Revisiting the X-Files...

[Unicron]

I lost track of the show in the later seasons, as I kind of feel it lost something when Mulder was no longer a regular. But I definitely enjoyed the sense of eerieness that occurs in the early seasons, and the feeling that there were conspiracies going on just beneath the normal exterior.

 

[crouteru]

Season two spoilers ahead...!

I think it would've been better had Alex Krycek been Mulder's new partner for at least half a dozen episodes before he was revealed as a mole.

Overall, I'd say seasons one through five and the first movie represent the height of the X-Files. Seasons six through eight are good as well. Only season nine and the second movie are where the franchise starts to weaken.

 

[Harvey]

"Humbug" is certainly the first comedy episode--an experiment that was so successful the writers would begin using humor much more extensively beginning in season three. Any episode that Darin Morgan is involved will probably be a comedic one, excepting his appearance as Flukeman in "The Host" and his story credit for "Blood," but those are both early season two episodes that you've already seen at this point.

 

[Warped9]

I've just finished watching "Apogrypha" and I gotta say that while I'm not in love with this series I'm really liking it. I can't just watch one episode at a time, but more like two or three or four in a row.

And I love the flexibility of the characters to be able to go from drama to comedic so effortlessly. This ranks right up there with Star Trek TOS, Babylon 5 and Stargate.

 

[Warped9]

Beginning Season Four and home of likely one of the show's most skin-crawling inducing episodes, "Home." Otherwise known as the mutant murderous inbreeding hillbillies. This family is simply fucking scary!

It isn't so much what you see (which isn't much) but the ideas in this story that just creeps you right out of any comfort zone you might have.

 

[Unicron]

I wish I could remember the name of the one with the repeating time loop. It's one of the most interesting eps IMO, but I can't for the life of me remember the title or season.

 

[Warped9]

I wish I could remember the name of the one with the repeating time loop. It's one of the most interesting eps IMO, but I can't for the life of me remember the title or season.

I know the one you mean. I recall seeing it not long after TNG's "Cause And Effect" and thinking the X-Files version of the idea was far superior. Stargate's take on this idea was much better too.

 

[byron lomax]

I wish I could remember the name of the one with the repeating time loop. It's one of the most interesting eps IMO, but I can't for the life of me remember the title or season.

"Monday", season six.

 

[Harvey]

I just saw "Monday," actually. It has a lovely bit of continuity with "Dreamland," but you'll see it when you get there.

With only two episodes to go, my feeling is that season six is a lot better than I initially gave it credit for, especially in the back half.

 

[Warped9]

I'm six episodes from finishing off Season Four. Overall this series has been reasonably consistent with its generally good storytelling. So far I'd say there are only about one or two yawners per season.

 

[Warped9]

I wish I could remember the name of the one with the repeating time loop. It's one of the most interesting eps IMO, but I can't for the life of me remember the title or season.

I know the one you mean. I recall seeing it not long after TNG's "Cause And Effect" and thinking the X-Files version of the idea was far superior. Stargate's take on this idea was much better too.

Just watched "Monday" earlier today and it is a much better take on the concept of a time loop than what TNG did.

Near the end of finishing off Season 6 and I'm enjoying this series far more than when I originally watched it more than a decade ago. I love the characters, the intrigue and the use of humour.

 

[Warped9]

Within the space of a month I've gotten through all nine seasons of the show. Presently I have only five or six episodes left to go to the end.

It's been something of a tear getting in a few episodes each day, rather easily done when you eliminate the time usually taken up by commercials and also skip opening and closing credits. My impressions, particularly while catching many episodes I'd never seen or barely remembered, are that this was overall quite a good series albeit with its share of ups and downs.

Seasons 1-5 are pretty consistently solid I think. I'd say there are only about one or two episodes per season that while not at all bad are simply not really on par with the rest. They were just kinda dull. Season 6 starts out very well and then seems to fall off a bit. It's nowhere near bad, but something feels off somehow until about midway through the season when the show gets back into its groove. That continues in a hit-and-miss way throughout Season 7.

