‘Project Blue Book’ (History) Review: ‘X-Files’ Knockoff Misses Scully

Oh, and hats play an important role here. While Hynek and Captain Quinn bop around looking for UFOs —  some investigations offer reasonable answers for the events teased in each introductory scene, and some don’t, thus representing the 700 unsolved cases Hynek left behind — a larger governmental conspiracy plays out in the background. Multiple episodes end with an ominous shot of something the American government is hiding or with officers hinting at something they shouldn’t be talking about. Hell, the first episode shows a bunch of military men gathering and agreeing not to tell the public what they know.

Ksenia Solo in “Project Blue Book”

Ed Araquel / History

But these mysterious figures, who lurk around watching Hynek during his investigations, come to be known as “the men in hats.” This is an odd way to distinguish them, given every single male character in “Project Blue Book” wears a hat. Hynek wears a hat. Captain Quinn wears hats. Even General Harding probably has a hat in his closet, given he’s the most suspicious figure of all. It’s this kind of goofy misstep — call them anything else; were the writers afraid of copyright infringement by saying “men in black”? — that makes “Project Blue Book” feel made up even when it’s based in truth. And since the cases have all been explored with more gore, more glamour, and more gusto in plenty of sci-fi stories already, it’s not easy to get swept away in this familiar story.

The most notable comparison is “The X-Files.” Each week, Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) investigated various paranormal activity on behalf of the government, but their yin-and-yang dynamic — he’s a believer, she’s a skeptic — helped drive the narrative as much as the energy between platonic partners. Here, the partners are both skeptics, and they only clash when the doctor wants more answers than the military officer. That’s not that interesting, and when it’s two white men leading the way — one who’s poorly developed, and the other with a less-than-consistent accent — there’s even less friction to create drama. (There’s one good arc in “Project Blue Book,” meaning one arc sans a predictable endpoint, and it belongs to Ksenia Solo’s Susie Miller. But she’s relegated to second or fifth fiddle far too often, and saying any more would be a spoiler.)

“Project Blue Book” asks us to invest in Dr. Hynek’s doomed quest without giving us good reason to invest in the man himself, and what good is a tragedy without resonance? Moreover, what fun is a fact-based story about aliens if it’s well-trodden territory told in less thrilling fashion? Creator David O’Leary’s History series tries to coast by recreating the facts and exploring how a skeptic might come to believe, but the doc’s journey is sorely lacking in ingenuity. Whether it’s real or written doesn’t matter when overly familiar plots are acted out by cookie cutter characters. “Project Blue Book” feels like “X-Files” Lite, only with a whole lot of indistinguishable men — and all the women are stuck on the sideline.

Grade: C

“Project Blue Book” premieres Tuesday, January 8 at 10 p.m. ET on History.

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