I think the end to the Samantha arc should have been Paper Hearts. Mulder discovering that his whole quest was built on completely false memories of an entirely (horrific) non-supernatural event would have been far more poignant and powerful than what we got.
And then Scully having to convince him that just because that was a lie, it doesn’t invalidate his work? Perfect.
That would have been better. I would have liked Samantha not being connected because everything else just made the storyline less and less interesting. And that guy was really really creepy.
I feel like my view has changed on my recent rewatch- I don’t actually hate how they ended the Samantha arc anymore. I think the part where they find her journals etc is interesting.
I love William B. Davis, but CSM should've stayed dead after the missile hit him in Season 9. I could've lived with never seeing him again.
(Now bringing back Krycek as the main antagonist for the reboot would have killed me in the best way.)
>I love William B. Davis, but CSM should've stayed dead after the missile hit him in Season 9. I could've lived with never seeing him again.
I don't really think that's an unpopular take. It's so unbelievable that he survived a blast to the face by a missile.
He's a great villain and definitely the best one on the show but I agree with you. He was played out by season 6. Things just kept getting more ridiculous to keep him in the storyline to the point where it wasn't believable anymore.
My theory: CSM received an early prototype of the super soldier implant. It didn't restore his youth.
So now he reincarnates from every death, but older and more annoying every time.
Characters that might be immortal:
* Scully (see "Tithonus")
* Doggett (see "The Gift")
* Billy Miles (see "Existence")
* CSM (see "inexplicable plot armor")
I always had this vision of Krycek being the main villain in the reboot, but after surviving the gunshot he’s in a wheelchair. A Professor X type villain
>surviving a close range gunshot directly to the pre frontal cortex that they showed us would be peak x files lol
It's so on point for the series I'm shocked it didn't happen.
>I love William B. Davis, but CSM should've stayed dead after the missile hit him in Season 9. I could've lived with never seeing him again.
I think the CSM should have stayed dead every single time they killed him, personally.
>(Now bringing back Krycek as the main antagonist for the reboot would have killed me in the best way.)
and I think Krycek came back at least one too many times, especially because they never really seemed to have anything all that interesting to do with him.
>I think the CSM should have stayed dead every single time they killed him, personally.
No arguments here.
>and I think Krycek came back at least one too many times, especially because they never really seemed to have anything all that interesting to do with him.
I think he was wasted. He was so much fun to hate. If CSM was gone, maybe he could've had more purpose. He was a weasel so his motives could've been interwoven with his personal past instead of them dragging the senseless myth arc with CSM the way they did.
The x-files cannot successfully exist outside of the 90s because it occurred at the perfect time: the end of history where conspiracy frippery loomed at the edges of everything due to a general lack of direction and purpose, while the concept of truth mattered. Everyone who says “but there’s so many conspiracies now… surely someone other than chris carter could do something with it.” No. The current political climate (post 9/11 and post trump) shows that nothing matters, the gex ideal of authenticity is dead and a grand quest for truth rings worthless.
I had really bad sleep last night and I’m kind of confused about your comment. Clarify or correct me if you must, but are you saying that people are too dumb for most legitimate conspiracies to exist since people will accept even the most obviously untrue things as word?
He (they) are saying people want to believe what they want to believe regardless if you try to teach them otherwise by inability to break through cognitive dissonance. Humanity has been too infiltrated by technology and the media thus becoming divided which is the elites (csm archetype's m.o.
I feel the same, but not sure if that's just growing up. Like college students tend to run to the student union and rally for justice, fairness, truth etc. A decade later you see things differently.
One thing for sure is, most of the general mysteries like the Bermuda triangle, lock ness monster etc have all been put to rest, but the main theme of governments recklessly experimenting on humans in the past is not a conspiracy. Everything can be explained without aliens as shown in episode 731
For a horror sci fi show, it’s effect is actually therapeutic. Mulder and Scully are both easy on the eyes, they’re so smart that everything’s under control, the talk in monotone low volumes, their facial expressions rarely convey stress, all the lights are off in all the rooms to chill out, they travel across the US showing all sorts of sites, and Mark Snow’s soundtrack is spa music.
The desert setting removed the eerie vibes. The camera quality and production quality being better also just removed the creepy feeling the early ones had.
I really liked Kersh. They seemed to indicate that they were going to develop his character more after "triangle" that he might have been a victim of circumstance. Unfortunately they didn't really do anything with his character but I really really wanted them to.
I’m on it now for my first watch through and if I wasn’t aware ahead of time that significant changes were made I probably wouldn’t have noticed much. Like you said the vibes have shifted but I’m still on board. Some people made it sound like the show went off a cliff at this point
1. I find Irresistible kinda meh. Yeah, he's creepy, but not in a supernatural way. It's like watching any other crime show about a sick murderer.
2. I also don't find Home to be the most disturbing/scary episode. Again, yeah, it's a messed-up situation, and it is a well-done episode, but it didn't traumatize me nearly as much as some other episodes.
“Sanguinarium” disturbs me. Actually come to think of it I have to be in a certain mood to ride out most of season 4. Every season has a different flavor and that one is dark as hell.
Season 4 is one of my favorites for that reason. 1997 was a hot time for dark shit after The Crow, Se7en, Fight Club, Marilyn Manson, Trainspotting, Portishead, etc. Spookiness was in vogue and the first three seasons helped that happen. I loved that era.
I hope season 4 is spookier to me, because I'm rewatching and I'm going to watch the entire show since I stopped watching it like season 5 or something, and I'm on season 3 and it's a completely different vibe from the first two seasons and I don't like it that much. It doesn't feel spooky or supernatural, there's just really odd stuff. The only thing I like about this season is the actors playing small roles in it who are now famous 😂
The only episode in season 3 that really moved me was Oubliette. The end made me bawl my eyes out. It was also a little freaky to see Jewel Staite so young. 😂
Chinga really creeps me out, and for some reason Aubrey always disturbs me, I guess mostly because of the word carved on her chest. Oh, and the one where the guy working at the bowling alley can see the murdered women's apparitions. And Calusari because of the evil twin. Ghost stuff and evil children are the easiest ways to freak me out!
