Reviews

I watched the show first time around in real-time, and have finally watched it again on DVD (over the course of a few months).

The mytharc from seasons 1-6 made a lot more sense than I expected. My low opinions of the alien story were artifacts from the final 3 seasons.

The show peaked around seasons 3-5.

It never recovered from the absence of Darrin Morgan.

In s7, creative exhaustion hit, hard. The wit & originality was gone - along with the Syndicate! Rule #1: there is no drama without conflict. Your PROtagonist MUST have an ANTagonist. Killing them off for a cheap thrill killed the show.

The season 9 "Super Soldiers" arc was lame in the extreme. The Skeptic/Believer structure of the show was also handled poorly - turning Scully into the believer, and Doggett into the skeptic was daft. All it would have taken was one episode - have Doggett see an alien with his own eyes - a "Road to Damascus" - and have him become a believer - acolyte - of Mulders. As Groucho Marx said - "Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?" That would be credible, and we could have followed his personal arc. Instead, it takes Doggett TWO FREAKING YEARS to accept the obvious, by which time the show is dead.

Were all of the final 3 seasons episodes bad? No - several were well worth watching - but overall, the experience was dispiriting. 8x6 "Redrum" was one of the more original...partly inspired by the movie "Memento", I think.

In Season 7, episode 9 "signs and wonders" at 8 mins, 25 seconds a boom mike operator is visible fully in the left side of the shot, in WS. If you can't keep the boom guy out of the frame, then you have a systemic problem with the show. This might have been excusable in an earlier season, but the 3:4 WS issue was well known by this time. I can't imagine how they allowed such a basic mistake to occur. Not a good omen. At that point, you realise that the Slide has begun.

Another beef: the final 3 seasons killed off critical characters (or saw them disappear for no reason): Krycek, CSM, blonde UN lady, etc. Oh, they all suddenly reappear for the final episode, but for no good reason. Where were they? The show had lost all respect for continuity. You'd think that, given Duchovny's absence, they'd have leaned on these characters more not less - another sign of CC's lack of common sense.

Another irritant: an absence of great villains (antagonists). Krycek and CSM were interesting because they had MOTIVES. You could sense that they were more than just twirly mustache baddies. CSM believed that he was good (a trait of first class baddies). He was evil, but human, with human failings. What do we get in seasons 8 and 9? Kirsh. The phrase "one dimensional" springs to mind. Could this character be less interesting? His sole reason is to be a road block, nothing more. Lazy, lazy, LAZY!!! TIRED, exhausted, tedious characterisation. Of course, he redeems himself, but only in the final episode, and for no apparent reason. Just another gob of phlegm in the face of the audience.

Speaking of 1D characters, Cary Elwes. Were we expected to take him seriously, or was he comic relief? The lone gunmen were scarier than his character.

Yet another irritant: why the ghosts in the final episode? Krycek is suddenly Mulder's guardian angel, in defiance of 9 years as his arch enemy? He's the killer of Scully's sister, or has CC forgotten?

X is back as a spectral visitor - he would have been plausible as a spirit guide instead of Krycek. Why not have Krycek as a spirit demon, taunting Mulder, if they wanted him as a guest star? This isn't rocket science, you know!

X is clearly a ghost, yet hands Mulder a corporeal piece of paper? WTF?

The lone gunmen I could have handled, as Mulder's absence from their funeral was crass and very unheroic - but after Krycek & X, this felt contrived - pandering to the audience, and ultimately not respecting their intelligence. The currency of death was also cheapened - characteristic of too many US TV shows (I'm looking at you, "Heroes").

When you have a property like the X-Files, you have to raise the stakes over time. This was done from seasons 1-6. The only path that makes sense is to show us more, not less, over time. Tease, yes, but RAISE THE STAKES. What we get in the final 3 seasons is less, less, and less. Burt Reynolds as God? I had to shower after that atrocity - not to mention the $$$ that must have been blown. One would think that CC would have realised all this prior to the second film - but no. Even after 7 years or R&R, he has learned nothing. Only a full scale war against the aliens or a first class monster episode would have sufficed. Instead, a sub-mediocre offering like the final TV episode was provided. Truly sad...George Lucas syndrome, it seems.

If I had his money & clout, I'd hire a talented young writer and have them do the heavy lifting. However, in Hollywood, EGO is all. Better to do it yourself and fail, than have someone else do it and succeed.

Note to CC and Lucas: LEARN HOW TO DELEGATE, for FUN & PROFIT.

The next time I watch the show, I'll restrict myself to seasons 1-6, which were magic of the first order. The bulk of the final 3 can safely be consigned to the memory hole, where they so richly belong.

As a real "space" nut, this episode was even harder to watch.

Footage of a spacewalking astronaut was used - the famous EVA of Ed White, who later died in the Apollo 1 oxygen fire. This was both tasteless and lame.

The fictional astronaut is alleged to have been a Gemini astronaut. Mulder says that he stayed up at the age of 14 to watch the spacewalk. If the spacewalk occurred during the Gemini program, then Mulder would have to have been born around 1950 or 1952 - making him at least 10 years older than Duchovny. This is small, but it shows the carelessness of the writer towards the subject matter.

I don't work for NASA, but I know enough to recognise technobabble when I see it. Star Trek Voyager was more realistic. Worst mistake was the NASA "logo" in "mission control" - there are two NASA logos in use - the 70s style "Worm" - the one on the shuttle, and the "Meatball". The one in mission control on the wall was made up. Again, a small detail, but it shows a complete carelessness towards the subject.

Operations of the fictional shuttle program were pure bizarro-world - a PTSD Gemini Astronaut as Czar? With no oversight? This is post-Challenger NASA we're talking about - where you can't attach a screw without filling out sixteen forms.

The idea that the Shuttle astronauts couldn't take manual control of the orbiter without disconnecting communications with Earth and risking death was the single most ludicrous aspect, with even less basis in reality than a Gemini astronaut being possessed by a hill from Mars - and yet again showed us a writer pulling plot devices out of his posterior.

It was not pretty to watch.

And what was with the guest actors? Their chewing of the scenery was fit for a REAL-LIFE X-file...

Spooky.

You could watch this one for fun, in an MST3K sort of way...or make a drinking game out of it. Every time Colonel Blink or Astro-Girlfriend pops a vein, take a shot of Tequila.

What starts out as an OK romantic comedy degenerates as soon as the leading lady turns into a political crusader. Every time she lectures the Chancellor or the P.M., I cringed with embarrassment.

Ironically, her social awareness does not extend to chocolate. She eats all the chocolate in the hotel room, but alas, is unaware of the horrific, slave-like conditions of many people who pick coco beans. Child labor is often used in Africa and South America...is she bothered? Hardly. As one of the characters says to her: "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing".

Indeed.