So, anyone up for a trip to the basement office? No one here but the FBI's most unwanted!

I've been promising this to some of you for a while now. Well, the time has come - I have finished rewatching the entire series, plus both movies, and now we can to discuss how the X-FIles hold up, and how watching it again changed some of my perspective on it. However, before I produce a wall of text on the subject (it's a long series and there's a lot to it, so I could go on for long time about it), I'd like to know if there's at least a few people interested in the thread. So sound off if you're interested, and once we have a task force assembled I'll build my wall of text :)

me! (^_^) i'm the most interested (and most interesting) person about your xfiles!







PS: i said i love you but i lied :-/

I'll probably read through it at least. I watched the entire series a while ago, and have generally fond memories of it (except for the last seasons, ugh).

I'll read it - I have the bluray set waiting to be watched... if I ever get the time to do it!! >_>

I loved it up until around the 4th season where the hit or miss nature of the episodes became more apparent. And around season 5 or 6 some episodes were just insufferable and too campy. I only made it to season 8 where i just couldn't keep going with it. I gave up. And I never do that! I felt like I had my fill of it.

one of the worst shows upon a re-watch

even those first seasons that I remembered being so cool interesting good

nope

a bunch of poop through and through

maybe like 3-5 "good" (and just barely good) episodes in the entire show, imo (:

Wall of text incoming (just my general thoughts on every season for now).
Season 1 - It's really amazing how good the series is from the start. In fact, the X-Files Pilot might just be the best pilot episode I've ever seen. They get everything perfectly right, and set up the whole show without ever getting bogged down in exposition. The following episode, which introduces Deep Throat follows that up perfectly, and thus the entire series is perfectly set up. It does the impossible, and does it perfectly- it lends to the alien conspiracy and other urban myths the gravitas of real events like Watergate, it's like JFK directed by John Carpenter. And thus it actually manages to make scary what should be silly, because it's so good we can suspend our disbelief, and once we do that, the ideas it explores are genuinely terrifying. Sure, there are some weaker episodes in the first season, it's uneven, but mostly it's very, very strong. It's also nothing short of a miracle how well they cast all the supporting roles like Smoking Man, Skinner and the Lone Gunmen wothout realising how important they will become.

Season 2- the mythology arc was really just a lot of random ideas barely put together in the first season. Now, with Scully abducted, the alien conspiracy kicked into overdrive, and the show became even stronger for it. With the introduction of new characters like Krycek and X the plot thickens, and for the first time we can see it really taking shape. It's worth noting just how dark those first two season are. There are no comedy episodes, it's all really dark and serious and scary. It's also fun that we see Mulder in those early season actually prove that he is a good investigator, at least as much as the time allows. He's not just pulling the wierd ideas out of a hat, he arrives at them in a way that is usually logical... as long as you allow for what he accepts exists.

Seasons 3, 4 and 5- as the show becmae more popular, it also changed a little. We got a little more action, than talking in poorly lit underground garages, and also the first "weird" episodes. Some work very well (like War of the Coprophages), others not so much. In general I think most of those episodes are overrated. They really don't work well within the entire narrative of the series, and it feels like the show short-changing itself, loosing that edge I mentioned of making the ridiculous scary by making it feel grounded and serious. Still, those were still very strong season, with both the myth-arc and standalone episodes mostly working great.

The X-Files Movie- I really like it. I know some people don't, but I think it's pretty much perfect. It's the best a movie of the X-Files could be. It uses all the elements of the show and expands on the mythology in a way the big scope of a feature film allowed. I also always liked the Well Manicured Man who has a big role in the movie, andm akes every bit of exposition compelling like if he was reading Shakespeare. I also love how the movie feels like a dark, twisted version of Close Encounters. It's full of that sense of mystery and wonder... but sinister and scary.

Seasons 6&7- the mythology got wraped up halfway through season 6 in a way that simultanously made more sense and was way more boring than I think anyone expected. After that we still got some good episodes, even some great ones (I hated Closure the first time I saw it, but this time I absolutely loved it), but mostly the series just meandered. It lacked the urgency and energy of the previous seasons, and took a way lighter tone. It was fun often, but barely felt like the same show.

Season 8- to my great, great surprise, at this point instead of falling apart, the show returned to it's dark roots, and gave us the strongest season since season 5, maybe even eariler. The search for abducted Mulder gave the series it's direction and darkness back. Agent Doggett proved to be a perfect addition to the show, different than Mulder, but very compelling. In fact, I think Robert Patrick might just be the best actor of all the shows regulars. He did some amazing stuff that season, and thanks to Doggett the show was scary once more. Maybe more than it ever was. Mulder was always excited and almost happy to find even the freakiest monsters, and Scully felt often like too much of a sceptic to really be properly scared of what they encountered, but to Doggett this twilight zone is something quite different. He's a badass, a former marine, but this shit is way beyond him, and he knows it, but his sense of duty means he has to deal with it anyway, and it makes for some great TV.

Season 9- it couldn't last, could it? I may be one of the few people to like season 8 so much, but I can't defend 9. It's a train wreck. It's full of good ideas, but the execution is all over the place. The new character of agent Reyes is terrible, and the actress even worse, Mulder's second dissapearance from the show is handled terribly clumsy and Scully gets reduced to barely more than screaming "my baby!" all the time. Not to mention that the mythoology, or rather it's resurrected corpse, makes less than no sense by this point. The show itse;f seem to change it's mind with every episode on who and what it's really about.

