X-Files

[Dion]

So recently I got this because I never saw the series when it aired the first time. I've only seen one episode so far and that was pretty good. Now I have to decide if I'm going to watch one episode each day/week or just marathon all nine seasons in a couple of days like I did with Dexter, Lost and all those series.

[Quinton]

I'm taking a break at the moment, but had been watching 3-4 episodes a week (wednesday was xfiles day) for a while -- about halfway into season 2.  I had never seen it (apart from one or two random episodes) and a friend of mine was interested in rewatching it, so it's been a good excuse to hang out and enjoy some Classic TV.

I've liked it a lot.  I gather than things started going downhill in the later seasons (5 onward? opinions seen to differ), but what I've seen so far has been a lot of fun.  I'd prefer the mix to be a bit more toward the larger storyline than the monster-of-the-week episodes, but I've enjoyed most of the MOTW stuff too.  It's just fun TV.  Don't know how I missed out on this back in the day...

[Tannhauser]

I envy you guys.  Keep going, it  just gets better and better (even the new team was kinda sorta good).

[stu]

This show was such a big deal while I was in high school. The only episode I ever caught had Burt Reynolds in it. The trunk of his car was loaded with compact discs. Strange.

[Rendakor]

I remember wanting to pick this up and finally watch it all, after having seen only random episodes back in the day. This thread has inspired me to do so.

[schild]

I went off the rails in the movie thread and ended up watching seasons 1-7.

http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=15527.0

I'd split and merge but ehhhhhh nah.

[Dion]

I remember wanting to pick this up and finally watch it all, after having seen only random episodes back in the day. This thread has inspired me to do so.

DO IT! Then we can discuss it here 

[Dion]

I just watched the second episode and things are getting interesting already. I really like the tempo of the show so far.

[gryeyes]

I liked the show when it was monster of the week format. When it starts to get crazy tinfoil hat area i quickly lost interests. I dont even know how the series finished leading up to the movies.

[Quinton]

Glanced at schild's chatter in the other thread... total agreement that When Darkness Falls was spectacular.  No mythology tie-in, but just brilliantly creepy.  Loved the ending.  I generally like the habit of not fully resolving things at the end, or just avoiding having it all neat and tidy.  It works well with the general theme of the series.

I enjoy Big Conspiracy silliness, so the mythology episodes are awesome.  I'm enjoying the MOTW stuff more than I expected though.  Some of 'em are clunkers, but most of them have been fun.  They also do a good job of throwing in little snippets of reference to the larger arcs here and there in the MOTW stories.

[Signe]

I liked the show when it was monster of the week format. When it starts to get crazy tinfoil hat area i quickly lost interests. I dont even know how the series finished leading up to the movies.

Wait.  Didn't the series start out with the alien storyline?  Wasn't that sort of the point of the series?  I think it was when they lost touch with that story and started up with the constant monster of the week format that I lost interest.  Maybe I just don't remember correctly but I'm pretty sure that the interesting bits were the mysterious links they had with aliens, Cancer Man, Krycek, etc.  At some point the whole show seemed to lose focus on the story and get out of hand.  It became so disjointed that I lost interest and wandered off.  I didn't bother at all with the last couple of seasons.  The film was dreadful.

[HaemishM]

The series was at its best the first 4 seasons. Past the first movie, there's not a lot to equal the quality of those first 4 seasons. The mythology arc got lost in the desert after the movie, partly because they were afraid to really wrap up the story. So it just dragged on and on. When Mulder left and they got the new team, it had a little bit of life left, but really, neither Reyes nor Robert Patrick's character held the same interest. After the new team, the monster of the week episodes became much weaker and the alien conspiracy story just got stupid with Scully's baby and all that jazz. Whatever you do, DO NOT WATCH THE SECOND MOVIE. It's fucking awful, not even on the level of the MOTW stories. Jersey devil episode was better.

[Tannhauser]

Second movie?  What second movie?

IT DOESN'T EXIST.

[Dion]

Second movie?  What second movie?

IT DOESN'T EXIST.

But I WANT TO BELIVE.

[Signe]

oops.  I also meant the second film.  Sorry.

[Hutch]

The mythology stuff worked pretty well up until about the 3rd season, imo. After that, they were done revealing anything new, and just recycling old plot elements, and it became a toss-up in my mind as to whether they were just trying to milk it, or they had never really known how they were going to resolve anything.

The show as a body of work was really excellent, I thought, until somewhere in season 4 or 5, and the first movie. After that things started to go downhill. I still really enjoyed season 6 (including the beforementioned Michael McKean guest spot) but after that it was well known that Duchovny was going to quit at the end of his contract, and you can tell that he's phoning in a lot of his work.

I finally gave up on it for good in either season 7 or maybe 8? There was a "comedy" episode that was so painfully unfunny that I actually felt insulted. Which means I was taking a TV show too seriously, but that's as good a reason as any to quit watching.

[schild]

The series was at its best the first 4 seasons. Past the first movie, there's not a lot to equal the quality of those first 4 seasons.

I disagree. All 5 seasons leading up to the first movie and a few episodes into the 6th season were all pretty stellar. In fact, I think the first season was pretty rocky for the most part but season 2 onwards was basically gold. I also liked bits of the 7th season here and there where cancer man just went totally off the rails.

[Rendakor]

Having watched the first two episodes, I'm actually kind of glad I didn't get into this when it aired. This show wouldn't have been very entertaining when I was young.

As an aside: Holy christ did Seth Green look young in episode 2!

[Dion]

As an aside: Holy christ did Seth Green look young in episode 2!

Yeah I noticed that too, nice hair 

[UnSub]

I think I bitched about this previously, but it always got me that Mulder was such a jerk when it came to Sculley's religion. She'd see something, say "I've got faith in there being something else" and Mulder would be "WTF that shit is all fake, now come on, I've got a National Enquirer article that says aliens are implanting chips in people in Arkansas, we've got to hurry". And he'd be right. She'd follow him through hell for his UFOs, but if she had a religious experience he'd get all pissy.

Mulder being right 95% of the time got annoying.

That said, "X-Files" were a seminal show for me. The joke episodes were the best.

[Ironwood]

Clyde Bruckman.

Best episode ever.

[Tannhauser]

Jose Chung's From Outer Space

[Dion]

I'm watching the second season right now, I'm at some creepy occult episode on the 4th disc.

The alien episodes are so much better than the episodes with mutants and other stuff.

[Jeff Kelly]

Most hilarous episode was the 'he said, she said' episode with the vampire. Where both of them recounted the same story in different versions

[stu]

I've been inching my way through the series these past couple months. Tonight, I watched the one with the worm/human parasite that's planting offspring in people and hanging out at the sewage treatment plant. 

Made my dinner extra special!

Mulder is one crazy dude. He has no problem getting in over his head once he's knee deep or neck deep into a situation. Scully is kinda meh. Mostly humorless with no displayed interests outside of performing coroners reports. I feel like she would have been a better character if she were working against Mulder, at least in the first season, because she's almost completely useless. I'm still barely into the series though.