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EPISODE
SEASON
SCHEDULE
The X-Files - Season 11 Episode 08: Familiar
'The truth is out there,' and FBI agents Scully and Mulder seek it in this sci-fi phenomenon about their quest to explain the seemingly unexplainable. Their strange cases include UFO sightings, alien abductions and just about anything else paranormal. The tales were spooky and well-written, but the long-running cult favorite's strength was a gallery of intriguing (when they weren't just enigmatic) characters, and the dynamic---and intense bond---between believer Mulder and skeptic Scully.
15 November 1929, Kansas City, Missouri, USA
27 October 1945, Park Ridge, Illinois, USA
20 January 1973, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
22 June 1948, Colorado, USA
March 08, 2018
"Familiar" is a well-directed and performed X-Files episode, but it ultimately falls into a few too many screenwriting traps to ignore.
March 08, 2018
OK so it wasn't the cleanest path to the truth, but it was at times a gripping, if not campy, journey to get there. The episode did have some genuinely scary and disturbing moments.
March 08, 2018
There's something refreshing about how standalone this episode is - after so many episodes that doubled as commentary on The X-Files, here this season relaxes into the sort of unselfconscious story that made up the bulk of the show.
March 08, 2018
Actively, this is short-sighted, spotty-ass writing, beholden to high-concept ideas without the intelligence or imagination to give them weight, to anchor all the weirdness in anything but grim, typically grotesque bloodshed.
March 08, 2018
I kind of liked it? I mean, there's more to criticize, and we'll get to that, but up until the last five minutes or so, I enjoyed "Familiar," in no small part thanks to the predictable but deeply creepy set-pieces.
March 08, 2018
"Familiar" works in a way no other "serious" episodes have lately. There's no incoherent William drama, no awkward struggle to incorporate fan-service cameos.
March 08, 2018
In a perfect world there might be at least one or two more episodes like "Familiar" in the mix. But as always with The X-Files, we take what we get, and are more often than not grateful we're getting it at all.

