maxwellyoung

The Weekly X Files Rewatch Thread

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Yeah, I had already got the impression they get nowhere near to doing this. I guess Chris Carter is still waiting for that big-budget wrap-up movie...

 

Anyway, I watched the first three episodes of Millennium after a couple of people on Twitter said it was worth watching. It sets its stall out early as a post-Se7en, post-Lynch show, and has some very effective scenes and mood-setting, but after three episodes, it's feeling quite repetitive and stilted. I'm already worn out by serial killers doing elaborately gross stuff and Frank Black just trundling after them for 40 minutes. The show seems to be feeling the same - even the stand-out creepy scenes are just dropped into the middle of the script then immediately forgotten about.

 

But I don't want to give up on it completely, so I've cobbled together a watch-list mostly compiled from a couple of top ten lists I found:

 

S1E01 - Pilot
S1E17 - Walkabout
S1E18 - Lamentation
S1E19 - Powers, Principalities, Thrones, and Dominions
S1E22 - Paper Dove
S2E01 - The Beginning and the End
S2E02 - Beware Of The Dog
S2E06 - The Curse of Frank Black
S2E08 - The Hand Of Saint Sebastian
S2E09 - Jose Chung’s Doomsday Defense
S2E10 - Midnight Of The Century
S2E12 - Luminary
S2E13 - The Mikado
S2E15 - Owls 
S2E16 - Roosters
S2E19 - Anamnesis
S2E21 - Somehow, Satan Got Behind Me
S2E22 - The Fourth Horseman
S2E23 - The Time Is Now
S3E01 - The Innocents
S3E05 - …Thirteen Years Later
S3E22 - Goodbye To All That
X-Files crossover episode "Millennium"

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My partner and I have been rewatching the series (and movies) over the last several months. We're on the home stretch now for the original series, a good way through the final season.

 

One of the episodes we just watched was 'Improbable', which features

some of the weirdest music I've ever heard in the series, and Burt Reynolds as possibly God? He even goes on to lip sync to music playing (either in the world, or only for the viewing audience, I couldn't tell), and there's another number at the end with some extras. It was bizarre.

 

I'm not sure if it was good or bad, but it was kind of delightfully weird.

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Oof, Millennium is definitely not worth even skimming through the "best" episodes, and I gave up about 6 episodes before the end of my list. It has some cool conspiracy arc ideas, but everything else about the show is so slow and maudlin it's really not worth the wait. (Also, obviously, it got cancelled before it could get anywhere with it.) The show's worst sin is probably that it actually manages to make Lance Henriksen and Terry O'Quinn boring. 

 

Anyway, I am relieved to be back to The X Files season 7.

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Season 9 has the Millenium tie-in/wrap-up episode. It's pretty bad.

 

Sorry, was thinking of the Lone Gunmen tie-in/wrap-up episode. Also not good.

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I'm onto season 7 now ... I'm just about to watch the episode "Millennium", which apparently is a wrap-up crossover episode with the cancelled show Millennium

 

THis was why I took a Millennium detour! I doubt I'll do the same with Lone Gunmen. Perhaps I'll just watch that 9/11-predicting episode...

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Also, I just watched the episode Closure and FUCK YOU THE X-FILES.

 

After seven seasons of drip-fed info about Samantha Mulder's alien abduction, it turns out she was actually on an air base being experimented on until she ran away and some nice ghosts killed her to prevent her from getting re-abducted. This contradicts so many things previously established, introduces loads of new nonsensical details and is overall just the most frustrating, hippy-dippy bullshit resolution they could possibly have pulled out of their arses. I really would have preferred if they had never answered it.

 

FUCK.

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I had forgotten about that episode. It's quite likely the worst way they could have handled that.

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I had forgotten about that episode. It's quite likely the worst way they could have handled that.

 

Yeah, it's crazy how much they bungled that.

