Revisiting the X-Files...

[Warped9]

"Miracle Man" was a little boring. It's a murder investigation muddied up by apparently real faith healing.

"Shapes" was a nicely eerie werewolf story. It was fun watching this only a couple of months after seeing the new The Wolf Man movie.

"Darkness Falls" is another creepy trip to the woods where something could really get you in the dark. Cool.

"Tooms" is a good followup to "Squeeze." This is also our introduction to Skinner and the series now feels more familiar

"Born Again" is reincarnation/possession story mixed in with a murder mystery. Not bad.

 

[Harvey]

"Darkness Falls" is one of my favorite standalone episodes of the series. It helps that it takes place in my home state, too.

And it's pretty interesting that Skinner and Cancer Man have their biggest scene of the season (Skinner won't appear again until season two) in "Tooms," a monster-of-the-week story. I like that. Sometimes, the series keeps the standalone and mytharc stories too segregated, but not here.

 

[Warped9]

"Roland" is yet another murder mystery tied in with possession. It isn't badly done, but so soon afterwards similar stories It's a little tiresome.

"The Erlenmeyer Flask" is a good season finale and it nicely escalates the loose story arc throughout the season.

Overall I've really enjoyed watching this first season, sufficiently so to get right into the second season.

 

[Warped9]

Into Season 2.

"Little Green Men" is a good starting off point as Mulder is in the dog house yet there are still friends out there he doesn't know he has.

"Host" is the quintessential X-Files story right down to sufficient gag moments to make your skin crawl as well.

"Blood" gives us a laid off postal worker really going postal. This story mines human phobias with fear of tech contolling us thrown in.

 

[Harvey]

I love the season two mini-arc surrounding the closing of the X-Files--it provides a lot of great moments for both standalone and mytharc stories. Some nice humor there as well (i.e. the nasty message from a woman Mulder stood up on his answering machine; Mulder doing wire-tap duty).

 

[Warped9]

"Sleepless" is another one of those secret government projects that come back to bite you in the ass...that is if anyone ever knew about it.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

"Tooms" is a good followup to "Squeeze." This is also our introduction to Skinner and the series now feels more familiar

I still remember when Eugene Victor Tooms licks his hands after picking up some roadkill. Great bit.

 

[Warped9]

"Tooms" is a good followup to "Squeeze." This is also our introduction to Skinner and the series now feels more familiar

I still remember when Eugene Victor Tooms licks his hands after picking up some roadkill. Great bit.

Yep. Perfect gag reflex inducing moment.

 

[Warped9]

I've just finished watching the second season. There are episodes here I don't recall, but overall I found only one episode that I found a little dull, but it's name escapes me at the moment. Some of these episodes I recall thinking came later in the series, but as I said earlier I didn't watch regularly in the show's original run.

Otherwise it's easy to see how this series became so popular so quickly. It's generally well written. The contemporary setting makes it easily accessible to a broad audience. And that makes the subject matter accessible as well. The characters are good and so is the acting for the most part. The show hit the ground running and these first two seasons are generally consistently good. Having something of an arc and plot threads popping up every few episodes gave the stories a good sense of continuity. And yet there are enough standalone stories that a new viewer needn't feel put off by thinking they have to see everything to understand what's going on.

All you need to know is that two FBI agents are investigating weird stuff and that one is a believer and one is a skeptic. That's it and the rest takes care of itself.

 

[Harvey]

What did you think of the season two finale, "Anasazi?" I think it's one of the best of the series, and it's certainly when the conspiracy arc starts to really get some depth.

 

[Warped9]

What did you think of the season two finale, "Anasazi?" I think it's one of the best of the series, and it's certainly when the conspiracy arc starts to really get some depth.

Yes, I agree. And for some reason it's one of those episodes I thought had come later in the series.

But I had just finished watching "Anasazi" and its cliff-hanger ending and thought, "Wait! What next?" that I went out and got S3 right away just to see what happened next.

