Mulder historically has referred to him as during early seasons of the show.  So yeah I guess you could easily say that this Blu-ray set marks the momentous return of the Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning pop culture phenomenon, which remains one of the longest-running sci-fi series in network television history.  Hell to the yeah!

The tenth season, whatever you want to call it, premiered on Fox this past January 24th.  Sadly, as stated before, the season only last six brief episodes.  In other words, it goes by way too quickly.  If you’re one for math, this season takes place fourteen years after the ninth season, which concluded in 2002, and seven years after the second feature film, The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008).  Now I don’t know how you feel about it, but those last two seasons of The X-Files were rough ones with Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish stepping in to take the lead in Anderson and Duchovny’s absences.  I mention Annabeth Gish’s name specifically because her character pops back up in this tenth season, but I digress.  This whole “event” is full of guest surprises so let’s get down to business.

So although the mythology of going back to where the TV series left off, focusing specifically on the alien invasion and colonization of Earth foretold in the series finale, is intact here, thankfully it’s only the bookend episodes leaving 4 very satisfying stand-alone episodes, know to us fans as “Monster-of-the-Week” ones, to have lots of fun with.  I’ll get to those satisfying ones in a moment, but the very first epsiode of season 10 sees us reconnecting with the reunion of the only people that matter in this series (in my opinion), Mulder and Scully, and features guest star Josh McHale who will also factor into the concluding episodes.  Remember I said bookends, right?  Bingo!  By the way, the proof is in the pudding.  The first and last episodes were met with lukewarm to negative reviews from critics, whereas episodes two through five were generally well received with the all-star being the third one, which I consider one of the finest hours ever for The X-Files.

Episodes in this season include “My Struggle,” “Founder’s Mutation,” “Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster” and “Home Again,” which can be found on Blu-ray disc 1 in this set while the last two, “Babylon” and “My Struggle II,” can be found on disc 2.  I thought about discussing each episode individually and I don’t want to come across lazy as not doing so, but I decided against because I want them to be fresh for anyone reading this who has not visited them yet.  The majority of them, most notably the stand-alone episodes, are smart and fun, and the bookend episodes…well…that’s the UFO mumbo-jumbo mythology of the series longtime fans have had to endure for what seems like forever now.

So let’s skip the intro episode and the last episode of the season, which does leave things ripe for another season and focus on the middle stand-alone ones real quick.  These are where you can have fun with everyone’s favorite, the third one, where Mulder and Scully chase after a Were-Monster and we ironically see Mulder question everything he normally would believe in and even an episode where Mulder trips on a placebo and we see him line dancing down here in Austin, Texas of all places (see the screen shot above).  Now I did not forget about Scully either.  She’s looking hotter than ever thanks to all the work she must have had done, but the real all-stars of these episodes are the guest stars such as Silicon Valley‘s Kumali Nanjiani and Rhys Darby (hilariously pictured here) in the “Were-Monster” one to even a younger set of agents, Six Foot Under‘s Lauren Ambrose and Robbie Amell, who are very much like Barbie and Ken doll versions of our infamous agents complete with ridiculous names too (pictured below).  You’ll find out what I mean about that.

As you can see in the paragraph up above we’re treated to a lot of fun in these six episodes as well as the continuation of the show’s “alien” mythology, like it or not.  While I can’t say enough good things about the stand-alone episodes, I’m not going to dismiss the mythology ones either.  I’m just happy to have Mulder and Scully back.  So is it me or is Scully hotter than ever (wait until you see her strip tease in the third episode as pictured here) and is Mulder’s face becoming a little Brad Pitt-like?   I don’t know because I digress.  I will say this though.  If you’re able to hang with all six episodes here like I was I can’t see you not wanting more of a resolution than what we are given in the final minutes of the season here.  It ends leaving you wanting more.  However, truth be told, I’m scared of where they might go with things.  A hell of a lot goes down in this final episode.   Either way, it looks like we will be getting more Mulder and Scully in 2017 or ’18, and that’s never a bad thing in my opinion.

Video

• Encoding: AVC MPEG-4
• Resolution: 1080p
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Clarity/Detail: Simply put, this is the best The X-Files have ever looked.  Everything is razor sharp from the geography and landscapes to Scully’s new Botox look.  Not an astray hair on Mulder’s head goes unaccounted for.  Fans of the show will really love how chiseled sharp things are etched throughout in this one such as textures in clothes, bricks and other set environments to Mulder’s new stubble in the first episode and other various closeups.  Even Mitch Pileggi sports some facial hair.  I will say this though the clarity of the outside forest scenes in the third episode is so good, it’s almost alien in nature.
• Depth: Depth of field is all abound here.  There’s not a shot that doesn’t look authentic yet deep from the sweeping landscapes of the show’s UFO crash in the 1940’s that seem to go on forever to the secret layer where an AVR (Alien Vehicle Replica) is securely stored, or is it?  Outdoor alleys or hospital hallways, just to name another few, look fantastic too.  I again want to call out those forest scenes in my favorite third episode here.  Holy hell, those scenes just pop with three-dimensional goodness.
• Black Levels: The black levels are deep and inky just like this reviewer loves them.  The scenes shot at night look absolutely outstanding.
• Color Reproduction: I don’t want to say things are bright and vibrant, but the crap if they’re not.  The colors just pop while remaining as realistic and faithful as possible in a very good way.
• Flesh Tones: The skin tones are all lifelike and authentic looking throughout the six-episode series, but under certain lighting conditions they can be a bit hot like this one bar scene in the second episode.
• Noise/Artifacts: I did not notice any noise or unwanted artifacts that would keep you from enjoying this near perfect presentation.  It looked like a faithful recreation of the 1990’s show, but one that has been ushered into the 2010’s with a crisp, new, rejuvenated look if that makes any sense.  In other words, it has that trademark “cinematic feel” that the original X-Files had.