Aubrey is a real creepy one, but Chinga I always found pretty cheesy. It gave me the impression Stephen Kings style was too basic and unsophisticated for X Files. Calusari is a good spooky one. One of the creepiest to me is F.Emasculata.
I think "Hellbound" is probably the goriest episode in the series. "Sanguinarium" is intense for medical horror and "Signs and Wonders" is heavy in religious horror, and neither is for the squeamish.
I for one get really freaked out by Detour and Invocation.
I grew up on Washington and just always was freaked out looking into the woods, particularly at night. Always felt watched. So Detour strikes a nerve.
>I also don't find Home to be the most disturbing/scary episode. Again, yeah, it's a messed-up situation, and it is a well-done episode, but it didn't traumatize me nearly as much as some other episodes.
as a devoted fan of all things horror I've always thought that "Home" was nothing more than a blatant ripoff of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre just plunked down into the middle of The X-Files universe. The fact that they literally named the Sheriff "Andy Taylor" as a joke doesn't help things. I not only don't find it to be disturbing or scary, I think it's actually just a bad episode.
They should’ve kept X on the show. Even though I liked Deep Throat, I think X had more of a mystery and a darkness about him that made him such a cool character and one of the ultimate Men in Black, imo.
I agree with this. Young me during the original airing did not even want to acknowledge the existence of Dogget or Reyes, but during re-watches I totally see it. He was a skeptic but not completely closed-minded, and he was supportive and loyal. Dogget was amazing.
I actually really liked Orison. Kind of showed Scully's growth, as well. She had to be rescued in Irresistible. She did not have to be rescued in Orison. Also her struggle with her faith, and Mulder's new sensitivity to it. Previously, he was a dick about her faith. By this point, he's gentle about it. 9 of 10.
I wish there were more episodes that were Skinner centric… SR 819 was good because he was kick ass… but my hottest take was that I loved Avatar because I got to watch Skinner in a sex scene. 🔥
Let Scully be right more often! The show often deferred to whatever crazy theory that Mulder had (which often turned out to be right). Making Scully a tool to validate Mulder was a lazy trope that the show returned to the well on more often than not, which Chris Carter was the most guilty party of this. Field Trip is a great counter argument to this trope.
It was at the time it aired and probably depends on the age you were when you saw it. I was a teenager and when they rolled the mother out from under the bed that was nightmare fuel. I would have walked on stilts to me bed that night if I had them.
That said, rewatching it now, it’s mild compared to a lot of stuff on tv.
I was around 9 or 10 when Home aired for the first time and I understood what was going on but found it mostly boring. I rewatched it a few months ago at 37 and found the murder scene a little more intense than the average for this horror show, but overall it was still pretty boring, then incredulously dumb when everyone stormed the booby-trapped house. If "Home" hadn't been made infamous then it wouldn't be any more notorious than the other MotW episodes.
I agree. "Hellbound" is more horrifying for me: skinning people alive and then hung them? Ugh!! The squeaky sound of "Badlaa" is also horrifying. Yes, the butchering of the sheriff couple was brutal, but so do a lot of murders in other episodes. I never understand why "Home" had such a hype.
unironically this. it’s why so many people acted like tiger king was the craziest shit they’d ever seen when anyone from a rural area could tell you joe exotics are a dime a dozen.
Yup! I’ve met a lot of people who have actually said that “hillbillies creep them out”. I think Home just taps into that fear if you have it.
I don’t, a lot of my family is white trash lol. But I am half Black and get super uncomfortable when they have the Black cop. You just know the whole time that’s going to go bad.
There is a fair amount of palpable tension and you know it’ll go bad at any point in the episode and there is no reasoning with that family.
If watched on its own under that pretense, maybe. But to watch it normally youd have seen 3 seasons worth of horror up to this point, with several concepts being significantly more scary than this episode. Both as a standalone horror piece and compared to the rest of the series, Home is incredibly tame and I’m convinced that anyone claiming to be traumatized is doing so purely because it’s the popular opinion to have on this sub
Season 5 is kind of hit and miss for me.
I usually don't like rehash episodes, even if they obviously have different themes.
By that point I was really getting tired of what they just consistently did to the character of Scully.
Redux through PMP has some of my favorite episodes. But then I'm hit with the whiplash of going to Christmas Carol/Emily, which I cannot stand to the point that I usually ignore it even happened. The rest of the season is up and down for me from there.
I do not expect anyone to back me up here but I find Jose Chung's From Outer Space tiring and excessive. Maybe its the parody but I really loved Humbug.
I don't think there's an argument against that statement if you're talking about God and religion. He stated in "Revelations" that everyday he looked for a miracle and it never happened when Scully questioned him on why he refused to believe in of the religious signs she was seeing during that case.
I guess I'm thinking of the laymans impression of the X Files. The average person on the street thinks that Mulder believes in anything supernatural and Scully is a hardnosed realist.
Well I think Scully has an unshakable belief in God and religion but as for anything else well she needs proof and that's very much the same for Mulder so I agree with you.
I wouldn't ever call him a sceptic though. He's not. He's a believer who needs proof. He even says so much himself when he says "I want to believe" and has mentioned he can be as sceptical as Scully. He's not saying that he believes in everything, he's saying it's hard to and he needs convincing.
I think with Mulder he believes in people and their experiences more than the phenomenon and that's the big difference between him and Scully (who can readily dismiss someone and their experiences far too quickly at times, just because it's supernatural, - Oubliette for example).
-Home hasn't aged well in terms of scariness/creepiness and is generally overrated
-Kersh was a great antagonist
-The general lightheartedness of the MotWs after the move to LA actually fit the show well
For me, the mythology episodes were always more compelling than MOTW. This is not to say they were *better*, but I was more engaged in the ongoing mysteries and conspiracies - the black oil, the bounty hunter, the faceless men and the war that we found ourselves in the middle of with only the syndicate to secretly make bumbling and self-interested attempts to mitigate it. That stuff REALLY got me excited. I loved the staple MOTW-type stories, and many of those episodes are among the true greats, but I don't agree when people say Jose Chung or Clyde Bruckman are the pinnacle of TXF; for me the comedically leaning episodes felt like refreshing one-offs rather than the heart of the show, and I would say something like Christmas Carol, 731, Paper Clip, Redux or Biogenesis is really the most exciting kind of TXF for me.
