The X-Files Discussion Thread

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mattiasflgrtll6's Avatar
The truth is in here
I love this show with all my heart. How come not more people are talking about it here?

Right now it's entered its eleventh season, spanning for 25 years. That is freakin' INSANE. I would never have imagined it would go on for so long. It does look like it's coming to an end though judging by these words:

Anderson commented that this is her final season of The X-Files, saying, "I've said from the beginning this is it for me." However, Chris Carter affirmed he would not do The X-Files without her character, saying, "For me, The X-Files is Mulder and Scully. I think if it were without Scully, I wouldn't do it. That's not my X-Files."
I understand how Anderson feels. She's been doing the same role for so long, and it's only natural to want to move on. We're lucky to have had Scully for so many years, even more than Mulder. And if Chris Carter is smart, he will know that with neither Anderson nor Duchovny (I highly doubt Duchovny wants to work without his co-star) it's time to give the show its final ending.

Right now I'm on the seventh season, so I haven't gotten that far yet. What are your favorite episodes? What's your favorite season? Would love to discuss with both fans and casual watchers.



Love the original series, though season 9 was rather a waste of energy. Hated the revival season last year, it's just been too long and you can't recapture the magic. This year it's been pinched by Pay TV anyway so....



mattiasflgrtll6's Avatar
The truth is in here
I hear season 11 is a lot better, so maybe there's still a way they can recapture the magic. It's really only the opening people seem to hate. I don't know though, haven't gotten that far yet.

The latest episode I saw was Hungry. That was great. Creepy and a bit sad at the same time.



Agree with iank, the last series was rubbish and even embarrassing in some parts and the new series(starts here in the UK next week) doesn't look any better. Hope I'm wrong.

Use to adore The X-Files.



mattiasflgrtll6's Avatar
The truth is in here
Apparently Chris Carter is starting to change his mind and theorizes about a possible twelfth season without Gillian Anderson.



This man is insane. Let this season be the last, come on! Even a series finale with virtually no ending would be better than another season which lacks her magic presence.



mattiasflgrtll6's Avatar
The truth is in here
Does anybody know if Mark Snow still composes the music? When checking imdb I can't find his name after season 10. Did someone take over?



mattiasflgrtll6's Avatar
The truth is in here
I haven't really posted any X-Files reviews here before, but I had so many problems with the latest episode I watched I have to share it.

Nothing Important Happened Today



I don't really know how to feel about this premiere. There are just some things about it that bug me. But I have some good things to say about it at first.

Doggett is by far the best part about this episode. You're completely on his side in his fight against Kersh and the super soldiers, and want to see him succeed. James Pickens Jr. as usual perfectly portrays Kersh as a bastard. He's the guy you really love to hate. Reyes also has a few amusing lines here and there. There is also the mermaid-esque super soldier, played by none other than Lucy Lawless. The teaser where she seduces someone and later gets the man drowned was terrifying. The devious smile on her face as she pulls him off sent chills down my spine. Scully's baby William was quite adorable. It's impressive how he was played by five different babies, yet I never noticed.

Unfortunately, despite Scully's baby being in danger and the super soldiers taking more control, I wasn't on the edge on my seat the same way as with other premieres. There was too much exposition and not enough things of consequence happening. It's incredibly frustrating to see Skinner and Scully be unusually discouraging and telling Doggett to drop the investigation against Kersh. Scully even tells him to never come back to her house, even after he saved her and the baby's life. Doggett is right, how much is it gonna take before he finally trusts her? It's getting silly at this point. And don't even talk to me about the scene where Reyes needs help from her and she excuses herself to go to back to her baby...

Skinner does eventually help out, though with a bitter attitude. And just when some momentum is gained,
WARNING: spoilers below
we cut to Doggett getting pulled underwater by the mermaid soldier, which is a fairly creepy moment.
But then it just ends.

"Really? Is that it?"

Nothing Important Happened Today is overall an okay X-Files episode. Doggett is in fine form, and the cinematography as always is great (thanks to veteran Bill Roe). But it's definitely one of my lesser favorites, and doesn't offer up enough excitement as a premiere.



mattiasflgrtll6's Avatar
The truth is in here
The X-Files - My Struggle



After 14 years of The X-Files' shutdown, Mulder and Scully are re-united. Will they finally find the truth this time?

The episode starts off very strongly. Scully tells Mulder about a conspiracy theorist who claims to be looking for proof of alien existence just like him, and Ted O'Malley introduce them to an abductee. While you can tell it's been a long time, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson do a solid job as their title characters. The interaction between the two of them is still fun to watch. Even if I could have done without the now somewhat clichéd "You don't know what you're getting yourself into" rant.

The flashback scenes on this show have always been eerie, and this is no exception. When Sveta recalls her experiences the brutal images shown in quick succession are very creepy. There are also other nice shots such as the UFO crashing into the hillside, and Sveta getting abducted at the end.

