The X Files - Lord of the Flies

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This was an attempt to inject humor and parody into The X-Files in this ninth season offering, Lord of the Flies, about a teenage boy experiencing puberty which draws flies towards those he doesn't like while his desire and budding love for childhood friend, Natalie, imposes a biological reaction his mother (Jane Lynch!) tries to speak to him about. Aaron Paul of Breaking Bad is a bully kid conducting Jackass stunts as his brother records them on camera. Branden Williams is Natalie's boyfriend, begging her to help perform a dangerous stunt that Dylan Lokensguard (Hank Harris), must prevent. When the idiot on a cart careens away from Natalie, turning over to reveal a caved-in face due to a "collapsed skull deteriorated by female flies" (determined in analyses by Scully) it is later tied to Dylan's fear she'd be hurt. Dylan later learns he is some biological anomaly between human and bug, thanks to his mother's DNA. They both cocoon folks, as a bug specialist always hitting on Scully and speaking in third person with a celeb weatherman cadence and delivery learns when encountering Mommy Lokensguard. Flies rushing from the eye and mouth of a corpse, cocooning webbing spraying from the mouths of Lynch and Harris, Harris's face covered by flies, dumbass etched by lice into the lower back of Paul, Jackass inspired stunts involving baseballs to the crotch, a car dragging Williams in a shitbox by Paul, and such, and Scully disregarding Rocky Bronzino's advances (with pheromones in a conversation used in the attempt to seduce Scully!) are thrown at us in the hopes of charming and / or amusing us. It has worked in the past and Manners was a trusted and often successful hand, but this era of the series just feels mismatched to that type of material. Reyes and Doggett aren't really the kind of wink-wink / nudge-nudge duo Scully and Mulder so often were. Even in this episode Scully feels suited to Bronzino's flirty and failed brand of mugging and bravado, trying to not to roll her eyes every time he strikes out. She naturally has become flexible with material that goes into the comedic and can then return to very serious subject matter without feeling like two separate characters while Reyes and Doggett appear out of their comfort zone, never quite easing into the humorously fantastic. Patrick, who does have the ability to poke fun at himself with capable tongue-in-cheek chops, as Doggett doesn't look comfortable at all while Gish just hasn't been called upon with Reyes to play off of the ridiculous aspects of an episode like this.  Hoping to make the season fun is an attempt I totally understand and appreciate, but these leads don't seem to have the right DNA for it. The teenage hormones and blossoming romance combined with flies and web cocoons shoehorned in an intense era of The X-Files feels out of place. Didn't work for me but could be for the right kind of audience. Samaire Armstrong as Natalie is very appealing and cute, certainly reason enough for Dylan to send glow flies to her to declare his love. I'm just like Doggett when it comes to the Jackass shtick.