I very much enjoy that movie and don't find it that oppressive in atmosphere. I do disagree with you about X-Files: I Want to Believe. This episode became my tipping point and the cancellation announcement that came later that year was now welcome news. I place this episode up there with "3" and "the Jersey Devil" as one of the very worst episodes of the X-Files ever. Written by Vince Gilligan (creator of the superb Breaking Bad) and directed by Michelle MacLaren (who is, for my money, the BEST director working in television today), I so wanted to like this episode but I found myself disappointed by the whole plot and annoyed with the washed out light filter they used to depict Mexico. On paper, "John Doe" should be a great episode. It didn't help matters that the Super Soldier conspiracy wasn't captivating enough to really engage the fans' imagination so all of the mythology episodes in those two seasons felt aimless.Īt the time it aired, I was just happy to have the X-Files renewed each year - despite the dire quality of the seasons themselves - but by the time the episode "John Doe" came on in season nine, I was ready for the show to wrap things up. I think the writers and the actors worked their asses off trying to replicate the original partners' dynamic, but the chemistry was just never there. Mulder and Scully were lightning in a bottle and the Doggett/Reyes team never seemed to mesh. The last two seasons had a handful of good stand alone episodes (that would have been more successful had Mulder been involved) but they were pretty dreary for the most part. I agree with nearly all you wrote, Warped9.
#Xfile renewef series
While the latter seasons can be disappointing I still think that overall this a great series with the great bulk of it being solid. It isn't horrible, but it isn't a winner either. I get they wanted to do a monster-of-the-week type story (actually my favourites of the series), but it largely fell flat. The second film, The X-Files: I Want To Believe, reminds me of Season 9-largely pointless and an air of oppressiveness about it. The only other major thing I recall that while decent enough it also felt somewhat pointless and that much of its content could have been done in the series. It's been awhile since I've seen the first film, The X-Files: Fight The Future (actually I've only seen it once when it was released), but I do recall it feeling like much of the series at the time. I am watching the last season for a sense of completion, but candidly you could pretty much skip the bulk of Season 9 and jump right to the two-part season/series conclusion. It also lost a lot of its pacing where many of the latter episodes felt like they dragged. The overall atmosphere of the stories could feel oppressive. It was a winning formula with good writing, direction and cast up to the task. And they could flip it around by occasionally doing humourous stories with a dark edginess to them. Although there was definitely edginess and horror in many X-Files stories there could also be a lurking sense of dark humour. The measure of levity is also missing from the stories. The series tried, but it just didn't really click.
Conceptually Reyes should have been Doggett's foil, but she doesn't come across strongly enough. His interactions with Scully were decent enough, but his teaming with Reyes feels flat as I don't see anything of the same chemistry that Mulder and Scully enjoyed. It isn't that I dislike John Doggett, but he usually has such an air of earnestness about him. Mulder had developed a quiet presence as well as a measure of levity that goes missing with his departure. In terms of characters the presence of Mulder is sorely missed.
And I've been thinking about why the latter two seasons-particularly the last-come off so disappointingly, particularly since many of the stories really weren't a divergence from what had been done before. Season 9, though, leaves something to be desired. I find Season 7 decent enough and even Season 8 isn't a total write-off. In each season there are perhaps a couple or a few episodes that are just okay, but not really anything bad. I certainly count myself a fan and I think most like-minded folks would likely agree that Seasons 1-6 are essentially solid. Before my two rewatches (about two years apart) I'd really only seen the show sporadically when it was in production. Largely it's been a fun ride and only the second time I've watched the series all the way through. I'm almost through my X-Files marathon rewatch at about two-thirds through Season 9.
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