neXt Review: File #7 (Season 1 Episode 7)
neXt Season 1 Episode 7, “File #7,” is finally gaining some forward momentum as it brings the characters and plotlines together.
This is one of those episodes that, in retrospect, makes you appreciate some of the more lackluster episodes that have preceded it because what makes this episode work, for the most part, is that a lot of this is coming to a head. It’s not a payoff — because nothing’s really resolved — but it is satisfying to have some of these threads being brought together.
Without those episodes to build this up, this one probably wouldn’t work as well as it does. It’s this baseline enjoyment that something is actually happening on the show now. This is like getting credit for attendance to a useless class in college, but you shouldn’t look a gift-horse in the mouth.
It’s as if we’ve been stuck in quicksand for the past couple of episodes and now we can finally walk again: any kind of forward motion is going to feel awesome.
This goes beyond that, though. There’s a kind of comfort knowing that a show is going somewhere. Even if it’s not doing so in a particularly hurried manner, the show has goals and checkpoints that it’s trying to clear again, which makes it feel like it’s worth at least some of our time.
Ultimately, that’s what a lot of this comes down to. This is a show that has already been canceled, as such, we will never see or hear from it again once the season is over. So we have to ask ourselves: why should we care about this and what reason do we have to continue watching?
In a situation like this, that needs to be because you find it at least a little bit compelling. That’s the lowest bar that it needs to clear for our ongoing engagement. Anything less than that is an abject waste of our time.
There have been points throughout this season where it hasn’t necessarily reached that point. It has been so consumed with establishing what it is and wants to do that it hasn’t always grabbed us. “Case #7,” however, makes the case for it being the tiniest bit intriguing.
There is a real investment in what is going on throughout this episode with trying to nail down Ted, Shea’s increasing erraticism, and a truer sense of what all of this is culminating to. One of the weaker parts of this entire show has been Ben and even he is getting a clearer view into what makes him tick and some of his motivations.
To be sure, it’s not the best. The government deciding that they can keep the dangerous force on a leash isn’t a very novel concept but it works well enough. More than anything, it’s something. That’s all this show really needs; just a little kernel to keep it going and make us not regret giving it our time and attention.
What did you think of this episode of neXt? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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neXt airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on FOX.
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Drew Koenig
Drew has an ongoing, borderline unhealthy obsession with pop culture, but with television in particular. When he's not aggressively trying to get out of a perpetual state of catching up, he can be found passionately defending the ending of Lost. More of his online work can be found at The Lost Cause and he also co-hosts The Lost Cause Pod.