I Want to Belive- the second movie is not in fact as bad as I remembered it, it's just kinda mediocre and barely even an X-File. It's more like a run-of-the mill stright to DVD thriller that features Mulder and Scully and got released in cinemas for some reason.

Season 10- we already talked about it here on the forum, but having seen the entire series again made my realise even more just how bad it is. It retcons almost everything, makes zero sense, feels nothing like the show used to. Ugh. Its downright insulting.

All in all, the crappy ending(s) notwithstanding, I think The X-Files holds up remarkably well. When it was good it was superbly good. A show like no other (many tried to imitate it, and none ever got what made it work). The cast was great, and it could get really dark and actually was often far smarter and deeper than people give it credit for, remembering mostly the goofy or outright bad episodes of the later seasons.

I won't read it now, I haven't watched it yet sadly, only a few episodes here and there. I've dropped my interest in TV series lately considerably, it doesn't feel like the great drug it used to so I might as well save a good one for later. That said, I'm still interested to hear someone go nerd-deep into something and you seem to both enjoy and know a lot about the series.

Watched the whole series again last year, so I'm interested. Not completely sure if I have anything interesting to contribute though. There are very few episodes that left a lasting impression. But I will probably remember some stuff when you talk about it.

Love it. Was happy to discover reruns on a few channels recently.

Have to say, though, I watched one a few nights ago - the title escapes me but it was apparently about an awkward serial killer with a death fetish - and it just seemed a bit... goofy. Melodramatic. But that doesn't change my overall opinion. Maybe I just wasn't in the proper mood at the time.

Heck, I still have "Songs in the Key of X" in heavy rotation.

I'm currently in the 4 ep. of season 3. This series is basically one big Deus Ex Machina

So far I agree with a lot of stuff you wrote, especially the opinion that the show got very good again in season 8. Doggett was a good character and I liked how the roles were suddenly changed with Scully being the the one with the obscure theories and her male counterpart being the sceptic. Unfortunately they brought back Mulder too soon. Show would have been better without him for a while.

Can't agree with your opinion about season 10 though. The Were-Lizard episode was one of the best funny episodes of the whole series and the one that introduced Miller and Einstein was quite funny as well. Rest of the episodes was mediocre at best, but not really worse than some stuff in season 7 and season 9 (which were the worst seasons in my eyes).

I really liked the relationship between Doggett and Scully. How they developed a much more "working" relationship than she did with Mulder, didn't get as friendly, but at the same time it felt like from the get go Doggett actually respected her more than Mulder did, and that despite the fact that this time around she was the one with crazy theories.

Oh, they were funny. But they weren't really X-Files. I actually did enjoy thsoe two, but upon re-watching the show I just found myself not liking the comedy episodes in general (with some exceptions). Like I said, the strenght of the X-Files at their "purest" was that it actually managed to make all the aliens and mutants and monsters scary, it actually treated them seriously, and the execution (acting, writing and cinematography) were so good they made that risky premise work. Those are all things so easy to make silly, but the X-FIles made them scary, or if not scary then at least legitimately sinister and creepy. But with the funny episodes, it lost that edge. While those episodes can be great fun on their own, the series as a whole suffered. There were exceptions, like The Post-Modern Prometheus or Unusual Suspects, but those worked so well because despite being unusual and more funny then scary, they still had something sad or bitter-sweet at their core. They felt like they belonged in the same story as the early "dark" seasons.

So when in season 10 the only "good" episodes are the funny ones, and those don't actually have any of thet "core", they are just comedy, then for me it just fails as X-Files.

Also, season 7 was much better in one way at least- it did not poorly retcon the previous six. Season 10 basically retcons most of the show, and it makes no damn sense in any way. Season 7 was very uneven, and could get really bad, but even then outside of being too goofy it was harmless story-wise. Except for the season 7 premiere, which was some utter nonsense about ancient aliens and Scully translating bible passages written on a derelict spaceship she finds in africa or something, and it was truly terrible. It was so bad the show pretty much forgot all about it untill season 9, when it all went belly-up anyway.

I was too burned out by season 8 to enjoy it fully. All the meandering "epic plot" and "funny" episodes just sapped me. I actually preferred the "Monster of the week" episodes in general, especially the Fluke Man episode.

After watching some episodes here and there I tried watching it from the beginning. Concluded that I like the episodes that aren't about aliens, unfortunately 2/3rds of them are about aliens.

Whenever it was about aliens you'd get an interesting conspiracy and some intrigue going on, and then nothing comes of it and the episode just ends. Someone would get bribed, or brainwashed, or evidence would be erased, or whatever and one of them would complain that "It just isn't right! Are they really going to get away with it?" and the other would say "They've gotten away with it this time, but maybe one day the truth will come out..."

And how could it be any different? What are they going to do? Go up on a spaceship and slap some cuffs on the aliens? That'd be ridiculous. By design the conspiracy must go on, so stuff can't be resolved.

The ones that weren't about aliens had better conclusions. Sure, maybe the monster dissolved when it died and no one will ever know the truth, but the problem has been solved and we've reached a satisfying end.

I watched maybe 10 or 15 episodes of the first season when I gave up on it. Maybe it all changes later and it becomes much more cohesive, but I watched one too many episodes that just ended abruptly instead of conclude and feared the rest would be the same.

On top of that, later I've come to understand that I just don't like these types of shows, the ones that aren't fully serialized where each episode feels like a meaningful step in a bigger narrative, nor fully episodic where each episode is a satisfying and self-contained story in its own right. They try to have their cake and eat it too, and by the state of network television clearly a large portion of the public thinks they succeed, but I feel like they bring the worst of both worlds and learned they're just not for me.