Audio

• Audio Format(s): English 5.1 DTS-HD-MA, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 DTS
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Dynamics: I think one of the first things you’ll notice upon settling down with these six-episodes is things sound rather subtle, but ask yourself this.  Has The X-Files ever sounded like a rock star, action film?  The correct answer is no it has not so why would this presentation be any different?  Rather, things are prioritized throughout with an eerie atmosphere to boot giving us a sense of space and dimension, but once again it’s pretty low key.  However, it’s balanced.  Beggars can’t be choosers.
• Low Frequency Extension: You will also instantly notice the subwoofer is  very subtle here, but makes its presence known when called upon for special effects or that little bit of oomph needed for a particular action scene.
• Surround Sound Presentation: The surround channels mostly come to life during the action, peril and horror moments, duh!  But honestly, it’s the score and soundtrack that mostly infects them.  Episode 2’s “Founder’s Mutation” is probably the most impressive moments of surround sound here where the screeching all around you will have you squirming in your viewing chair.
• Dialogue Reproduction: The dialog is clear, intelligible and prioritized throughout the six episodes.  I never had a problem hearing any spoken word.

Extras

What I like about the extras here is the fact that along with some basic EPK-style footage, deleted scenes and what not we have three audio commentaries to listen to here, most importantly on the best episode too, “Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster.”  However, what’s best of all is the near 90-minute doc on this, another 53-minute one and believe it or not, the gag reel too.  It’s actually worth watching.  Hell, who am I kidding?  These extras are amazing and quite lengthy considering the season only had 6 episodes.  The only thing I don’t like is the fact that like the Blu-ray seasons sold individually or part of last year’s box set, there’s no Digital Copies of any kind to be found here.  Boo!  I’m glad I purchased the iTunes HD copy of “Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster” so I can enjoy it wherever and whenever I want.  So now that I got that major gripe out of the way, let’s take a look at the amplitude of stuff that Fox gives us to play with here on both Blu-ray discs.

Disc1:

• Audio Commentary on “Founder’s Mutation” with Chris Carter and James Wong
• Audio Commentary on “Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster” with David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Kumail Nanjiani and Darin Morgan – Take note.  This one is where the money’s at!

Disc 2:

• Audio Commentary on “My Struggle II” with Chris Carter and Gabe Rotter
• Deleted & Extended Scenes (HD, 5:21) – Have a gander at some deleted scenes and all here, but nothing in the end that I can’t live without.
• 43:45 The Makings of a Struggle (HD, 53:55) – Here we have a wealth of interviews with all the players involved in what it took to bring back this series for this historic six-episode event.

• Season X (HD, 1:23:16) – Here we have a very in-depth behind-the-scenes look at The Event Series and most importantly, how it all came to be…the 20th anniversary celebration of the show at San Diego Comic-Con 2013.  This one has so much, but in all honesty it was quite a hoot just to see David and Gillian back in action and reunited.  It’s such a good time to be had.  A Play All functionality is available here or you can chose from the many following segments: A 13-Year Commercial Break, Getting The Band Back Together, Platonic Activity, Art Comes To Life, The Little Uber-Scullys, Man Bites Lizard, The Meta-Files, Homegrown Terror, Mulder’s Wild Ride, Signal To Noise, The Last Temptation of Mulder & Scully, Scully Likes Science and This Is The End.
• Gag Reel (HD, 9:38) – This is quite an extended gag reel clocking in over nine minutes long.  My favorite was for some reason was Gillian fondling her breast while trying to reach for her cell phone.  Oops!  Wrong pocket!  She has quite the mouth on her too.  LOL.
• Monsters of the Week (HD, 10:54) –  Kumail talks about his love for The X-Files and the podcast he once had so it makes sense that he hosts this extra, basically a recap of the wildest and scariest from the original series.  You know those most excellent stand-alone episodes.  This one showcases nine episodes, one from each season.  Eugene Tooms and the Fluke Man!
• The X-Files: Green Production PSA (HD, 2:44) – This is basically all about greening the show, eliminating the use of unnecessary plastics.  Yawn!  Haha.  This one also shows how everything was recycled at every location.  Yay!
• Short Film “Grace” by Karen Nielsen (HD, 9:36) – You guessed it, this is a short film by the script coordinator of this six-episode event.  Maybe I’m being a snob, but I don’t understand why this is on here and nor did I care about.  It’s just a small girl living in dystopia.  Not much to see here, nor is it really X-Files relevant at all.

Summary

So you made it this far into my review.  What the hell are you doing still reading this?  Your fingers, if they haven’t already, should be clicking on the many order links below to bring home The X-Files: The Event Series on Blu-ray ASAP.  Sure it’s only six episodes in length, but The X-Files have never looked and sounded so good, not to mention a wealth of premium extras in here that rivals what most movies release with their Blu-ray outings.  The truth continues to be out there so bring The X-Files: The Event Series home today by ordering here and make your family happy.  I had a grand ole time reviewing this one and I wouldn’t be the least surprised if this one somehow finds its way on my Top 10 Blu-ray list this year.  I’m just saying.  Stranger things have happened and I honestly cannot recommend this one enough, especially for all the long time, faithful X-Files fans out there.  You know who you are!

*

*