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X-Files Question

Kestra

Kestra

Admiral
Premium Member
So my husband is a fan and has the whole series on DVD. And I decided to be brave and started watching the series with him, and I'm enjoying it a lot. We're working our way through the first dvds of Season One.

So here's the thing. Sometimes he says "Oh that's a bad episode and it's not important." Is it okay to skip some of them? I have a pretty high tolerance for awful TV, so I wouldn't mind watching most things. But are there some eps that are just really bad and are better skipped over?

I'm really surprised at how much I like the series so far.
 
If you like the show, just watch every episode. There are good episodes and there are stinkers, but you may like some of the bad ones and hate some of the good ones. Plus you might end up missing out on episodes that are tied together with the bigger picture.
 
Kestra said:
So my husband is a fan and has the whole series on DVD. And I decided to be brave and started watching the series with him, and I'm enjoying it a lot. We're working our way through the first dvds of Season One.

So here's the thing. Sometimes he says "Oh that's a bad episode and it's not important." Is it okay to skip some of them? I have a pretty high tolerance for awful TV, so I wouldn't mind watching most things. But are there some eps that are just really bad and are better skipped over?

I'm really surprised at how much I like the series so far.
Click to expand...

There are some episodes fans call "mytharc" episodes which should not be skipped if you want to follow the story. Standalone monster of the week stories can usually be skipped but I wouldn't personally as I feel the early seasons were when the show was at its creative peak.

From the first season I would strongly recommend that you do not skip:

"Pilot"
"Deep Throat"
"Conduit"
"Fallen Angel"
"E.B.E."
"The Erlenmeyer Flask"

I would also recommend that you at least watch:

"Squeeze"
"Ghost in the Machine"
"Ice"
"Space"
"Fire
"Beyond the Sea"
"Young at Heart"
"Darkness Falls"
"Tooms" (which is a sequel to "Squeeze")
"Born Again"
"Roland"
 
Aragorn said:
If you like the show, just watch every episode. There are good episodes and there are stinkers, but you may like some of the bad ones and hate some of the good ones. Plus you might end up missing out on episodes that are tied together with the bigger picture.
Click to expand...

Alright, sounds good. I don't mind taking my time to enjoy the series anyway, I just hope my husband doesn't run out of patience!

Hermiod said:
"Squeeze"
Click to expand...

*shiver*

"Tooms" (which is a sequel to "Squeeze")
Click to expand...

*shivers again*

Seriously, that episode creeped me out. I didn't want to walk around the house by myself after that.
 
I don't think there were too many episodes in the early seasons that were really bad -- a few stinkers here and there, to be sure, but generally the series was consistently solid. I'd suggest watching all of the episodes, if you can.

In the event that your husband does convince you to skip some episodes, if they are standalone "monster-of-the-week" stories (rather than "mythology" episodes that deal with aliens, UFOs, government conspiracies, etc.) then you probably won't miss anything too important in the long run -- that is to say that the standalone episodes, by and large, usually don't have any lasting repercussions in the series. But I'd still suggest watching them all, of course.

Hmm... I haven't viewed the early seasons in years -- since before the show went off the air. I should really re-watch the series one of these days, especially since I have the whole thing on DVD. Yeah, that sounds like a plan.
 
And those two episodes are an exception to the 'it's okay to skip the 'Monster of the Week episode" rule, because in their cases (and this isn't the only time in the series), a 'monster of the week' appears twice, so seeing one of his episodes without seeing their introduction first would be a little confusing.

Other examples are Pusher (from the episodes "Pusher" and "Kitsunegari") and Donnie Pfaster, who appears in Season 2's "Irresistable" and Season 7's "Osiron". I wouldn't recommend his episodes, though.

They're not bad, it's just that he's the most disgustingly evil and creepy bastard ever! I can appreciate what a great performance the actor gives and can't deny that his episodes have good writing and tension, but UGH, what a deplorable and painful-to-watch character he is.

I wish someone had warned me not to watch those episodes before I saw them because they're just too 'icky'. Again, not poorly written, acted, and directed or anything - just a really uncomfortable experience. I suppose some less squeamish people may get a kick out of them, though. :devil:
 
Personally, I didn't find any suckage at all until Season 6, and then the ubersuckage didn't start till 8 and 9. I don't want to see those two years again anytime soon.
 
Outside of "Space" in the first season, I can't suggest skipping any episodes. Almost every one adds a little bit to the mythology of the show (far more than the accepted canon of mytharc episodes) or develops the characters and relationship of Mulder, Scully, Skinner, and others. Skinner, for example, is introduced in "Tooms," which is supposed to be a standalone. It's also, of course, as sequel to "Squeeze." You can see how skipping episodes will just make things more confusing.
 
Too Much Fun said:
Other examples are Pusher (from the episodes "Pusher" and "Kitsunegari") and Donnie Pfaster, who appears in Season 2's "Irresistable" and Season 7's "Osiron". I wouldn't recommend his episodes, though.

They're not bad, it's just that he's the most disgustingly evil and creepy bastard ever! I can appreciate what a great performance the actor gives and can't deny that his episodes have good writing and tension, but UGH, what a deplorable and painful-to-watch character he is.

I wish someone had warned me not to watch those episodes before I saw them because they're just too 'icky'. Again, not poorly written, acted, and directed or anything - just a really uncomfortable experience. I suppose some less squeamish people may get a kick out of them, though. :devil:
Click to expand...

I'm curious... do you experience the same revulsion from "Home", arguably The X-Files' most notorious episode (in terms of disturbing content, anyway)?

And as for Donnie Pfaster, I wonder if he would've been even creepier if he had been portrayed the way Chris Carter originally intended: he was first imagined as a necrophiliac, but IIRC, the network told Carter to change that, so Pfaster then became a "death-fetishist". Definitely freaky either way, though.
 
I remember Tooms being part of the mytharc. I think Cigarette Smoking Man talked for the first time in it and Mulder's final line of the episode was setting up for the finale. It was a pretty cool episode.
 
You're also going to have to watch all three seasons of Millennium before the Frank Black episode so you get a better understanding of him and his daughter. :p

And every single episode of Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: SVU prior to the Munch episode. :p
 
On the other hand, you will have to watch the entirety (only 13 episodes) of The Lone Gunmen if you want to understand any of the references to that series in Nothing Important Happened Today I, Nothing Important Happened Today II, and Jump the Shark. It's not essential to The X-Files, but you'll be left scratching your head at a few ancillary references if you don't.
 
Aragorn said:
You're also going to have to watch all three seasons of Millennium before the Frank Black episode so you get a better understanding of him and his daughter. :p

And every single episode of Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: SVU prior to the Munch episode. :p
Click to expand...

In fact, I recommend Kestra watch everything in the Tommy Westphall universe. :evil:

For the uninitiated, the very scene in the very last episode of 80's medical drama St. Elsewhere suggested that the all six years of the show were a product of the imagination of an autistic boy named Tommy Westphall.

However, since characters from other shows had made guest appearances in St. Elsewhere (and vice versa), and then characters from other shows had made guest appearances in those shows and so on, it must therefore be true that those shows are also the product of Westphall's imagination.

For example, three characters from St. Elsewhere appeared in episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street. This is where the character of Baltimore Detective John Munch originated. The John Munch character then made a guest appearance in The X-Files.

As such, The X-Files must be a product of Westphall's imagination.
 
Introduce The Wire into the John Munch crossover-verse and things start to get really out of hand. :devil:

But I think were getting a wee bit off topic here...
 
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