The Truth Is In Here: The X-Files Review Thread

[RoJoHen]

Indeed. Damn actresses having babies. Always ruins everything!

That said, Gillian Anderson being pregnant probably forced the show to do something incredibly awesome that they wouldn't have done otherwise, something that will shape the rest of the series all the way to the end.

 

[C_Miller]

The reason Scully took a step back at that point is the actresse's pregnancy. if you look for it you will undoubtlely notice they only film her from breast up or put her in very wide coats or film her in shadow...
I predict next episode will be another favourite of yours.

Haha. That makes sense. I never really notice those things until people point them out to me. And incase of next episode being one of my favorites... why don't we go check that out now!

Duane Barry
(*****)

NOOOO!!! Not a damn two parter!!! I was only planning on watching one episode tonight... well, there goes that plan. Well, that's how you do a cliffhanger!

Anyways, this was a great episode (as evident from the five star score, the only episode other than this to do so was Beyond the Sea). You can just feel the tension in this episode and even thought I know this episode can't end with Mulder dying, there were several times where I thought Mulder was going to get seriously hurt by Duane.

I'm really interested as to where this goes. I don't think that the implant was put their by Aliens, but The Government to catalog Alien Abductees. I can't imagine that Extra Terrestrials would use bar codes. Could be wrong though. But I feel like this is episode is a giant piece of the puzzel.

Ascension
(****1/2)

Hell yeah, Skinner! Again, I'm sure he'll be going back and forth as that's what makes compelling television, but when he reopened The X-Files because that is what they fear the most was certainly a "first pump" moment. Well, it will be nice to have The X-Files back, but it certainly won't be the same without our dear Dana Scully, however since her name is still in the credits, I doubt she'll be gone long.

Anywho, I loved the fact that they kept a level of ambiguity as to whether she was abducted by Aliens or simply by Duane. The show pulls of realistic so well that I almost get annoyed when there is a supernatural answer to the problem. Not really, but you know what I mean. X-Files feels so grounded that we're just as taken off guard when something happens that's out of the ordinary. So, it was nice to play that up a bit.

Can I just say how much I love Mulder? He's quickly becoming one of my favorite TV characters ever. He only cares about two things: Dana Scully and The Truth. And David Duchovny is excellent at selling that point. And the final scene where you can tell he's conflicted about the entire situation. Wanting to believe and wanting to have Scully returned safe and sound.

When I started this series, I wanted to like it. Now I think I can officially say that I'll be here for where ever it takes me.

 

[saturn5]

I really liked Blood, it was such a powerful ep and a great concept, shame we didn't ever return to it.

Duane Barry wasn't that good although I love Steve Railsback, star of 'so bad it's brilliant' 80s sci-fi film Lifeforce

 

[C_Miller]

Well, I'm not sure I can trust the opinion of someone who liked Season 7 of Buffy

Just kidding. Completely kidding. Not serious at all.

Anyways, Blood was not a bad episode, I rated it as enjoyable. And I did think the ending was kind of cool, showing that the concept might not have been over. I would not be opposed to a revisit.

However, for me, the myth arc, takes the show to a whole different level. The Monster of the Week stuff is there to keep us busy, but Mulder cares about aliens, abductions and Government Conspiracy and because Mulder cares about that, I care about that. And I didn't like Duane Barry just because it was a mytharc episode. I like it because it was well done. I certainly miss arc episodes like E.B.E, The Erlenmeyer Flask, and the Pilot where we have Mulder and Scully running around like chickens with their heads cut of off, but here we got powerful performances from Mulder and Barry. You could tell that Mulder was caught up in the search for his sister and he risked his own life for finding out a little bit of information. It was personal. I don't know, that really struck something with me. I really admire Mulder's drive and this episode really displayed that.

 

[mswood]

Two great episodes see what you think of the next one......

Seriously the only thing I would have done differently with those two is I would not have revealed to Mulder that Krychek was a plant. I would have left him there so that the betrayal would hit even harder.

 

[C_Miller]

Two great episodes see what you think of the next one......

Seriously the only thing I would have done differently with those two is I would not have revealed to Mulder that Krychek was a plant. I would have left him there so that the betrayal would hit even harder.

Yeah, I could see that. I didn't have enough time to get to know Krycek to care enough about him to notice he was gone. If he had just stopped showing up, I probably wouldn't have noticed. That being said, I did like that Mulder figured it out himself. With his personality, he can easily be delegated to just a crazy guy who's sole purpose is to propose the most out-there possibility for every problem. It's easy to forget that he's a brilliant investigator as well.

 

[saturn5]

Well, I'm not sure I can trust the opinion of someone who liked Season 7 of Buffy
.

Not sure I can trust someone who didn't?

 

[C_Miller]

3
(**1/2)

Vampires? Really? I suppose we've dealt with some crazy stuff since we've started, but I feel like Vampires kind of take the cake as far too absurd. I'm sure that most of my anti-vampire bias has to do with the explosion of watered down vampire romance stories (Twilight being the biggest). With that all out of the way, there really was a lot to like (although the male "vampire" reminded me of someone I hated in High School...). I did like Mulder straight up working alone. No one sending him places, No Krycek, No Scully. It did get kind of dull after a while with no one for Mulder to talk to, but I really like Mulder's character, so that's a plus. It was nice seeing the old rebel base again, but it made me realize that we really didn't see it that often in Season 1.