Season 8 are where things get shaky and the show develops something of a different mood overall I think. There are still some decent episodes here, but there are also more than a few sleep inducers. After the first few episodes of the season I don't feel the show feels like its old self until Mulder's return in the latter half of the season. John Doggett's character isn't a bad pairing with Scully and it's amusing to see her painted as the one with extreme ideas. I found how much I missed Mulder's presence when he actually returns, and it's funny seeing him view Reyes as one with "out there" ideas. We're not hit over the head with it, but we can see Mulder as matured and he recognizes something of his younger self in Reyes. The conspiracy arc was really getting tiresome. Also in the end I never really did get a sense of which side Alex Krychek was really on.

Season 9 comes off much like a write-off. After an okay start here are way too many sleep inducing episodes, particularly with stories that a very slow paced and trying so hard to create a dark mood. Monica Reyes was okay as a guest character, but has next to nil screen presence and just doesn't work for me as a main character. And it looks like the show was trying so hard to create a Mulder/Scully dynamic with Doggett and Reyes, but it doesn't really come off.

In retrospect the show would have been better served if Seasons 8 and 9 could have been condensed and some of the plot arcs really tightened up. If the better segments of the last two seasons could have lumped into one season I think the show would have ended on a better note. Both seasons just feel dragged out just to fill air time.

I will say that throughout Seasons 8 and 9 I really felt for Scully. She so painfully misses Mulder for whom each of them feel incomplete without the other, each finding in the other what they feel they lack in themselves. I think Mulder and Scully are one of the best character dynamics I've ever seen on television. In their own way they remind me of the wonderful dynamic we had with Kirk, Spock and McCoy in Star Trek TOS.

I also think Gillian Anderson did a fantastic job of portraying a smart and powerful woman with loads of allure yet without ever resorting to cliched tough broad or TV femme attributes. Scully could feel pain and doubt and fear, but she always gets through and gets the job done. She makes so many of genre TV tough girls look like posers. She radiated sex appeal (in my eyes) without ever resorting to cliched notions of sex appeal. And I can't recall once seeing her in anything really skin tight or overly revealing. The catsuit girls of most sci-fi are a joke compared to Scully.

Five episodes to go including the barely remembered series finale that I saw only once way back when...

 

[crouteru]

I think Season 8 is fantastic, perhaps even superior to 6 and 7. The shake up to the premise and introduction of John Doggett was refreshing, not to mention how brilliant Gillian Anderson did throughout that year. It was also the first time in about 1 1/2 seasons that the mytharc seemed to have some sort of direction.

I liked how the first half of the season would tease about whether Mulder was coming back. That suspense and anticipation drove the season until his actual return, and all the remaining episodes from that point were great, with a new dynamic between Mulder, Scully and Doggett.

Season 9, however, is where things started to go down hill. Mulder was gone again, but simply in hiding, and the new Doggett/Reyes partnership didn't have the same chemistry as Mulder/Scully. I still kinda enjoyed it, but season 8 could easily have worked as the final season.

 

[Warped9]

Just finished watching the series finale...and while not bad it's a bit of a letdown. We like to see our heroes win yet here Mulder and Scully are essentially hunted and on the run. Maybe they're both believed to be dead, killed by the black helicopters that finally puts Cancer man out of our misery. I will say that it was effectively done how much the stories really made me hate Cancer Man. Similarly I also hated Deputy Director Kersh with a passion.

In a broader sense things are left very open ended. We don't know what happened to Skinner, Doggett and Reyes or even Kersh. I still can't believe they actually killed off the Lone Gunmen! That said I've never seen anything of the short lived Lone Gunmen spinoff series so maybe it was a blessing.

I have to say that while I haven't heard many good things about the last X-Files movie I'm now very curious to see it.

 

[JRS]

Excellent overall analysis of the series Warped9

I think Mulder and Scully are one of the best character dynamics I've ever seen on television. In their own way they remind me of the wonderful dynamic we had with Kirk, Spock and McCoy in Star Trek TOS.

This is indeed true And the chemistry between these two never seems forced, but comes out naturally. This is because of the solid writing..and also because of the great chemistry that these actors have.

