the x-files s/d

there are still some great episodes though.

My favorite episode is "Jose Chung's from Outer Space" (from season 3), which is as close as the X-files got to portraying the absurdity of the UFO phenomenon.

The whole tying-loose-threads-together way they began down the alien conspiracy route actually totally drew me in, it was when they started answering the questions I got tired of it. They should've just left it perpetually open-ended or something.

and jack black was in one, can't remember. why is the dvd set like 1/2 my paycheck?

The finale was one of the most unspectacular things I've ever seen.

I'm dreading watching the season 6(was it?) move to California; we live in vancouver, and half the fun is identifying the locations (that's the rogers tower in burnaby! that's in gastown! it's the art gallery! stanley park!).

As for the story arc I have a feeling Chris Carter originally had a rough plan or idea of where he wanted it to go, (I think I even remember him around '95 or so saying he wanted the show to last about five years and then do movies or spinoffs after that). But as the show got more popular, there was pressure to keep it going and drag it out, so the conspiracy-arc episodes started becoming more labyrynthine and covoluted.

I actually didn't watch the show all that much but always liked it whenever I caught it, so maybe I lucked out with the episodes. And the movie was all right.

First episode I ever saw was called Revelations, I think and it scared the holy hell out of me. I didn't watch the show for a couple of years because I kept thinking of the tagline, "the truth is out there..." and then thinking, "but hell if I want to know what it is!" Eventually I was pulled into it, though.

Search: Seasons 1&2, particulary the three parter at the end of season 2 and the start of season 3. All epsiodes written by Darin Morgan: Humbug, Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose, War Of The Coprophages, Jose Chung's From Outer Space (or, the Freaks one, the Psychics one, the Cockroaches one, the Alex Trebek one)

Destroy: the rest of it, more so as it goes on.

Have yet to buy the DVDs but when I moved in with my boyfriend he made me THROW AWAY my dozens and dozens of carefully recorded and labeled seasons 1-4 VHS tapes. *sob*

S-I liked the tooms episodes and pretty much any of the earlier ones written by morgan/wong

D-any later eps with those other two agents. I don't even remeber their names that's how much I hated them.

Also a question for die-hard fans: is it necessary to watch all the mythology episodes before watching the movie?

I really liked the COPS crossover where the tv crew following some cops around LA walk slap bang into the middle of an X File.

And my heart still belongs to Gillian Anderson who, judging from her turn in Bleak House, has aged like a fine wine...

I loved the episode where the Jim Rose Circus starred as a freak show. Mulder has so many great one-liners.

Who's been to an X-Files convention? *raises then puts down hand in shame*

I hated him on the x-files only because I kept wishing he'd turn into the T1000.

Omg, i totally forgot about Monica Reyes. Nggghhh. I was about to defend those last few seasons (memory's pretty hazy but I remember liking a few episodes) but now I'm thinking they really did suck something awful.

I do remember enjoying the moment where the audience discovered OMG there are TWO different races of aliens!

I second the endorsement of everything involving Darin Morgan. I think he might have had something to do with Blood, the one involving people being sent into homicidal rages through messages in their microwaves and cell phones. That one was great.

Duchovny's episode about baseball was a totally silly, sentimental classic. Gillian Anderson's new age bullshit episode was crap (and also had Moby).

I wish we could've seen more Kryeck/Covarrubias action - a spin-off 'evil' version of the show!

Second movie en route.

This show was really great sometimes. This movie will probably be shitty like the first one.

i'm excited but how exactly are they going to pick up from the show's (admittedly rather lame) finale? mulder & scully weren't even in the fbi anymore! also there was/is an impending alien colonization in 2012! i seriously doubt they're gonna reboot the mythology and *fanboy meltdown* WARNING! SMOKE DETECTED! CHECK CIRCUITS

http://www.utsystem.edu/ohr/neo/graphics/Risk%20Managment/RiskManagmentGraphics/FireExtinguisher.gif

Well it's going to be a monster-of-the-week so they'll probably just sweep as much of that stuff under the rug as they possibly can. I didn't know that Mulder and Scully weren't in the FBI anymore but I guess there's no reason they can't be seeking the truth in their retirement, right?

Also search this episode:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.P.O.

x-post

well in the last ep they were on the run from the alien conspiracy which now solely consists of "supersoldiers" preparing the way for the invasion (which was revealed to be in 2012).

though i guess skinner and robert patrick and that other chick are still around. i just hope that if they're gonna do another movie, at least make a nod to those events or something.

i mean since they spent so much time dragging the show out past its peak they might as well, right?

Been enjoying it from the start this year, only halfway through Season 2 now... I remember seeing the movie and hating it though when it came out.

Wat I want to know it, why was it never repeated (here).

I need to pick up some boxsets I think. I can still remember the first episode I ever saw when I was 9 or 10, the one where a guy's shadow kills people. I don't think it's a first season ep - anyone know what I'm talking about?

yeah that's a first season ep...i think the guy was played by tony shaloub? maybe i'm wrong

yep that's the one! totally did not realize that was monk.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_Light_%28The_X-Files_episode%29

and it's from season 2. I knew it wasn't season 1 cause I remember it had been on for a while and I hadn't been allowed to stay up to watch it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071101/tv_nm/xfiles_dc

The July 25 release date would put "X-Files" up against "Step Brothers," a comedy starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, and an untitled comedy starring Ice Cube.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0838283/

mckay is directing, apatow is producing

hhahaha for a sec i was like "am apatow-produced x-files flick wtf"

Trailer filmed at recent convention, accompanied by screaming geeks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is7F0IgRj4g

some more tidbits

http://io9.com/360060/gillian-anderson-reveals-kinky-plot-of-x+files-3-movie

http://io9.com/360044/chris-carter-says-911-killed-x+files-but-america-is-ready-for-it-again

http://i25.tinypic.com/2s982tz.jpg

9/11 killed the X-Files?

Does that mean the Cold War killed AfterM*A*S*H?

search "x-cops"

episode filmed in the style of cops

gimmicky but exceptionally well done i thought

and terrifying when i was in 6th grade

it's weird now to think there was a time when literally everyone i knew was obsessed with this. that hasn't happened since, even with Lost or Heroes, there are just plenty of people who don't care. And weirdly i don't know a single person now who would probably still sit down and watch the X Files in reruns. I'll probably see the movie but they're going to have to really hype this and it had better get GREAT word of mouth

i watch the x files in reruns

i know a lot of people who've come to the show posthumously, through re-runs and dvds

no not dead people, after the show's run, wiseguys

anyway, it's cool that this is a standalone movie and all, i just hope the monster or whatever isn't some lame angry ghost or an evil psychic.

i want something rad and freaky like a werewolf or a flukeman or that eugene tooms guy

Puff promo interview with Duchovny -- nothing about the plot but some fun details and observations.

glad to know they went back to Vasncouver for this one :-D

trailer!!!

http://www.xfiles.com/main.php

so psyched for this despite myself

russian trailer!

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=45605

Posted by: john p. on June 2, 2008 at 18:17:10

who else wants to put their d ick in agent skully's p ussy?? (Gillian Anderson is gorgeous)

billy connolly??!

About my reaction. From a cagey Chris Carter interview:

The scene on the monitors is one that will later appear in trailers for the film, due to open July 25. Looking surprisingly untouched by age over the last several years, special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), her signature red tresses grown out past her shoulders, stand amid a snow-covered landscape talking with a mysterious man with shaggy gray hair played by Scottish actor Billy Connolly. Something unsettling is taking place, but what, exactly?

Answer, obviously: being stuck with Billy Connolly somewhere.

i just really, really hope there's a monster in it.

p.v.m.i.c., obv

i saw a late-night rerun of X-Files about a year ago and it seemed so dated and just painful to watch. very strange how it seems to have aged so poorly.

i dunno, i think the good episodes still stand up.

a lot of the early 90's-isms of the first two seasons are unintentionally funny now.

latebloomer you should make a "mix tape" of the best x-files episodes and then i will seek them out and download them.

i would really like it if they'd repackage and sell separate box sets of the mythology episodes and the standalone episodes

ya

i second that emotion.

im not latebloomer but

JOSE CHUNGS FROM OUTER SPACE
SQUEEZE/TOOMS
HUMBUG
CLYDE BRUCKMANS FINAL REPOSE
PILOT/DEEP THROAT <<<< underrated
BEYOND THE SEA

clyde bruckman episode is fuckin dope

Clyde Bruckman: You know, there are worse ways to go, but I can't think of a more undignified way than autoerotic asphyxiation.
Mulder: Why are you telling me that?
Clyde Bruckman: Look, forget I mentioned it. It's none of my business.

Not latebloomer either but:

Eve
Blood
Anasazi
Pusher
Bad Blood
The Pine Bluff Variant

But Clyde Bruckman might be the best one, and the second season's really consistently good.

I'd add:

Ice
E.B.E.
Duane Barry/Ascension
One Breathe
Die Hand die Verletzt
Folie a Deux
Paper Hearts
Tithonous (a sequel, of sorts, to Clyde Bruckman)

Some fans will recommend "Post-Modern Prometheus" but in my opinion AVOID IT LIKE THE PLAGUE.

did xzibit change his name?

always had a soft spot for space, the one about the "face" on mars

that was like the most boring episode ever.

not for me!

vahid u trippin

but definitely not as bad as the "fight club" one.

