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Mid-season 2 is when they really started to go for it in terms of production values. Stuff like the submarine conning tower rising out of the ice in 'End Game' was not just an iconic image of the show, but a drat impressive - and expensive - combination of prop and set. Building something that size as a static piece would have been a big enough job, but then they had it move! (And then they spray-painted a whole Canadian rock quarry red to make it look like southwestern sandstone in 'Anasazi'...)
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Feb 26, 2014 19:40
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Goddamn, Small Potatoes is a great episode. With the exception of Home, Musings..., and Small Potatoes, season 4 has been really goddamn grim. I don't like this.
Big Mean Jerk fucked around with this message at 16:39 on Feb 27, 2014 |
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Feb 27, 2014 16:36
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I do have more sympathy for Scully's point of view now than when I was a teenager, some of the stuff Mulder is immediately willing to believe is so silly, even if he is always right. Just watching the episode where the call centre worker goes postal on his office because he thinks his boss is a monster. Mulder- "What if he's right?"Big Mean Jerk posted:Goddamn, Small Potatoes is a great episode. With the exception of Home, Musings..., and Small Potatoes, season 4 has been really goddamn grim. I don't like this. Home isn't grim? Small Potatoes is funny, but the playing of rape for laughs does make me uncomfortable.
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Feb 27, 2014 22:42
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marktheando posted:
Yeah, both small potatoes and post-modern prometheus have a weird handwaving of rape with the whole "but they like their babies" at the end that makes them a bit unsettling.
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Feb 27, 2014 23:10
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Hey, that is Scott Wilson in 'Orison'. I don't remember how this episode ends, but I hope it's better than the sequel to 'Pusher'.
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Mar 1, 2014 08:52
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Octy posted:Hey, that is Scott Wilson in 'Orison'. I don't remember how this episode ends, but I hope it's better than the sequel to 'Pusher'. I'm currently watching Deadwood, and I can't help but point out how many of these actors guest starred on the X-Files. Off the top of my head, there's Brad Dourif (Doc Cochran) who played Luther Boggs in 'Beyond the Sea', William Sanderson (E.B. Farnum) who played the guy from 'Blood', Jim Beaver (Whitney Ellsworth) who played the coroner in 'Field Trip', and Titus Welliver (Silas Adams) who played Doug Spinney in 'Darkness Falls'. Between The X-Files and Seinfeld, I think half the actors in Hollywood guest starred on those two shows.
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Mar 1, 2014 10:15
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I've been watching the show through from the beginning and I'm presently trying* to get through season seven. There's been some very good episodes but they don't seem to have had as much of a direction for the show since "Two Fathers" / "One Son". I mean, I knew when I got into it that it would eventually become "Chris Carter was making the mythology up as he went along" but even the mythology episodes ("Sein und Zeit" / "Closure" for example) seem to be slightly wanting. * I say "trying" because my laptop seems to have this defect where it sometimes won't play TV series DVDs; movies are fine but with TV shows - especially when they're from a box set - it's a flip of a coin whether they'll work when you put the disc in the tray and close it; lots of whirring and clicking and chugging for some reason.
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Mar 1, 2014 13:57
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Octy posted:Hey, that is Scott Wilson in 'Orison'. I don't remember how this episode ends, but I hope it's better than the sequel to 'Pusher'. The "reveal" in Orison is really terrible and the episode in general is one of the shittier ones.
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Mar 1, 2014 13:59
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Metal Loaf posted:I've been watching the show through from the beginning and I'm presently trying* to get through season seven. There's been some very good episodes but they don't seem to have had as much of a direction for the show since "Two Fathers" / "One Son". I mean, I knew when I got into it that it would eventually become "Chris Carter was making the mythology up as he went along" but even the mythology episodes ("Sein und Zeit" / "Closure" for example) seem to be slightly wanting. Show was initially set to end after season 7, and the main mythology had pretty much been wrapped up by season 6. So if looks like the mythology was running out of steam, it was because the show was about to end, and then they wanted to continue it as a series of movies. And then most fox dramas flopped or were cancelled. Chris Carter himself had created a new show, Harsh Realm, which bombed was cancelled after a few shows. Party of five was also cancelled. As a result, I remember a Chris Carter interview where he said that they didn't even know if the show would continue as they were filming the last episode of season 7, and so they recorded two endings. If I recall correctly, they ended up agreeing on an extension less than 2 weeks from the airing of the season 7 conclusion.
