X-Files

[TungstenCarbide]

I rewatched it a couple of years ago and I agree the MOTW episodes are the strongest ones. As the series proceeded, I couldn't help to find the overarching plot ridiculous. Also, I came to the conclusion that Mulder is a loser. Constantly obsessed by U.F.O.s and conspiracies and porn movies/magazines, failing to understand the only thing there was to understand:

Spoiler

 

[John Titor]

Throw another in for MotW. And it just so happens that the best episodes were written by Morgan and Wong while my least favorite ones were by Carter.

I rewatched it a couple of years ago and I agree the MOTW episodes are the strongest ones. As the series proceeded, I couldn't help to find the overarching plot ridiculous. Also, I came to the conclusion that Mulder is a loser. Constantly obsessed by U.F.O.s and conspiracies and porn movies/magazines, failing to understand the only thing there was to understand:

Spoiler

View attachment 837819

That wasn't lost on the writers. When he bodyswapped with another agent, he was like "what is wrong with Mulder?"

 

[XYZpdq]

there were original X-Files comics made for the Japanese market
I flipped through a collected volume at a con, there was some scene where they point at a demon and it's some underwhelming Magidrakee looking thing

 

[Cool kitties club]

Based on what I've seen and heard, I plan to avoid the newer stuff like the plague. The idiots seem to be targeting the woke crowd, quite a few ORANGE MAN BAD!!! lines, and I'm not even a Trump supporter. It's just obnoxious as fuck.

The only real dig at trump is during a season 11 episode (The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat) where an alien says they’re gonna build a wall around the solar system to keep the humans out and then gives Mulder a book containing every answer to every question in the universe, which causes another to remark that’s the real truth was the friends made along the way. It’s a pretty funny scene compared to most trump dugs and the episode is also really funny.

That wasn't lost on the writers. When he bodyswapped with another agent, he was like "what is wrong with Mulder?"

They actually pull that twice. Once in Small Potatoes where a shapeshifter pretends to be Mulder only to realize he’s a “loser by choice” and another in Dreamland part 1 and 2 where he swaps bodies with an Area 51 agent. Darin Morgan also made fun of Mulder in his episodes like Jose Chungs “From Outer Space”. Granted this kinda falls apart in season 9 where they make the (absent) Mulder part of alien prophecy which was so dumb the writers just completely dropped it in the episode William.

 

[Oh Shit I'm Sorry]

The only real dig at trump is during a season 11 episode (The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat) where an alien says they’re gonna build a wall around the solar system to keep the humans out and then gives Mulder a book containing every answer to every question in the universe, which causes another to remark that’s the real truth was the friends made along the way. It’s a pretty funny scene compared to most trump dugs and the episode is also really funny.

TLAOFS was definitely my favorite episode of the past couple seasons and it's up there in my tops overall. I'd rank it the third best comedy episode behind Bad Blood & JCFOS.

They actually pull that twice. Once in Small Potatoes where a shapeshifter pretends to be Mulder only to realize he’s a “loser by choice” and another in Dreamland part 1 and 2 where he swaps bodies with an Area 51 agent. Darin Morgan also made fun of Mulder in his episodes like Jose Chungs “From Outer Space”. Granted this kinda falls apart in season 9 where they make the (absent) Mulder part of alien prophecy which was so dumb the writers just completely dropped it in the episode William.

The funny thing is both the people calling out Mulder were far worse than he was. The shapeshifter was a serial rapist who couldn't come up with anything better to do with his power than trick married women into sleeping with him while Morris was a sleazebag whose wife and kids hated him and spent most of his free time having affairs. The show did a good job of showing that while Mulder was pretty bad there was far more worse out there.

 

[PL 001]

As long as we're talking about comedic episodes, Humbug was always my favorite. The Man From Another Place from Twin Peaks analyzing Mulder's appearance, Jim fucking Rose and The Enigma making guest appearances was so cool. Jim Rose stole that episode. He was such a smartass through it all.

 

[Cool kitties club]

As long as we're talking about comedic episodes, Humbug was always my favorite. The Man From Another Place from Twin Peaks analyzing Mulder's appearance, Jim fucking Rose and The Enigma making guest appearances was so cool. Jim Rose stole that episode. He was such a smartass through it all.

Improbable has always been my favorite. I think it’s a pretty bold and interesting move to have god actually be a character in your story and Burt Reynolds does a great job portraying a distinctly American trickster god. Scully, Dogget, and Reyes are also all on point with each character playing off of each other’s quirks beautifully. Chris Carter also does a great job directing this episode.

 

[Oh Shit I'm Sorry]

Improbable has always been my favorite. I think it’s a pretty bold and interesting move to have god actually be a character in your story and Burt Reynolds does a great job portraying a distinctly American trickster god. Scully, Dogget, and Reyes are also all on point with each character playing off of each other’s quirks beautifully. Chris Carter also does a great job directing this episode.

Je Souhaite (season 7) would be the one other real good one I can think of. One of the show's biggest strengths was being able to handle a variety of different genres.