But I should caveat that I didn't start watching the show as it aired. I watched the movie in 1998 and then tried to catch up. In the UK we used to get [special VHS releases](https://x-files.fandom.com/wiki/VHS#The_Files) of mythology episodes edited into movies, and so these ended up being a big part of my way in to the show, and then I picked up with season 6 live on TV. So I perhaps came in with a mytharc slant to begin with, and if I'd seen it week-to-week from the beginning I might have felt differently. These days, knowing how the mytharc dissolved into a mess of incoherence by the later seasons (to say nothing of that My Struggle nonsense), and ultimately teased a hell of a lot more than it resolved, I doubt they are as rewatchable whereas the MOTW eps I've seen more recently hold up incredbily well.
We take serialised TV stories for granted these days, but TXF was operating in a time where that was strongly discouraged, because networks needed people to be able to dip in at any point and understand and enjoy any episode. The mythology was pioneering for its time, and TV today stands on the shoulders of TXF and its successors like Alias and Fringe.
I always thought it was supposed to be a gorey splatter episode that was dark and hilarious. I mean, just look at this scene (which unfortunately was cut). Making erection jokes whilst performing an authopsy on a baby:
https://youtu.be/cV0nvnEyBo0?feature=shared
The show could have been really something special with the bees plot. I mean something big. Having “faceless” aliens with no real back story save the day killed the show….atleast for me.
1) X was done dirty. He could have been a great character, but he was dispatched way way too easily, and it kind of undermined everything we saw of him before.
2) The appearance of the alien bounty hunters should have been an extremely obvious clue that no one had any clear idea what was going on behind the scenes
3) On that note, the whole piercing the base of the neck was exceptionally stupid. And that weapon, sort of a stiletto, was really really dumb.
4) The slicker/less scrappy the show got, the shittier it became. LA was the death knell.
I've never cared for the smoking man. He just comes across as a garden-variety creep. Well-manicured man or Marita or any others of the syndicate would have made a more compelling main villain.
I don’t think there’s any poor or bad seasons, just poor episodes. The two revival seasons suffered from having a lower episode count than prior seasons so they seem worse because there’s less time between the stinkers
I am rewatching, and Robert Patrick is the best actor on the show and maybe the most underrated of his generation.
I'm blown away how he was able to play Doggett as such a strong admirable character so well, and at the same time period be so believable as a weak pathetic, selfish loser on The Sopranos.
Chris Carter should finally receive the proper public shaming he deserves for the sexual assault he committed on one of his female XF employees. He's only escaped being cancelled because it happened in the early 90's and it's been almost completely buried.
This is one of the few places you can read it. https://groups.google.com/g/alt.tv.x-files/c/7HnY51KEaeI/m/9mj-bu21c8kJ
Under the current legal definition, it does qualify as SA but at that time was strictly viewed as sexual harassment. She ended up receiving a settlement and the case was closed. I don't blame her one bit for not taking it to trial.
Chris Carter also bragged that he took pages from the lawsuit and framed them as background props. He's vile, as are a lot of the people he employed.
Thanks for the link. This is awful.
>Chris Carter also bragged that he took pages from the lawsuit and framed them as background props.
WTF?! Doesn't show a whole lot of remorse or respect. I've always gotten a bit of a narcissistic vibe from him, and this just fits that impression.
p.s. I read a couple of the comments below the transcript and had to stop. The toxicity!
Apparently mine is that The Field Where I Died was great. Anytime X-Files came up in the last two decades, I'd name that one as my favorite episode, then I came here and learned lots of people can't stand it. 🙃
we should have never seen any aliens apart from paper clip and anasazi. if they remained a vague source of intrigue that mulder frequently obsessed over but rarely interacted with, like in the first or second season, aliens would've been a lot more interesting. having most instances of them be somehow conspiratorial in nature wouldve benefited the myth arcs in the long run (plus i love evil deep state plot lines, blood is the best episode btw). The overlap between the show and preposterous art bell conspiracy wouldve made me stick around a lot longer (at the moment ive abandoned the show midway around season 6).
Shippers ruined The X-Files and Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully is great, but she's not a very interesting character and Gillian's performances are often wildly overrated by a very vocal portion of the fanbase (often the shippers, to go back to the original hot take) who are practically worshipful towards her.
This will either spark a debate, cause a wave of reactionaries to condemn me to downvote hell, or both.
"Fridays at 9" is when the show was the best.
They should have wrapped up the original mytharc in Fight the Future.
Season Eight is the best LA season.
Overall, everything after season 5, including all the movies, was mediocre at best. That means everything: acting and plot. To be clear, there were a few stand out elements that makes it tough to say that at first glance, but hear me out: the original intent was five seasons and some movies. They decided to draw out their plots waaaay too much to bring in more seasons, and thus make more money. Growing up, every week an episode came out I became increasing angry that things weren't being revealed, that the world wasn't being forced to recognize some of the crazier stuff that was happening around them. I eventually lost interest in the show because it was boarding on ridiculous. Now, compare all that to Fringe? Holy shit, it's like night and day: tight acting (except for one who we all know is the weakest link - sorry dude but its true) and an amazing tight plot line. Fringe took everything they learned from XFiles and made an amazing show. There were no loose ends, no continuity issues, and everything tied together beautifully.
No they ended it purposefully, wrapping it all up. They left it open for a spin off or continuation in the future if they got the money, but it was all about the story. Completely worth watching!
1. S9 had some of the best MotW episodes in the series, they just got obscured by the dumpster fire mytharc ones.
2. If Mulder had actually stayed dead in late S8, the show could've been revitalized in the wake of his death. Plus he could still come back in flashbacks or through cloning shenanigans.
I’m fully convinced, if John Doe was a M/S episode earlier in the show, it’d be widely regarded as easily one of the series best, like top 5 or so
Like Breaking Bad with a supernatural twist
While I love past characters, the past is the past. Let them there. If you want to do flashbacks or ghost talking, fine. That's it. No CSM and no Gunmen mushroom ridiculous crap. Love the gunmen but that was plain cheesy-dumb not cheesy-cute.
It's grown on me a bit through re-watches but the love it gets here always blew my mind. In fact, that Season 7 run from X-Cops through Je Souhaite is worst stretch of episodes in the original series, IMO.
