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

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