TV: The X-Files

[RobBrown4PM]

I listened to coast to coast with Art Bell years and years ago but I still remember when he had someone call in who said they worked at area 51 I believe, but what got me was how freaked out the guy was saying they were after him and then boom, the show died on the air and when they came back Art said something like he had no clue what happened but everything got knocked out and he was running on a backup gen.

It reminds me the day Jerry Garica of the Grateful Dead died, I was at work and we had the local classic rock station on the radio when they announced his death and said they would be playing his music the rest of the night. After a while the radio died and when it came back they said they have no clue what happened.

There's a great documentary about Steven King's the Shinning, which was directed by Stanley Kubrick, called room 237, it's f***ing nuts.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2085910

Coast to Coast AM was great. I listened to it when I was younger and working night shifts. It really was an amazing experience. That said, after aging a fair bit and developing a lot more life experience and critical thinking skills, I realized conspiracies, and the mediums that mindlessly pedal them, are a black hole that leads to the degradation of ones ability to perceive society and the world correctly.

 

[montreal]

Coast to Coast AM was great. I listened to it when I was younger and working night shifts. It really was an amazing experience. That said, after aging a fair bit and developing a lot more life experience and critical thinking skills, I realized conspiracies, and the mediums that mindlessly pedal them, are a black hole that leads to the degradation of ones ability to perceive society and the world correctly.

most people can't think for themselves and don't know the difference between their ass or a hole in the ground.

 

[Ceremony]

I forgot, you can add Evolution to your related media list. David Duchovny skips a season of the X-Files to make a film where he's a disgraced genius who saves the world from aliens and hooks up with the hot redhead. I like to think when Mulder was abducted they played him this fantasy to keep him sedated.

 

[Cas]

One of the things I see regularly among fans is a very high opinion of Fight the Future. I've recently done a rewatch of everything up through Season 7, and I did enjoy FTF when it came out, but on my latest viewing (and first in many years), it really wasn't very satisfying. 6/10 is not far off from how I'd rate it, honestly (maybe I'd even go 5/10), and I'm actually not one who views the mythology episodes as lesser in quality (at least not up through Two Fathers/One Son, though with some missteps, like Christmas Carol/Emily and Redux I & II).

Most of the mythology episodes are actually quite good, even if you recognize and acknowledge the illusion of forward movement and have the foreknowledge that they will drop the ball.

 

[shadow1]

One of the things I see regularly among fans is a very high opinion of Fight the Future. I've recently done a rewatch of everything up through Season 7, and I did enjoy FTF when it came out, but on my latest viewing (and first in many years), it really wasn't very satisfying. 6/10 is not far off from how I'd rate it, honestly (maybe I'd even go 5/10), and I'm actually not one who views the mythology episodes as lesser in quality (at least not up through Two Fathers/One Son, though with some missteps, like Christmas Carol/Emily and Redux I & II).

Most of the mythology episodes are actually quite good, even if you recognize and acknowledge the illusion of forward movement and have the foreknowledge that they will drop the ball.

5/10 is fair, I'll admit my 6/10 was a "light" 6. It felt very much like a movie with a checklist, as if they were cramming in everything they couldn't get away with on TV due to budget/sensorship.

 

[Cas]

5/10 is fair, I'll admit my 6/10 was a "light" 6. It felt very much like a movie with a checklist, as if they were cramming in everything they couldn't get away with on TV due to budget/sensorship.

Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I think the movie was a mistake - it forced the mythology to spin its wheels for more than a year and then wound up not fitting into the mythology after the writing decisions of season 5, probably contributed to actor/writer burnout, and wasn't really that good.

I think FTF was the beginning of the end of the show, but we got somewhere between 5 and 7 excellent seasons, depending on your feeling, so it's really hard to complain (I don't think Fox was complaining either, in the end).

I will probably continue the rewatch sometime in the future with Season 8 (we'll see about 9, and I've never seen IWTB or most of the revivals - I tried watching the revival pilot and couldn't even finish it).

 

[shadow1]

Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I think the movie was a mistake - it forced the mythology to spin its wheels for more than a year and then wound up not fitting into the mythology after the writing decisions of season 5, probably contributed to actor/writer burnout, and wasn't really that good.

I think FTF was the beginning of the end of the show, but we got somewhere between 5 and 7 excellent seasons, depending on your feeling, so it's really hard to complain (I don't think Fox was complaining either, in the end).

I will probably continue the rewatch sometime in the future with Season 8 (we'll see about 9, and I've never seen IWTB or most of the revivals - I tried watching the revival pilot and couldn't even finish it).

I think you're onto something there. Season 6 is one of the most enjoyable seasons for me. But Bruce Campbell guest-starred in a S6 episode, and in one of his books talked about the horrible atmosphere, saying something to the effect of "it felt like the cast and crew would rather be anywhere but on-set."

 

[Bounces R Way]

big fan here(what gave it away)
David Duchovny is one TV handsome mfer. Gillian Anderson also a mega babe and my first real celebrity crush.
Scully forever

Never really thought to catalogue my thoughts on the series. Not a show I've ever watched with much of a critical eye, generally just throw it on when I want to half follow something or am about to fall asleep. Comfort viewing for sure. Been through most of the first 7 seasons three times and agree with a lot of @shadow1 's and the rest of your thoughts ITT.

Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose(S3E4) I think is my all time fave but a couple episodes that always stuck with me are Darkness Falls(S1E20) for X-Files creepy and whichever one Mulder and Scully are posing as newlyweds in a suburban neighborhood and a HOA trash monster is killing people for X-Files campy. TV that lets the camera do most of the work is a bit of a lost art these days. Maybe I'm mixing it up with another show but I swear there was one that involved a wax museum coming to life too. Fringe and Supernatural and a couple other shows have scratched that same particular itch but X-Files will always be the OG to me.

 

[shadow1]

big fan here(what gave it away)
David Duchovny is one TV handsome mfer. Gillian Anderson also a mega babe and my first real celebrity crush.
Scully forever

Never really thought to catalogue my thoughts on the series. Not a show I've ever watched with much of a critical eye, generally just throw it on when I want to half follow something or am about to fall asleep. Comfort viewing for sure. Been through most of the first 7 seasons three times and agree with a lot of @shadow1 's and the rest of your thoughts ITT.

Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose(S3E4) I think is my all time fave but a couple episodes that always stuck with me are Darkness Falls(S1E20) for X-Files creepy and whichever one Mulder and Scully are posing as newlyweds in a suburban neighborhood and a HOA trash monster is killing people for X-Files campy. TV that lets the camera do most of the work is a bit of a lost art these days. Maybe I'm mixing it up with another show but I swear there was one that involved a wax museum coming to life too. Fringe and Supernatural and a couple other shows have scratched that same particular itch but X-Files will always be the OG to me.

That was "Arcadia," a banger of an episode from S6 that narrowly missed my top 10. Super fun episode that always jumps to mind when I think of The X-Files.

I don't remember a wax museum episode, though. I tried to look it up but am drawing a blank.