Here’s the frustrating thing: Carter still knows how to deliver on this level, as well. “Plus One,” his non-mythology episode this season, included Mulder and Scully’s tender, melancholy ruminations on the intertwining of their lives. It spoke to the segment of the fandom that has enjoyed tracking the FBI partners’ evolution into a romantic pair. And it was a creepy doppelganger story with some great dialogue, to boot.
We’ll never know whether a focus on those Weirdness of the Week-type stories — rather than bookending the run with the global, nefarious, hard-to-follow collusion plot Carter seems to love — would have helped Season 11’s ratings, which started with 5.2 million total viewers and a 1.3 demo rating but dove to under 4 mil and 1.0, never to recover. But I would’ve liked to see The X-Files try.
Look, those ratings likely mean that a Season 12 renewal is about as far from a sure thing as Agent Pendrell coming back from the dead. That’s why it feels like the right time for a new tack, for Carter to step back and let a mix of his trusted associates like Wong and Darin Morgan take a crack at running the series — or better yet, hand over the reins to former executive producer Vince Gilligan.
That might do the trick… or so I want to believe.
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