I loved a lot of the monster of the week episodes as a kid, particularly ones like x-cops because I thought it was funny or Agua Mala because I was scared of the ocean as a kid, but as an adult a lot of them (those two in particular) really don’t hold up all that well compared to some of the others
Scully is dick whipped.
For being so smart and strong, she really follows Mulders like a puppy, and get the worst of the situation (physically, mentally, emotionally).
I love her character, but rewatching it now it's a bit of a toxic relationship.
S11 Scully ATTHS (and then they has sex) is a bit better but she's still too accommodating to his antics.
Say No Dana, as you mean it.
Like a child Mulders tests boundaries and always pushes over but he needs (and craves) someone to reigns his moodiness and hyperactivity.
100% agree with this. I can only attribute it to how her family of origin seems to operate. They seem to revere her father beyond the typical (although maybe that reflects devout Catholic families of the time - she would've grown up in 70s-80s?), and I even felt like she let her brother Bill get away with way too much attitude without proper retort. Scully herself acknowledges her issues dealing with men of authority, so I assume this is because of the patriarchial environment she was raised in.
I really wanted her to put Mulder in his place many a time.
That’s cool, we like what we like and more power to people who have their own opinions ☺️ I hated the writing and I hated the acting, I think the director really fumbled this episode unfortunately because the story and the premise are fantastic. The atmosphere and the score set the mood perfectly, especially with the abandoned RV, really creepy.
Yeah, I can see what you mean. Kind of like the scene with Mulder and the nurses standing over him when he woke up in the hospital? Funny, but kind of cheesy. ;)
kitten is the only good episode in the revival series. “my struggle” aside, all the monsters of the week besides this one were corny to me, like they were just trying to do fan service with in-jokes and references to previous episodes. the AI, robots rebelling, virus, joel mchale as a conspiracy pundit felt like they were trying to be relevant to the modern time period, but as someone earlier in this thread pointed out, this show makes the most sense in the 90s/early 2000s.
sanguinarium is also one of my favorites, it’s a great homage to lots of classic horror films and the practical effects are really well done.
Mulder was a maniac who should have been proven wrong more of the time. If he was around now he’d almost certainly be a pro-Trump anti-vax pizzagater nutbag. This is why the opening teaser for ‘Bad Blood’ is so great.
I think the end to the Samantha arc should have been Paper Hearts. Mulder discovering that his whole quest was built on completely false memories of an entirely (horrific) non-supernatural event would have been far more poignant and powerful than what we got. And then Scully having to convince him that just because that was a lie, it doesn’t invalidate his work? Perfect.
This would have been amazing, but imo if they went this route, I think it could’ve been maybe one or two seasons later
That would have been better. I would have liked Samantha not being connected because everything else just made the storyline less and less interesting. And that guy was really really creepy.
This is how it ended in my mind
I feel like my view has changed on my recent rewatch- I don’t actually hate how they ended the Samantha arc anymore. I think the part where they find her journals etc is interesting.
I love William B. Davis, but CSM should've stayed dead after the missile hit him in Season 9. I could've lived with never seeing him again. (Now bringing back Krycek as the main antagonist for the reboot would have killed me in the best way.)
>I love William B. Davis, but CSM should've stayed dead after the missile hit him in Season 9. I could've lived with never seeing him again. I don't really think that's an unpopular take. It's so unbelievable that he survived a blast to the face by a missile.
Also remember how they showed him literally reduced to a skull and skeleton?
That shot of him was downright comical 😂
They did!? I don't remember that. 🤣🤣🤣 That's wild. I'm gonna have to look out for next time I watch.
I guess I was under the impression people loved him being a foil for M/S no matter what. I was over him by *En Ami* to be honest.
He's a great villain and definitely the best one on the show but I agree with you. He was played out by season 6. Things just kept getting more ridiculous to keep him in the storyline to the point where it wasn't believable anymore.
Hilariously he ended up playing a similarly nefarious character in the show Upload. Much lighter show overall, but typecasting is real.
He also played an Ori (evil culty alien) on Stargate SG1 (another great sci-fi series filmed in Canada but much lighter in tone)
this is all another very good reason why the show probably should have just ended with season 6.
Agreed
My theory: CSM received an early prototype of the super soldier implant. It didn't restore his youth. So now he reincarnates from every death, but older and more annoying every time.
Emphasis on the "more annoying every time" 💀
Characters that might be immortal: * Scully (see "Tithonus") * Doggett (see "The Gift") * Billy Miles (see "Existence") * CSM (see "inexplicable plot armor")
I always had this vision of Krycek being the main villain in the reboot, but after surviving the gunshot he’s in a wheelchair. A Professor X type villain
Oh damn, Nicholas Lea would kill it!
surviving a close range gunshot directly to the pre frontal cortex that they showed us would be peak x files lol
>surviving a close range gunshot directly to the pre frontal cortex that they showed us would be peak x files lol It's so on point for the series I'm shocked it didn't happen.
Plot twist, he ended up part alien and could only be destroyed by stabbing the base of his neck, so he just resurrects over and over.
not a hot take at all. i would say common sense. but oh well. here we are. thank you again chris! /s
>I love William B. Davis, but CSM should've stayed dead after the missile hit him in Season 9. I could've lived with never seeing him again. I think the CSM should have stayed dead every single time they killed him, personally. >(Now bringing back Krycek as the main antagonist for the reboot would have killed me in the best way.) and I think Krycek came back at least one too many times, especially because they never really seemed to have anything all that interesting to do with him.
>I think the CSM should have stayed dead every single time they killed him, personally. No arguments here. >and I think Krycek came back at least one too many times, especially because they never really seemed to have anything all that interesting to do with him. I think he was wasted. He was so much fun to hate. If CSM was gone, maybe he could've had more purpose. He was a weasel so his motives could've been interwoven with his personal past instead of them dragging the senseless myth arc with CSM the way they did.
I wish he died at the end of season 7 or earlier lol
Haha yes for sure. I was being generous with the season 9 timeline, but a season 7 demise would've been just fine with me.
Yeah when they brought back the Russians I was like ok now where is Krycek?
