Up until about 15 minutes ago, I had never seen an episode of The X-Files all the way through. Yeah, that particular genre freight train managed to pass me by entirely. This was no doubt due to a few things, such as being six years old when the show premiered, and thanks to becoming obsessed with a certain other science fiction franchise in my youth (hint: I've been registered on a message board for said franchise for nearly a decade now).
Anyway, I recently decided I should try to fix this rather significant gap in my personal SF knowledge, and I thought I'd slap together a watch\rate thread while I was at it. I've never done one of these before (mostly, I've just read and lurked in the ones done by The God Ben), but I figure it'll provide me with some motivation to keep going if I ever find my interest flagging, as well as give me a place to collect my thoughts on the show as I go.
Just a couple of other notes before I go on: I'm generally unspoiled on what happened in the show, so please no one ruin it for me. I know there's an over-arcing conspiracy story, that David Duchovny leaves for the last couple seasons and... well, that's pretty much it. I'll just repeat that, for emphasis: NO SPOILERS.
Also, I'm planning on using a pretty standard letter-grading system, A through F, if you're curious.
That all out of the way, let's get on with it, shall we?
1x01 "Pilot"
B+
It's an intriguing start, I have to say. Though the actual story that comprises the episode is pretty ordinary, it does it's job well—introducing us to the characters, and the general feel of the universe that the show is going to inhabit.
Admittedly, for the first half of the episode, I thought that said universe was going to be "vaguely cheap 90s television," but to the episode's credit, it got quite atmospheric by the end. Kudos, considering the colour palette can best be described as "gray."
I was also impressed with the fact that exposition was kept reasonably bearable. The first scene with Scully in the office being told of her new assignment was pretty terrible, but thankfully they worked that out reasonably quickly. It helped that Duchovny and Anderson have some pretty instant chemistry, that made the "LOOK WE ARE EXPLAINING THINGS OKAY" bits in the dialogue less painful.
In the end, the main thing this episode left me with was a desire to learn more about the Cigarette Smoking Man (I know enough to know he's important). They hinted nicely that he's going to play an interesting role, and I half-expected to hear John Williams swelling when he put the metal-thinger in the Pentagon storage room. Very mysterious, and a little creepy.
All in all, a solid pilot. It wasn't spectacular in the same way Lost's was, say, but it did it's work well and left me wanting more. Hopefully this review will do the same for you...
Until next time.
Anyway, I recently decided I should try to fix this rather significant gap in my personal SF knowledge, and I thought I'd slap together a watch\rate thread while I was at it. I've never done one of these before (mostly, I've just read and lurked in the ones done by The God Ben), but I figure it'll provide me with some motivation to keep going if I ever find my interest flagging, as well as give me a place to collect my thoughts on the show as I go.
Just a couple of other notes before I go on: I'm generally unspoiled on what happened in the show, so please no one ruin it for me. I know there's an over-arcing conspiracy story, that David Duchovny leaves for the last couple seasons and... well, that's pretty much it. I'll just repeat that, for emphasis: NO SPOILERS.
Also, I'm planning on using a pretty standard letter-grading system, A through F, if you're curious.That all out of the way, let's get on with it, shall we?
1x01 "Pilot"
B+
It's an intriguing start, I have to say. Though the actual story that comprises the episode is pretty ordinary, it does it's job well—introducing us to the characters, and the general feel of the universe that the show is going to inhabit.
Admittedly, for the first half of the episode, I thought that said universe was going to be "vaguely cheap 90s television," but to the episode's credit, it got quite atmospheric by the end. Kudos, considering the colour palette can best be described as "gray."
I was also impressed with the fact that exposition was kept reasonably bearable. The first scene with Scully in the office being told of her new assignment was pretty terrible, but thankfully they worked that out reasonably quickly. It helped that Duchovny and Anderson have some pretty instant chemistry, that made the "LOOK WE ARE EXPLAINING THINGS OKAY" bits in the dialogue less painful.
In the end, the main thing this episode left me with was a desire to learn more about the Cigarette Smoking Man (I know enough to know he's important). They hinted nicely that he's going to play an interesting role, and I half-expected to hear John Williams swelling when he put the metal-thinger in the Pentagon storage room. Very mysterious, and a little creepy.
All in all, a solid pilot. It wasn't spectacular in the same way Lost's was, say, but it did it's work well and left me wanting more. Hopefully this review will do the same for you...
Until next time.
. I think only Stargate was there more often.
Of course, now the "present day" of the 1990s has ridiculous hair and bigger cell phones, too.
) is certainly establishing itself, and Mulder's capture by the military was very creepy. I also appreciated that they went so far as to actually erase his memories—lesser shows would probably have him make a miraculous escape or something.
It will me truly memorable...
