The X-Files

Season 1 – 65% – Watching the mysterious men behind the scenes herd Scully into the spooky Mulder's office after all these years is almost a sacred moment for me. It's just that "my" X-Files origins don't start until the very end of the season, when it's definitively clear that something isn't quite right behind the curtain. And even though Tooms still scares me years later, and Darkness Falls will never make me want to go into the woods at night, there's still something missing for me here. Maybe it's because this first batch has been served up on TV many times and I've never missed it, so it's ingrained in my memory pretty firmly and can't surprise me with anything after reruns and knowing the reveals. Fortunately, the scripts are so unmissable several times that even the first steps towards Truth deserve some respect. Season 2 – 75% – The Awakening. From the very beginning of Little Green Men, it's clear that we're a level up. Mulder is back in even smokier form (which escalates in the mythological bomb in Colony+End Game and even more markedly in the finale Anasazi) and Scully is already much more personal in her relationship with him, giving the viewer a noticeably greater appetite to embark on more and more investigations. And that we're in for a much more varied set of cases this time around. Whether it's the typical Chris Carter specialty The Host, the atmospheric climax of Die Hand Die Verletzt, or the perfectly bizarre standalone Humbug. It's a shame that there are still episodes where the viewer doesn't suffer, but unfortunately they feel almost forced. Otherwise, however, there is a rising satisfaction and enthusiasm over the graduating skeleton of a story. Season 3 – 85% – With critical success and high ratings, of course, come higher budgets, and Carter and co. have managed to make the most of it. Especially in the first half, there is no shortage of bloodied or mutilated bodies and more believable effects. But the basic improvement is the story. The government backstory has definitely become an impenetrable web of intrigue, and we get clear clues from the alien hints that the main storylines just won't let go of. What the spectacular Paper Clip, the paranoid Wetwired, or perhaps the best episode to date, the legendary Apocrypha, offer are matters that even amidst the avalanche of TV series nowadays would be talked about for weeks. Routine-to-bad episodes like Oubliette or Hell Money are still present, but as filler among the ilk of Smoker, Black Oil, perfect atmosphere or surprising humor, I'll happily forgive them. Season 4 – 90% – Welcome to the golden age. Mythology reigns supreme, standalone cases ooze with original ideas, and bad episodes don't even exist, just an occasional experiment gone wrong. Scully fights with herself, Mulder fights with everyone else, and I've definitely seen a season with no room to pause. Flashbacks to the Cigarette Smoking Man are interspersed with the cruelly realistic yet hypnotic episode Paper Hearts, a disfigured family comes knocking, and maybe the oil will flow. Season four, in short, was all one small, backwater office could have wished for. Season 5 – 90% – The expansion continues, and with it comes a wealth of creative ideas. This time there's something for everyone – lovers of paranoia in the oppressive Folie a Deux, fans of more action-packed cases in the woodsy Detour or the terroristic The Pine Bluff Variant, and the humorous mood is satisfied by the top-notch Bad Blood. The criticisms are hardly criticisms at all. As much as I have to build a monument for one episode (the opening double episode Redux made it to the very top of my imaginary ranking), others applaud the ones that didn't appeal to me (namely Stephen King's unconvincing Chinga or the all-too-routine Mind's Eye). But even despite that, it's easy to see how much they were thinking of their fans. Thanks for that. Fight the Future – 100% – As a standalone film, the first full-length adventure of the most amazing duo in FBI history is a great adventure experience, but it wasn't until I saw it as part of a larger whole that its brilliance truly overcame me. Almost immediately after the end of the fifth season, Fight the Future functions as a deep catharsis. Scully, just like Mulder, definitively carries the burden, the Syndicate reveals the origin of its operations, and in between the lines, the Truth we have been searching for all these years is hidden. The X-Files movie serves as a tribute to the series, a greeting to all the fans, but also as the best bait for future seasons. The heart of a true shipper couldn't be happier. Season 6 – 90% – The opening episode of season six is entitled The Beginning, and it's not just a new beginning in a plot sense, but also in the sense that the crew has moved pretty far south from inhospitable Vancouver, and it's immediately apparent in the plots. It's all sunshine, desert, and an entirely more positive visual atmosphere. And most importantly – qualitatively, it's still the pinnacle of the series. There's a lot of closure in the alien story (One Son) and the episodic plots hint at such archetypes as a body swap or a time loop. There are still brilliantly written and punctuated thrillers (Milagro, Field Trip), nostalgia (Three of a Kind and the ghost-written The Unnatural) and, more than ever, humor. After all, every once in a while there's an episode that, while poking a little fun at the premise, also gives the