Space's reputation as worst episode ever is truly undeserved (same for El Mundo Gira)

Humbug is the best

same dude, Darin Morgan, wrote Blood, Humbug, Jose Chung and Clyde Bruckman...and has done pretty much nothing since then

i've spent a lot of time this afternoon looking at x-files "best and worst episode" lists, and i'm a little disturbed to find a lot of my favorites are on "worst" lists ... see also "genderbender", "el mundo gira" and "firewalker"

My top "mythology" episodes:

E.B.E.
Erlenmeyer Flask
Little Green Men
Duane Barry/Ascension/One Breath
Colony/Endgame
Anasazi/Paperclip/The Blessing Way
Nisei/731
Piper Maru/Apochrypha

My top "standalone" epsisodes:

Squeeze/Tooms
Beyond The Sea
The Host
Die Hand Die Verletzt
Irresistible
Humbug
Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose
War of the Coprophages
Grotesque
Jose Chung’s “From Outer Space” (single best episode, hands-down)
Quagmire
Home

What does X-philes thinks of "The Unnatural," the baseball episode?

i've spent a lot of time this afternoon looking at x-files "best and worst episode" lists, and i'm a little disturbed to find a lot of my favorites are on "worst" lists ... see also "genderbender", "el mundo gira" and "firewalker"

-- moonship journey to baja, Monday, July 14, 2008 1:38 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

genbderbender is totally underrated!

that scene with the ritual in the barn is so creepy

Can we agree the one with the dude who "likes" (they didn't go all the way to making him a necrophiliac) dead people was pretty shit? Even had a "sorry this isn't actually an X-File but's it's just as scary, right?" disclaimer by Mulder at the end.

Bad Blood

!!! yes all time

in no order

Bad Blood
Squeeze/Tooms
Die Hand Die Verletzt
Irresistible
X-Cops
Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose
War of the Coprophages
Jose Chung’s “From Outer Space”
The Amazing Maleeni (just for Ricky Jay)

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Chris Carter has expressed his ambition to make one more film, if I Want to Believe proves to be a success. He suggests that this film would go back to the mythology and focus on the alien invasion, due to occur on December 22, 2012, which was revealed in the final episode of the series.[30]

shit

thew alien mythology arc shit went south after season 3 but they dug that hole so they might as well wrap it up somehow. it might work in a movie form, who knows. i liked the first movie ok.

i find it hard to believe anyone watched the last two seasons. no scully or mulder?

i find it hard to believe anyone watched the last two seasons

Are you kidding? The audience that provides ratings for the Sci-Fi Channel's primetime line-up also watches the broadcast networks...

x-ost

scully was in the last two seasons plenty, but more as a upporting character. but yeah, the show was just almost impossible to watch by then. it was really sad, like seeing a family member die slowly to some horrible disease.

I liked Robert Patrick, though. He tried his best.

awesome cant wait to watch these... i was a watcher when it was on but not really that faithful and i'm pretty sure i missed a ton.

i did see that HORRIBLE last episode tho :( :( :(

I really hate what they did to Scully in the last two seasons. She was always sobbing and crying her eyes out. Robert Patrick was the best thing about the last two years, despite how inconsistent his character was (all the writers' fault, obviously).

thew alien mythology arc shit went south after season 3 but they dug that hole so they might as well wrap it up somehow. it might work in a movie form, who knows. i liked the first movie ok.

There is a later mythology episode, "Tempus Fugit/Max" which harks back to the really early UFO epsodes, that's definitely worth checking out.

Slocki otm that final episode was ridic, especially that pukesome final scene where they were in bed, wth was that all about.

I like an ep I think is called "Hiding in the Light"? About a creepy telemarketing company that was mind-controlling its staff and customers. I guess I related to it being on a helpdesk at the time.

I like an ep I think is called "Hiding in the Light"? About a creepy telemarketing company that was mind-controlling its staff and customers. I guess I related to it being on a helpdesk at the time.

The episode's named Folie a Deux ("a madness shared by two") - the manager was a giant insect.

So, this movie's out in a couple of days? No buzz whatsoever?

Talk to my Dad. He's psyched.

scifi xfiles marathon today. now i am mildly psyched for the movie. mission accomplished.

I am kind of excited about the movie, but this may be due, in part, to my longtime crush on David Duchovny.

this is really coming out in two days? it's getting dumped, it seems. maybe they're hoping for word of mouth.

it's kidn of weird to think that this show had such a grip on popular culture for as long as it did. I didn't see any of the last few years either, they really squandered their good will. I'll only go see this if people tell me it's great.

well i just watched the trailer and that turned me right off

i would really like it if they'd repackage and sell separate box sets of the mythology episodes and the standalone episodes

I can't believe no one responded to this yet. Check it out!:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ZG3W19FBL._SL500_AA240_.jpg http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510N87CPQZL._SL500_AA240_.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XM9YJYT1L._SL500_AA240_.jpg

Four sets of mythology eps, but no standalone sets. I think this series is best served by Greatest Hits compilations. I recently rewatched the series up through season 6 or so, and, although there was a lot of good stuff that held up well, an awful lot of it was lackluster.

Well, that almost worked. Super job, bbcode!!!

o sweet haircare thanks

Although, in retrospect, it might've seemed lackluster in the same way that The French Connection seems lackluster to me now: it was such a trailblazer that all of its good stuff has been pilfered and done better in the years since, leaving the original work looking a bit like a cliche-riddled husk.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080829/ap_on_en_tv/people_david_duchovny

mulder stalks a murderer on a moving train!
scully meets the remnants of a leper colony!

Nisei/731

<3!!!!!!!!

excellent pair of mythology episodes imo

the dude with the garrote was pretty badass. does he reappear in any other episodes?

"a place where society sent its monsters to live in shame and isolation."

Always thought it was hilarious/awesome that the masters of the conspiracy all had prominent Canadian accents.

the dude with the garrote was pretty badass. does he reappear in any other episodes?

Nope. *spoiler* he dies in the explosion at the end iirc *spoiler*

Played by Stephen McHattie, who was Hollis Mason in the Watchmen movie.

Hey, i was just watching that one! I like the conductor, it's nice that he survives.

Bits of the 1st season was just re-shown over here. Re-watching there are so many awful things about it and yet so watchable and easily stands as reliable TV for me.

"Maybe we can solve the mystery of the horny beast!"

"You can't carry a loaded firearm down the street, sir, it's against the law."
"Not if I'm hunting it's not--hunting SATANISTS!"

Syzygy is so awesome. Especially the psychic who won't help them until their credit card clears.

Though the most shocking thing I've noticed is how horribly dressed Scully was in the whole first season.

Funny you should say that:

http://scullysuits.tumblr.com/

lol I am watching this again start to finish and searched for a thread specifically on which to complain about the way they dressed poor Scully. SO SO BAD.

Also, so much microfiche!

You will be disappointed, Erica. I tried the same thing not so very long ago. I think it's still tolerable through season 5 or 6, but very tiresome from there on out. But I was surprised at how much better the monster of the week eps held up in comparison to the increasingly-unwieldy conspiracy eps!

Ah well we'll see. Only on season 1 now. Will report back when I get to that point.

Watched this front to finish about two years ago. Surprised at how much I liked the Doggett seasons. Once you get past the idea that Chris Carter was going to do anything significant with his mythos or that Ducovney and his baseball episodes were not indispensable, or that Robert Patick was not awesome then it is much easier to take.

lol I am watching this again start to finish and searched for a thread specifically on which to complain about the way they dressed poor Scully. SO SO BAD.

first season is hilariously brutal in terms of bad 90's fashion

But I was surprised at how much better the monster of the week eps held up in comparison to the increasingly-unwieldy conspiracy eps!

this is kind of the standard line now, and it's true of season 4 and afterward. but during the first three seasons the conspiracy eps were the heart and soul of the show!

this show basically doesn't exist for me past the first movie.

Funny, my wife and I just started watching this (unprompted by this thread), and one of the first things she said, midway through the first episode, was basically "when people dressed like this in the '90s they though their fashion would never look dated, but their clothes look horrible!"

Their clothes and hair looked bad even in '94.

lol JiC - funny. I mean it really is THAT BAD though. Also - Scully's hair! She couldn't have been that old when these were taped but her blown-out news anchor helmet hair is just so awful.

iirc the clothes starting getting a little better around the same time Mulder and Scully started regularly using cell phones

I've also been slowly rewatching from the beginning. Beyond the clothing issue, it's also been hilarious to watch how bad they treat Scully each ep. She's constantly kidnapped, tossed in car trunks, drugged, etc. Every episode it's something new and horrible!

mid 90s fashion probably at its nadir til some couturier revives badly cut boxy pastel business suits in 2k14ish

x-post At the beginning she always had to miss the paranormal event, so they had to knock her out or put a bag over her head.

i feel like Scully starts dressing nice in season 5 maybe? but yeah, it's horrible up to that point.

duchovny's hair looks adorable in that first season, though

why do women love david duchovny

I too am watching x files all the way through, everyone's prob doing it because of netflix, but like I feel like I have met a startling number of women, throughout my journeys on this planet, who love david duchovny

so cuet!

xp he was a formative crush i was p young when x-files started and i watched it from the beginning

IIRC wasn't Scully intentionally a frumpmonster at the beginning of the series, because they wanted her to look "real" or sth similar?

i don't know, but i feel that that is unfair considering how smoking duchovny was

duchovny's hair looks adorable in that first season, though

― horseshoe, Monday, June 27, 2011 10:03 AM (17 minutes ago)

we have discussed this on another thread, have we not?

yes you were the one who reminded me!

awwww <3

i guess in those early seasons when they were dressing her badly and duchovny out-prettied her gillian anderson could content herself with the knowledge that she could actually act.

omg lol:

David Duchovny had worked in Los Angeles three years prior to The X-Files, at first he wanted to base his acting career around films. But in 1993 his manager, Melanie Green gave him a script of the "pilot episode" of The X-Files. Green and Duchovny were both convinced it was a good script, so Duchovny auditioned for the lead.[35] When Duchovny was auditioning for the part of Fox Mulder, he made a "terrific" audition, but talked rather slow. Chris Carter thought that he was a "good judge of character", and thought that Duchovny wasn't rather "bright". So he went and talked to Duchovny and asked him if he could "please" imagine himself as an FBI agent for the "future" weeks. The casting director of the show, was very positive towards him. While according to Carter, Duchovny turned out to be one of the best-read people he knew.[36] After getting the role, Duchovny thought the show wouldn't last for long or that it wouldn't make as much impact as it did.[35]

duchovny's hair looks adorable in that first season, though

― horseshoe, Monday, June 27, 2011 1:03 PM (56 minutes ago) Bookmark

i don't know, but i feel that that is unfair considering how smoking duchovny was

― horseshoe, Monday, June 27, 2011 1:19 PM (39 minutes ago) Bookmark

Seriously though. He is so damn cute in this series I'm p much fawning over him in every ep. He had his shirt off in one of the ones I watched over the weekend. It was awesome.

