Quick Take
- Narration: Joe Hempel maintains consistent energy across twenty-one hours of critical writing, no small feat for discursive material.
- Themes: television as cultural artifact, the gap between creative ambition and execution, nostalgia and critical reassessment
- Mood: Intellectually engaged and occasionally argumentative, best enjoyed episode-by-episode alongside a rewatch
- Verdict: The definitive critical companion to The X-Files, essential for devoted viewers who want smart company through all nine seasons and the revival.
I was in college when The X-Files was in its original run, and I watched it the way people watched appointment television then, with genuine suspense about what the next episode might do and genuinely no way to look it up afterward. Monsters of the Week landed on my listening list during a week when I was rewatching the series from the beginning, which turned out to be exactly the right context. Zack Handlen and Todd VanDerWerff’s episode-by-episode critical companion is a twenty-one-hour conversation about a show that has outlasted its own cultural moment and still repays serious attention.
The book originated as A.V. Club recaps that Handlen and VanDerWerff wrote across the original series run and the revival, and has been revised and updated for this collection. An original foreword by creator Chris Carter opens the proceedings, and exclusive interviews with stars and screenwriters are woven throughout. The scope is comprehensive: every episode, through the revival, assessed with the perspective of writers who lived through the show’s peak and its long decline.
Our Take on Monsters of the Week
What makes this more than a fan compendium is the quality of the disagreement between the two critics. Handlen and VanDerWerff have different sensibilities and different investments in the material, and the episodes where they diverge produce the book’s most interesting passages. One reviewer describes the experience as finding two writers offering consistently insightful takes while also acknowledging an unfortunate sense of doom that invades the reviews of early mythology episodes, a recognition from writers who lived through the show in real time of what the mythology arc eventually became. That honesty is rarer in critical companion volumes than it should be, and it is what elevates this book above simple appreciation.
Why Listen to Monsters of the Week
Narrator Joe Hempel handles twenty-one hours of dense critical writing with admirable consistency. The material is inherently discursive, covering episode-length reflections on individual installments with diversions into the show’s production history and cultural context, and Hempel keeps the energy present without artificially inflating it. One reviewer describes the book as no fat, all meat, which is accurate in terms of the writing’s quality, though twenty-one hours of anything is a commitment that self-selects for devoted fans. This is not background listening. It rewards focused attention in ways that straightforward narrative audiobooks do not.
What to Watch For in Monsters of the Week
One reviewer draws an explicit distinction between this book and a traditional episode guide: the emphasis here is critical analysis, with the authors’ opinions reflecting their own sensibilities and preferences as much as objective assessment. That is not a flaw. It is the point. The book is not trying to tell you what happened in each episode. It is trying to tell you what to think about what happened, and to make a case for thinking carefully about a show that was often dismissed as disposable entertainment. Listeners who want neutral episode summaries should look elsewhere. Listeners who want genuine critical engagement with the show’s ideas and failures will find this rewarding and occasionally bracing.
Who Should Listen to Monsters of the Week
This audiobook is for longtime X-Files viewers who want a critical companion to deepen or complicate their relationship with the series. It is not an introduction to the show and would make little sense to anyone unfamiliar with the episodes being discussed. For the dedicated viewer who has always wanted someone smart to argue with about whether the mythology episodes hold up, or which monster-of-the-week installments are genuinely great rather than just nostalgically beloved, Handlen and VanDerWerff provide exactly that company across twenty-one substantial hours.
One thing worth noting for listeners considering this as a rewatch companion: the book’s critical perspective is most valuable for the episodes you think you remember but may be misremembering. The show’s reputation has been shaped partly by its best episodes and partly by nostalgia. Handlen and VanDerWerff are willing to disturb both, and that willingness is precisely what makes Monsters of the Week a companion worth the commitment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Handlen and VanDerWerff cover the X-Files revival seasons in Monsters of the Week?
Yes. The book covers the original nine seasons and the subsequent revival episodes, having been updated from the original A.V. Club recaps to include the later material.
Is Monsters of the Week designed to be listened to alongside a rewatch of The X-Files?
Multiple reviewers used it exactly that way and found it greatly enhanced the experience. The episode-by-episode structure makes it natural to listen to each review after watching the corresponding episode.
How do Handlen and VanDerWerff handle the mythology arc episodes, which many viewers consider the show’s weakest element?
One reviewer notes an unfortunate sense of doom in the mythology reviews, suggesting the critics are frank about the arc’s problems rather than defending it out of loyalty to the show.
Does the Chris Carter foreword add meaningful context to the companion?
Carter’s foreword opens the book and provides his perspective as creator. Given the critical nature of the companion, it is an interesting framing device, though the book’s value lies in Handlen and VanDerWerff’s voices rather than Carter’s.