series something extra. Out of that barrel, one of my all-time favorite episodes, How the Ghosts Stole Christmas, leads the pack. And as the finale suggests, there's still plenty to go on and flesh out. As I've always liked the system of planting diverse ideas into episodic plots, there are a few themes in season seven that are unusual in a way that doesn't sit well with me on principle. Especially in the second half, there are themes that just ooze with wanting to be different at all costs on the surface, and First Person Shooter, Theef, or Fight Club are anything but great episodes. Suddenly the writers are unexpectedly keen on those, and successful cases like Amazing Maleeni or Je Souhaite hide a lot of sweat behind them. So why an 80% season? Because of the main story, Samantha, and the final Requiem. Everything featuring the main characters behind all the conspiracies and conflicts are all golden X-Files adventures, and then the final episode is one big treasure that would work perfectly as the complete end of the series. Except that I don't want it to be over. Season 8 – 75% – I'm glad I can still peek into the secret files, but the rollout of the new era was a bit jarring at first. Agent Doggett as an unapproachable tough guy works perfectly, it's just that the return to his roots in the form of gritty episodic cases doesn't really work for me. The individual mysteries are severely mediocre, and even audience favorites like Roadrunners fail to snap me out of my jaded lethargy. Fortunately, it doesn't change the fact that the mythology marks a step up, and the great Per Manum or the nerve-wracking DeadAlive return the series to safer realms. Then again, after one fancy return, the eighth season somehow kicks into gear at a literally cosmic rate, making the final impressions more positive than I would have dared to even hope for somewhere in the middle of the season. But the central plotline is clearly exhausted by now, and I'd hate to see my favorite conspiracies take the form of forcibly maintained filler. So it's good that the ending and the truth are very close. Season 9 – 85% – Easily the finish line. There were a hundred and one answers to the question "where could the last season go wrong" and it's a huge relief to me that it didn't. Doggett has found his permanent place and Monica Reyes had already established herself as a newcomer by the end of last season. Much is made, of course, of Annabeth Gish's deep eyes, but even more pleasing is the fact that Monica, unlike Scully or Doggett, doesn't need to be convinced that she can "believe". The scripts abandon the concept of unnecessarily frequent dark episodes and aren't afraid to experiment surprisingly successfully (4-D, Audrey Pauley, or the extreme Improbable). As a result, the standalone stories are, with a few exceptions (the unnecessary Underneath and the tiresome-to-death John Doe) a level above the past two seasons, and the series as a whole at times reaches for the same ratings as the golden days of seasons four through six. The mythology, however, sends it down a notch. There are still some above-average or thrilling episodes, but Nothing Important Happened Today and the two-parter Provenance/Providence are unfortunately the weakest of the main story of the entire series. Fortunately, bits like the poignant William and the perfect Release are there to wrap up almost all of the side-stories of recent years. Still, one big answer was still left hanging. The Truth – 90% – Many gave up on finding it during the long years and hundreds of episodes, but it's still here. The truth revealed itself in all its beauty at the very end and proved one crucial fact – Fox Mulder belongs to The X-Files. Of course, I can't overlook Dana Scully, and I also fell in love with Doggett and especially Monica. However, the most interesting threads regarding the syndicate, colonization, abductions, black oil, and Samantha simply suit that inconspicuous geek who enjoys sunflower seeds. The final installment shows that super soldiers or William undoubtedly captured attention, but they were qualitatively one step below. The Truth itself is thrilling, liberating, and above all nostalgic in its recapitulatory mood. The amount of familiar faces never ceases to amaze, and personally, I was most pleased with Krycek and most moved by The Lone Gunmen. And as a true shipper, I can only say about the last minutes, "Maybe there's hope..." I Want to Believe – 90% – A pure gift for the fans, disguised as a movie that even uninformed or semi-informed individuals will appreciate. It will not be appreciated. Paradoxically, those who watched the series years ago and have it in their memory as a series of monster cases from forests, channels, or polar regions mixed with extraterrestrial chasing, will be the most disappointed. However, those who spent nine television seasons with Mulder and Scully and understand the bond they have developed, or references to William, will appreciate this winter odyssey more. The series offered several dark episodes where paranormal phenomena were not the central point of the script. But here, everything is two or three levels more personal. Thanks to that, the underrated film is not only a thrilling thriller but above all a mental cleansing for both main characters. In short, a (literal) wave to an unforgettable phenomenon, which the series undoubtedly deserved. It will be remembered beautifully. (08/03/2008) (less) (more)