Like - I don't know that I've ever realized just how handsome he is until starting this again. Wonder how that whole sex addiction recovery is going for him. He's in some other show now right? I may have to start watching that now too.

yes, i hear that californication is kind of okay and presumably he takes off his clothes in it sometimes

sweet

do you guys remember that david duchovny why won't you love me song? that song otm.

whaaat?

no!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOP5wsSXY8w

um this is a fan video for david duchovny, but the song is playing behind it.

um this is a fan video for david duchovny a couple years ago, but the song is playing behind it.

― horseshoe, Monday, June 27, 2011 2:17 PM (24 seconds ago) Bookmark

now i feel like i genuinely am not sure what year it is out there. this nostalgia is a dangerous thing.

DAMMIT I FUCKED UP

Should have said

um this is a fan video that I made for for david duchovny a couple years ago, but the song is playing behind it.

― horseshoe, Monday, June 27, 2011 2:17 PM (24 seconds ago) Bookmark

:/ I suck.

hahahahahaha busted

Californication is basically a show about David Duchovny's character being a semi-washed up writer who is also a sex addict, so I can't imagine that has been especially conducive to his real life issues.

I definitely have a non-sexual intrigue for Duchovny, but I think it's more one of those "women want him, men want to be him" cliches.

But is it a show about being a semi-washed up writer who is also a sex addict that is worth watching?

depends, do you like looking at Nakedovny?

because from the 2 episodes I saw, the show seems to be mostly about showing dude's ass at different angles moreso than actually telling any kind of story

Have I not made that clear already? Hell yeah I do!

x-post

woah - nice

HS are you hearing this?

Tbh I like his face mostly but the other stuff doesn't really hurt so . . .

oh man, i wish i had accidentally clicked on the jizzbox instead of this thread

lol

because from the 2 episodes I saw, the show seems to be mostly about showing dude's ass at different angles moreso than actually telling any kind of story

― chupacabra - a delicious burrito (DJP), Monday, June 27, 2011 4:19 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

so, a four-star review, basically

i don't remember whether the duchovny-in-the-bathtub episode was in season 1 or in the next couple.

I found most episodes to not have that much Duchovny ass, but they do include a fair number of topless women in their 20s. The main ongoing characters are Duchovny, his character's on-again, off-again girlfriend, daughter, and his literary agent and that guy's wife.

like I said, I only saw 2 episodes!

The specially-catered-for-Dan all-ass eps

I think early in the show they were trying hard to establish the setting, which seemed to be Duchovbutt surrounded by anonymous breasts

Yeah, they kind of went for well-characterized breasts after that. Much fewer random hook-ups, a lot more "oh here's this girl we're going to have linger on for a season and be part of that plot before she disappears before next season"

OK, we're slowly making our way through season one, and the number of outright shit episodes is disheartening. I have a hunch I can just skip a bunch/most, so does anyone out there have an idea of which S1 episodes are must-see, to speed the progress a bit? And does this show ever stabilize, or are future seasons just as hit or miss? If I get enough shit eps in a row my wife will pull the plug.

First season is hit and miss, they only found out they could build a bigger story arc once they knew they had more seasons. I'd say the best seasons are from about 2/3 to about 6/7.

There are shite episodes in every season unfortunately - when I watched it again my with my gf, I made the executive decision to skip ones that I remembered as being rubbish - most episodes have no bearing on the overall story arc and can comfortably be skipped, although actually you will find that overall the monster of the week episodes are generally superior to the mytharc ones. It has been a while since we watched it, but I think we skipped the following from Season 1 (or wished we had):

Ones to skip:
Shadows
Ghost in the Machine
Space <------------ this is the worst X files episode ever made imo
Fire
Gender Bender

Ones I can't remember at all, so are probably terrible:
Lazarus
Young at Heart
Born Again

My favourite 3 from the season:
Beyond the Sea <----------- this was the episode where it clicked for my gf
Eve
Fallen Angel

Are there any mythology-oriented eps is S1 I basically have to watch, so that future seasons/eps make sense?

the monster of the week episodes are generally superior to the mytharc ones.

this, with exceptions

haven't seen the x-files in ages, since it was first broadcast, but as for the mythology episodes, i remember particularly liking "jose chung's from outer space" (season 3) and "musings of a cigarettesmoking man" (season 4)

Yeah, heard good things about those, but if stinker roulette keeps turning up too many, well, stinkers until I hit those high points, there's no way I can keep excusing the show to my wife. I mean, Buffy began like shit, too, but got better very fast. This is more frustrating "Friday the 13th: The Series" level badness. But I want to believe!

I just want to make it up through the first movie, tbh.

Probably only the finale of S1, and maybe EBE are important for the mythology (EBE introduces the Lone Gunmen, and is also a really fun runaround). Fallen Angel is good too, and the main character returns later.

Probably only the finale of S1, and maybe EBE are important for the mythology

no

EVERY LITTLE TIDBIT COUNTS

oh yeah, Mulder's deathly fear of fire comes back in a big way too, make sure you watch that one no matter what

ha just watched Fire last night. Some of them are duds, yeah, but I'm still enjoying it overall.

I still enjoy a lot of the first season! There are some dud eps, though personally I wouldn't include "GenderBender" on that list. The story is a bit of a mess, but it's creepy and has great music.

In any case, "Beyond the Sea" and "EBE" are unmissable.

For me, season five was the point where things started to go awry.

I was laid off last summer and decided to rewatch this show with all my spare time. I had the same experience with season one duds, but then I combed the net for lists of good episodes and it helped immensely. Only made it to Season 5 though.

Recently I watched this show again from season 1 through 6. I think Season 5 was the high water mark, maybe the first half of that season and the whole of the 3rd and 4th season are def. some of the best television made in the 90s. There are various lists of episodes to watch if you just want to catch the mythos/conspiracy subplot but I like them how they were aired - interspersed between scary one-offs.

Just watched "Beyond the Sea". Very Silence of The Lambs.

did horseshoe really make that youtube because I walked into a room last week and some girls were obsessing over it

haha no!

what do you people think i am

this is kind of the standard line now, and it's true of season 4 and afterward. but during the first three seasons the conspiracy eps were the heart and soul of the show!

― latebloomer, Sunday, June 26, 2011 10:36 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark

this is otm btw, in terms of skipping the mytharc episodes. don't skip them!

yeah if you dont watch the mytharc episodes in the first few seasons you dont really "get" the x-files

btw duchovnys guest stints on larry sanders are great. apparently him and garry shandling are close friends irl too

lol HS I wanted to let you address that question yourself :)

Twenty years on...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scnPMpDHmrM

damn those are some pretty government employees

I think they are even hotter now.

I think they're hotter now too.

Been shotgunning two episodes a night for the past week. Never did see much of the first season (didn't go all-in until S3)

Ugh. Empty drink anytime Scully does a voice-over with the close-up of the computer screen and everything goes Sex And The City for a few moments.

they have Mulder do it sometimes too!

Also watch Anderson in that miniseries the Fall... she is amazing and gorgeous in it. Although I still can't buy her as English, even if she grew up there. Mostly because she is Scully, not because she sounds funny.

I watched it. Can't wait for the second series.

her character is such a total badass!

Just wait till you get to the later seasons, with those pretentious, lethargic voiceover monologues that usually turn up in "important" episodes. DD and GA deserve special awards for getting through those things without stopping for breath.

I was all-in with the series in season 3, so I'm know of those dreary voiceovers. Here's an experiment: create your very own "More Sixth Extinction" - a synchronized viewing of "The Sixth Extinction" (the season 7 opener with Scully digging out that spaceship on the African beach) with Pink Floyd's More.

If it works, you heard it here first.

Worth mentioning to everyone to check out The Fall - it's a noir-ish detectives-vs-serial-killer story set in Belfast. GA is great in it.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/6ecf76eda849fd2eddbde376754e759a/tumblr_mr5p66jYFE1qbo6leo1_1280.png

Finished season one!

- Drags on a bit
- Far more monster-of-the-week episodes than I remember there being.
- Running around the states playing The Avengers with J. Edgar Hoover's uranium card is grade A wish-fulfillment fantasy.
- I've always dug conspiracy culture, but I think what I relate to most are the hours spent driving anonymous rental sedans.
- I've always maintained that desolate office parks in the great exurbs are just as sinister as the moldiest haunted-looking house. Thank you show for supporting my belief.
- The more experimental an episode gets in technique, the worse it usually is.
- Skinner is only in one episode. That constant antagonism source is missing

And exact twentieth anniversary is this Tuesday.

haha. i like the x-files.

evidence that actors are not geeks about their own cultishly adored work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwcolBwBxU0&feature=youtu.be

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/193364jj3iji2jpg/ku-medium.jpg

Duchovny/Anderson AMA: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1oad13/gillian_anderson_here_ive_brought_david_duchovny/

(Ok is the formatting for that post as weird for everyone else as it is for me? Sorry, typing on phone.)

Last night my wife, having come home from a choir rehearsal and starting to pack for a business trip, began a sentence, "My 14-year-old self would be so happy..."

I figured she was going to say something about having a productive, well-adjusted adult life.

"...that Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny are together."

They are?

Well, they haven't come out and said it, but there's lots of evidence. I think Anderson admitted that they share an apartment in Manhattan; they've been spotted together being affectionate, etc.

After everything HE'S done she must think the therapy worked.

that AMA was pretty entertaining... they do seem very couple-like.

