maxwellyoung

The Weekly X Files Rewatch Thread

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As someone who hadn't seen Twin Peaks before Idle Thumbs began doing the Rewatch podcast, I have been finding the podcast a useful resource to echo my thoughts on the episodes and provide details which pasted me by on my viewing.

The Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller television show "The X Files" is a show held in similar regard but a podcast like the one Sean joked about on the Idle Thumbs podcast is unlikely for the large amount of episodes of the show and just the business they already have.

 

But what if we used this thread to discuss the show, one episode every week as long as we can?

 

Please comment your thoughts.

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I'm down. 

 

And the first couple of years are fine. THEY'RE FINE. If nothing else, you get to see baby faced versions of Vancouver's Finest Sci-Fi Character Actors.  

 

The last couple years... hoooooo.... *sharp intake of breath between teeth* they're kind of rough. 

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The thing is that you'd have to go through almost a year of bad episodes before this show starts to get good.

Eh, I guess. I've rather enjoyed the early episodes I've seen so far.

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The thing is that you'd have to go through almost a year of bad episodes before this show starts to get good.

 

Do you mean a season, or 52 episodes? Either way, I disagree!

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Yeah, there's plenty of strong season 1 episodes, if I recall correctly!

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I have a lower tolerance for television than most, I guess. Knowing the crazy heights of seasons 3 - 5, it's hard for me to dedicate time to watching the considerably more pedestrian seasons 1 and 2.

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So you think the first two seasons consist wholly of bad episodes?

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I was exaggerating. I think there are maybe 5 good episodes in the first two seasons. But even the good ones aren't as good as what you'd later call the good ones.

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I was exaggerating. I think there are maybe 5 good episodes in the first two seasons. But even the good ones aren't as good as what you'd later call the good ones.

 

I'd mostly agree with this based on my recollection of the series growing up and the rewatch I've started. There are a lot of monster of the week episodes in the first two seasons. They didn't really start consistently hitting the overall mytharc stuff until later.

 

That said, The X-files hit for me right as I hit my teens, so I'm just too damn nostalgic about the series to skip anything. I love the filler episodes as much as the mytharc stuff.

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That's actually the other thing for me: once I knew the mytharc stuff was going nowhere it became extremely hard to watch any of those episodes. Whenever I rewatch the series I always skip the mytharc stuff. For me it's all about Mulder and Scully's chemistry.

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I actually finished X File for the first time like 5 months ago so would be bit too 'early' to rewatch it D:

 

Honestly, I hardly recall the fist episode of x-files.

 

A kid in coma was actually abducting his class mates for the aliens, who then kills the abductees.  Scully thinks Mulder is weird.  And Mulder is established to be weird.  Also Mulder is asked to stare at Scully's butt.

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Man, I can't wait until we get to the end of Season 5 and this show goes downhill fast!

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So, this coming monday we will begin with episode one.

 

Episode 1 | Pilot

 

Directed By: Robert Mandel

 

Written By: Chris Carter

 

Original Air Date: September 10, 1993

 

Running Time: 43 Minutes

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Cool. I've had X-Files on my re-watch list for a while, I will try to keep up!

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I was exaggerating. I think there are maybe 5 good episodes in the first two seasons. But even the good ones aren't as good as what you'd later call the good ones.

Squeeze and Tooms are two of my favorite episodes, and I'm always pleasantly surprised when I'm rewatching the series and have forgotten how early they come in.

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For no reason, here is a 1998 Computer Gaming World interview with Gillian Anderson about The X-Files FMV game.

 

 

There is also a transcript at a fan site.

 

At the 3:11 mark she starts talking about the games she has played, including Tetris, Myst, and a Tetris clone called Tortured Souls?  "It's like Tetris, but with the eyeballs and stuff coming down.  I really like that."

 

Does anyone know what this game might be?  I can't find it by that title.

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Boy, maxwellyoung really dropped the ball with this thread.

 

Funnily enough, I've just finally got around to starting my re-watch and have just finished season 2.  I forgot how many of my memories of the show are in these two seasons - I'm not sure I got much further than this originally, although I definitely went to see the movie.  I'm enjoying all the arc stuff, especially because it breaks the MOTW mould of 'weird thing happens, Mulder and Scully arrive, Mulder nails it immediately, Scully scoffs, they investigate pretty passively until it kind of burns itself out'. I'd also forgotten how much shit Scully sees really early on and yet stays almost pathologically sceptical. Hopefully season 3 will shake things up a bit, as promised.

 

Humbug is still a fantastic episode.

 

I've started listening to the X-Files Files podcast (as linked to by someone else on these forums somewhere) and it's very entertaining. It's hosted by one of the actors from Silicon Valley and normally has a guest on, sometimes show-related.

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I briefly tried to watch the show last year before falling off the bandwagon so this is a good way to jump back in.

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Oh man, we just finished watching Xfiles right before the new season aired, you are in for a treat!

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I'm onto season 7 now, and it's still surprisingly good overall. Even the mythology episodes are still good - all they need to do at some point is tie the disparate strands together and wrap it all up, and all these episodes will retroactively become very satisfying instead of just cool and tantalising. I don't know if they touch the mythology in the new ones at all.

 

Anyway, I'm just about to watch the episode "Millennium", which apparently is a wrap-up crossover episode with the cancelled show Millennium. I'm wondering whether it would be worth finding a top ten episodes list of that show and blasting through them before watching this ep. Has anyone watched Millennium? Would the ten best eps be any good?

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I'm onto season 7 now, and it's still surprisingly good overall. Even the mythology episodes are still good - all they need to do at some point is tie the disparate strands together and wrap it all up, and all these episodes will retroactively become very satisfying instead of just cool and tantalising. 

 

Uh oh!

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