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Mar 1, 2014 16:53
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Chris Carter did an AmA on Reddit yesterday and while being noncommittal said something like "it is possible you could see more X-Files someday". He was also unable to answer specific unresolved plot points about the show without "having to think about [whatever was asked] and where we were trying to go with it". That seemed pretty telling to me that he's aware the show went off the rails and lost direction. He also confirmed that Scully is immortal. Has anyone else checked out the pilot on Amazon streaming for his new series "The After"? I thought it was pretty boring with some not so great acting, until the very end. I'll give it a shot because hey, it's from the dude that gave us Mulder and Scully. And Frank Black. isaboo fucked around with this message at 18:00 on Mar 1, 2014 |
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Mar 1, 2014 17:51
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Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz, Duchovny and Anderson have all been pretty gung ho about wanting to do a third movie. Just like with the 2nd one, it has been Fox (who owns the franchise) that is not interested.
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Mar 1, 2014 18:31
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joepinetree posted:Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz, Duchovny and Anderson have all been pretty gung ho about wanting to do a third movie. Just like with the 2nd one, it has been Fox (who owns the franchise) that is not interested. Does anybody smell a kickstarter for the neXt-Files?
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Mar 1, 2014 18:52
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But really, what was up with the twisted screaming face in the opening credits?
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Mar 1, 2014 20:39
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^ Incidentally, I was reading about this on Wikipedia last night.Wikipedia posted:These scenes notably include a split-screen image of a seed germinating as well as a "terror-filled, warped face".[77] The latter was created when Carter found a video operator who was able to create the effect. The sequence was extremely popular and won the show its first Emmy Award, which was for Outstanding Graphic Design and Title Sequences. Rabwin was particularly pleased with the sequence and felt that it was something that had "never [been] seen on television before." The opening credits just look so dated now, but it's hard to believe they didn't look dated back then. I still sit through it every time, but mostly for the music. UnknownMercenary posted:The "reveal" in Orison is really terrible and the episode in general is one of the shittier ones. See, this is why I don't like it when monsters or villains or whatever you want to call them are brought back. It's never done well and any mystery about why they are the way they are is got rid of. Octy fucked around with this message at 00:19 on Mar 2, 2014 |
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Mar 2, 2014 00:17
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Octy posted:^ Incidentally, I was reading about this on Wikipedia last night. I don't remember the Squeeze sequel, Tooms, being that bad, although I haven't seen it since I burned through the whole thing like 3 years ago. Orison and Kitsunegari are pretty bad though, compared to the originals.
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Mar 2, 2014 01:08
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That blurry, man-shaped white ghost thing shuffling past in what looks like security camera footage in the opening credits freaked me the hell out as a kid.
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Mar 2, 2014 01:42
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You guys got me thinking about the whistley part of the theme song and now I'm all spooked out 
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Mar 2, 2014 01:53
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Man oh man, season 5 is real improvement over season 4. The only real clunkers I've run into so far are the Christmas Carol/Emily two-parter. I've heard bad things about the upcoming Chinga, though.
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Mar 2, 2014 05:18
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Chinga is bad but it's followed by Killswitch which is pretty great.
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Mar 2, 2014 05:24
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The thing about Chinga is that I fully expected King to be able to write something that would fit right in with the show. A ton of monster of the week episodes feel just like Stephen King's short stories: something unnatural may be happening, it is revealed that it is indeed something unnatural but the specific details are not provided, and then there is a sort of conclusion that is not a definitive conclusion. And then when you actually get King writing for the show, it sucks.
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Mar 2, 2014 05:51
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Octy posted:The opening credits just look so dated now, but it's hard to believe they didn't look dated back then. I still sit through it every time, but mostly for the music.
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Mar 2, 2014 10:29
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Charlie Mopps posted:I think the credits held up pretty well. It works for the show and still gives off the right vibe and mood. The low-res quality of it makes it even better for me. And i really like the zoom in on Mulder's FBI credentials with the cold metal of handcuffs beside it. Not sure why, but it just feels right i guess. Yeah, I look the zoom in on the credentials, but I've never been a fan of the screaming face or the 'Government Denies Knowledge' screens. God drat, William B. Davis has the sexiest voice/accent.
