Written and directed by James Wong, Ghouli sees the series try to latch on to internet trends of monster fan fiction, specifically a nod towards the way the Slenderman stories became real-life tragedies. Although Slenderman is not specifically referenced, it's clear where the inspiration came from, particularly when looking through the cute tie-in website which is featured in the show, ghouli.net. When The X-Files first began, it was a hit with chat groups in the infancy of the Web... fast-forward to 2018 and the show is now creating hoax websites to reflect non-existent internet activities.
Whatever verve the series once had back in the 90s has now largely evaporated along with the chemistry between the two leads. Though as the three headline stars now have a combined age of 171, it's perhaps no small surprise that even the most octane-driven scene tends to meander by. Mulder and Scully's missing son features prominently in this episode's narrative, which does cause considerable issues with how believable the series now is. After all, if Mulder and Scully really did fear for the life of their child, it would make the mundane parts of their lives almost impossible to inhabit, as well as making the non-"mythology" episodes an impossibility for anyone other than emotionless androids. Perhaps that explains Duchovny's acting...
Lastly, the title of this episode may produce amusement among extremely puerile UK fans, whereby "goolie" has another meaning...
The issue with modern X-Files is that the show has suddenly become so staid. Not only does the age and general boredom of the leads produce a mogadon-like effect on the viewer, but it all seems very samey. Kitten shakes things up a little, the first script credit for novelist Gabe Rotter, who was co-producer of season ten. Suddenly, just because things are a little different, there seems to be a new kind of energy on the programme.
Sadly, it does begin to sink under the weight of constant exposition - Anderson sounds particularly listless - and it only emerges as a decent instalment in comparison to the others surrounding it. Carol Banker adds some pace as director, but when it concludes with Skinner delivering trite platitudes, the "like no human actually speaks" dialogue begins to strain credulity, and possibly suggests that, as Rotter was writer's assistant on 19 episodes, that Chris Carter isn't always to blame. Haley Joel Osment is striking as a guest star, but in any other season this would be subpar, not a highlight.
Familar was written by Benjamin Van Allen, a writers' assistant on the series since it came back. Not for the first time the eleventh season plunders the current Slender Man fad... although such urban myths fuelled the original series anyway, in 2018 it can't help but feel the programme is tired and resting on the coattails of others. It's not that this is a carbon copy of the "creepy pasta" tale, more the feeling of a series on the outside looking in, wanting its own variation on a current populist trend.
Despite the fact that the basis of the episode can be somewhat... familiar(!)... it's a striking episode in that it looks at the unsavoury topic of infanticide and sexual predators. The X-Files actually has a checkered history with such themes, with the chilling season three episode Oubliette looking into child abduction and, less commendably, the lacklustre second movie which had Billy Connolly portraying a convicted child molester. This second part reoccurs here, where the series attempts the unusual stance of trying to sympathise with such characters, with Mulder stating that a convicted paedophile is being tried for "sins of the past". While such elements allow for an interesting take on the subject and an exploration of mob rule, it's a very odd tack for a mainstream television series to take.
Such gritty ruminations are watered down by a very silly witches-and-demons plot, as well as some crushing moments of exposition. The scene where a cop tells his partner, without any emotion, that the suspect of his son's murder was someone who "gets off on it" is the kind of thing that should have been removed after the first draft. The use of below-par actors, most notably Alex Carter as the police chief, does also bring to mind some of the earliest episodes where a "guest star of the week" couldn't always be guaranteed to get above TV Movie level acting. (In Carter's defence, it's not many actors who could deliver a line as bad as "I've opened the gates of Hell!" with a straight face).
Ultimately Familiar is one of the most striking episodes of the season, with a central monster who has been admitted by the writer as being inspired by Mr. Noseybonk, nightmare-inducing kid's TV character of 80s series Jigsaw. But there are two very different stories at work, a very serious topic buried beneath a sillier, more generic supernatural plot. Van Allen spoke of his desire to write a traditional and classic X-Files story, but instead has come up with something muddled and lacking true focus.
Of the original 201 episodes, just SIX had involvement from female writers, and one of those was written by star Gillian Anderson. The use of two female voices here (even if it's director Glen Morgan's wife and former executive assistant) is a welcome change.
Unfortunately it's hard to understand in what universe this X-Files episode is set, as Mulder and Scully each now live in technology-led homes that seem unlike anything seen before in the series. Although this is very much a comedy episode with a real quirky tone, it still feels oddly out of place, more The Goodies meets Black Mirror than The X-Files. Far more rewarding is the near-silent nature of the episode, which gives it a very different feel to the standard fare. Overall, it's a good instalment, as evidenced by its high placing here, but it too frequently blurs the line between inspired and indulgent, and the series is long way from when it was essential viewing...
It's hard to say how much life the programme has left when it requires a Darin Morgan episode to breathe life into it. Having someone annually deconstruct the entire show is the kind of thing that should be an exception to the norm, not the lifeblood on which it depends.
The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat is, for the first act, the kind of thing Morgan can write in his sleep, though is still frequently hilarious. This is an episode that's not ashamed to do a "Uranus" gag, made palatable by the fine comic timing of guest star Brian Huskey. Where it seriously moves up another gear is by inserting Huskey into clips of previous episodes, including a delightfully bitchy dig at below-par instalment Teso Dos Bichos.
A final amusing punchline featuring Mitch Pileggi is somewhat signposted by him featuring in the opening credits... the same kind of short-sighted planning that saw Steven Williams's "surprise" appearance in Wetwired underwhelming as a result. Nevertheless, while The X-Files in 2018 seems only a fraction of what it once was, episodes like this - complete with more-than-welcome Twilight Zone homage - prove that it can still deliver the goods.