Would it be a crime if some classic TV shows were to stage their comebacks in the medium that made them famous and for which they’re maybe better suited? Such wishful thinking came to mind as I headed to the movies several times over the summer, hoping for a nostalgic escape, but ended up yearning for the good old days when these shows were still on TV, where they belong.

With the disappointingly drab “The X-Files: I Want to Believe,” I left wanting more. With the criminally overlong box-office hit “Sex and the City” movie, which felt like an unnecessary one-season-too-many of contrived breakups and makeups, I wanted less. With the charmlessly heavy-handed “Get Smart” remake, starring a bland Steve Carell as a—would you believe—smart Maxwell Smart, I wanted something, anything, to evoke the ’60s spy spoof’s cheeky spirit.

My expectations were greatest for the new “X-Files” movie, given my fondness for the landmark horror series and my desire to see the show move beyond the murky alien conspiracy to tell a truly scary stand-alone adventure. While the movie lives up to the show’s reputation as a thinking person’s thriller, the only chills I got in this gloomy, plodding movie came from the air-conditioning, not the story.

Confronted with an oddly earthbound menace—Russian kidnappers harvesting organs for a grisly Frankenstein experiment—our ex-FBI heroes Mulder and Scully (David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson) spend a lot of time jawing about belief, faith and science when they aren’t cuddling and kissing, scratchy beard and all.

The intimacy of the Mulder-Scully scenes may be enough for some fans. Part of the appeal of these movies, after all, is the chance to reconnect with old favorites we consider friends—which is why, despite its soggy bloat, the “Sex and the City” movie came closest to a satisfying night out and is most likely to deliver a sequel.

QUICKTAKES

• THE FRONT PAGE “I don’t think I ever got a story out of my charm. Far from it,” scoffs veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas at the very notion she could have used her gender to her advantage. In the entertaining profile Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House (8/18, 9/8c, HBO), she offers candid reflections on covering presidents from JFK to Bush 2. While rightly proud of her pioneering status as a woman in the White House press corps, she is not blind to the profession’s limitations: “Access to a president doesn’t mean you’re gonna get the truth.”

• THE FRONT LINE In the final two chapters of the searing Iraq War docudrama Generation Kill (8/17 and 8/24, 9/8c, HBO), the marines encounter the lawlessness and squalor of post-invasion Baghdad, where disillusion quickly sets in amid conflicting orders that leave them helpless to establish trust or to provide aid. Little do these jaded grunts know, the war is only beginning.