One of my favourite S2 episodes is "Humbug." It's so perfectly screwball and eerie at the same time. In its own way it set the tone for the first Men In Black movie when it came along.

This also makes me reflect on how I felt when I saw the first X-Files film To Fight The Future. at the time I felt finding the spaceship was finally answering Mulder's questions and yet S1 and S2 shows many of the questions had been answered already. The movie really was redundant. I haven't seen the second film.

 

[GreenBlood]

Earlier this year, I did the same thing...bought season one. Long story short...now I'm on season 3. It's nice to come home after a hard day's work and look forward to some Mulder-Scully shenanigans.

 

[Lt. Brannigan]

I haven't seen the second film.

A word of advice.... it's not worth seeing. It's not an X-Files movie by any means, instead it's a generic spookfest with Mulder and Scully.

One of the most disappointing movies I have ever seen.

 

[Warped9]

I haven't seen the second film.

A word of advice.... it's not worth seeing. It's not an X-Files movie by any means, instead it's a generic spookfest with Mulder and Scully.

One of the most disappointing movies I have ever seen.

I have no burning desire to see it. And I recall reviews at the time being less than encouraging.

 

[Warped9]

I'm eight episodes into S3 and so far it's pretty much on par with the previous seasons. I'm seeing some episodes I don't recall at all like "Last Walk" dealing with astral projection. I do remember "2shy" and that was a creep out gag fest.

I mentioned I was revisiting the show to someone at work who I know is into all sorts of sci-fi and genre shows, but he surprised me by saying X-Files was a show he couldn't watch for the most part because it just creeped him out too much. I suppose I can understand, though, because I could see how some of the subject matter could really play with someone's head if they were too sensitive to it.

But I'm really liking the show for how it deals with its ideas and how it tells its stories. I also enjoy seeing familiar episodes (and ones I've missed) after all these years because candidly I find so very little of interest with contemporary programming.

 

[Lt. Brannigan]

I have no burning desire to see it. And I recall reviews at the time being less than encouraging.

Those reviews were right on the money.

 

[EJA]

And I still think Dana Scully is smokin.'

Agreed I love watching her walking around, with her sexy auburn hair, wearing her long coat and those oh-so-sexy pristine black leather gloves.

My favourite episodes from Season 1 are probably "Squeeze/Tooms", "Gender Bender", "Shapes", "Ice", and "Darkness Falls." To be honest, I mostly preferred the stand-alone stories than the whole Conspiracy thing, although that did have its cool moments. You gotten onto S3's "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'" yet? The first comedy episode of the series, and one of my all-time faves.

 

[Warped9]

To be honest, I mostly preferred the stand-alone stories than the whole Conspiracy thing, although that did have its cool moments.

I agree. I've long felt this way. The conspiracy episodes come off better than I remember, but I still prefer the standalones.

I thought "Humbug" was pretty comical. And there is a dry humour throughout many of the episodes. Mulder shows an often dark and skewed sense of humour often enough.

 

[Starbreaker]

I have no burning desire to see it. And I recall reviews at the time being less than encouraging.

Those reviews were right on the money.

I didn't like it until I saw it a 2nd time this year.

 

[Warped9]

"War Of The Coprophages" is a riot! The cockroach episode. It works on so many levels. There's a cool idea at the heart of it: mechanical insects as advanced alien reconnaissance. And it plays on people's fear of insects (which I personally am creeped by).

And I found it funny as hell. Mulder encounters an entomologist that is every geekboy's dream and a roboticist who loves science fiction. And we see Scully as not only her rational self, but also displaying a hint of cattiness because of Mulder's interest in "Dr. Bambi."

A lab blows up because someone is firing a gun with methane fumes everywhere and dung is flying everywhere. All Mulder can say is, "Crap."

Mulder is trying to explain things to Scully over the phone and all she can say is, "Her name is Bambi?"

And finally, Mulder: "You know, Scully, I never thought I'd say this, but you smell bad."

A great episode.