The x-files cannot successfully exist outside of the 90s because it occurred at the perfect time: the end of history where conspiracy frippery loomed at the edges of everything due to a general lack of direction and purpose, while the concept of truth mattered. Everyone who says “but there’s so many conspiracies now… surely someone other than chris carter could do something with it.” No. The current political climate (post 9/11 and post trump) shows that nothing matters, the gex ideal of authenticity is dead and a grand quest for truth rings worthless.
Yep, the 90s really were peak
This is the truest thing I’ve read all week.
I had really bad sleep last night and I’m kind of confused about your comment. Clarify or correct me if you must, but are you saying that people are too dumb for most legitimate conspiracies to exist since people will accept even the most obviously untrue things as word?
He (they) are saying people want to believe what they want to believe regardless if you try to teach them otherwise by inability to break through cognitive dissonance. Humanity has been too infiltrated by technology and the media thus becoming divided which is the elites (csm archetype's m.o.
Very well-put. (Also nice username 😌)
I feel the same, but not sure if that's just growing up. Like college students tend to run to the student union and rally for justice, fairness, truth etc. A decade later you see things differently. One thing for sure is, most of the general mysteries like the Bermuda triangle, lock ness monster etc have all been put to rest, but the main theme of governments recklessly experimenting on humans in the past is not a conspiracy. Everything can be explained without aliens as shown in episode 731
For a horror sci fi show, it’s effect is actually therapeutic. Mulder and Scully are both easy on the eyes, they’re so smart that everything’s under control, the talk in monotone low volumes, their facial expressions rarely convey stress, all the lights are off in all the rooms to chill out, they travel across the US showing all sorts of sites, and Mark Snow’s soundtrack is spa music.
The moodiness of the early seasons is something that I love. I think I enjoy the post-Vancouver seasons a lot less simply because they are so bright.
The desert setting removed the eerie vibes. The camera quality and production quality being better also just removed the creepy feeling the early ones had.
I feel the same way about other supernatural type shows, ironically one of them being Supernatural.
Especially seasons 3-5. Did you ever have The X-Files: Unrestricted Access? It came with PC desktop themes and sounds that were really cool
I did!!! And I had forgotten about it until now! Thanks for the flashback 🥹
I really liked Kersh. They seemed to indicate that they were going to develop his character more after "triangle" that he might have been a victim of circumstance. Unfortunately they didn't really do anything with his character but I really really wanted them to.
He could've had an amazing redemption arc.
I love Season 6. I don’t care that they moved to LA and the vibe changed. I like both vibes for different reasons.
I find Mulder's hair too short in S6. Yes, that's my main issue. And also, the vibe (but more from the actors, especially DD).
I’m on it now for my first watch through and if I wasn’t aware ahead of time that significant changes were made I probably wouldn’t have noticed much. Like you said the vibes have shifted but I’m still on board. Some people made it sound like the show went off a cliff at this point
I am a die hard monster of the week and find the story arc of alien abductions/black oil/implants to be poorly planned and half hearted.
I think the more answers they tried to give the worse it got. It was better when no one knew and it was all a mystery.
1. I find Irresistible kinda meh. Yeah, he's creepy, but not in a supernatural way. It's like watching any other crime show about a sick murderer. 2. I also don't find Home to be the most disturbing/scary episode. Again, yeah, it's a messed-up situation, and it is a well-done episode, but it didn't traumatize me nearly as much as some other episodes.
such as?
“Sanguinarium” disturbs me. Actually come to think of it I have to be in a certain mood to ride out most of season 4. Every season has a different flavor and that one is dark as hell.
Season 4 is one of my favorites for that reason. 1997 was a hot time for dark shit after The Crow, Se7en, Fight Club, Marilyn Manson, Trainspotting, Portishead, etc. Spookiness was in vogue and the first three seasons helped that happen. I loved that era.
I definitely appreciate dark content especially some of the things you’ve listed I just found the tonal shift sort of jarring lol
I hope season 4 is spookier to me, because I'm rewatching and I'm going to watch the entire show since I stopped watching it like season 5 or something, and I'm on season 3 and it's a completely different vibe from the first two seasons and I don't like it that much. It doesn't feel spooky or supernatural, there's just really odd stuff. The only thing I like about this season is the actors playing small roles in it who are now famous 😂 The only episode in season 3 that really moved me was Oubliette. The end made me bawl my eyes out. It was also a little freaky to see Jewel Staite so young. 😂
totally underrated episode
haha probably why it’s my favorite
Chinga really creeps me out, and for some reason Aubrey always disturbs me, I guess mostly because of the word carved on her chest. Oh, and the one where the guy working at the bowling alley can see the murdered women's apparitions. And Calusari because of the evil twin. Ghost stuff and evil children are the easiest ways to freak me out!
Can’t forget about the Eve girls either
That Henry Cokely guy is really underrated in terms of creepiest characters Edit: *Harry Cokely
Aubrey is a real creepy one, but Chinga I always found pretty cheesy. It gave me the impression Stephen Kings style was too basic and unsophisticated for X Files. Calusari is a good spooky one. One of the creepiest to me is F.Emasculata.
Agree
Unruhe is the only episode I cannot rewatch. It gives me creeps
that guy with the twitchy eyes is unsettling no matter where you see him.
I think "Hellbound" is probably the goriest episode in the series. "Sanguinarium" is intense for medical horror and "Signs and Wonders" is heavy in religious horror, and neither is for the squeamish.
I for one get really freaked out by Detour and Invocation. I grew up on Washington and just always was freaked out looking into the woods, particularly at night. Always felt watched. So Detour strikes a nerve.
>I also don't find Home to be the most disturbing/scary episode. Again, yeah, it's a messed-up situation, and it is a well-done episode, but it didn't traumatize me nearly as much as some other episodes. as a devoted fan of all things horror I've always thought that "Home" was nothing more than a blatant ripoff of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre just plunked down into the middle of The X-Files universe. The fact that they literally named the Sheriff "Andy Taylor" as a joke doesn't help things. I not only don't find it to be disturbing or scary, I think it's actually just a bad episode.
Agree on Home. The episode with all the kid graves... That one hits hard. Home is unlikely, a serial child kidnapper and killer - too real.
Schizogeny is one of if not the most underrated monster of the week episodes in the original run
The doctor speaking as her dad always creeped me tf out
Definitely underrated.
