Fight Club (The X-Files) - Broadcast and Reception

Broadcast and Reception

"Fight Club" first aired in the United States on May 7, 2000. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 6.9, with a 11 share, meaning that roughly 6.9 percent of all television-equipped households, and 11 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. It was viewed by 11.70 million viewers. The episode aired in the United Kingdom and Ireland on Sky1 on July 30, 2000 and received 0.67 million viewers, making it the third most watched episode that week. Fox promoted the episode with the tagline "They say everyone has a double out there somewhere."

Critical reception to "Fight Club" was largely negative. Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode a "D–"; he called it "dire stuff" and wrote that "there’s something rancid about forced quirk; it’s rotten and smug". Handlen both criticized Griffin's inability to believably as two separate characters, as well as Carter's failure at writing a comedic script. He also felt that the "relentless self-awareness isn’t amusing anymore". Tom Kessenich, in his book Examinations, gave the episode a scathing review. He wrote "If it is indeed true that somewhere out in this vast world we all have an identical twin, I have but one wish for mine. I sincerely hope he was spared the hour of torture that 'Fight Club' imposed upon me." Christina Brzustoski from 11th Hour Magazine opined that "Just when you thought The X-Files couldn't get a more grating guest star than Victoria Jackson, Chris Carter manages to top himself yet again with not one, but two, for the love of God, two Kathy Griffins in the Carter-penned episode 'Fight Club.' It's a safe bet this disjointed, lame episode will probably not be easily confused with the far superior David Fincher movie of the same name. But then the current state of The X-Files makes Elmo in Grouchland look like an Oscar contender."

Kenneth Silber from Space.com was very negative towards the episode, saying, "This episode conveys a strong sense of a writer, director and actors merely going through the motions, collecting their sizable paychecks while running out the clock on the season and series. The plot is not compelling, the agents themselves seem not to take it seriously, and the doppelgangers around whom the action revolves are little more than ciphers." Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode one star out of five. The two wrote, "'Fight Club' is a marker for a series that seems to want to die now, please. it's tonally one of the most atypical episodes the series ever made, conceived in spite and self-loathing and sheer exhaustion." Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a largely negative review and awarded it one star out of four. Vitaris criticized the use of Kathy Griffin and asserted, "the guest cast is one of the worst ever. Griffin simply is not up to the task; she can not differentiate Betty and Lulu at all and she reads every line as if she were still on her cancelled sitcom." i09 reviewer Cyriaque Lama named "The Kathy Griffin Twins" the tenth "Most Ridiculous X-Files Monsters of the Week", and derided her performance as the Templeton twins.

Not all reviews were so negative. Rich Rosell from DigitallyObsessed.com awarded the episode 4.5 out of 5 stars and noted that "There are some great visual moments in Fight Club, and Chris Carter reveals an almost Vince Gilligan-side to him with his comic writing here."