About 20 minutes in however, writer Chris Carter makes a huge mistake:
WARNING: spoilers below
he expects the audience to believe the last 9 years with countless evidence of extraterrestials and alien abductions have all been staged. Not only doesn't this make any sense considering how many people were killed for uncovering alien conspiracies, but it makes you feel stupid for trying to make sense of all the plot development all these years only for it to turn out to be a waste of time. There have been supersoldiers walking around, for Christ's sake!


So due to that unfortunate direction I'll have to give this episode a middling rating. While I still hold out hope for the rest of the season, I do so with a tinge of skepticism.




mattiasflgrtll6's Avatar
The truth is in here
Incidentally, my last two reviews are both for what I easily think is the best, and what I think is the worst of the revival seasons.

Rm9sbG93ZXJz



In some sort of alternate reality, Mulder and Scully go to a virtual resturant to eat. Everything they order is handled by computers. The food isn't best, but still makes for a fun date. After Mulder upsets some robots however, both of them are in danger.

This is easily my favorite episode of the two revival seasons. The visual style, with gorgeous hues of blue and a strange world where everything is ruled by technology and robots is both frightening and fascinating. The drones that hunt Mulder and Scully look very creepy, with their intimidating bright eyes. Even the smiley bus driver that traps Scully and drives at maximum speed is unsettling. I like that all the drones banded together look like a swarm of fireflies.

The "monster" this week is not a mutated being or government official of any sort, it's the devices that humans themselves have created. This is not the first time that a robot has been a villain, but previously it's always been just one. The cat-and-mouse game Mulder and Scully play with their unfriendly robots makes it very suspenseful.

I love the intensity of the scene where the electrically charged objects inside Scully's home start retaliating against her. I find it interesting by the way how vast and fancy her house looks in this episode. Mulder even pokes fun at this by asking "How come your house is so much nicer than mine?"

Yes, despite how tension-filled Rm9 is, it's also highly comedic. Mulder getting a blobfish for dinner, the fact that he and Scully are in trouble just because he didn't want to leave a tip, Scully's angry reaction to the uncomfortable taxi ride, even the resturant menu going "Yum" every time someone makes a selection is amusing.

Both season 10 and 11 have their gems, but the latter showed a little more spark in the old X-Files engine. And this is as great as the show gets.



My Struggle IV



Mulder and Scully make a final attempt to find William before the government agents or worse, Cigarette Smoking Man does so first. The alien virus is also still spreading throughout the country.

Probably the biggest redeeming factor here is the acting. Even though they get some questionable material to work with, David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Mitch Pileggi and William B. Davis are still as sharp as ever. If nothing else, it's nice to see them play these characters for the last time.

But out of all the mythology episodes I've seen, this time rushes things through like no other. Information is given at the quickest possible time, there's an endless amount of action sequences and events that should be given room to breathe are completely brushed over. I thought the scene where Mulder just killed five people at once was really weird. Sure he's sometimes had to kill someone out of absolute necessity, but he was never just an unflinching assassin.

I'll only mention the alien virus epidemic briefly, because there's really not much to talk about. Scully calls Tad O'Malley and gives him new important info about the virus, which he writes into his show. And then... it's never followed up on. Did the virus stop? Is it still spreading? I guess we'll never find out!

William is much more of a caricature here than in Ghouli. In that episode he was a frightened young child who just wanted to be left alone since he's afraid of what he might do. But here we have a scene where he rides with a truck driver and he turns into a monster just to impress him. I thought he wanted to *avoid* using his powers, why would he use them when it's not even neccessary? He also gets a lot of clichéd teen angsty dialogue such as "You don't understand" and "You're not helping. You're leading them to me." He tells one of the girls he's friends with he's tired of running, yet when Mulder wants to help him he doesn't even give him a chance and runs away from him anyway?

Skinner's role was pretty much useless. CSM tells him to give him William, which he doesn't want to do. Fair enough. Then he decides to help Scully find Mulder and William, but then bumps into CSM and Monica. He shoots Monica, then gets run over by a car. That's literally it. Our beloved Walter Skinner gets unceremoniously run over by a car, and then immediately it cuts back to a chase scene. He deserved much, much more than that.

Speaking of Monica, her entire storyline during season 10 and 11 has made no sense at all. Although she bugged me at times, she was nice person in 8 and 9 who cared deeply about Doggett, Mulder and Scully. Hell, she even helped Scully give birth to her child. Then in the season 10 premiere she's suddenly turned evil, and you keep waiting for an explanation as to why. But it never comes. And she too gets killed off very undramatically.

But the final dagger comes with the ending. Scully thinks she finds Mulder, but it turns out to be William in disguise telling her to leave it alone. When Mulder enters the Old Sugar Factory, he runs away. He continues chasing William, but CSM shoots him before he can make it in time. Angry at him for shooting his son (even though it's technically CSM's son, but I hated that reveal already in the season 11 premiere, so won't go over that), Mulder fires several bullets at CSM, who drops dead into the water. Or so we assume at least, we all know that damn Smoking Man is invincible.