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Man, the season 9 (and therefore the series conclusion for a good few years) finale is weak as well. Bizarrely, it mirrors the Seinfeld series finale, with most of it taken up by a trial with appearances from characters from throughout the run. Instead of moving the arc plot on or giving it some closure, it summarises it (offhandedly revealing or clarifying a couple of things as if they were already established) then pretty much ends. The stuff with

CSM

was pretty cool but also completely pointless.

The second film is poor as well. Mainly Mulder and Scully having relationship problems, while not really doing any investigative work. It feels like a season 1 episode.

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My fiancée and I just wrapped that over the weekend. It was pretty bad. I Want To Believe was really bad (what's going on with Mulder's hair in it?!). It barely even felt like X Files, aside from the agents being in it.

 

I don't remember what it was about, but I was very surprised that the second last episode was what it was.

 

It was the Brady Bunch house one! It was silly in the best ways, but a weird one to have before the series finale.

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Just watched the first episode of the new miniseries and it was dreadful. So clunky and empty, in every aspect - the acting, cinematography, dialogue, editing, mythology...

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Just watched the first episode of the new miniseries and it was dreadful. So clunky and empty, in every aspect - the acting, cinematography, dialogue, editing, mythology...

 

I linked this article about the greedy nature of this revival a few times (maybe here?) but it set my expectations so low that I rolled with this miniseries and escaped all right.

 

I do like that Rance Howard's character dismisses the original run's conspiracy in its entirety, which is unnecessarily cruel to longtime fans.  But he's the police detective from The Burbs and Ron Howard's dad!  I can't stay mad at him.

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Thing is, they've already played the "the conspiracy is a distraction" gag before. It doesn't make sense, it's not particularly satisfying or convincing, and it's a particularly strange move at the very start of reviving a series that's been off the air for a decade.

Edit: that article's big reveal is that Fox are in it for the money? No shit. If that leads to the creative team coming back and potentially making a good wrap-up for the series, what's the problem?

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I just started watching this independently with the new series piling up on my DVR as I never watched it the first time round. I will make you all feel old by saying I was too young to have seen it the first time.

Anyway, this show is pretty great. Its strange looking back at it with no nostalgia but, lots of experience with things that it inspired and seeing the giant television techtree that Xfiles is at the bottom of. Even down to subtle stuff like the way its shot and scripted as opposed to other contemporary shows I've watched.

Its also ridiculous how big the gap in quality between the 2 films is, my word.

Also, are there any good legitimate streaming sources for this? I picked up Seasons 1-6 dvds for cheap but, havent picked up the rest yet.

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I watched it on Amazon Prime Video in the UK. Perhaps you'd be able to get a trial or just sign up for a month...

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You mean the Amazon Prime I just cancelled because I wasn't using it. . . . . . .

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Yes, that is the one.

 

Well, I finally dragged myself through the miniseries and it is utterly atrocious throughout. Muddled mythology-plot that attempts to cram a good season's worth at least into a couple of episodes and then ends on a cliffhanger with a load of plot-threads dangling, and no good MOTWs to back it up.

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So I've Started watched X Files. I'm towards the end of season 2 and kind of confused. I absolutely loved the first season, but I just watched two episodes in a row, one about a dude that is into stealing the hair from dead girls and one that's about a school where the teachers are into the occult. I was not into either episode at all, and the same goes for a lot of episodes this season. Looking up reviews however, I saw that those two episodes got really positive reviews that pointed out that the show was "pushing in a new direction". Is this the direction that the show goes in? I loved the extraterrestrial stuff and the government conspiracy stuff, but these supernatural thriller episodes do absolutely nothing for me. I get that not every episode is going to be about aliens or even explaining any of the questions they've raised, and that's cool, but I feel like I'm starting to watch Supernatural (or at least what I imagine Supernatural is like since I've never watched it). I did like the episode in season 1 with the psychic inmate and Scully,for what it's worth. 

