and seven included several episodes that were lauded by critics, including the sixth season entries "Triangle" and "The Unnatural", as well as the seventh season installment "X-Cops". Eighth and ninth seasons The show's eighth season received mixed to positive reviews from critics. The A.V. Club noted that the eighth season was "revitalized by the new 'search for Mulder' story-arc". Amy H. Sturgis commended the eighth season, praising Anderson's performance as Scully as "excellence" and positively wrote that Doggett was "non-Mulderish". Collin Polonowonski from DVD Times said that the season included "more hits than misses overall" but offered a negative word about the mythology episodes, claiming that they were the "weakest" episodes in the season. Jesse Hassenger from PopMatters, however, criticized the new season, claiming that Patrick was miscast and calling Duchovny's appearances as Mulder shallow. The ninth season received mixed to negative reviews by critics, and garnered negative reaction from many long-time fans and viewers. Sabadino Parker from PopMatters, called the show "a pale reflection of the show it once was". Elizabeth Weinbloom from The New York Times concluded, "shoddy writing notwithstanding, it was this halfhearted culmination of what was once a beautifully complicated friendship", between Mulder and Scully that ended remaining interest in what was a "waning phenomenon". Another The New York Times review stated, "The most imaginative show on television has finally reached the limits of its imagination." The A.V. Club listed the ninth season and the 2008 film The X-Files: I Want to Believe as the "bad apple" of The X-Files franchise, describing the ninth season as "clumsy mish-mash of stuff that had once worked and new serialized storylines about so-called 'super soldiers'". Brian Linder from IGN, on the other hand, was more positive toward the ninth season, saying that the series could still have aired if the writers created a new storyline for Patrick and Gish's characters. Tenth and eleventh seasons The 2016 revival of the show was met with mixed reviews; the first and last episodes were met with lukewarm to negative reviews from critics, whereas episodes two through five were generally well received. The third episode in particular, named "Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster", was praised by critics, with Alex McCown of The A.V. Club calling it an "instant classic". Overall, the review aggregator Metacritic gave the season a score of 60 out of 100 based on 35 reviews, indicating "mixed or average