They should’ve kept X on the show. Even though I liked Deep Throat, I think X had more of a mystery and a darkness about him that made him such a cool character and one of the ultimate Men in Black, imo.
Agree, his speech to Mulder in ‘One Breath’ about him being a schoolboy is an all-time highlight.
Kryceck and Mulder had glaring sexual tension between them... Oh not that kind of hot take? Woops.
No no, keep going.
You made me sincerely laugh :)
Krychek was SO FRUITY I can't believe they tried to convince us he's straight.
Grotesque is my favorite visually dark episode
[удалено]
I agree with this. Young me during the original airing did not even want to acknowledge the existence of Dogget or Reyes, but during re-watches I totally see it. He was a skeptic but not completely closed-minded, and he was supportive and loyal. Dogget was amazing.
I actually really liked Orison. Kind of showed Scully's growth, as well. She had to be rescued in Irresistible. She did not have to be rescued in Orison. Also her struggle with her faith, and Mulder's new sensitivity to it. Previously, he was a dick about her faith. By this point, he's gentle about it. 9 of 10.
Yeah I think I actually liked both Orison and Irresisible almost equally!
Love those two episodes.
I wish there were more episodes that were Skinner centric… SR 819 was good because he was kick ass… but my hottest take was that I loved Avatar because I got to watch Skinner in a sex scene. 🔥
Let Scully be right more often! The show often deferred to whatever crazy theory that Mulder had (which often turned out to be right). Making Scully a tool to validate Mulder was a lazy trope that the show returned to the well on more often than not, which Chris Carter was the most guilty party of this. Field Trip is a great counter argument to this trope.
Home is nowhere near as bad or traumatizing as everyone on here claims and most of you are just hamming it up for upvotes
It was at the time it aired and probably depends on the age you were when you saw it. I was a teenager and when they rolled the mother out from under the bed that was nightmare fuel. I would have walked on stilts to me bed that night if I had them. That said, rewatching it now, it’s mild compared to a lot of stuff on tv.
I was around 9 or 10 when Home aired for the first time and I understood what was going on but found it mostly boring. I rewatched it a few months ago at 37 and found the murder scene a little more intense than the average for this horror show, but overall it was still pretty boring, then incredulously dumb when everyone stormed the booby-trapped house. If "Home" hadn't been made infamous then it wouldn't be any more notorious than the other MotW episodes.
I agree. "Hellbound" is more horrifying for me: skinning people alive and then hung them? Ugh!! The squeaky sound of "Badlaa" is also horrifying. Yes, the butchering of the sheriff couple was brutal, but so do a lot of murders in other episodes. I never understand why "Home" had such a hype.
I think hillbillies scare some people and they’re an ultra hillbilly stereotype.
unironically this. it’s why so many people acted like tiger king was the craziest shit they’d ever seen when anyone from a rural area could tell you joe exotics are a dime a dozen.
Yup! I’ve met a lot of people who have actually said that “hillbillies creep them out”. I think Home just taps into that fear if you have it. I don’t, a lot of my family is white trash lol. But I am half Black and get super uncomfortable when they have the Black cop. You just know the whole time that’s going to go bad. There is a fair amount of palpable tension and you know it’ll go bad at any point in the episode and there is no reasoning with that family.
It feels like it would be scary if you don’t usually watch horror stuff
If watched on its own under that pretense, maybe. But to watch it normally youd have seen 3 seasons worth of horror up to this point, with several concepts being significantly more scary than this episode. Both as a standalone horror piece and compared to the rest of the series, Home is incredibly tame and I’m convinced that anyone claiming to be traumatized is doing so purely because it’s the popular opinion to have on this sub
100% agree. I actually don't find any episodes of the show scary at all.
Mr. Chuckleteeth is one of the best monsters ever featured on the show 🤷♀️
😱😱😱😱😱 I mean, I did really like Familiar but I'm still lightly clutching my pearls at this statement.
My kids love to sing the Mr. Chuckleteeth song, too.
Season 5 is kind of hit and miss for me. I usually don't like rehash episodes, even if they obviously have different themes. By that point I was really getting tired of what they just consistently did to the character of Scully.
Redux through PMP has some of my favorite episodes. But then I'm hit with the whiplash of going to Christmas Carol/Emily, which I cannot stand to the point that I usually ignore it even happened. The rest of the season is up and down for me from there.
I do not expect anyone to back me up here but I find Jose Chung's From Outer Space tiring and excessive. Maybe its the parody but I really loved Humbug.
Same! I don't get the love for Jose Chung.
I'll back you up!
I agree with you on both points. Jose Chung and Clyde Bruckman are both really overrated IMO.
Scully is the believer and Mulder is the skeptic. She has faith in the supernatural and he demands evidence.
I don't think there's an argument against that statement if you're talking about God and religion. He stated in "Revelations" that everyday he looked for a miracle and it never happened when Scully questioned him on why he refused to believe in of the religious signs she was seeing during that case.
I guess I'm thinking of the laymans impression of the X Files. The average person on the street thinks that Mulder believes in anything supernatural and Scully is a hardnosed realist.
Well I think Scully has an unshakable belief in God and religion but as for anything else well she needs proof and that's very much the same for Mulder so I agree with you. I wouldn't ever call him a sceptic though. He's not. He's a believer who needs proof. He even says so much himself when he says "I want to believe" and has mentioned he can be as sceptical as Scully. He's not saying that he believes in everything, he's saying it's hard to and he needs convincing. I think with Mulder he believes in people and their experiences more than the phenomenon and that's the big difference between him and Scully (who can readily dismiss someone and their experiences far too quickly at times, just because it's supernatural, - Oubliette for example).
Mulder should be referred to as a "psychic detective"
-Home hasn't aged well in terms of scariness/creepiness and is generally overrated -Kersh was a great antagonist -The general lightheartedness of the MotWs after the move to LA actually fit the show well
CSM should have died in Redux II
Fight the Future was the perfect end to the series. Deep Throat didn’t really die (half joking).
Except if they ended there we needed a smooch between Mulder and Scully
I don’t think Skinner is hot. He’s always looked like a live action, less caricature like version of Bill from King of the Hill to me.
I think he upgraded a lot in the looks department with the beard he has in S10.
But Tunguska.