 

[XYZpdq]

He was a good water-skier, your husband. Not as good as I was, but then... that could be said about so many things, couldn't it?

Spoiler: THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

 

[UnKillFill]

Surely the aliens like us now since we elected that retard Biden >.>

I watched the X-Files as a kid, and I'd even heard that it came back. I didn't realize that it got so pozzed though.

 

[XYZpdq]

X-Files season 4 episode 2: Home
some randos are inbreeding and other shit including a dead baby with tons of birth defects from inbreeding and all of the sudden Mulder is like "woah maybe somebody says somebody's fucking his sister a lot but let's not jump to conclusions it's probably reflections of the planet Venus" at Scully
so.... Fox... about that whole "MUH SAMANTHA" thing... you wanna expound on that idea?

 

[XYZpdq]

it looks like a doublepost but clearly it's just swamp gas
was a flashback show of CSM thinking about the good old days of rigging all Super Bowls forever and killing MLKjr
then
he just wants to retire from evil write shitty pulp stories about his adventures in evil, then the publisher fucks his ending so nevermind that shit back to the old gig guess all humanity has to die
I... uhm. Okay. That's reasonable enough I guess.

 

[Standardized Profile]

The whole episode was the Lone Gunmen's attempt to piece together his history from a short story they read in a magazine. It's only as true as you want it to be.

Honestly the insane "this is what's really going on" episodes are the best. Jose Chung's From Outer Space is the most cogent distillation of the mytharc you'll ever get.

 

[Dr Naomi Hunter]

The whole episode was the Lone Gunmen's attempt to piece together his history from a short story they read in a magazine. It's only as true as you want it to be.

Honestly the insane "this is what's really going on" episodes are the best. Jose Chung's From Outer Space is the most cogent distillation of the mytharc you'll ever get.

Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man is one of the best episodes in my opinion. Canon or not. I suppose I like it because it shows that no matter how powerful you are, you can’t always get what you want. Even if it is just getting your shitty story published.

 

[Ishtar]

Got into the show some years ago, off and on. I like the first four seasons, the fifth and sixth are kinda lame, with Duchovny leaving, a few of the episodes of the seventh and eighth episodes are alright. The mythology episodes in particular. Season 9 I just kind don’t care about honestly. The ending is…eh? Fine I guess.

The X-Files main problem was that it was trying to be more things than it could be-mystery show investigating monster/paranormal phenomena of the week or alien conspiracy with a sinister agenda?

The sinister agenda part could in my view never conclude satisfactorily because well, if the aliens actually invade then what? Kinda hard for two FBI agents to do much in that case.

But then without that sinister plot you don’t have the core of the show.

All that said, I like it.

 

[Site of Origin]

I think the x-files is a show that really helps hold together if you transport yourself back to the 90s while you watch.

Forget about the Internet and smartphones as they are today, and remember what nerds and conspiracy theorists used to actually be like. Imagine trying to prove that shit without instant live streams to Twitter and Tik tok.

Shit, just remember when science fiction could tell a good story.

 

[Ishtar]

Yeah, the nineties were the era when conspiracy theories were fun. Secret government bases on Mars, aliens plotting with the military, weird paranormal stuff going on, and black helicopters so many black helicopters.

Not today’s world where conspiracy culture is all so drab and just kinda rote. Back then it was as cool and wondrous as it was frightening.

 

[Standardized Profile]

They should've played with that in the reboot, maybe even the second movie. Mulder is one of a ten thousand conspiracy theorists on the internet, babbling about something called "purity control" hidden in a vaccine during a flu plandemic in 2009 and that's why the alien invasion didn't happen in 2012, but this time he's really on to something big. Another wave of alien invaders, the government is testing more secret technology, corporations are doing 24/7 surveillance and psyops, a black magic/sexual blackmail cult is taking over the country, maybe all of the above. With the internet, Mulder now has more reach than he ever dreamed possible when he was an FBI agent. But no one cares. Not even the aliens, the government, the corporations, or the cults are trying to stop him any more. How do you fight the future when everyone's okay with events that are currently unfolding? I can't think of a satisfying ending for this. Our complacency has doomed us.

 

[Travoltron]

The sinister agenda part could in my view never conclude satisfactorily because well, if the aliens actually invade then what? Kinda hard for two FBI agents to do much in that case.

I think you're correct in that it couldn't be concluded well on a 90s TV FX budget.

But I always pictured that the final season would be a full-on alien invasion. At that point, when all the government secrets are exposed to the public, maybe Mulder & Scully are forced to team up with old enemies like CSM to stop the aliens. I always imagined the final scene being onboard a burning flying saucer, with Mulder carrying Samantha to safety with Scully blowing away hordes of Grays.

Instead they squandered the Samantha storyline in the lamest way possible.

 

[The Bovinian Derivative]

Instead they squandered the Samantha storyline in the lamest way possible.

They fucked every storyline up so hard that the Internet named a trope after Chris Carter about it.