Now, here's what I really, really hate: Because they couldn't save William from Cigarette Smoking Man's wrath, Scully tells Mulder he's not really their son and "wasn't meant to be". This is really poor and out-of-character writing. Scully cared about William more than anyone else in the whole world. That's why she regretted giving him up for adoption, she started questioning whether he really was safe or not. She should be shaking, crying at the thought of never getting him back.

The following twist that Mulder has gotten her pregnant (yes, it's actually his child this time) could have potentionally been sweet, but the dialogue is so poorly written that it doesn't resonate with me.

"That's impossible." "I know. I know it is. It's more than impossible."

What does she have to speak in codes for? It's really not that hard to just say "Mulder, I'm carrying your child." She makes it sound like she got pregnant by some invisible force.

And let's not even talk about the incredibly eyerollworthy final shot where William turns out to still be alive, rising up from the water like a swamp monster.

In the end, I'm not sure what makes me sadder. The fact that I've finished the entire series and will never get to see my favorite FBI agents again, or that they got such a poor and inconclusive ending. Even though the season 9 finale didn't answer all questions, it had a lot of sweet moments between them and felt like a love letter to all the loyal fans sticking with it all these years.

I recommend watching the bonus feature where David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson interview each other about the last year. It's pretty cute and leaves you with a warmer feeling than this episode.
__________________



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
Incidentally, my last two reviews are both for what I easily think is the best, and what I think is the worst of the revival seasons.

Rm9sbG93ZXJz



In some sort of alternate reality, Mulder and Scully go to a virtual resturant to eat. Everything they order is handled by computers. The food isn't best, but still makes for a fun date. After Mulder upsets some robots however, both of them are in danger.

This is easily my favorite episode of the two revival seasons. The visual style, with gorgeous hues of blue and a strange world where everything is ruled by technology and robots is both frightening and fascinating. The drones that hunt Mulder and Scully both look very creepy, with their intimidating bright eyes. Even the smiley bus driver that traps Scully and drives at maximum speed is unsettling. I like that all the drones banded together look like a swarm of fireflies.

The "monster" this week is not a mutated being or government official of any sort, it's the devices that humans themselves have created. This is not the first time that a robot has been a villain, but previously it's always been just one. The cat-and-mouse game Mulder and Scully play with their unfriendly robots makes it very suspenseful.

I love the intensity of the scene where the electrically charged objects inside Scully's home start retaliating against her. I find it interesting by the way how vast and fancy her house looks in this episode. Mulder even pokes fun at this by asking "How come your house is so much nicer than mine?"

Yes, despite how tension-filled Rm9 is, it's also highly comedic. Mulder getting a blobfish for dinner, the fact that he and Scully are in trouble just because he didn't want to leave a tip, Scully's angry reaction to the uncomfortable taxi ride, even the resturant menu going "Yum" every time someone makes a selection is amusing.

Both season 10 and 11 have their gems, but the latter showed a little more spark in the old X-Files engine. And this is as great as the show gets.

Rm9sbG93ZXJz is my favorite episode of the series. I love the whole "rise of the machines" concept of how the computers have taken over. It feels like that's the way our world is heading, and it's kind of scary when you think about it.

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__________________
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If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.



Just finished Season One, watched the first three seasons years ago, decided to give it another go. Anyone still believe?



So are there any respectable stopping points in the series? Heard quite a bit of different opinions about this. I'm close to the end of season two.



Just finished Season Two last night with the standard finale cliffhanger. Feels like this show is starting to reach the point where everything is fine tuned and it has the formula about right where it needs to be. Suppose to be getting my b/r in the mail this week so I'll hold off on starting Season 3.



Tried going through the entire series and did write-ups as well.
https://www.movieforums.com/communit...ighlight=Files

As much as I loved the series I inevitably got bored.
Hey, nice. I started to get a little bored with it too, then they hit with 3 or 4 episodes towards the end of the season and I was interested again. Probably won't make it to the end, maybe Season Five and the first movie.

e: I missed your thread the first time searching through. Thanks for the link.



I liked the movies tbh.
A lot of people didn't.

The second one I "Want To Believe" I thought was solid.
It acts as a Monster Of The Week episode and also has that arc through it with Mulder's exile and Scully's faith.
Billy Connolly is brilliant as well.



I liked the movies tbh.
A lot of people didn't.

The second one I "Want To Believe" I thought was solid.
It acts as a Monster Of The Week episode and also has that arc through it with Mulder's exile and Scully's faith.
Billy Connolly is brilliant as well.
I'm about halfway through Season 3, it feels like it's starting to fine tune everything. Read a little about Darin Morgan and his influence on the show. He's listed as a story editor for S3. Clyde Bruckman and Humbug seemed to bring a different dimension to the show. Good stuff.



Reached the midway point of Season 4. For the mytharc storyline you can definitely feel the story expanding quite a bit in scope. The MTOW episodes are holding strong. Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man along with Paper Hearts are fantastic.