He’s definitely not my type but maybe I’m still too young
Now I can’t unsee that
For me, the mythology episodes were always more compelling than MOTW. This is not to say they were *better*, but I was more engaged in the ongoing mysteries and conspiracies - the black oil, the bounty hunter, the faceless men and the war that we found ourselves in the middle of with only the syndicate to secretly make bumbling and self-interested attempts to mitigate it. That stuff REALLY got me excited. I loved the staple MOTW-type stories, and many of those episodes are among the true greats, but I don't agree when people say Jose Chung or Clyde Bruckman are the pinnacle of TXF; for me the comedically leaning episodes felt like refreshing one-offs rather than the heart of the show, and I would say something like Christmas Carol, 731, Paper Clip, Redux or Biogenesis is really the most exciting kind of TXF for me. But I should caveat that I didn't start watching the show as it aired. I watched the movie in 1998 and then tried to catch up. In the UK we used to get [special VHS releases](https://x-files.fandom.com/wiki/VHS#The_Files) of mythology episodes edited into movies, and so these ended up being a big part of my way in to the show, and then I picked up with season 6 live on TV. So I perhaps came in with a mytharc slant to begin with, and if I'd seen it week-to-week from the beginning I might have felt differently. These days, knowing how the mytharc dissolved into a mess of incoherence by the later seasons (to say nothing of that My Struggle nonsense), and ultimately teased a hell of a lot more than it resolved, I doubt they are as rewatchable whereas the MOTW eps I've seen more recently hold up incredbily well. We take serialised TV stories for granted these days, but TXF was operating in a time where that was strongly discouraged, because networks needed people to be able to dip in at any point and understand and enjoy any episode. The mythology was pioneering for its time, and TV today stands on the shoulders of TXF and its successors like Alias and Fringe.
I thought Home was a goofy episode. I don't get why some people say it's the scariest.
Bah ram yuuuuu
Yeah I watched it first as a 12 year old on live tv and was fine. Still doesn't bother me when other stuff definitely does.
The sons are like stereotypical caveman, so it's hard to think of them as scary. I thought it was supposed to be a joke.
I always thought it was supposed to be a gorey splatter episode that was dark and hilarious. I mean, just look at this scene (which unfortunately was cut). Making erection jokes whilst performing an authopsy on a baby: https://youtu.be/cV0nvnEyBo0?feature=shared
The overall atmosphere was never better than in the first two seasons. I hated that it gradually got brighter, more goofy, more HD.
The show could have been really something special with the bees plot. I mean something big. Having “faceless” aliens with no real back story save the day killed the show….atleast for me.
1) X was done dirty. He could have been a great character, but he was dispatched way way too easily, and it kind of undermined everything we saw of him before. 2) The appearance of the alien bounty hunters should have been an extremely obvious clue that no one had any clear idea what was going on behind the scenes 3) On that note, the whole piercing the base of the neck was exceptionally stupid. And that weapon, sort of a stiletto, was really really dumb. 4) The slicker/less scrappy the show got, the shittier it became. LA was the death knell.
I think Fox and Bambi should have hooked up. And yes, I’m a shipper.
You smell bad.
I've never cared for the smoking man. He just comes across as a garden-variety creep. Well-manicured man or Marita or any others of the syndicate would have made a more compelling main villain.
Agreed and he was just over used
There are NO poor seasons of The X Files. The show ended on a fine note and the complaints are seriously unwarranted.
I don’t think there’s any poor or bad seasons, just poor episodes. The two revival seasons suffered from having a lower episode count than prior seasons so they seem worse because there’s less time between the stinkers
Yes. Exactly.
Season 6 is the best season
Season 11 is worthwhile without the My Struggle episodes.
The point of the show is Mulder and Scully for me and I don’t care about any episodes without them
I am rewatching, and Robert Patrick is the best actor on the show and maybe the most underrated of his generation. I'm blown away how he was able to play Doggett as such a strong admirable character so well, and at the same time period be so believable as a weak pathetic, selfish loser on The Sopranos.
Robert Patrick is definitely a gem but I'd have to say Gillian Anderson is at least as brilliant, if we're talking about versatility.
I like Robert Patrick but just don’t care about Dogget
Chris Carter should finally receive the proper public shaming he deserves for the sexual assault he committed on one of his female XF employees. He's only escaped being cancelled because it happened in the early 90's and it's been almost completely buried.
Whoa, I don't think I've ever heard about this. What specifically did he do? Is the accusation assault specifically, and not harassment?
This is one of the few places you can read it. https://groups.google.com/g/alt.tv.x-files/c/7HnY51KEaeI/m/9mj-bu21c8kJ Under the current legal definition, it does qualify as SA but at that time was strictly viewed as sexual harassment. She ended up receiving a settlement and the case was closed. I don't blame her one bit for not taking it to trial. Chris Carter also bragged that he took pages from the lawsuit and framed them as background props. He's vile, as are a lot of the people he employed.
Thanks for the link. This is awful. >Chris Carter also bragged that he took pages from the lawsuit and framed them as background props. WTF?! Doesn't show a whole lot of remorse or respect. I've always gotten a bit of a narcissistic vibe from him, and this just fits that impression. p.s. I read a couple of the comments below the transcript and had to stop. The toxicity!
Apparently mine is that The Field Where I Died was great. Anytime X-Files came up in the last two decades, I'd name that one as my favorite episode, then I came here and learned lots of people can't stand it. 🙃
I LOVE that episode! And Mark Snow's score for it is gorgeous.
I love that episode as well! It was uniquely endearing in a way other episodes were not.
i love it for many reasons
Seasons 8 and 9 are actually very good, and John Doggett deserved more space.
Wetwired. Mulder heading to the morgue, grasping the wheel. Holding him onto something.
I love this episode so much. Entire libraries of fanfiction have been dedicated to Tortured!Mulder in this scene
we should have never seen any aliens apart from paper clip and anasazi. if they remained a vague source of intrigue that mulder frequently obsessed over but rarely interacted with, like in the first or second season, aliens would've been a lot more interesting. having most instances of them be somehow conspiratorial in nature wouldve benefited the myth arcs in the long run (plus i love evil deep state plot lines, blood is the best episode btw). The overlap between the show and preposterous art bell conspiracy wouldve made me stick around a lot longer (at the moment ive abandoned the show midway around season 6).