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On 12/13/2016 at 2:58 AM, TheLastBaron said:

So I've Started watched X Files. I'm towards the end of season 2 and kind of confused. I absolutely loved the first season, but I just watched two episodes in a row, one about a dude that is into stealing the hair from dead girls and one that's about a school where the teachers are into the occult. I was not into either episode at all, and the same goes for a lot of episodes this season. Looking up reviews however, I saw that those two episodes got really positive reviews that pointed out that the show was "pushing in a new direction". Is this the direction that the show goes in? I loved the extraterrestrial stuff and the government conspiracy stuff, but these supernatural thriller episodes do absolutely nothing for me. I get that not every episode is going to be about aliens or even explaining any of the questions they've raised, and that's cool, but I feel like I'm starting to watch Supernatural (or at least what I imagine Supernatural is like since I've never watched it). I did like the episode in season 1 with the psychic inmate and Scully,for what it's worth. 

 

I may just have opposite taste from you (especially if you loved the first season) but, as I'm sure everyone's told you, the mythology ends up being a total nonsensical dead-end, and I think the only reason X-Files is still remembered fondly is Duchovney and Anderson's incredible chemistry and all those monster of the week episodes. If it makes you feel better, the general upswing in quality all around in Season 3 is remarkable and you'll get a lot more nuance, character, bold art direction, humor and meaning out of those kinds of one-off episodes through season 5.

 

I am sorry that an episode about a group of Satanic teachers did nothing to you. For some of that early stuff you gotta put your brain in 90's mode, when people were still afraid of the occult and there was still a slight transgressive edge to the blunt way The X-Files depicted it. Same with a lot of the violence.

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Bah, I left my reply in draft by mistake. Here it is anyway, despite now having some overlap with Patrick's:

We have an X Files thread here btw:

 

The show does continue to include MOTW episodes ("monster of the week", ie episodes that stand outside of the series arc plot), but I'm not sure why that's surprising you in S2 - as far as I remember there was plenty of that in S1...

 

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I don't have a problem with the monster of the week episodes, like I said I like the one with the psychic in season one.  My disinterest mostly comes from originally I liked that I was ostensibly watching a science fiction show about whether or not there was extraterrestrial life and if there was a government conspiracy trying to cover it up, but then now that isn't the show I'm watching, I'm just watching a show about bad guys with super powers.  I don't even have a problem with that, I liked Smallville when I watched the first few seasons, but it's just that I I was excited to be watching a show that wasn't that and now that show doesn't seem like it actually exists any further than what I've seen.  I liked that there was this dichotomy between Mulder wanting to believe and Scully being the skeptic and I thought in season one they did interesting stuff with making those characters have self doubt (like in Beyond the Sea), but now it seems like instead of there being any questions it's just "Mulder immediately jumps to conclusions, but he's always right and Scully is an idiot for trying to say there's a scientific explanation for the phenomenon they encounter.  Aliens are just totally real, everything is real, magic is real". Also the episodes I'm having a problem with are for sure well made and I have no problem being in the minority, I just think are more on the side of "exciting" rather than "interesting" for my personal tastes.  

 

Also after my last post I still ended up watching three more episodes last night so there's that.

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On 12/14/2016 at 3:41 AM, Patrick R said:

 

I may just have opposite taste from you (especially if you loved the first season) but, as I'm sure everyone's told you, the mythology ends up being a total nonsensical dead-end, and I think the only reason X-Files is still remembered fondly is Duchovney and Anderson's incredible chemistry and all those monster of the week episodes. If it makes you feel better, the general upswing in quality all around in Season 3 is remarkable and you'll get a lot more nuance, character, bold art direction, humor and meaning out of those kinds of one-off episodes through season 5.

 

I am sorry that an episode about a group of Satanic teachers did nothing to you. For some of that early stuff you gotta put your brain in 90's mode, when people were still afraid of the occult and there was still a slight transgressive edge to the blunt way The X-Files depicted it. Same with a lot of the violence.

 

Yeah, my wife and I watched X-Files last year and man, the mythology never has a proper conclusion it's kind of a bummer. 

 

I think the series is still worth watching, and I'm glad I did it, but a bit of a bummer. 

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