I also think Gillian Anderson did a fantastic job of portraying a smart and powerful woman with loads of allure yet without ever resorting to cliched tough broad or TV femme attributes. ..

Great analysis of the character I agree with you 100 percent. Its funny though, that when people talk about "strong women" in movies/TV, Scullys name is rarely mentioned .
This is odd, because shes is indeed a strong and realistic character..and could be used as an exsample, of how to write strong, mature female characters
Maybe we have so gotten used to characters such as Buffy and Sydney Bristow, that we expect all strong females on screen being those, who are constantly though cookies..and kick guys to the balls Or maybe im wrong in my comparision..

I think you should see the second film, Warped.
Its not as good as the first..and its true that the supernatural things are kept to the minimal.
But it still has some good acting, nice Scully and Mulder moments..and some small inside jokes/references to the Tv-show
The Lone Gunmen series is more of an comic relief/comedic show (Except the pilot, that has eerie moments with a certain real-life event, that happened after it was made: 9/11)Its an OK show..but quite different from X-Files, IMHO.

I sincerely hope that Carter and company will still make a third, mythology based movie..that wraps it up with smart, intelligent...and true X-Files way.
I want it to happen, because I love the show..and the characters.

 

[Warped9]

I'm curious about the second film. The first one I felt wasn't bad, but it seemed essentially redundant. Little of the film is referenced in the series and it really didn't add or advance anything of substance. The first film could have had elements of it segmented into two or three decent episodes and have had as much value rather than done as a feature film.

 

[Warped9]

Okay today I finally rented The X-Files: I Want To Believe.

And I have to say...not bad. I understood a lot of scorn was heaped on this film for reasons not immediately obvious.

Firstly, I thought it felt very much like an extended X-Files episode, like a two-parter without the commercial breaks. It does serve as a chapter telling us that Mulder and Scully are still together after all these years. And it was neat seeing Skinner again even if it was ever so briefly.

It isn't really the execution that lets this down I think. I think it's the subject matter. Yes, it ends up as being about something to creep you out sufficiently, but until that point it feels much like a regular crime drama. And in the end as creepy as it was there simply wasn't enough weird shit in it.

I actually applaud the attempt not to just revisit/rehash the alien conspiracy stuff because many of the best episodes revolved around the investigation of weird shit.

No, the film isn't stellar, but it certainly isn't horrible either. It doesn't rank among the series' best, but it is better than the show's snoozers, which averaged out about one or two a season and with more frequency in the last two seasons.

 

[Too Much Fun]

To those comparing "Monday" and "Cause and Effect", did anybody else have really love that transcendent geek out moment when the 'Trio' on nerds of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" made that same comparison in the episode "Life Serial"?

Andrew: "I wonder if she'll figure this out faster than Data in that ep of TNG where the Enterprise kept exploding."
Warren: "Or that X-Files where the bank kept exploding!"
Andrew: "Scully wants me so bad."


I was so happy...that scene warmed my little geek heart . They could have nerded it up even more and mentioned the "Xena: Warrior Princess" episode "Been There, Done That". This concept has been used so many times, and yet I can thoroughly enjoy each example in their own way multiple times...over and over again .

I'm taking my time re-watching "The X-Files" (only favourite episodes, but it's still taking awhile). Just started season 2. I remember how I used to think Scully finding that fetus in the season 1 finale was one of the greatest moments in the history of television. The impact isn't as strong upon re-watch, but it's still a cool moment.

 

[Nerdius Maximus]

I've been rewatching the show as well. Netflix has the entire series available for streaming. I watch it on my TV through the Wii.

 

[Warped9]

When watching the series originally you were having this parceled out piecemeal and it can be much the same if you've never seen the series at all before. But watching it as I did recently without missing a beat and being somewhat familiar with what is to come it really is some kind of nine year narrative.

The only thing that jarred a bit for me was seeing them go on as usual in certain situations. When Mulder was missing for example Scully and Doggett investigated other cases while the search for Mulder seemed to be on hold.