From: ask-me-in-public-if-you-want-my-address@address.invalid   
      
   Yesterday night my wife and I watched the pilot episode, this time in   
   the original English.   
      
   It was the first time for her, who is younger than me and was just a   
   child at the time of the original broadcast.  In 1994, at the time of   
   the first broadcast in Italy, I was in high school; I watched the nine   
   original seasons on television, dubbed in Italian.  I think I missed two   
   or three episodes in total, and for some reason the movies.   
      
   Yesterday I thought that I was watching the pilot for only the second   
   time in thirty years, but now I remember one more showing that I did not   
   miss: in Italy as a sort of celebration for long-time fans, in august   
   2002 before the the last double episode s09e19-20 they re-broadcast the   
   pilot, which I did not miss -- and then immediately after that,   
   certainly not by chance, some trashy news service about unexplained   
   “paranormal” sightings in Italy: I remember “the reptile-man of the   
   Padan plain”.  Big laughs.  “Studio Aperto” was a trashy news-reporting   
   bonanza back then in 2002, every day.  If it still exists it probably   
   still is.   
      
   So, the pilot.  Be it thirty years later or only twenty it does not   
   change much: after such a long time the viewer has had time to turn into   
   a different person, with different expectations and a different   
   mentality, maybe in some small part also as an effect of the series   
   itself.  What impressed me?  Maybe the series did not look as visually   
   polished and “perfect” as I remembered; we have been spoiled by recent   
   series.  Mulder looked like much more of a crank than I remembered, at   
   the beginning of the episode -- but the end completely vindicated him   
   showing that his suspiciousness was justified; intriguing, and very   
   intelligently conceived, leaving the viewer wishing for more.  The   
   conflict of mentalities between Scully and Mulder started subdued,   
   initially by Scully's professional politeness, and eventually by her   
   being confronted with very strong evidence of both some mystery and its   
   suppression by the authorities: by the end of the first episode Scully   
   and Mulder already seem to stand firmly on the same side.   
      
   I have never been a believer in the paranormal myself -- not that this   
   stops me from enjoying a work of fiction set in a universe where the   
   paranormal is real; I enjoy Homer as well, without taking Greek gods   
   seriously in real life.  When I was young I was definitely not a   
   believer in big high-level conspiracies either, or in governments   
   working plainly against the public interest; the latest years, alas,   
   changed that.   
   The epic clash between heavy-handed government hiding the truth and a   
   small, comparatively powerless group of people trying to expose it   
   remains, to me, the main charm of the series, back in the 1990s like   
   now.   
      
   The first episode lacked a little humour: I think the first explicitly   
   comedic episodes start coming in season 2 or 3.   
      
   My wife found the episode frightening.  I tried reassuring her telling   
   her that this is a mystery series without much violence, and usually not   
   of the visual kind; certainly much tamer than modern series.  And yet,   
   by the end, I have to admit that the episode indeed turned darker than I   
   remembered.  Very engaging to watch, and I would say even better as a   
   shared experience.   
   I would like to watch the entire series again, in order.  My lady has   
   not decided yet if she will also keep watching the entire series; if she   
   drops out I will continue by myself, but I hope she remains in front of   
   the screen with me for the entire run.   
      
   --   
   Beard   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)