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Mar 2, 2014 10:54
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I know this isn't the Let's Watch... thread (RIP), but these are kind of fun to do, so I figured I'd do one every now and then. Episode 3x07 - The Walk. Written by John Shiban. Directed by Rob Bowman.  We open with a guy - Lieutenant Colonel Victor Stans - in a VA hospital bed getting questioned (not entirely sympathetically) by a psychiatrist about why he'd tried to commit suicide (again). Stans is telling Dr Sceptical that his repeated attempts are not a cry for help - that he won't let Stans kill himself.  Dr Sceptical is... not so sure and wanders off to go get Stans some tranquilizers. Which is when Stans decides to make a run for it - sort of; finding his way down to the basement and the hydrotherapy pool in what has got to be one of the dingiest gyms known to man.  First, he locks the door, then grabs some weights off a table, stuffs them in his hospital gown (which is stupid, given that anything heavy enough to weigh him down would probably rip the gown) and cranks the heat up on the pool. Just as he's about to jump in, though, a mysterious voice tells him to 'Stand down, soldier' and he glances in a mirror to see a horrifying  Which is supposed to be a reflection of a soldier in combat gear, but for the half-second or so we see it, it looks more like an wall-mounted light fixture. Anyway, Stans is freaked out by the decor and jumps feet first into the boiling water.  He gets pulled out by the fire-fighters - it's hard not to be baffled at how quickly they arrive - who find the door mysteriously unlocked and the steaming side of boiled manflesh just about has time to croak something along the lines of "I told you he wouldn't let me die" before we flash to the TITLE SEQUENCE!  Some time later, Mulder & Scully are questioning Stans about stuff - his wife and child burned to death in a house fire that preceded his first suicide attempt - and surprisingly, they have different ideas about what's caused Stans' condition. Scully actually scribbles down "Classic Post-traumatic shock" on her notepad, so congrats if you've got Psychiatrist on your Scully Does Everything bingo card, while generally being pretty  about the whole interview. Mulder channels Mulder, albeit rather enigmatically holding something small that he doesn't refer to in this scene.After a couple of minutes of forgettable conversation, our dynamic duo are pulled out of Stans' room by another soldier.  Captain Draper asks them to stop their investigation, which gives Scully a chance to show her Military Daughter chops again, demanding to see the Captain's commanding officer.  Elsewhere, as a bunch of veterans begin to pass out from CO2 inhalation, a man with one leg is talking in dreamy, wondrous tones about a dream he had where he ran around with his child which I suppose could be touching if you have a soul, but this is the X-Files, so I'm just waiting for someone to die horribly.  Also unimpressed is our Monster of the Week, a quadruple-amputee magnificent shitbag known as Rappo. After being a shitbag and pissing all over his fellow "cripples"' dreams, he yells for someone who wanders in and wheels him away.  Poor old Martin Lloyd, always losing his memory. So sad. In the meantime, M&S have been shown into General Callaghan's office and there's a slightly tedious argument where Scully gets all teachery  and the General is all 'chain-of-command, nothing here for you'.  Anyway, it turns out that Stans wasn't the first person to try to commit suicide, nor was he the first officer to have his wife and child(ren) die in a house fire.  After Callaghan has grudgingly allowed M&S to continue their investigation and they've pottered off, Captain Draper pops her head back in to apologise for something or other and they have a brief conversation in tones that nicely hint that their relationship is maybe equal parts father/daughter and Miltary. She leaves and Callaghan goes straight for the booze, interrupted by a garbled message on his answerphone and then a voice; neither of which, sadly, are about the dangers of drinking poison whiskey. The voice itself says something like "Your time has come, killer" and despite coming from the doorway, Callaghan looks over at the window. So it's probably lucky for him that the silhouette of the light fixture - now resembling a soldier - is clearly visible in the reflection on the glass.  Lucky is not, however, a word that would describe Captain Draper's evening swim, where she is - in a genuinely tense and exciting scene - eventually pulled under the water and drowned by an actually impressive special effects sequence:   Poolside, the next morning, Callaghan is all "the military was her family", his voice giving a little bit more away. M&S clarify that the guards saw no-one coming or going - maybe they should consider turning the loving lights on, hmm? - and Mulder quizzes Callaghan about 'spooky things' that might have happened. The General mentions the phone message - what's nice is that you kind of get the feeling that the death of Draper is what's making him be this open - and the trio, plus some extra soldiery dudes hop in the car to head to Casa Callaghan.  Where Callaghan Jnr has just been freaked out by seeing someone in the house.  