In 1993, the monster-of-the-week series “The X-Files” flung open the back door to the Internet’s conspiracy theory world and slapped a pair of charming faces on the bizarre underground. Special agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and skeptical partner Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) were your guides to the insane rabbit hole that was 1990s big-brother trolling. And it looks as though the world is still ready to believe, because the band is getting back together starting Jan. 24 for a six-episode miniseries on Fox. Series creator Chris Carter has returned with classic “X-Files” characters such as the Smoking Man and the Lone Gunmen in hopes of channeling chills from the series with the familiar whistling title opening.
But how can a show that was so innately tied to a past paranoia reach a generation with its own fresh fears? Perhaps by taking on the doubters head on with a new character, over-the-top conservative news anchor and staunch conspiracy theorist Tad O’Malley, played by Joel McHale. He knows all past classified government cases by memory (seriously, Mulder quizzes O’Malley about random UFO cases upon their first meet and greet), but maybe that’s just what the government wants him to know? It should be interesting to see how a new age of “The X-Files” will adapt to the social media age. And how can Mulder and Scully fight against the man if they’re apparently working for him?
We saw it happen to “Battlestar Galactica” and “Game of Thrones.” Now Terry Brooks’ fantasy series from the 1970s and ’80s, “The Shannara Chronicles,” is getting run through the Hollywood hot machine thanks to MTV. Also mined from the 1970s is HBO’s “Westworld.”
Little is known about this secretive series, besides the cast. And it’s impressive: Ed Harris, Anthony Hopkins, Thandie Newton, James Marsden, Evan Rachel Wood. Series creators Jonathan Nolan (writer of “Interstellar” and show runner for “Person of Interest”) and Lisa Joy are adapting Michael Crichton’s 1973 thriller (starring Yul Brynner) into something new. However, it appears that the original premise is intact: In the future, there’s an amusement park filled with humanoid robots that can re-create various scenarios for high-paying customers, including a vintage Wild, Wild West experience complete with gunslingers and boozy saloons. As all good things normally do, things go awry one day and the robots change. The original film is an often-forgotten but nonetheless compelling look at our own value of life. And with J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk included as executive producers, there’s a lot of anticipation that the androids will do more than seduce high-paying customers in old-timey bordello dresses. Of course, it’s HBO, so there will be some of that, but we’re hoping for more than salacious robot relations.
