I'm going to try my best to avoid spoilers here.....
After reading the mixed reviews here about the series finale (& season 10 & 11 as a whole) I have to agree & disagree with a lot of the other reviewers input. I've been an avid fan of The X Files since it started in 1993 & I've come to really enjoy each individual episode as they've been shown. I must say I do prefer it when each episode tells a different story which is what you get mostly from the earlier seasons. It's when a storyline starts that's when the boat starts to rock!
We all have our favourite episodes (even our favourite seasons) but I have to admit I've found it quite difficult to connect with these last two seasons 10 & 11) I think it's mostly because there's so much character change in Mulder & Scully. They seem to have distanced from their original characteristics from the earlier seasons (1-9). It probably doesn't help that you have a 14 year gap between seasons 9 & 10. I always think a TV series works best when it's continuous & remains intact, but that doesn't seem to happen here. Whatever happened to Mulder & Scully doing their usual chasing through the woods, their investigations, their autopsies on bodies that suddenly flinch & come back to life etc, etc? We love that stuff!! You'll also notice, particularly in Season 11 how husky Gillian's voice has become - yeah sure she's older now but it's like she's smoked about 20 cigarettes during shooting her scenes. And the action, where's it all gone?
There is a lesson to be learnt here & I'm going to refer to another TV series from the 80's, if many of you will remember; Beauty & The Beast (1987-1990) starring Linda Hamilton & Ron Perlman. That ran for 3 seasons & somewhere during season 2, Hamilton suddenly broke the news to the producers that she wanted out of the show, therefore they had to quickly work around her departure - do they stop after Season 2 or carry on with Season 3 without her...? Ofcourse you can guess - they made the mistake of carrying on with Season 3 without her (bringing in a new female lead but not so much replacing her character). And ofcourse ratings started to drop, there's a reason Season 3 only had 12 episodes as an appose to Season 1 & 2 having 22 episodes each!
Now The X Files is more or less going down the same road & I can only hope that Chris Carter will read this someday & know that sometimes a TV series doesn't always work if you take one of the lead actors out of the show. Especially when you take Beauty out of Beauty and the Beast!
With Gillian Anderson's announcement that Season 11 is the end for her, Chris Carter has stated that there are more stories to tell - but he doesn't want to continue the show without her. So of course taking the X out of the File, you get David Duchovny alone; but do they bring in a new female lead or can they talk her into returning with one last Season 12 installment (will a pay rise tempt Anderson, ya think?) Who knows? At the end of the day, the fans have come to love Mulder & Scully as a couple of FBI Agents, together as one.
11 seasons, 217 episodes & 25 years later, is this the end of The X Files?
After reading the mixed reviews here about the series finale (& season 10 & 11 as a whole) I have to agree & disagree with a lot of the other reviewers input. I've been an avid fan of The X Files since it started in 1993 & I've come to really enjoy each individual episode as they've been shown. I must say I do prefer it when each episode tells a different story which is what you get mostly from the earlier seasons. It's when a storyline starts that's when the boat starts to rock!
We all have our favourite episodes (even our favourite seasons) but I have to admit I've found it quite difficult to connect with these last two seasons 10 & 11) I think it's mostly because there's so much character change in Mulder & Scully. They seem to have distanced from their original characteristics from the earlier seasons (1-9). It probably doesn't help that you have a 14 year gap between seasons 9 & 10. I always think a TV series works best when it's continuous & remains intact, but that doesn't seem to happen here. Whatever happened to Mulder & Scully doing their usual chasing through the woods, their investigations, their autopsies on bodies that suddenly flinch & come back to life etc, etc? We love that stuff!! You'll also notice, particularly in Season 11 how husky Gillian's voice has become - yeah sure she's older now but it's like she's smoked about 20 cigarettes during shooting her scenes. And the action, where's it all gone?
There is a lesson to be learnt here & I'm going to refer to another TV series from the 80's, if many of you will remember; Beauty & The Beast (1987-1990) starring Linda Hamilton & Ron Perlman. That ran for 3 seasons & somewhere during season 2, Hamilton suddenly broke the news to the producers that she wanted out of the show, therefore they had to quickly work around her departure - do they stop after Season 2 or carry on with Season 3 without her...? Ofcourse you can guess - they made the mistake of carrying on with Season 3 without her (bringing in a new female lead but not so much replacing her character). And ofcourse ratings started to drop, there's a reason Season 3 only had 12 episodes as an appose to Season 1 & 2 having 22 episodes each!
Now The X Files is more or less going down the same road & I can only hope that Chris Carter will read this someday & know that sometimes a TV series doesn't always work if you take one of the lead actors out of the show. Especially when you take Beauty out of Beauty and the Beast!
With Gillian Anderson's announcement that Season 11 is the end for her, Chris Carter has stated that there are more stories to tell - but he doesn't want to continue the show without her. So of course taking the X out of the File, you get David Duchovny alone; but do they bring in a new female lead or can they talk her into returning with one last Season 12 installment (will a pay rise tempt Anderson, ya think?) Who knows? At the end of the day, the fans have come to love Mulder & Scully as a couple of FBI Agents, together as one.
11 seasons, 217 episodes & 25 years later, is this the end of The X Files?