The General tries to calm his wife down and after a quick look around, some footprints are found in the sandpit.  Which, along with some fingerprints, leads the agents to poor old Martin Lloyd, complete with letters from each of the victims - covered in insects, not for The List-type reasons, just because his place is filthy. Back at Casa Callaghan, Junior has been busy in the sandpit, excavating a colossal amount of sand, piling it up and then playing with his toy soldiers in the, um, pit below. A soldier is there guarding the place but - sure enough - this episode's curse of 'Things That Are Bad For You' strikes again.  The guard lights up a cigarette and our phantom tips the whole mound of sand onto the kid. The guard notices something is off and comes running, but it's too late. Yep, this episode just killed a 8-9 year old kid.  Not content with that little bit of savagery, Martin Lloyd is the next target for the phantom, despite him screaming "I'm not safe here, he's been here before" over and over until the show's long-running theme of terrible jail/prison guards shows up again and tells this episode's candidate to go wandering off. Scully - who was told by Martin Lloyd that Rappo was the person he was collecting the letters for - comes back to the cells for words with Martin Lloyd after being unimpressed that he pointed the finger at Rappo.  Sadly, she doesn't get the chance to bawl him out in any sort of satisfying way, given that he's dead. We then get the resolution of the 'What Was Mulder Carrying In The First Scene' conundrum that absolutely no-one cared about. They're x-ray films and they seem to show that there's more than just background levels of radiation at each of the crime scenes, so he thinks it's Astral Projection. Mulder pops in for a visit with Rappo and tries his favourite "I know what you're doing, just admit it" mode of questioning, which has never worked. Ever.  The main upshot of the conversation is that Rappo blames the military - specifically the officers - for what happened to him and all the other soldiers who come back from wars not entirely right. Sadly for Mulder, Rappo decides not to confess to a crime he'd never be convicted for What does happen is that Rappo decides to kill the General's wife while the two of them are at home, grieving.  The General decides it's time for action and heads back to the hospital to see Stans.  It's not clear quite what he has in mind when he goes into the room. Given everything that's happened to him, the logical thing would be for him to ask for information, but the acting and direction make it seem like he's going to kill Stans. Anyway, Stans says he knows who is doing the killing. It's...  There's some verbal sparring between the two of them and then Callaghan empties his clip into the wall behind Rappo.  He leaves the room and bumps into M&S in the corridor outside and after shrugging his way through saying "Dude's still alive, whatever", he gets in the elevator, presumably to go home. That's not where he goes, however, as M&S look in on Rappo to find him in a trance ("He's having a seizure!" A seizure is it, Scully?  ). Rappo forces the elevator down to the basement, with Mulder sort of lightly-jogging down the stairs after it.  Down in the basement of  Which is when he starts getting knocked around by a special effect that looks much better in motion. Mulder joins in. With getting his rear end kicked, I mean. Upstairs, Scully and a Nurse are trying to bring Rappo around but they both have to leave the room for :reasons: which is when someone slips into Rappo's room with Ninja speed and reflexes.  Scully hears the door slam behind her and, presumably thinking something like, "Who could possibly move that fast?" she tries the door, but finds it locked from the inside. Who is this individual, possessed of such speed and grace? Oh, it's the dude who's got 3rd degree burns to something like 99% of his body and has to hold the handrail when walking up and down stairs. Of course.  As Mulder and Callaghan get the poo poo kicked out of them in the Gym of Doom & Gloom, Stans - in full view of Scully - grabs the spare pillow from Rappo's bed and presses it over his face. Rappo's form disappears as he's about a second away from turning Callaghan into meaty chunks and Stans relaxes:  As the voiceover blathers about something or other, we get a couple of concluding shots of Callaghan sitting in his office getting mail from his new mail man:  Wait, Stans new job is to walk, bow-legged, slowly down the corridor, pushing a mail cart while wearing a mask?  Awesome Overall, I like this episode. There's far too much convenient timing of plot events to overlook and Rappo is such a lunatic that it's impossible to have any sort of sympathy for him. That said, I really like some of the performances, particularly for Rappo and Callaghan and some of the writing touches are subtle enough that they actually reward subsequent viewings. This is also one of those episodes where Mulder & Scully really don't do an awful lot. You sort of suspect that them being present didn't change Rappo's plan or his timescale and Stans seems like he would have ended up killing Rappo eventually anyway. Anyway, decent-good episode and given that John Shiban's next episode is the legendary Tesos Dos Bichos, certainly worth watching with that in mind.