I think you just want to believe they're a couple

These monster of the week episodes in s3/4 (I've been watching from the beginning on netflix) are being played for laughs too much for my liking, it's quite annoying, a lot of mugging and gurning from the actors that isn't there in S1/S2, a lot of local yokel characters with funny looking faces who can be killed off without it mattering very much.

I like the ongoing story arc episodes though, they keep the right tone. Kryceck getting locked in the silo with the captured ufo, cancer man creeping around with his cigarettes, skinner like a big sad mole

watching the episode where skinner is accused of killing a call girl.

Oh yeah that's the one where he's being protected by his guardian angel/succubus. Also we find out he has an estranged wife (who iirc we never hear about again).

is that the same one where he's all covered in blood or a rash or whatever?

http://deadline.com/2015/01/x-files-reboot-talks-fox-1201352465/

And boom.

http://www.hitfix.com/the-fien-print/no-conspiracy-fox-resurrects-the-x-files-for-6-episode-run

awesome! hope they can swing darin morgan to write one of 'em.

http://i.imgur.com/yzwiZqr.jpg

Some more info:

http://tvline.com/2015/04/28/the-x-files-spoilers-fox-revival-chris-carter-mulder-scully-sex/

Per io9's summary as well: "Glen Morgan and James Wong will return to write and direct an episode each. Morgan will also executive produce."

best URL ever

There’s “a big chance” the Lone Gunmen will join returning X-vets Mulder, Scully, Skinner and The Smoking Man.

I guess they're going to act like the T-1000 seasons were just a dream

They're apparently going to act like The Lone Gunmen's series was a dream, too.

btw, Netflix has X-Files season one in HD and full-frame, and it looks like they shot it full frame. It doesn't look half bad!

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/video/2015/jun/15/gillian-anderson-self-portrait-difficult-for-me-in-relationship-where-man-boss-video?CMP=share_btn_tw

i didn't realize she has been going around doing a posh accent off set since she set up in the uk

Soon after her birth, her family moved to Puerto Rico for 15 months, then to England, where she lived until she was 11 years old. She lived for five years in London's Crouch End and 15 months in London's Stroud Green,[7] so that her father could attend the London Film School. She was a pupil of Coleridge Primary School.

When Anderson was 11 years old, her family moved again, this time to Grand Rapids, Michigan.[8] She attended Fountain Elementary and then City High-Middle School, a program for gifted students with a strong emphasis on the humanities, graduating in 1986.[7] She is bidialectal. With her English accent and background, she was mocked and felt out of place in the American Midwest and soon adopted a Midwestern accent. To this day, her accent depends on her location

code switching!

this only makes her hotter</lone-gunmen-voice>

it's a little-known fact that half of the lone gunmen were from new zealand

one and a half of them?!

no, all three of them were kiwi from the waist down

http://www.xfilesnews.com/news/latest-news/783-exclusive-more-casting-news-for-xfilesrevival

reyes in too

Dean Haglund moved five mins walk away from me recently, and thus announced to 30 people in a cabaret bar in Marrickville that the Lone Gunmen are going to be in the new show.

interlocutor: [inaudible question about them being dead]

"Ah! Shows you haven't been reading the Season 10 comic book from IDW, co-written by Chris Carter"

different interlocutor: "but is that really canon?"

apparently it's more canonical than the Lone Gunmen tv show!

rip you horrible lost classic of cheesy tv

Kumail Nanjiani has a small role. He talks a little about it on this week's X-Files Files podcast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1K0e2Juvf0

First minute of the new episode: http://doyoustillbelieve.com/

I felt right at home with the monologue

Anyone watch the first two episodes? First one seemed pretty bad. I dunno. Watching on my phone, holding baby on lap.

we've been posting about it over here: Oh look the last ever episode of the X-Files is on!

Going through the entire library at the moment, (thanks free Prime trial!)

Up to season 6 currently.

Generally gotten bored of the extra terrestrial story too, started to prefer the stand alone eps now.

Really enjoyed the Peter Boyle episode, that's my S choice so far

D's though, there are so many I haven't decide yet.

X-Files is probably the most mediocre (on average) show that I'm genuinely fond of. The highs are great but so much of the rest is just not good.

I have always preferred the standalone monster of the week episodes, that's the x files for me

A certain distance into the run f the show every episode felt like fan fiction

And especially the latest season

I love how the motw episodes sometimes completely contradict anything that might be happening with the 'real' story.

The genie episode for instance, just lol

I'm slowly working through the series on Netflix from the start. Being a fan of the series, I'm really surprised how few of the early episodes I have seen. 'Blood' with William Sanderson was a really great one that I don't remember seeing.

Mark Snow's music is really great, even though I think a ton of people knicked his style later on. I think the stripped down version of the title theme is much better than the later more ornamental version.

Blood was the first episode with Darin Morgan involvement.

also helped by William Sanderson being awesome

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/02/arts/television/the-x-files-in-a-familiar-groove-review.html

this makes me happy:

In the five episodes of the new season made available to critics, the winner is the fourth, “The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat.” It was written and directed by Darin Morgan, who also provided the best hour of the show’s revival season in 2016, “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster,” and authored celebrated old-school episodes like “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” and “Jose Chung’s ‘From Outer Space’” back in the 1990s.

“Forehead Sweat” guest-stars Brian Huskey (“People of Earth”) as either a madman or a fellow F.B.I. agent from an alternate dimension who is intimately familiar with the show’s heroes, the alien-chasing feds Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Fox Mulder (David Duchovny). Mr. Morgan uses this premise to provide the ultimate in fan service — constructing an elaborate meta-story that recapitulates the history of the series, with a cracked version of “The Twilight Zone” as a framing device, and wallows in specific references to past “X-Files” installments (including “Clyde Bruckman’s”).

DELITE

honestly I might only watch the Morgan episode this time out

I am surprised beyond words to learn that the Morgan episode is the standout. Please stop with all the surprises.

Geez, Hollywood, just give the guy his own show or something already. It's only a couple decades past due.

Wtf is going on

Wasn’t the virus released at the end of last season? Am I misremembering?

Mulder driving and narrating like he’s Frank Drebin in the Naked Gun movies, CSM was the dad all along, new conspiracy leader guy looks like budget Steve Bannon, Scully falls a lot, something about magic alien cum and Skinner, Annabeth Gish, Barbara Hershey?

the x-files, at least for this episodes, is all about driving around recklessly in cars and bumping your head hard enough to retcon the bad last episode of the previous season

🎵We didn’t start the fire🎵

Uh, X-post

Forgot to mention unconscious Scully communicating in Morse code with her brain scan, lol

And everyone’s favorite character Jeffrey Spender showing up and uh, yeah that’s kinda all he does

Mulder Macgrubering Scully’s would be pillow assassin

I’ll give it this, it wasn’t uneventful!

I was hoping the “maybe this all didn’t happen (yet)” would apply to those stupid Scrappy Doo agents, what’s-his-name and Einsteinbut no such luck

So wait did the end of last season not happen? What happened in it?

This episode apparently retconned the previous episode into a “hasn’t happened yet” alternate/possible future sent as a vision to Scully from she and Mulder’s psychic part-alien son, William. Who is apparently not Mulder’s son but a product of genetic engineering and artificial insemination by CSM (aka Cancer Man, aka CGB Spender, aka Carl Gerhardt Bush, aka Mulder and Mulder’s half-brother Jeffrey Spender’s biological father) using “alien science” either taken from or given to the government by extraterrestrials, who may or may not had plans to colonize the earth, depending on which version of the conspiracy you believe. This all may be a lie or half-truth or a smokescreen or the actual truth.

Pretty straightforward!

I skipped the finale eps last year bc they sounded dumb. can I skip this one as well?

skip to your heart’s content, my son.

i feel like CSM's 'plans' now just got lifted wholesale from Utopia.

he wants to be a showrunner of a failed reality tv experiment?

I think akm is referring to the short-lived British conspiracy thriller of the same name

Wait, shit, was this on last night or something? Goddamnit, man. They've really done very little marketing for this thing. Like, I knew it was returning but I thought it was still six months to a year off until I saw a commercial sometime around Christmas.

I've had facebook ads constantly, they must... know

The truth is out there. The promotion..not so much

In the five episodes of the new season made available to critics, the winner is the fourth, “The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat.” It was written and directed by Darin Morgan, who also provided the best hour of the show’s revival season in 2016, “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster,” and authored celebrated old-school episodes like “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” and “Jose Chung’s ‘From Outer Space’” back in the 1990s.

Oh thanks, "Were-Monster" was one of my favorite episodes of anything last year, and I couldn't get through any of the other episodes, sounds like it's the same this time around.

Dagoo!!!

"I think akm is referring to the short-lived British conspiracy thriller of the same name"

yes.

not coming back after this season.

http://www.slashfilm.com/the-x-files-ending-2/

I kept waiting for the Ford commercial to end.

This episode reminded me a bit of the work of Neil Breen

https://youtu.be/u-fYWAwc8Q0

Caught up on the last two. Tonight's episode was okay, but I can state unequivocally that the season premiere is the worst X-Files episode I've ever seen. By some distance. If Carter refuses to keep his fingers out of the pie, it's probably for the best that it's ending.

No, seriously: it was really, really fucking bad.

It's funny that the second episode was about people being uploaded into virtual reality because I kept thinking during the premiere, 'oh, this is such an OTT awful episode that they're going to eventually reveal that everyone is stuck in some kind of simulated purgatory' but no.