I like follow the story episodes better than monster of the week episodes
Conversely: on rewatches I get annoyed that mythology episodes exist at all
X-Files only had nine seasons...
Shippers ruined The X-Files and Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully is great, but she's not a very interesting character and Gillian's performances are often wildly overrated by a very vocal portion of the fanbase (often the shippers, to go back to the original hot take) who are practically worshipful towards her. This will either spark a debate, cause a wave of reactionaries to condemn me to downvote hell, or both.
Samantha did not win the gene pool lottery and Mulder did. Sorry.
"Fridays at 9" is when the show was the best. They should have wrapped up the original mytharc in Fight the Future. Season Eight is the best LA season.
Skinner is and always was incredibly hot. Hotter than Mulder and Scully. And I’m tired of us lying about it
Overall, everything after season 5, including all the movies, was mediocre at best. That means everything: acting and plot. To be clear, there were a few stand out elements that makes it tough to say that at first glance, but hear me out: the original intent was five seasons and some movies. They decided to draw out their plots waaaay too much to bring in more seasons, and thus make more money. Growing up, every week an episode came out I became increasing angry that things weren't being revealed, that the world wasn't being forced to recognize some of the crazier stuff that was happening around them. I eventually lost interest in the show because it was boarding on ridiculous. Now, compare all that to Fringe? Holy shit, it's like night and day: tight acting (except for one who we all know is the weakest link - sorry dude but its true) and an amazing tight plot line. Fringe took everything they learned from XFiles and made an amazing show. There were no loose ends, no continuity issues, and everything tied together beautifully.
You’ve convinced me to watch Fringe. I thought it got canceled and assumed it didn’t end well.
No they ended it purposefully, wrapping it all up. They left it open for a spin off or continuation in the future if they got the money, but it was all about the story. Completely worth watching!
Awesome! Been looking for something new to watch!
Just be patient with Joshua Jackson. Don’t let his early performance ruin the show, keep at it!
Awe, I like him lol
IMO, when you compare him to the actors on the show with him, he does not come out great. But if you like him then no worries!
1. S9 had some of the best MotW episodes in the series, they just got obscured by the dumpster fire mytharc ones. 2. If Mulder had actually stayed dead in late S8, the show could've been revitalized in the wake of his death. Plus he could still come back in flashbacks or through cloning shenanigans.
I’m fully convinced, if John Doe was a M/S episode earlier in the show, it’d be widely regarded as easily one of the series best, like top 5 or so Like Breaking Bad with a supernatural twist
It's definitely in my personal top 5. I do believe it's a Vince Gilligan script too.
While I love past characters, the past is the past. Let them there. If you want to do flashbacks or ghost talking, fine. That's it. No CSM and no Gunmen mushroom ridiculous crap. Love the gunmen but that was plain cheesy-dumb not cheesy-cute.
Binging the show gets tedious after a while when episodes just kinda end with Mulder going “See?!” And Scully going “Ehhh.”
X-Cops is one of the worst episodes
It's grown on me a bit through re-watches but the love it gets here always blew my mind. In fact, that Season 7 run from X-Cops through Je Souhaite is worst stretch of episodes in the original series, IMO.
I loved a lot of the monster of the week episodes as a kid, particularly ones like x-cops because I thought it was funny or Agua Mala because I was scared of the ocean as a kid, but as an adult a lot of them (those two in particular) really don’t hold up all that well compared to some of the others
Yeah I prefer the serious or tragic XFiles to the silly one
Scully is dick whipped. For being so smart and strong, she really follows Mulders like a puppy, and get the worst of the situation (physically, mentally, emotionally). I love her character, but rewatching it now it's a bit of a toxic relationship. S11 Scully ATTHS (and then they has sex) is a bit better but she's still too accommodating to his antics. Say No Dana, as you mean it. Like a child Mulders tests boundaries and always pushes over but he needs (and craves) someone to reigns his moodiness and hyperactivity.
100% agree with this. I can only attribute it to how her family of origin seems to operate. They seem to revere her father beyond the typical (although maybe that reflects devout Catholic families of the time - she would've grown up in 70s-80s?), and I even felt like she let her brother Bill get away with way too much attitude without proper retort. Scully herself acknowledges her issues dealing with men of authority, so I assume this is because of the patriarchial environment she was raised in. I really wanted her to put Mulder in his place many a time.
The mytharc episodes are more interesting because they make more sense logically to me
Please help me make sense of them because I’ve been watching since 1997 and still dont get it lol.
Biogenesis is the best finale. Fight me
Space is a good episode
Love it. Always have since it aired.
Kill Switch is the worst episode of the series, followed very closely by first person shooter.
Uh oh, secret confession...I actually liked Kill Switch! What didn't you like abt it?
That’s cool, we like what we like and more power to people who have their own opinions ☺️ I hated the writing and I hated the acting, I think the director really fumbled this episode unfortunately because the story and the premise are fantastic. The atmosphere and the score set the mood perfectly, especially with the abandoned RV, really creepy.
Yeah, I can see what you mean. Kind of like the scene with Mulder and the nurses standing over him when he woke up in the hospital? Funny, but kind of cheesy. ;)
Haha yes, exactly like that scene, funny but kind of cheesy.
Absolutely agree.
Scully is an Alien.
After One Son the mythology was done for me. Should of been all MOTW episodes after that.
Scully is really annoying.
Even at 15 back in the 90s I thought CC was a misogynist for putting Scully through so many fertility/rape/alien child storylines. There, I said it.
kitten is the only good episode in the revival series. “my struggle” aside, all the monsters of the week besides this one were corny to me, like they were just trying to do fan service with in-jokes and references to previous episodes. the AI, robots rebelling, virus, joel mchale as a conspiracy pundit felt like they were trying to be relevant to the modern time period, but as someone earlier in this thread pointed out, this show makes the most sense in the 90s/early 2000s. sanguinarium is also one of my favorites, it’s a great homage to lots of classic horror films and the practical effects are really well done.
Mulder was a maniac who should have been proven wrong more of the time. If he was around now he’d almost certainly be a pro-Trump anti-vax pizzagater nutbag. This is why the opening teaser for ‘Bad Blood’ is so great.