Posted by Vash:
As for
The X-Files....I can't BELIEVE that your favorite episode is
Home!!!
That one is just plain scary-weird IMO! And kinda disgusting as well. Especially the ending.
First of all, I apologize for not replying quickly, I took yesterday off Trek BBS to spend the entire day writing. My fingers almost fell off.
Anyway,
Home is hilarious in the fact that people either think of it as one of their favorites, or are to grossed out by it to even consider it as one of the best. You'd be surprised how often it makes top ten lists though. I don't know if you see him often, but one of my favorite posters,
Nathan Hale Bridger (Another huge X-Files fan) also gives
Home the nod as best episode.
Let me explain why I love it... It's classic X-Files. Mulder & Scully, unexplained murders, small town, sheriff doesn't understand what's happening, funny back & forth joking between Mulder & Scully (Mulder has some very funny lines in this episdes - "Oh, I don't know, that was just a little too Chuck Bronson for me"), great gore special effects, creepy premise. It's an amalgamation of everything I loved about the X-Files. I still can't believe they accomplished so much in just 44 minutes. If I were the director of some recent Hollywood horror films like Cabin Fever or Jeepers Creepers I'd be embarressed a tv show out classed my theatrically released film in every regard.
In short,
Home made me realize just how truly powerful a single standalone hour of television can be.
I have a tendency to prefer the episodes that contribute to the conspiracy arc, so prolly my favorite episodes to date are Gethsemane, Redux, and Redux II. I also really loved The Blessing Way and Paper Clip.
I'm not a huge fan of the myth arc, but that's mainly because I'm more intrigued by creepy serial killers and the paranormal than I am government cover ups. That's not to say I never enjoyed them... I don't know if you've seen the episodes before, where the situation with Mulder's sister Samantha is finally cleared up? It's in season seven. The final act is one of the most touching in all The X-Files. It actually gave me goosebumps when Mulder's question is finally answered. A lot of people hate the final answer, but even if it is a tad hokey, it still made for some touching drama, in my opinion.
In terms of stand-alones, I'd have to go with Paper Hearts or one of the episodes that contribute to the backstory - The Usual Suspects or Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man. But I also liked Hell Money alot...and Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose. Jose Chung's "From Outer Space" is kinda funny and I did enjoy it...but it's not among my favorites.
If you'd be surprised how often
Home cracks people's top ten lists, you'd be delighted to know that
Clyde Bruckman is pretty much always one of the top two or three episodes in most polls I ever see.
I
love this exchange:
Clyde Bruckman: You know, there are worse ways to go, but I can't think of a more undignified way than autoerotic asphyxiation.
Fox Mulder: Why are you telling me that?
Clyde Bruckman: Look, forget I mentioned it. It's none of my business.
Paper Hearts is superb as well. I'm surprised by your fondness for
Hell Money, I'm having a tough time remembering that one... Was that the black market body parts episode?
And yeah...I'm really glad to talk about
The X-Files with you. Even when it was still on, it wasn't a hot topic in SFF...and now if I posted a thread, it would be buried faster than you can say "Firefly".
No kidding, I remember when X-Files got people as excited as Firefly does these days. Personally, I think too many people let David Duchovny's departure turn them off the show. There's still plenty of excellant episodes with Robert Patrick. I just watched a great one yesterday, "John Doe", once again leaving me floored by the cinematography of the show. That's a season nine episode, by the way. Also, I don't think the high price of the DVDs helps matters, but Fox DVD currently has a deal on where the first seasons of all their shows are half price... Buffy, Angel, Simpsons, Family Guy and even X-Files. So hopefully that'll help find the show a few fans..
IMO, it's a great show...at least the first 5 seasons! I'll let you know what I think as time goes by and I see more episodes...but so far, I really love it. *Alot* more than when I saw it only occasionally and didn't know what was going on in the conspiracy arc.
Edit to add: The last episode I watched was
Kitsunegari.
Keep me posted on your progress, I'm very interested to hear what you think about the final four seasons. You might find the sixth & seventh seasons a tad sluggish, but as I said, I think the show gets a renewed energy in the eighth year.
They left Vancouver at the end of the fifth season, and began filming in LA from season six on. Personally, I don't think it hurts the look of the show a hell of a lot, but some people claim its when the show "jumped the shark".
So yeah, I'm gonna try to ration the show a bit, probably not a lot though.
, cases have some weird numbers on the bottom of the spine but it doesn't say which DVDs are in which season and there are no disc numbers on the discs so it is very hard to tell what order they go in. The last episode I saw was the one with the weird albino type lady who appears to be the leader on a hippie type planet (I love Chrichton's jokes about hippies in that episode 
