Broadcast and Reception
"Sein und Zeit" first aired in the United States on February 6, 2000. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 8.4, with a 12 share, meaning that roughly 8.4 percent of all television-equipped households, and 12 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. It was viewed by 13.95 million viewers. The episode aired in the United Kingdom and Ireland on Sky1 on May 21, 2000 and received 0.83 million viewers, making it the sixth most watched episode that week. Fox promoted the episode with the tagline "They go to bed. And they're gone forever." The episode was later included on The X-Files Mythology, Volume 3 – Colonization, a DVD collection that contains episodes involved with the alien Colonist's plans to take over the earth.
Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club awarded the episode an "A–" and called it a "very, very good piece of television". He was particularly pleased with the grimness of the story; he noted that it was largely about the way in which Mulder's "belief system eradicated before his very eyes" after the suicide of his mom. VanDerWerff was also pleased with Duchovny's performance, writing that he "brings the intense mania to Mulder that has always made the character work at his best." Despite this, he was slightly critical of the concept of the "walk-ins", which he called "patently ridiculous". Rich Rosell from DigitallyObsessed.com awarded the episode 4.5 out of 5 stars and wrote that while "Chris Carter penned this episode, his attempts at clarifying his own confounded mythology are often even more confusing than revelatory, 'Sein Und Zeit' is a tense installment, and leads neatly to the supposed wrap-up in the second half. " Tom Kessenich, in his book Examinations, gave the episode a largely positive review, writing "'Sein Und Zeit' not only served as a reminder of Fox Mulder's ongoing pain it provided yet another clue that, although its journey is nearing its completion, The X-Files still knows how to make the ride an enjoyable one." 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 five stars out of five. The two called the episode "a welcome return to an X-Files we haven't seen for awhile—hard, passionate, and with an urgent story to tell. From where I'm sitting, in the middle of a lacklustre season, it smells strongly of a masterpiece."
Other reviews were less complimentary. Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a mixed review and awarded it two stars out of four. Vitaris wrote, "there are some powerful and touching moments in 'Sein und Zeit', but others that miss the mark so widely that it hurts to think what this episode might have been." Kenneth Silber from Space.com, although complimentary towards the focus on Samantha Mulder, was critical of the slowness of the episode, writing, "While the series' reversion to its central theme is much appreciated, this episode unfolds with an unfortunate slowness that does little to satisfy the seven-year itch many X-Files viewers have come to feel in response to monster-of-the-week episodes and phony-baloney mythology cliffhangers."
Read more about this topic: Sein Und Zeit (The X-Files)
Famous quotes containing the words broadcast and/or reception:
“Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.”
—Monty Python’s Flying Circus. first broadcast Sept. 22, 1970. Michael Palin, in Monty Python’s Flying Circus (BBC TV comedy series)
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)