At the end of the day, the placement of this episode was extremely odd. I understand some of the plot relied on Scully being gone, but I don't think this episode was good enough to warrant them halting the arc to do this. I imagine that this was done because Gillian Anderson's pregnancy lasted longer than expected?

P.S. Mulder falling in love with the Vampire was weird...

 

[Starbreaker]

Duchovny had a lot to do with wanting Mulder to be in a dark place. It didn't work.

 

[C_Miller]

Duchovny had a lot to do with wanting Mulder to be in a dark place. It didn't work.

I can understand that. But you have to do that in more than a done in one episode. I felt like Duane Barry and other episodes like that handled dark Mulder better than this even attempted.

 

[Starbreaker]

Co-writer Glen Morgan felt doing an episode on vampires was a mistake, and said that they also took heat for having Mulder fall for Kristen. Co-writer James Wong was also disappointed, saying that the script was a lot better than the show and that the episode was weakened when the Broadcast Standards Department had problems with the episode.[8] Actor David Duchovny thought the episode had style, but suffered some lapses in logic, including the scene where Kristen shaves him

I pretty much agree with that. I'll remember to skip over this episode when I rewatch the show 10-20 years from now. I'm on season 6 right now... have my own rewatch thread around here somewhere lying dormant.

 

[C_Miller]

Yeah, there was some good stuff in this episode, but it had nothing to do with the actual plot line. Wasn't a fan of their vampires, wasn't a fan of their werewolves... let me know when they do a Frankenstein show so I can skip it.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I dont like the episode either very much, it's sort of just there. I dont have a problem with vampires per se, the show will come back to vampires eventually and do them much better.
The next one will be much better again.

 

[DevilEyes]

Yeah, there was some good stuff in this episode, but it had nothing to do with the actual plot line. Wasn't a fan of their vampires, wasn't a fan of their werewolves... let me know when they do a Frankenstein show so I can skip it.

The Frankenstein episode (in S5) is great, trust me. You don't want to skip that one. The next vampire episode (also in S5) is much better than "3", because it's a comedy.

But maybe you shouldn't believe me, since I liked Buffy season 7.

 

[saturn5]

Yeah, there was some good stuff in this episode, but it had nothing to do with the actual plot line. Wasn't a fan of their vampires, wasn't a fan of their werewolves... let me know when they do a Frankenstein show so I can skip it.

The Frankenstein episode (in S5) is great, trust me. You don't want to skip that one. The next vampire episode (also in S5) is much better than "3", because it's a comedy.

But maybe you shouldn't believe me, since I liked Buffy season 7.

Obviously someone of taste and discernment And yeah, i thought this was a REALLY weak ep, wasting one of the classic fantasy creatures

 

[Starbreaker]

let me know when they do a Frankenstein show so I can skip it.

It's a must see bizarre episode.

 

[Winterwind]

I dont like the episode either very much, it's sort of just there. I dont have a problem with vampires per se, the show will come back to vampires eventually and do them much better.
The next one will be much better again.

The next vampire story is brilliant. One of my favourites. Of course that's all I can say since C. Miller has a few seasons to go through to get there.

 

[saturn5]

let me know when they do a Frankenstein show so I can skip it.

It's a must see bizarre episode.

If we're talking Jerry Springer, oh absolutely

 

[C_Miller]

yay! I love the discussion!

And interesting enough when I really, really got hooked by the X-Files another Scully episode in season two and you will of course know which one, I had watched most of the shows casually, but not religiously.

One Breath
(*****)

Mswood, was this the one you were talking about? If so, I completely, entirely agree. This is one of the few episodes that I couldn't find anything wrong with it. And while it definitely didn't reach the cinematic tone that I got out of Duane Barry, E.B.E, The Erlenmeyer Flask and others like that, it felt cinematic in the sense that it was jam packed with stuff. There was just so much going on that I'm not sure I can cover it in this review.

Okay, I'll briefly touch on the Mulder/Scully connection. Again, it's really lovely here as you can tell that Mulder is fighting more for Scully as opposed to the truth. In fact, he almost gives up on the truth entirely and only wants short term answers to save Scully. That actually says a lot, in my mind. When we met Mulder, the only thing he cared about was exposing the conspiracy, yet he's willing to throw that all away for the life of the person who is actually most likely his only friend.

And yay for ambiguity. Is it bad that I could actually see where The Smoking Man is coming from? I do not agree with what they are doing or how they do it, but I certainly could see that he has a point. And I can tell that Mulder is not ready to dip into their world, which I approve of. And my new fan theory is that Deep Throat and New Deep Throat are members of whatever group Smoking Man allies himself with. They just don't fully approve of what he does.

Also, someone earlier said that Skinner's loyalties are not clear cut. I'm still not seeing that. I mean, I suppose you can argue that he's loyal to his job and Mulder, even though they sometimes conflict, but leading him to Smoking Man's house, knowing full well what could happen, seemed pretty clear cut to me, as did refusing Mulder's resignation and telling him that story. I don't know, maybe we'll see more later, but I'm definitely Pro-Skinner as it stands now.

Anyways, before I write an essay... great episode and it will be great to have Scully back. Now maybe we can work into some state of normalcy before we're all uprooted again.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

One of my pasonal favorites. And since we were talking about Anderson's pregnancy, this is the only episode where we see her big round pregnant belly undisguised. Here they didn't hide it anymore, they shamelessly took advantage of it and integrated it into the plot!