Damn, I'm sorry to hear that it's terrible, although I feared the worst. Maybe better I just don't watch.

the second one kind of falls apart in the end, as far as the episode's plot goes (that's not how computers work and the coda explains it for us), but at least demonstrates a comprehension of what a plot and characterization look like

but it gives us actual action, with the comedic acknowledgment that Mulder is _not made for action_ because he looks like he's gonna vomit and then die

then it has actual Mulder/Scully banter, jokes about Scully that come off as eye-rolly and a little funny without being offensive by modern standards, references good parts of the original (grave of informant character!), gets Skinner in there without him being overwrought. and Mulder has a house! and it's very Mulder-like

there's a brief moment that has forced connective tissue to a seasonal overriding plot that's luckily forgettable

don't watch the first episode unless you just want to kill time or can pay partial attention

this is probably better duchovny than he or we should expect, and we don't deserve modern gillian anderson in a tv series with this much baggage

That first episode (and yes, I'm still stewing) was like one of those YouTube videos where someone's mom explains Star Wars without having seen Star Wars except instead of someone's mom it's some dumb guy who knows a little about the X-Files (like the main characters' names and that they're in the alien police or whatever) but has fairly open contempt for it and is given a whole bunch of money to film his idea of what an X-Files episode is like, and instead of being charming it's kind of an insulting slog where you're just like, dude we gave you a bunch of money, we hoped you'd at least put some effort into it. Except the twist is that the dumb and contempuously uninterested dude was the actual creator of the show the whole time.

And yes, I've seen bad X-Files episodes before and yes, I watched last season and acknowledge that the Carter episodes were previously probably the worst of the series. This was worse.

what, you don't love no-stakes poorly-filmed car chases?

I thought second episode Mulder and Scully gunfights were off-character but I think it was filmed really well!

I did like the "chaos" - "control" joke though.

It felt like one of the Adult Swim action show parodies.

Oh boy. I just watched the first episode. It had the feel of a two hour premiere edited sloppily down to one hour. I think I was too distracted by the poor filmaking to follow what Cancer Man’s plan is. He just wants to kill everyone except select people he’s injected with alien serum? There was a certain elegance to the character back when we thought he was a guy who resignedly did evil stuff for the preservation of the human race, but now he’s just a supervillain. And wtf with that retcon about knocking up Scully? So William is half human/half alien but with two human parents? And why was Mulder wearing sunglasses half the time?

I'm already working on erasing it, and the prior season finale, from my mind

If you forget the original series finale too, then CSM appearing alive doesn't even need an explanation

lmao @ "alien police"

When/if I'm feeling particularly masochistic, I may have to rewatch the premiere and 'live'blog everything that's bad and wrong about it minute-by-minute. It really is a masterclass in how to create garbage entertainment.

if you do, please let me know if Scully crashed her car two or three times. I'm thinking it was two, but much of the episode was just Scully crashing her car

the little Mulder/Skinner schoolyard fight at the end was hilarious

I think Carter has been watching Scandal and thinks he needs a heel turn or a shocking reveal every five minutes

wrt both of the new episodes, the resurgence of the Skinner distrust is so goddamn 'come the fuck on already'. Every one of you has been compromised by the CSM multiple times over at this point, you know how this shit goes, and Skinner has saved your asses or put his neck on the line approximately 815 times over the course of a quarter decade. Cut him a little slack for the love of Christ.

If I were him I'd be like, yeah, best of luck in all future endeavors you paranoid mofos, peace in the middle east.

"I'm going to an X-File on this bran muffin"

"open"

the first episode was painful, so much exposition-dumping and explaining
I fell asleep in the middle of episode 2 but Mr Veg didn't mind it.

honestly at this point I care so little about the main story. Carter's just writing bad fan fiction now.
all I'm really interested in are the monster-of-the-week episodes

Feel like I'm the only one here who's still watching this. We got a Carter-penned MOTW episode this week. Does anyone know when he contracted his degenerative neurological condition and if there's a foundation where I can send a check? Based on the evidence of these past two seasons, it must be a brutally debilitating illness. God bless Fox for throwing him some work when less charitable folks would have likely judged him unfit to construct a coherent narrative or responsibly handle the IP he created when his brain still worked good.

whew, I was thinking that the doppelganger one was by Wong or one of the Morgans and was disappointed and confused. knowing it was written (thankfully not directed) by Carter is actually a relief

holding out hope that the next two are the best of this run

my lingering question is: Where. Is. Dagoo?!?

Spoiler: at one point, the camera hones in on a character eating a brand of chocolate pudding named Dookie apparently just for the sake of justifying the inclusion of multiple utterances of 'flinging Dookie'.

That's where we're at, folks.

Karin Konoval could've been pretty great in this episode if they had discouraged her from playing her twin as a complete cartoon character.

my lingering question is: Where. Is. Dagoo?!?

same place Queequeg was in non-Darin Morgan episodes

fair enough

In the belly of a Loch Ness Monster? Poor Dagoo...

Been watching Series 3, and also Sons Of Anarchy. Not only is AD Skinner white nationalist guy Darby but now Piney has just turned up as er, Roky Crikenson (!) in Jose Chung's "From Outer Space".

This week's was an improvement but I think I would've been much more receptive to a batshit Darin Morgan episode if the rest of this season's episodes didn't feel so much like IDAGF self-parody.

"improvement"

The jokes are elderly and embarrassing.

Well, yeah, it was possibly my least favorite Morgan episode, but they've set the bar so incredibly low this season that any episode that evinced a degree of effort was gonna be an improvement.

are these any good? I honestly stopped after episode 1. I don't think I'm going to bother until I've consumed every other form of visual entertainment in the universe.

I can't really recommend it, no.

One thing I did appreciate about this episode was the commentary on how the entire premise of the show is kinda depressing and unfun now in relation to the active dissolution of consensus reality.

The jokes were definitely more predictable (maybe just being used to Morgan's style at this point but the They reveal was so obvious) and the Trump stuff was annoying. But everyone was enjoying themselves, I still laughed at a lot of the dumb jokes, and I liked the Eels/Hugh Everett shout-out, I'd say it's worth a watch if you don't mind it not being up to the standard of the classic Morgan episodes.

for some reason the classic title sequence with “Reggie Something” added seemed hilarious

What if Black Mirror but as a silent(ish) comedy? You know what? It was great and the season highlight by several orders of magnitude.

I kind of wanted a little more dialogue, but overall, not bad for a conceptual episode

Looking forward to meeting you all.
Love, blobfish aka William #bts #TheXFiles pic.twitter.com/fq7k6yW8bN

— Gillian Anderson (@GillianA) February 28, 2018

Funny, 40 minutes in, it's that knock knock "banana" joke that keeps going and going. Show looks great, though.

I'm glad I stuck around for one more episode.

isn't this over yet

Finally finished this last night. What a pile of garbage this revive has been. Cool to watch Mulder casually mass murder his way through the final episode. I think he shot more people to death in 60 minutes than he did in every other episode combined. And it was probably the least worst Carter episode of the past two seasons.

So yeah, if you've been on the fence, continue to avoid. Except for the episode aldo mentioned in the last revive. That was pretty good.

disagree, don't care about the season opener or closer since those have been useless since about season 5, but this season was very satisfying... it felt like the x-files.

this mini-season was worse than the last one

it was bad enough that my stance is now that the X-Files, a pretty good if sometimes ridiculous show, ended after its seventh season in the year 2000

Yeah seasons 8-10 are pretty dire, but even 10 had Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster, and Home Again was pretty fun.

The Carter-written episodes have generally been awful (the hangman episode was fun, though still not exactly good), the others have ranged from decent to occasionally brilliant. The main problem is, passable genre exercises just don't really stand out after all this time.

Carter was never the show's best or most consistent writer, but it's depressing how bad he's got. He'll always be a major reason for the show's success, and the diversity of stories it could tell. The funny thing is, I can actually kinda see what he was trying to do with the new mythology - I find the idea of humans exploiting and experimenting with alien biology and tech scarier than some barely comprehensible invasion plot, as the Anasazi/Paper Clip and Nisei/731 arcs demonstrated. It's just that the guy who once wrote Deep Throat and (Millennium episode) Lamentation seems to have forgotten how to write an episode of television altogether.

why did people have to keep yelling about chemtrails

Yeah, that was really the grossest part of the whole endeavor. I was never quite sure if the relatively value-free references to the increasingly pernicious conspiracy-mindedness of our culture were just ill-advised (I mean, Joel McHale as Glenn Beck/Alex Jones analogue was basically a hero) or if they were actually a reflection of where Carter's mind has gone in his dotage.

he might have brain worms

I kind of assume most old dudes have some sort of brain worms, though. That would make for a decent x-file

Did you see his Amazon pilot from a couple years ago, alledgedly set in the Xfilesverse? Something to do with the apocalypse and the devil in LA. Was major, major yikes.

I haven’t caught up with the reboot at all - just the Darin Morgan episodes and the one Aldo mentions then?

I sort-of-watched all of last season, and this year just the Darin episode, the Lone Gunmen one by Glen, and the Black Mirror-y one. Your impression is basically right, but save The Lost Art Of Forehead Sweat, this year's Darin ep, for last.

(Or for a real flavour of how awkward S10 was without getting REALLY terrible:
S10e04
S10e03
S10e05
S11e02
S11e07
S11e04
-in that order.)

I'll be the militant. S10 & S11 (especially S11) amplified the worst elements of the original series enough that I suspect the entire show was b.s. It's only brilliant on accident when someone managed to write away from Carter. This itself sounds like an X-Files plot.

I'm annoyed that S10 and S11 wasted so much time on embarrassing plots that just kept Mulder and Scully reacting to things. So much what's current in medtech, social psychology, etc. etc. could be the feeder of some potentially great plots.

amplified the worst elements of the original series enough that I suspect the entire show was b.s. It's only brilliant on accident when someone managed to write away from Carter.

Nah: the alien conspiracy episodes were always terrible, and I stopped occasionally watching the show during the original run because you never knew if you'd get a good episode or some mytharc nonsense that you were supposed to have watched 19 non-consecutive previous episodes to follow, except that even if you had, it wouldn't make sense.

Over the last few years, I've done a watch-through of the first six seasons, just watching Darin Morgan and Vince Gilligan episodes, and a few other standalones. But! Carter could actually do good, or fun, or scary, or creative episodes back in the '90s.