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Mar 2, 2014 13:58
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Exploder posted:I'm currently watching Deadwood, and I can't help but point out how many of these actors guest starred on the X-Files. Off the top of my head, there's Brad Dourif (Doc Cochran) who played Luther Boggs in 'Beyond the Sea', William Sanderson (E.B. Farnum) who played the guy from 'Blood', Jim Beaver (Whitney Ellsworth) who played the coroner in 'Field Trip', and Titus Welliver (Silas Adams) who played Doug Spinney in 'Darkness Falls'. Between The X-Files and Seinfeld, I think half the actors in Hollywood guest starred on those two shows. Don't forget John Hawkes (Sol Star) in "Milagro." He was a great choice for the part -- another actor might have made the role cheesy, but he managed to make Padgett feel sincere. He also had a nice quiet, creepy vibe going.
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Mar 2, 2014 21:37
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Thanks for the recap, kingturnip. Good stuff, as usual. I didn't even recognize that episode at first, as I think I skipped it during my last re-watch, until you mentioned Rappo. It's a decent episode, like you said. I think there were a lot of middle-of-the-road episodes I skipped during my last go at it. Also, this:kingturnip posted:Mulder pops in for a visit with Rappo and tries his favourite "I know what you're doing, just admit it" mode of questioning, which has never worked. Ever. So true. Cristatus posted:Don't forget John Hawkes (Sol Star) in "Milagro." He was a great choice for the part -- another actor might have made the role cheesy, but he managed to make Padgett feel sincere. He also had a nice quiet, creepy vibe going. I never realized that was John Hawkes. I'm going to have to watch that episode again.
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Mar 3, 2014 05:10
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And Tobin Bell in 'Brand X'. Heh, 'Skinman'. I hope that comes up again. EDIT - I love the way Krycek turns up in the weirdest places and escapes out of the most impossible situations. Just now, at the end of Season 7, he's turned up in a jail in Tunisia. Octy fucked around with this message at 22:24 on Mar 3, 2014 |
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Mar 3, 2014 09:07
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joepinetree posted:The thing about Chinga is that I fully expected King to be able to write something that would fit right in with the show. A ton of monster of the week episodes feel just like Stephen King's short stories: something unnatural may be happening, it is revealed that it is indeed something unnatural but the specific details are not provided, and then there is a sort of conclusion that is not a definitive conclusion. And then when you actually get King writing for the show, it sucks. My understanding is there wasn't much of King's original script in the actual episode, Carter basically rewrote the whole thing. Although given how terrible most of King's TV writing is, that's probably a blessing.
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Mar 5, 2014 13:24
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Words can't express how much I loving loved this show as a teen. Oh my god. I'm right there with whoever said they used to obsessively tape every episode on VHS and catalog them. I am so loving old. I wanted to be Scully so bad, it hurt. Also, I think it's weird that people don't like Chinga. I always liked the role reversal thing they have going on, with Scully being all "this is totes supernatural" and Mulder shooting down all her theories and wasting an entire weekned throwing pencils at the ceiling. quote:SCULLY: (on phone) No, I don’t think it’s witchcraft, Mulder, or sorcery. I’ve had a look around and I don’t see any evidence that warrants that kind of suspicion. Does anyone have that .gif of Mulder and Scully dancing? It's not from an episode, but a photoshoot I think.
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Mar 5, 2014 18:23
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The movie was an attempt to clean up the arc and shoot the show in a new(ish) direction, right? I just started season 6 last night, and even though the Syndicate and Gibson and (I'm assuming) Crycek are all still there, the new mythology bits the 6 premiere adds don't feel like more poo poo on the pile. It feels streamlined. I'm also not immediately hating the change of scenery, possibly because these are the episodes I consistently followed as a kid. The Mulder/Scully dynamic is aces right now too. I'm sure later episodes will ruin this once they get together. Drive was pretty good though.
