The X-Files

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Aaron

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Title: The X-Files

Genre: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi & Fantasy

First aired: 1993-09-10

Creator: Chris Carter

Cast: Mitch Pileggi, Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny, William B. Davis

Overview: The exploits of FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who investigate X-Files: marginalized, unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. Mulder believes in the existence of aliens and the paranormal while Scully, a skeptic, is assigned to make scientific analyses of Mulder's discoveries that debunk Mulder's work and thus return him to mainstream cases.
 
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Aaron

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[SERIES][TVPOSTER]View attachment 130220[/TVPOSTER][SERIESWRAP][EPISODENAME]The X-Files[/EPISODENAME]

Genre: [GENRE]Drama[/GENRE], [GENRE]Mystery[/GENRE], [GENRE]Sci-Fi & Fantasy[/GENRE]

First Aired: [RELEASE]1993-09-10[/RELEASE]

Overview: [PLOT]The exploits of FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who investigate X-Files: marginalized, unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. Mulder believes in the existence of aliens and the paranormal while Scully, a skeptic, is assigned to make scientific analyses of Mulder's discoveries that debunk Mulder's work and thus return him to mainstream cases.[/PLOT][/SERIESWRAP][/SERIES]

Did a search but couldn't find an X-Files thread so I thought I'd start one.

I've been watching the X-Files again on Netflix over the past few months and it's been a hell of a lot of fun. Brought backmanyfond memories. Now, this might be nostalgia kicking in, and to be honest, it probably is, but for me this is one of the very best TV shows ever.

The way I've been watching the shows is by first watching what are calledthe Mythology episodes. That is, the ones that forward the main plot. I also watched the two films. After that I googled both"best"and"funniest"X-Files episodes and watched them, and finally decided to watch all the Vince Gilligan (of Breaking Bad) episodes. However, one thing that does stick out when watching the shows in such a condensed form is that they do go downhill towards the end.

The first five series are all filmed in Vancouver, and they are the best, quality and story wise. Starting series 6 they moved production to LA, and lost a bunch of the back-stage crew. You notice a change but there are still a lot of damn good episodes in series 6 and 7. Series 8 is where they introduce Mulder's replacement, John Dogget, played by Robert Patrick. The good thing here is in creating JD they didn't fall into the trap of creating a Mulder 2.0, but if anything went with a character that was even more sceptical than Scully was at the start. Patrick plays it well, and there are some good episodes, but you can tell it's not the same. Series 8 is still watchable. Series 9 is similar in my mind to series 5 of Fringe, not worth watching.

Still, for those who grew up in the 90's then re-watching the first seasons of the X-Files is well worth it. Not sure if it's worth watching it now if you're new to it. If anyone does, feel free to post and tell if the show is good or bad.

Five random favourite episodes from the top of my head are:

X-Cops, a crossover between the X-files and Cops
Dreamland parts I and II. Mulder and a security agent at Area 51 have a "mind swap". Hilarious!
Jos? Chung's From Outer Space is awesome in so many ways, but probably my favourite is the casting of Jesse Ventura and Alex Trebek as Men in Black
Bad Blood features a vampire pizza delivery guy
Humbug features a shit ton of carnival freaks, including the dancing dwarf from Twin Peaks
 

Noodleface

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We have them on DVD and started watching them all again. All these years later and the series holds up pretty well - barring the large cell phones and fashion.
 

Aaron

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Or even the total lack of cell phones and walkie-talkie use instead (Pilot episode - I'm looking at you!)
 

ShakyJake

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Love X-Files. But I'm surprised the series only spawned a couple of movies. Rather a shame. I suppose they could do more eventually but Anderson and Duchovny aren't exactly getting younger.
 

McCheese

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I tried going back and watching these recently and I couldn't get through the first season. I don't think they held up very well at all. I think I've been spoiled by only really watching HBO/Showtime types of shows for the last several years, because X-Files seems so insanely formulaic, and every other episode is just worthless filler with predictable outcomes. Everything about it is very "90s network TV".
 

Karloff_sl

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I usually watch a few episodes monthly on netflix or pull my old dvd's out. Hell, I remember buying x-files on DVD back in the early 2000's at Suncoast in Alaska because there were no other DVD stores up there and thinking I got a great deal when the season cost $49.99 reduced from 89.99, heh.

It's still my favorite all time show and somewhere in a box I've got the trust no one poster that was up in my old office. Gillian Anderson has also aged very well and I think looks better now that during the show.
If you a big fan of the show I'd highly recommend picking up Season Ten from IDW, Carter is supplying the ideas and it picks up the whole mythology angle.
 

Szlia

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Growing up I had two buddies that were so fan of the show that they made their very own VHS pack for each season with home crafted wooden boxes that looked like $500 collector editions... Considering I did not value their taste in movies very much, I think their fanatical enthusiasm turn me off the show more than anything else. I saw both movies though...
 

Bodger

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Ok sweet an X-files thread. I too recently went back and watched the whole series in a similar format as the OP. The shows is freaking awesome BUT I'm afraid I don't get the whole overlying aliens/smoking man story arch. Please help me piece it together.