The Host (S01e02) set the tone for the monster-of-the-weeks, taking a sci-fi/monster premise and wrapping a procedural, jokes, and development of Mulder & Scully's relationship in it. Syzygy, in S3, is Carter being inspired by Darin Morgan's ability to do outright comedy in the X-Files format, trying it himself, failing but accidentally inventing Buffy. Memento Mori, in S4, is a gang-written script that shows folks didn't NEED to write away from Carter - he could work just as well on a serious standalone as drawing a single co-writer onto his mytharc finales.

And two he directed as well as writing are super-indicators that he saw the oddball, creative, unusual episodes as a primary feature of the series: The Post-Modern Prometheus (S5), the black & white small-town Frankenstein & Cher episodes; and Triangle (S6), the one on a 1939 submarine with all the "unbroken" tracking shots.

(Another S6 all-Carter joint, How The Ghosts Stole Christmas, works fine as a Chrimbo farce.)

we'd all have a better time if we just went squatchin'

Carter was always hit or miss as a writer. But aside from that, as series creator he allowed different writers do their own thing with the show, experiment with tone and story, make their own mark. He gave them the space to make absurd comedies one week and mini horror films the next. He came up with the idea but didn't guard it obsessively (unlike some TV creators). XF probably wasn't the first show with an open-minded approach like that, but not every showrunner would allow something like Jose Chung's "From Outer Space" to happen.

hmm not sure I can trust a guy with your name making x-files judgments

oh please, the show has a hit rate way, way above "brilliant on accident". there are over 200 episodes, of course some of them are going to be crap.

Worth a read: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/x-files-became-a-list-852398

completely forgot that Detective Munch of Baltimore PD appears in the X-Files

the Wolfverse and X-FIles overlap heck yeah

and Homicide/The Wire

well, yes

He was also on Law & Order: SWV iirc.

premiered T W E N T Y - F I V E Y E A R S A G O today

i have wasted my life

Ha, yes, I keep remarking on 20th and 25th and 30th anniversaries of things that mark the various stretches of time when I've done little of note or substance.

Like for instance how I still haven't finished watching all of the X-Files. What am I even doing with my time.

someone was telling me recently that the real scoop around why x files moved to la from vancouver wasn't to do with david duchovny "hating the rain" or wanting to be closer to his family, instead he'd managed to get himself barred from all the strip clubs in the area, including one ran by the Hell's Angels, and pissed off lots of sex workers.

allegedly

The Lone Gunmen standalone series is a 'little bit' silly and totally ridiculous and I love it. It's also all available on YT HA!

Also notable for being cancelled after a cliffhanger ending which was resolved in a later X-Files episode.

and for the WT bomb plot in the pilot episode, whoa.

Mulder travels back in time from 1998 to 1940 : "Hey don't worry the world is at peace, there's a little trouble back at our White House but that'll blow over - so to speak"

Krycek: "you must be losing it mulder, I beat you with one hand"
Mulder: "isn't that how you like to beat yourself?"
Krycek: *points gun*
Mulder: "if those are my last words I can do better"

I rewatched the first six seasons or whatever for like the fiftieth time a couple years ago, maybe this is the time to push through the last three seasons + TLG + Millennium (many episodes of which I've never seen at all let alone more than once).

Somehow Satan Got Behind Me is the awesome Millennium episode with Charles Nelson Reilly, don't miss that one

oh wait I'm confused, obviously that's Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense, SSGBM is also written by Darin Morgan though

Trying to recall if there was anything from the second of the reboot seasons that would make it worth owning (as it's the only thing from that franchise not currently in my possession). Even the Darin Morgan ep was somewhat of a stinker iirc.

Via Negativa from the 8th season is creepy and great. I liked the weird little smart-technology morality play in the most recent season.

yeah that one wasn't bad, but it was definitely more bleak than funny... but the AI one (memorably titled "Rm9sbG93ZXJz") is pretty great, absolutely spooky in how empty it makes the city, IIRC there's nobody in it except Mulder and Scully at all.

I rewatched the first six seasons or whatever for like the fiftieth time a couple years ago, maybe this is the time to push through the last three seasons + TLG + Millennium (many episodes of which I've never seen at all let alone more than once).

I recently finished a first-time-ever watch of the intersting-looking episodes and:

loads of good Vince Gilligan eps in Season 7, the Duchovny-written-and-directed episode is fun, the Anderson-w-and-d one is not but was worth seeing what she was drawn to make in the context of the show.
Lone Gunmen is nearly bad but almost always silly and fun enough not to matter; a few eps are good.
One Vince Gilligan ep in S8. It's... fine.
S9 has a Gilligan spotlight-on-Doggett ep that's notable bcz it's the first thing directed by Michelle Maclaren and has lots of desert-y sunshine, so is a curio years before Breaking Bad. But that's about it. Similarly, the Jackass-referencing episode (by Tommy Schnauz) is fun to see a younger Aaron Paul. Gilligan's ep where the Brady Bunch house is haunted and murdering people is a little better. Carter's episode "Improbable" is fun, like most of his weird stand-alone experiments.
Dunno about Millennium, I only watched the pilot and the two Darin Morgan written-and-directed episodes.

But overall I reckon you can tap out happily at S07e21, the final stand-alone Mulder & Scully ep (it's a Gilligan).

Trying to recall if there was anything from the second of the reboot seasons that would make it worth owning (as it's the only thing from that franchise not currently in my possession). Even the Darin Morgan ep was somewhat of a stinker iirc.

Darin Morgan one was great, Rm9sbG93ZXJz was great, but you'll probably live a fine life without having them on a disc in your house.

Also notable for being cancelled after a cliffhanger ending which was resolved in a later X-Files episode.

Not even! Had a cliffhanger episode (including Michael McKean's X-Files character capturing the Gunmen & telling them their colleague is a bad 'un) end on To Be Continued, then aired an unrelated stand-alone a month later, then put the Lone Gunmen back into the X-Files and pop up across the season making jokes about their show being cancelled, then have McKean's character turn up at the end of the series and tell the feds, unrelated to The Lone Gunmen, that someone the Gunmen used to know is a bad 'un.

I'm dragging through the final series.

Is there a reason why Gillian Anderson constantly whispers or appears to have a gravily throat in most of these episodes?

I don't even know why I just asked such a dumb question. ignore.

watching that Rm9sbG93ZXJz episode now, best of the series for sure.

I have been wondering that about her voice as well. Seems like in the final series they started setting important scenes in churches or courtrooms so that the whispering would seem natural.

I thought Season 11 started out stronger than Season 10 - I genuinely liked Ghouli and Forehead Sweat - but really fell off in the second half except for that silent episode.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/1927385/the-fall-viewers-moan-they-cant-cope-with-the-shows-constant-whispering/

We started a rewatch this week :D

We’re watching on Hulu and damn the show looks good! Mr Veg said he read that they recreated it with the 35mm footage (sorry too lazy to google, sicbot will provide perhaps?)
So it’s still a parade of 90’s floppy hair and brown lipstick & ill fitting suits ... but in gorgeous film-level quality

Scully is not quite yet the Scully I love, she yells a lot more than I remember which is annoying

but it just starts so GOOD right out of the gate, l am glad it holds up.

also i noticed how, to me anyway, the look & color palette & settting of the first episode is like a venn diagram overlap of Silence of the Lambs + Twin Peaks ... so much my wheelhouse <3

Yes! so good, even in Season 1. A few dud episodes but still the general atmosphere of the show is just so appealing. And Mulder is at his prettiest.

The shoulder pads were so large

I started a casual selective rewatch a little while back. I watched the living hell out of all the episodes that were released in those old-school VHS box sets so now I've been occasionally watching the (almost entirely MOTW) episodes that I haven't seen as much. Something so soothing and transportive about M+S mumbling about killer computers against those washed-out Vancouver landscapes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1ninCOmqu0

The remasters do look great! They actually re-edited all the episodes from the original negatives and re-created a lot of the special effects. The first three seasons are converted to widescreen format too... the only real issue is the font on the intro and establishing text is different from the original.

Wow, just had a look, the remaster really does look terrific, font notwithstanding (they remastered hundreds of hours of footage but couldn’t get the janky font right?)

I need something like the ds9 spreadsheet so I can just watch the good ones. Last time I rewatched I just stuck to the Vince Gilligan and Darin Morgan episodes

yeah there's something so satisfying about the way the show tends to start post-credits, hearing the piano and string wash coming up over footage of the misty evergreens of Kansas or Georgia or wherever.

I have a spreadsheet of good 'uns but it's probably 2/3 Gilligan and Darin

(boop beep rm9sbg93zxjz: I haven't seen them but: the blu-ray remastering was outsourced to a rando company, so the widescreen reframing was done without any input from directors or Carter, and Fox would not supply the font to them for the titles; the company also delivered 4:3 versions of the remasters but Fox didn't want them; and yeah there's a mix of upscaling old effects shots and the remaster company's new effects)

xp well, what's your definition of good? Essential/v good from S1 - First 3 episodes, Ice, Eve, Beyond the Sea, E.B.E., Darkness Falls, Tooms, Erlenmeyer Flask. But there are plenty of decent or dumb-but-entertaining episodes. I'd say Space and Fire are painful enough to avoid entirely, and the several vengeful ghost episodes all tend to be boring as hell.

I've said it before, but the rewatch value of X-Files (at least through season six, from seven they moved shooting to LA) is the lush, rainy Vancouver locations, same reason the first two seasons of Twin Peaks are such a pleasure.

name a season and have everyone here give their top five from it

There’s something about watching these on the sofa with my mum while dad was out playing bridge that can never be remastered

gonna see if I can break it down to an extent without breaking spoiler tags

Season 1

S01e03 Squeeze - first Monster of the Week, imo mythology eps are deleterious to rewatch enjoyment (nb: I also thought so on first run and gave up occasionally watching bcz I hit too many of them)
S01e08 Ice - Thing riff
S01e13 Beyond The Sea - fun bcz it flips who's sceptical
S01e17 E.B.E. - mythology ep but intros the Lone Gunmen so I recommend it for n00bs
S01e21 Tooms - not only good, and a fun sequel MOTW, but intros Skinner

I'd go with...

