Having read the comic like you, I’m very nervous for exactly where they left things off. Some shit is obviously about to go down, and if it goes like it does in the comic then at least one character who I’ve come to like in the show (if not in the comic) is seconds away from a grisly end.

Your argument only works because of lack of data. To really prove your poinnt, you would have to demonstrate that the ratings wouldn’t have similarly declined if Scully had left and Mulder stayed.

She has her own TV shows, she’s winning awards on stage, she doesn’t need this shit. She is the only reason I’m going to watch the show - I never really cared for DD, and he comes off as a bit of a prima dona sometimes. She’s why I watched the original show for so long, and she’s the ONLY reason I’m going to watch the…

To be fair I think if it was Gillian who had left the show would’ve lost rating as well.

In the context of the show, there is no X-Files without both Mulder and Scully. I stopped watching after Mulder left, and I would’ve equally stopped had Scully left.

Anderson was a prominent cast member on one-critically-acclaimed show, and also headlined/headlines her own critically-acclaimed show.

I’d argue she is actually more famous than duchovney now. Especially after Hannibal and The Fall. Other than Californication, has Duchovney done anything of note? Not to mention she hasn’t had any addiction problems, is generally a better actress, and somehow managed to Benjamin button herself.

Chris Carter is like George Lucas or even Gene Roddenberry: an excellent idea man and creator who is terrible at writing content for their own creation.

Amen Mando, I don’t want to be right!

Morgan and Wong, Darin Morgan, Spotnitz, Gilligan, Anderson and Duchovny. They made the show into what it was, not Carter. Chris Carter is like Gene Roddenberry; I love Star Trek, but the best things about it are ultimately things Roddenberry didn’t touch.

You have captured how I feel about this 100%. Trying to ignore it and hope for the best because I love the show so much. But I am pretty worried they are going to screw this up. M&S SHOULD be together, we spent a decade getting there! You don’t go back on that! The M&S relationship was THE best thing in the second…

So instead of showing the tension, the strain on their relationship caused by their specific personalities, it’s better to say in exposition that “we’re broken up now, you were too obsessive/not trusting enough” and then show another 10 episodes of the same exact tension that we say 7 seasons of?

Exactly. The fact of the matter is a complex romantic relationship is harder to write, which is why so many writers stay stuck on love triangles and will they/won’t they back & forth bs. Chris Carter is a lazy writer who cannot write mulder & scully being together in a compelling way.

This article is painfully accurate.

Chris Carter, a lazy storyteller? Say it isn’t so!

You had me all in until the second to last paragraph. I disagree that this manipulation will work. There comes a time when frustration over lack of character progression causes not just anger but actual defection. But generally, I agree with just about everything you said before that.

I’ve been a fan of The X-Files since the very beginning. And what I think Chris Carter fails to understand is that his precious mythology was muddled and nonsensical. Many fans, myself included, stopped watching for the mytharc and watched for the Mulder/Scully relationship. THEY were the ones who made the show…

We put some of the tension back in that was relieved by them being together.

Bryan Fuller teased that perhaps it could be a place setting for other characters... perhaps Hannibal’s uncle Robertus and Lady Murasaki?