My Struggle (The X-Files)
In this episode, Mulder is contacted by Scully at the behest of FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), who wants him to meet a right-wing online webcaster named Tad O'Malley (McHale).
The episode opens with a monologue by Fox Mulder detailing alien-related events in history, leading up to his partnership with Dana Scully and their investigations into the X-Files.
The subsequent scene takes place in 1947, when an unnamed military doctor is escorted by a Man in Black via bus to the site of a crashed spacecraft in the New Mexico desert.
Moving to the present day, fourteen years after the closure of the X-Files, Mulder is contacted by Scully at the behest of FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner, who wants him to meet a right-wing online webcaster named Tad O'Malley.
Instead, Mulder thinks it was a "conspiracy of men" who have used extraterrestrial technology on human parties for decades, and these events were subsequently made to look like alien abductions.
Mulder outlines a global conspiracy involving the hoarding and testing of alien technology which will be utilized at some future point to stage an attack on America and eventually take over the world.
Following these revelations, Mulder shares his theory with Scully that the conspiracy is a group armed with alien technology attempting to subvert society and assume power over the world.
The episode ends revealing the Cigarette Smoking Man alive in the present day, receiving word via telephone that the X-Files have been re-opened.
[1] Carter adapted the series to the political and social climate of America during the presidency of Barack Obama, and stated that there would be "plenty of references to Edward Snowden, WikiLeaks, and Julian Assange.
[3][4] Joel McHale was announced as a guest star in June 2015, playing Tad O'Malley, a conservative Internet news anchor who is an unlikely ally of Mulder's.
Sadie Gennis of TV Guide wrote, "The episode immediately establishes that this is not a reboot nor a mere cash grab, but a thoughtful continuation of the beloved franchise.
Brian Lowry of Variety magazine panned the opening episode, writing, "It's simply hard to escape the prevailing malaise of this being a deal-driven exercise, a chance to cash in on the name recognition of the title in a format that mitigated the time commitment for all concerned.
"[18] Similarly, Tim Goodman, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, described the premiere as "a very underwhelming hour that will force even diehard fans [...] to consider whether pushing onward is really worth the time".
Ultimately, he wrote that "the first episode demonstrates some of The X-Files' weaker tendencies, though it possesses a hokey charm, one that comes from pretending as though the past 15 years of television never happened".
[24] David Zurawik of The Baltimore Sun wrote positively of the episode, applauding the show for exploring the darker side of American politics; he noted that the episode "is all richly textured in the sense of darkness at the heart of America's secret political life [...] I love the dark cultural touchstones this series explores.