S01E05 The Jersey Devil - a gloriously stupid MOTW episode that sets the tone for dozens of them to come - the local sheriff hates Mulder because you would, really, if an FBI agent turned up looking for lady bigfoot based on a drawing a homeless guy did for him MEANWHILE Scully goes on a date!
S01E08 Ice - as sic says, it's a solid Thing riff
S01E10 Fallen Angel - top tier UFO episode, featuring Max Fenig, predator aliens in the woods, a bogey on the radar screen, dastardly, lying military officers, indignant ER doctors, Mulder ranting about the truth... everything you'd want in a UFO episode
S01E11 Eve - genetically-enhanced girls from Brazil-style preteen murderers, plus amazing performance from Harriet Harris as the insane Eve 6 (hey isn't that a band)
S01E20 Darkness Falls - Body horror + eco-thriller, the gang gets desiccated by glowing green bugs set free from prehistory by amoral logging companies

re that second one not just that it's a Thing riff, but it's the first case of them going for a really direct Mulder-and-Scully-ising of another genre or story (and a p good Thing riff) ha xp!

There's something weirdly charming about doofy early episodes like 'Jersey Devil' where it's clear that they're still figuring out the characters and their world. Like what other episode is going to take a non-negligible amount of time to showcase Scully tolerating a birthday party full of screaming children.

well, to some extent that's a plot point... or I guess thematic variant... on the main storyline in the episode. at my office we printed out a copy of the homeless person's drawing and use it to surprise and annoy our co-workers by acting like there's some important document we need them to see and then showing them that.

lol. Yes, it's a hilariously shitty drawing iirc.

xp lmao

Darkness Falls has some plot issues but has the best creepy PNW vibes.

Also not a very good Scully episode, but the way they use the PNW setting and the creepiness of the glowy green bugs mostly makes up for it.

Was recently re-watching the totally batshit Red Museum, which throws together a cult, kidnapped/drugged teenagers, a pedophile who is also a concerned citizen, bovine growth hormone, Mulder and Scully eating ribs, alien DNA, an extremely convenient plane crash, and a government assassin who has shown up in rural Wisconsin. Apparently it was originally planned as a Picket Fences crossover.

Sorry for no spoiler tags but honestly there’s no amount of information I could provide that would make that episode less baffling.

There's something weirdly charming about doofy early episodes like 'Jersey Devil' where it's clear that they're still figuring out the characters and their world. Like what other episode is going to take a non-negligible amount of time to showcase Scully tolerating a birthday party full of screaming children.

Scully's first date outfit is seared into my mind. White lace and shoulder pads!
Very important character-building, really, as it establishes that Mulder will never let Scully date.

xp I don't really know what counts as a spoiler at this point. I don't think of basic episode descriptions as spoilers, unless they mention some major show-altering plot development, but I'm happy to spoiler-tag that kind of thing if people would rather.

well, the revive is a rewatch so the spoiler tags probably aren't strictly necessary

and yeah, Scully doesn't get to go on another date until season four when Mulder goes to Graceland!

I guess I don't tend to think of this as a heavily spoilerific show. The MOTW either gets captured/killed or doesn't, and the mythology is ultimately so labyrinthine and incoherent that I'm not sure I'd be able to say for sure if the divulgence of any particular detail was a legit spoiler or something made up to amuse the divulger. I guess generally I'd just avoid discussing the fates of characters whose stories take surprising and/or tragic turns (like when Marita Covarrubias got alien cloned and then subsequently fused into a slavering two-headed monster alongside her alien clone, oh whoooooops).

wow I guess I need to watch season 9

running through the rest in case Chuck or anyone really do want rewatch recommendations

Season 2

S02e02 "The Host" - Carter MOTW, Darin as Flukeman
S02e03 "Blood" - first Darin writing, a week after his first monster role. story credit, teleplay by Morgan & Wong (all my S1 picks are M&W btw)
S02e13 "Irresistible" - no paranormal elements! Carter script, it's always cool when he tries something out of his ordinary
S02e20 "Humbug" - Jim Rose Circus Sideshow ep, Darin's first full script. this is where I started watching, so the show always struggled to live up to itself
S02e23 "Soft Light" - the show's first freelance script purchase discovers Vince Gilligan. Tony Shalhoub as dweeb baddie

bonus track: S02e14 "Die Hand Die Verletzt" - haven't seen this one but it's Morgan & Wong doing parody on their way out the door to run their own shows, so curious

Season 3

S03e03 "D.P.O." - lightning boy, Jack Black / Giovanni Ribisi
S03e04 "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" - Peter Boyle & Darin both won Emmys for this
S03e12 "War of the Coprophages" - Darin Morgan cockroach episode
S03e17 "Pusher" - classic Vince Gilligan, lesser sequel later
S03e20 "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" - Darin's second stone-cold gold-plated classic this year. has a sequel in Millennium

bonus tracks: S03e13 "Syzygy" - Chris Carter attempt at a Darin-style irreverent genre-breaker. he doesn't pull it off but it's interesting to see him try
S03e22 "Quagmire" - not credited but heavily rewritten by Darin Morgan: has his jokes and signature characters

Season 4

S04e02 "Home" - Morgan & Wong come back after their own series flopped, with an ep so horrific that Fox never repeated it
S04e04 "Unruhe" - Vince Gilligan, spooky photographs
S04e07 "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man" - Morgan solo, Kennedy assination counterfactuals, no Mulder & Scully on set
S04e10 "Paper Hearts" - VG, child killer
S04e20 "Small Potatoes" - another great nebbish monster written by VG, played by Darin who needed work after burning out on writing for the show

bonus tracks: Millennium S01e01 "Pilot" if you want a bit of context for later, not rly essential. fake Seattle.
S04e12 "Leonard Betts" - cancer vampire
S04e13 "Never Again" - Gillian Anderson requested an ep to show Scully's darker side. intended to be directed by Tarantino!

Season 5

S05e03 "Unusual Suspects" - VG: origin of Lone Gunmen, crossover Belzer as Munch, no Scully
S05e05 "The Post-Modern Prometheus" - CC: B&W Frankenstein homage
S05e12 "Bad Blood" Cliff Bole - A++ VG, comedy Rashomon with Luke Wilson
S05e19 "Folie à Deux" - VG, white collar work is a mechanism for invisible bug monsters to suck your soul
saving my fifth choice for...

also essential:
MS2e09 "Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense"
MS2e21 "Somehow, Satan Got Behind Me" - two episodes of Millennium written AND directed by Darin, including his X-File sequel.

bonus tracks:
S05e06/e07 "Christmas Carol" & "Emily" - if you happen to be watching at Christmas, it's a dece Scrooge riff involving Scully's family
S05e08 "Kitsunegari" - sequel to S03's Pusher

Season 6

S06e02 "Drive" - A++ VG, starring Bryan Cranston
S06e03 "Triangle" - CC time twister and Rope homage. double-feature it with the Australian horror film of the same title.
S06e04/e05 "Dreamland" - Michael McKean is a MIB who bodyswaps Mulder
S06e010 "Tithonus" - VG: death photography, callback to Darin making Scully immortal
S06e014 "Monday" - Gilligan & Shiban, fun time loop bank robbery

bonus tracks: S06e06 "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas" - Ed Asner & Lily Tomlin in a Carter comedy, fun if yr watching syncs up with the season
S06e015 "Arcadia" - Mulder & Scully undercover as married couple in a suburban subdivision
S06e018 "Milagro" - spooky writing-becomes-real story written for John Hawkes to star
S06e019 "The Unnatural" - Duchovny written-and-directed alien in the Negro Leagues baseball story
S06e020 "Three of a Kind" - sequel to Unusual Suspects with Scully, no Mulder
S06e021 "Field Trip" - Scully and Mulder get fucked up on mushrooms and their respective hallucinatory perspectives on the episode merge

Season 7

S07e03 "Hungry" - classic VG, shown from monster's perspective
S07e08 "The Amazing Maleeni" - sleight-of-hand-or-magic ep with Ricky Jay
S07e12 "X-Cops" - A++ VG, straight-up made as an episode of Cops
S07e19 "Hollywood A.D." - parody ep w/d by DD, including Garry Shandling & Tea Leoni
S07e21 "Je Souhaite" - first VG direction, final regular Mulder & Scully ep, Will Sasso is in it, great place to stop if you're on a pure nostalgia hunt

bonus tracks:S07e04 "Millennium" - patch-job finale for that series: not good, but if you want to see M&S kiss...
S07e14 "Theef" - dece MOTW that's not riffing on anything for a change
S07e17 "all things" - not good but GA w/d, if yr curious or want to compare to Duchovny's effort the next week

Season 8

S08e04 Roadrunners is a decent Scully focus in the Doggett era, and the only Gilligan ep this year bcz he was off running Lone Gunmen

Season 9

S09e05 "Lord of the Flies" - not great but: Jackass riff, Aaron Paul & Jane Lynch act, first Thomas Schnauz script (he came from Lone Gunmen and later wrote lots of Breaking Bad/BCS)
S09e07 "John Doe" - first VG / Michelle McLaren collab (she later directed loads of Breaking Bad, a bit of BCS, The Deuce pilot)
S09e013 "Improbable" - Chris Carter loopy Burt Reynolds fantasia
S09e015 "Jump the Shark" - end of Lone Gunmen, bonus Michael McKean (nb that TLG's second-last episode was a cliffhanger involving McKean's character, but that the two don't actually connect
S09e018 "Sunshine Days" - second VG direction, Brady Bunch house does some murders

S04e02 "Home"

oh man, this episode.