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Mar 5, 2014 18:32
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Bob Shadycharacter posted:Words can't express how much I loving loved this show as a teen. Oh my god. I'm right there with whoever said they used to obsessively tape every episode on VHS and catalog them. I am so loving old. That side of it was fun (like the similar scenes in War of the Coprophages with the roles reversed), it's the rest of the episode that's kind of rubbish. I just couldn't take the evil doll seriously. Especially the resolution, with Scully nuking it in the microwave. Bob Shadycharacter posted:Does anyone have that .gif of Mulder and Scully dancing? It's not from an episode, but a photoshoot I think. I don't have a GIF, but Mulder and Scully dance in the Post-Modern Prometheus.
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Mar 5, 2014 18:46
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marktheando posted:That side of it was fun (like the similar scenes in War of the Coprophages with the roles reversed), it's the rest of the episode that's kind of rubbish. I just couldn't take the evil doll seriously. Especially the resolution, with Scully nuking it in the microwave. I think I've always viewed Chinga as one of the funny episodes, maybe that's coloring my impression of the whole thing. I will admit there were a few moments I was legit creeped out by, but hey, I was young...ish...also I'm kind of a wimp in general when it comes to scary/creepy movies. They dance a couple of times, but that's not the gif I mean...it appears to be an outtake from promotional material - was in the last x-files thread here that I saw it. Silly dancing. I think Gillian Anderson was doing the twist.
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Mar 5, 2014 18:57
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Big Mean Jerk posted:The movie was an attempt to clean up the arc and shoot the show in a new(ish) direction, right? I just started season 6 last night, and even though the Syndicate and Gibson and (I'm assuming) Crycek are all still there, the new mythology bits the 6 premiere adds don't feel like more poo poo on the pile. It feels streamlined. I'm also not immediately hating the change of scenery, possibly because these are the episodes I consistently followed as a kid. The Mulder/Scully dynamic is aces right now too. I'm sure later episodes will ruin this once they get together. The arc is wrapped up midway through season 6 and new stuff comes up at the end of season 8 but until then it's pretty directionless.
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Mar 5, 2014 21:54
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Can someone explain to me the deal with the Alien Bounty Hunter? I don't know whether to spoil it, but we see Brian Thompson's character die at the start of season 8, and then it's revealed he was just one of many bounty hunters who all took the form of Brian Thompson (and who wouldn't?). Was this always part of the character's conceptual history that I missed when he first appeared in season 2 or thereabouts?
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Mar 5, 2014 22:26
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Octy posted:Can someone explain to me the deal with the Alien Bounty Hunter? I don't know whether to spoil it, but we see Brian Thompson's character die at the start of season 8, and then it's revealed he was just one of many bounty hunters who all took the form of Brian Thompson (and who wouldn't?). Was this always part of the character's conceptual history that I missed when he first appeared in season 2 or thereabouts? There were always many Brian Thompsons. Even the rebel aliens are supposed to be eyeless, noseless, mouthless Brian Thompsons.
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Mar 5, 2014 22:49
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joepinetree posted:There were always many Brian Thompsons. Even the rebel aliens are supposed to be eyeless, noseless, mouthless Brian Thompsons. There can never be enough Brian Thompsons.
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Mar 6, 2014 02:23
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Big Mean Jerk posted:The movie was an attempt to clean up the arc and shoot the show in a new(ish) direction, right? The movie was an attempt to milk the franchise for everthing it was worth while the hype was still going strong, before even the most oblivious fans realized the mytharc was going to go nowhere.
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Mar 6, 2014 05:05
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The one good thing about Mulder being abducted is Doggett. My mum and I have built up a long list of fictional characters we'd like to have on our side in a tough situation and Doggett is pretty high on that list. God drat, that sounds nerdy, but I always liked his character. Just the everyday, ordinary man's kind of scepticism to Scully's new belief in all that paranormal stuff. It does frustrate me, though, the way Scully now gets mad at people for not accepting all the things they've seen and trying to find rational, scientific explanations, when that was her character for seven seasons.