We have the Smoking man and his crew of nwo illuminati guys, the black oil, shape shifting alien bounty hunter, kid who can see the future, super alien microchips that can cause or cure diseases, lots of clones that may or may not be good aliens or alien-human hybrids, Super Soldiers that can only die by magnets, a conspiracy of conspiracy's to make mulder think there is an alien conspiracy. etc.

My problem is it went so long and there were sometimes so many filler/stand alone episodes in between the main story episodes that it became really hard to keep track of all the moving parts. Couple that with what seemed like Duchovny leaving the show abruptly and the writers probably having to adjust to that on the fly mucked everything up even more for me.

I tried to explain the overlying alien story arch to a friend recently and realized how much I didn't get haha - can anyone here give a breakdown?
 

Rime

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Most of my 'favorite' episodes were the standalones/weekly monsters.

'Greys' - The most common alien, some of them want to colonize earth. They were here before the dinosaurs, left because of the comet/asteroid, came back, then left because of an ice age. They want to come back and take over now.

Black Oil - The 'lifeblood' of the Greys. Infects humans, takes over their minds, gives them the grey agenda. Would eventually be spread over the earth (I think), so everyone would be infected and turned into hosts for the Greys.

Bounty Hunters - Only killed by piercing the base of the neck with a needle or something, able to regenerate from just about anything. They are the 'faceless' aliens that have been infected by Black Oil and used by the Greys to exterminate rogue clones/get rid of evidence of the aliens. (The 'faceless aliens' are faceless because they seal all of their openings to keep the Oil from getting in)

Smoking Man/NWO Guys - Made a deal with the aliens to cover-up what the aliens were doing so we would not fight back, in exchange for the aliens using their hybrid technology to implant the humans that helped them with genes so they could survive the 'new' earth. Later on, it is shown that they are trying to make vaccines to stop the Black Oil and a couple of other failed things to fight back on the sly, like developing a vaccine against the Black Oil.

I do not remember the kid, sorry.

The alien technology was shared with the NWO fellows to help them pacify the humans/kill them as needed, also to help experiment to make better hybrids.
 

Karloff_sl

shitlord
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Growing up I had two buddies that were so fan of the show that they made their very own VHS pack for each season with home crafted wooden boxes that looked like $500 collector editions... Considering I did not value their taste in movies very much, I think their fanatical enthusiasm turn me off the show more than anything else. I saw both movies though...
Heh, I had two friends in college who were huge Buffy fans and I remember them selling VHS seasons with designer packaging for some decent cash back in the day.
 

spronk

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was the second movie good? i never watched it, did it do a monster of the week or back to weird alien black goo shit? i stopped watching when mulder left, tried watching the finale but didn't really understand anything
 

Bodger

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The second movie iirc took more of a csi take then a x files sci fi take. An agent disappears and some kind of priest has visions to help them find the agent. It did have a little super natural with the priest's visions and stuff but lacked the classic alien abduction or crazy mythological monster story.

Nevertheless is was still x files and fun to watch but not what a lot of people were hoping for I think.

Also Skinner is a badass.
 

Alex

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One of my favorite shows of all time. There are parts that don't hold up well mainly due to the reason already stated - outdated fashion and technology. I'll have to watch it in same order as the OP.

I'll also agree about when they brought in Robert Patrick. They did a good job of role reversal with Scully becoming the more open-minded one and Dogget being the skeptical one. The show probably did go on 2-3 years too long, but it wasn't nearly as egregious as the Showtime treatment.
 

Ambiturner

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Second movie was definitely a monster of the week episode. Murder mystery with a Frankenstein deal going on. Also they decided that Mulder and Scully are banging now and introduce it out of nowhere. Would have been an average forgettable episode, no idea why they decided to turn it into a movie
 

Noodleface

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was the second movie good? i never watched it, did it do a monster of the week or back to weird alien black goo shit? i stopped watching when mulder left, tried watching the finale but didn't really understand anything
It was terrible. The beginning had promise, but as it went on you realized it was like an extended regular episode of the show. Horrible.
 

Alex

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Yeah, I wasn't into the second movie too much. The first movie is great and moves the story along tons. If you missed the movie in between season five and six you were lost. At least I think you would be. I watched it that summer. Probably on day one. I was a big X-Files nerd.
 

TrollfaceDeux

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one thing of many things I remember about X-File is the breathing corpse in the dissection room. that was pretty funny.
 

Profundis

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Totally ignored this show when it was first on, but started watching them on Netflix recently. I'm about midway through Season 4, and while there are obviously some shitty episodes the good is definitely outweighing the bad. I considered googling the Mythology episodes as I initially got really into that storyline, but figured I'd just watch from start to finish. I hear I am coming up on the shit part of the series though (S6+).

While the Mythology is the best part (in my opinion), there were definitely some stellar Monster of the Week/standalone episodes. Home, The Host, Ice, Jose Chung's from Outer Space come to mind.
 
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