When we were doing the full rewatch a few years back, it was the only one my gf refused to subject herself to again.

Twice I've watched the series in lockdown now, and guys you're making me want to do this all over again.

'Die Hand Die Verletzt' is a dece twist on satanic panic, with a demon leading the charge

Wrt the eighth season, one probably needs to see 'Badlaa' if only to confirm with one's own eyes that, yes, they did indeed make an episode about a little person who crawls up people's buttholes.

Brilliant thanks. I’m off to watch Quagmire now.

For me X-Files is like one of those albums you only listen to your favourite 2 tracks on. Every time I want to rewatch, I think “fuck it I’ll just watch the Darin Morgan episodes again”. The brutal undercutting of Mulder in the Jim Rose episode still makes me laugh.

Having said that, the thing under the bed at the end of “Home” might be where the series peaked for me.

Quagmire is one of the coziest X-Files to watch, it's low stakes (well not the 4-5 people who get killed) and the Darin Morgan rewrites add a bit of humor but not too much, plus of course it has the Conversation on the Rock!

Yeah aren't they stuck on that rock in the dark for like 20 minutes? That had to have been the cheapest 20 minutes the producers ever paid for.

I love that episode, the dialogue is just so snappy, thanks to Darin Morgan. Love the conversation on the rock, you can see Scully being this close to just writing Mulder off as a complete dick, and then he quotes her favorite book at her and goddamit, she's back on board.

not quite that, but it was about 5 minutes out of a 43-minute episode... one thing I've found funny about rewatching this show in the present is how much the dialog (which seemed perfectly modern in the 90s) now sounds like something out of a 50s b-movie... like from Quagmire, you have the frog scientist during the opening scene portentously shouting "don't turn your back on nature... or nature will turn its back on you!"

After two decades of 24/Bourne/SEAL Team/et al. the MP SWAT team in the second episode looks like a group of high school kids playing paintball.

I haven't watched the show since the original run, so I was startled by how great the remastered episodes look on a 21st century television ... it's made a pleasing contrast to my trek through the sub-VHS blur of Dark Shadows c. 1969

yeah its gorgeous

i am only 2 episodes in but the s1e2 Deep Throat ep was such a great fever-dream of alien conspiracy tropes. it’s like watching reddit being born lol (but in a good way)

also: Seth Green :D

I’d add Terms of Endearment as a S6 ep worth watching.

Perhaps a more controversial choice would be The Field Where I Died from S4. Widely disliked when it came out, but some, me included, have grown to love it.

Badlaa is one of the better examples of a bad XF episode - so many things wrong with it, but it still manages to be pretty enjoyable!

A really controversial choice is S7's Sein und Zeit/Closure, where Mulder's mom dies by suicide and Mulder hugs Samantha's ghost in a field while Moby appropriates a traditional Melanesian song in the background. Many people hate it; I think it's clumsy but also quite beautiful, and anchored by really solid acting from Duchovny.

awww forgot about babyface Donal Logue

at my office we printed out a copy of the homeless person's drawing and use it to surprise and annoy our co-workers by acting like there's some important document we need them to see and then showing them that.

this keeps popping up in my mind and cracking me up

https://i.redd.it/ghb7efs8ix351.jpg

Sorry to spoil that the Jersey Devil is actually Ric Ocasek

My house rewatch just got to Season 4, which means we got to watch the scene where Mulder dumps gasoline all over his head and into his eyes and then is like, "You'll have to lead me! I can't see!"

First absolute dog of an episode, episode 9, "Space."

We watched ep3 tonight - “Squeeze”
TOOOOOOOOMS D:

First Morgan & Wong-penned episode! first flashlight scene! the dialogue feels noticeably snappier in places, some v good laugh out loud lines (“what’s the quickest way to get this off me without betraying my cool-guy exterior”)

I lovw how the mythology of Tooms is laid out with ~just~ enough breadcrumbs - bitsized info to make it creepy & wtf but no deepdive attempt at explanation to take you out of it.

Still as creepy as the first time I saw it. Maybe even more so now since it was established that Doug Hutchinson is an irl actual creep.

Squeeze! I love that the first monster-of-the-week episode is such a good one. Is that the one that also has the Mulder line, "Sometimes the need to mess with their heads outweighs the millstone of humiliation?"

I noticed at some point that Mick Jagger on the Ed Sullivan Show looks freakishly like Tooms when he's just about to eat a liver, and now I can't unsee it. Look at him around the 20-second mark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ANhU4AcK04

SCULLY: You're so consumed by your personal vengeance against life, whether it be its inherent cruelties or mysteries, everything takes on a warped significance to fit your megalomaniacal cosmology.

MULDER: Scully, are you coming on to me?

milo otm re S1E9 Space

definitely a dud. even as a space nerd, i was trying to find something to like about it but it’s just so “...huh”?

Yeah if I remember it just blunders on and nothing really great happens. A shame because I like the actor who plays the astronaut hero, Ed something? (fuck google imo)

oh Ed Lauter, remember him from Family Plot

In the second half of Duane Barry/Ascension, Krycek pistol whips the tram operator and temporarily stops the tram, Mulder never asks what happened with the tram and somehow the operator doesn’t complain to anyone?

Season 4 with all the conspiracy stuff leading into cancer stuff is kind of a drag.

I think some of the conspiracy episodes that season are highlights - the black oil one where everyone is constantly beating up Krycek is pretty fun, and the UFO/plane crash episodes are really well done if completely bonkers. The cancer stuff is a drag, and there are an awful lot of flat and depressing monster-of-the-weeks that I never feel compelled to rewatch. And there’s the chupacabra episode.

Watching two a night instead of one a week, the clash between conspiracy-then we're just FBI agents checkin' out a case-never mention that cult that committed mass suicide again-back to conspiracy is jarring.

The chupacabra episode was the least offensive of the run of 'exploring other cultures' episodes but I'm so happy that I'm past almost all of them.

I do find some of the S4 conspiracy episodes a bit aimless and boring (just wait until you get to Redux in S5!), but really like Tempus Fugit/Max, partly because it has an actual narrative and feels coherent, and has some good characters.

Leonard Betts was one of the best XF monsters-of-the-week. He's essentially another Tooms/2Shy variant, but a sympathetic one. Teliko is a bit rubbish though.

The Chupacabra episode was commonly known as "El Mucho Sucko" back in the day

I like Tempus Fugit/ Max as well, and I'm not usually a fan of the conspiracy episodes. I love the opening scene in the bar with the keychain; it might be the warmest, most natural Mulder & Scully hanging out scene in the whole show.

I just started rewatching this last night and was trying to decide if I should try to slog through every episode or be more selective. I guess I might as well go for it, at least to begin with.

xp I did a season 4 rewatch a while back and I agree that season is all over the place. some really high highs and really low lows. Where are you in the season now?

Just before Tempus Fugit. Leonard Betts was great, and I liked the Scully tattoo episode of the last few.

The Lone Gunmen recounting the supposed life of the Cigarette Smoking Man is another highlight. What if George HW Bush was also a frustrated action novelist?

Well, at least George W. finally got to paint dogs and wounded veterans from his wars (also interviewed them, I think)(the veterans, not the dogs?)

Which reminds me, I liked the episode that told how Scully got her dog.

The dog getting eaten also A+.

I guess that 'queg getting eaten

One in between: Mulder peeking in Scully's (motel?) window, sees her blowdrying dog, big cig hanging out of her mouth, near the doggie.

The chupacabra episode was the least offensive of the run of 'exploring other cultures' episodes but I'm so happy that I'm past almost all of them.

― Joe Bombin (milo z), Saturday, June 5, 2021 9:20 AM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

They're all awful but the Chinese one is probably the most offensive.

I find the chupacabra one to be one of the worst because of the "it's a telenovela!" conceit. It wouldn't be quite so bad if everyone was acting like a telenovela character, including Mulder and Scully, but Mulder and Scully are acting like their normal selves (though more callous than usual), so you end up with all the Latinx characters being hyper-emotional and melodramatic and Mulder and Scully making fun of them.

The effects in the Inca episode have not aged well.

Kaddish was pretty bad as well.

The Duchovny-directed ‘wot if Jackie Robinson was an alien’ episode is still to come.

Kaddish didn't bother me as much for some reason; it struck me as pretty respectful if a bit flat story-wise, but then I am the most non-practicing of Jews so it's not my area of expertise.

I’m curious if they actually thought Roma was just short for Romanian in the cursed stillborn twin episode.

xp and Duchovny-written, right? I actually like that one in spite of myself. It's just such an accurate and loving pastiche of the whole baseball movie genre, I can't not like it despite its obvious flaws.

yeah, written too. that one mainly comes off as Duchovny being well-meaning but cheesy and doofy in many directions at once

his later meta-satirical ep w/ Garry Shandling and Tea Leoni is similarly unfocused but much better

The thing I really like about the Duchov-written episodes is that they aren't Mulder-centric and they show a very warm and funny and charming side of Scully. I'm sure he's a tool in real life, but as a writer/director of the X-Files he does not make it all about him and I appreciate that.

I wish beefier douchebag Californication Duchovny wasn't the image that popped into my head of him vs. Mulder.

Was watching rando old eps but then my gf decided she just wanted to full-on rewatch so I guess that's what's happening now!

Anyway, 'Beyond the Sea' just never gets any less good.

this week (for no particular reason) I was thinking of Duchovny saying he realized he wasn't cut out for Lit Scholarship while listening to Naomi Wolff speaking in Howard Bloom's class

Post-modern Prometheus - just a wee bit problematic

Problematic and (challops alert!) not actually good

It looks good and has some fun moments (the cuts between townspeople and their animal parents) but you’re not wrong.

Mulder and Scully openly flirting in season 6 is so uncomfortable.

The whole vibe of season 6 is so weird. They sort of come off like angry exes who still hook up sometimes.

Feel like although it's not all bad, and there are some great eps, everything after they moved to LA from Van is not as good.