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Mar 6, 2014 11:32
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Octy posted:The one good thing about Mulder being abducted is Doggett. My mum and I have built up a long list of fictional characters we'd like to have on our side in a tough situation and Doggett is pretty high on that list. God drat, that sounds nerdy, but I always liked his character. Just the everyday, ordinary man's kind of scepticism to Scully's new belief in all that paranormal stuff. I think Doggett gets a bad rap because a good majority of the last two seasons was so bad, but he did have some good moments. I actually enjoyed his missing son arc and the resolution to it, and I love 'John Doe'. With what the writers and Robert Patrick had to work with, I think they actually did a good job with Doggett. Reyes, on the other hand, was a terrible character with no redeeming qualities. She was the Poochie of the X-Files.
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Mar 6, 2014 22:37
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Barring Reyes and two episodes (one of which is just solidly mediocre), I maintain that Season 8 is the strongest season of the show. The "hunt for Mulder" serves a two-fold purpose of shunting Duchovny aside when he was at his most uninterested, and lending to the series much more of a focus for the first time. 8 is very serialized, and much more of a "modern" TV show in that sense. Unlike 9, the plot doesn't get too far up its own rear end with William and dozens of Super Soldiers. The writing is, in general, pretty solid too, and they started opening the show up more to new writers. In 8, the main plots are A) We need to find Mulder, but in the meantime Scully's going to compensate for his absence without betraying her character, instead going to a logical place of "ok, you know what, I have seen crazy poo poo these last 7 years, my best friend and lover in the night-time was taken from me because of his beliefs, and someone needs to carry this torch." Skinner also slides into this role a bit, and his increased presence is a HUGE boon to the season (especially his rapport with Doggett and the warmness he keeps with Scully) B) Doggett is friggin awesome. He's a breath of fresh air: a no-nonsense guy, a skeptic without the frustrating "we have to reset the dynamic back to skeptic/believer" of the early seasons, but engages with every monster/odd thing he comes across with honesty/bullets. He's someone who over the course of a season throws his back into this bizarre job that has derailed his chances at the FBI, because he comes to believe in Mulder's Cause. Mulder's Cause is that serialization, it affects every character and keeps him alive, and idealized, at a time when Mulder onscreen would probably have been bored and resentful. C) The super-soldier thing is a slow burn, and there's no half-assed explanation, which serves to benefit it. All we know is that there's a new group of shadowy people trying to fill in the Syndicate's void, and holy poo poo we can't kill them. It's a good existential villain. Of course, that's destroyed in the first episodes of season 9, but that's a bad season. Reyes is still a problem; she's off-tone with the rest of the season and is a kook, but she even has a few decent episodes in 8 because she's still being used sparingly. Where the season ends could've been a dynamite series finale, and she's involved, and it still feels natural while leaving things open-ended. The two bad episodes I alluded to are probably "Badlaa," because it's a confused, disgusting villain with absolute poo poo for character motivation, and the whole episode just centers on that little squeaky rear end-genie who has about 76 different powers, and no explanation for why he's doing the things he's doing, nor a resolution of any sort; and "Invocation," mostly due to a boring child actor performance (something the X-Files was never great with) and a truly, truly terribly overwrought performance from the mother in it. It also suffers from last-minute, ill-motivated resolution. Besides those two, the quality of episode never sinks below "hey that's fun/cool," and there's moment after moment throughout the series where Doggett is just completely awesome and honest in situations that are new and strange to him. There's some ridiculously great episodes as well: Redrum, Roadrunners, Via Negativa, Medusa, Three Words, Vienen, Alone, and even the final two-parter is tense as hell and has tons of payoffs.
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Mar 7, 2014 15:50
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I have never heard or seen anybody make an intelligent argument that season 8 is the strongest of the series, but you managed to do so. Although I, and pretty much everybody in this thread would disagree, you do make some good points, specifically about Doggett. It's been a few years since I did a full re-watch past season 7, but you've made me think about watching season 8 again with that perspective in mind. But man, by the end of season 7 I am just bored to death by the mytharc. edit: Badlaa might be the worst episode of the series. It's funny, because I remember being creeped out by it as an adolescent boy, but now when I watch it, all I see is the little dude from season 2 of Eastbound and Down. "I can cut off your titties." Exploder fucked around with this message at 08:10 on Mar 8, 2014 |
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Mar 8, 2014 08:06
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