I'm calling it quits with X-Files Season Eight (1 Viewer)

[Chad R]

Mostly for me it's the large disparity in prices between a set like "Buffy" and "X-Files." It's not just a few bucks, it's more like double. I would like to have the last two seasons to be a compoletist, but not at that price. I know part of the reason for the high price for the sets were all of the royalties to actors and such that needed to be paid out, and I hoped that with Duchovny gone for the better part of 8 and all but one in 9 that the price would dip a bit. But since it didn't, I have to bow out unless I get a good price used.

 

[Simon Massey]

I'm going to get Season 8 and hope they release the series finale as a stand-alone DVD. I had trouble watching most of Season 9 so I'm not going to get that set.

I doubt they will do this in the US, but the Season 9 finale is availale on R2 DVD (with a episode called William) if you can play PAL. I think most of the 2 parters from Seasons 8 and 9 are on R2 DVD as well.

 

[Ryan_C]

I have been watching the hell out of this show on TNT and Sci-Fi in the afternoons, and revived my interest in the show. So I decided I wanted to start collecting the season sets, until I found out how much they are. They were about $130 at Circuit City and Best Buy. Anyone know why they run that much, seems a bit overpriced to me, and apparently to a few of you as well. I really like the show, but don't have $900 to drop on this series. Any suggestions on how to get them cheaper?

 

[Michael Martin]

I think the mistake was not letting them move on and do their own thing.

Absolutely. With Season 9, they had a great chance to let Scully and Mulder ride off into the sunset (and maybe make some movies in the future) and really revitalize the series with Doggett and Reyes. By playing it "safe" and keeping a known character on board (Scully), they helped deliver the kiss of death artistically to the series.

 

[EdwardKarlinski]

I like X-Files, but not enough to pay these prices, when there are so many other things I want on DVD. I would have collected this series if the prices were in line with comparable season sets such as Highlander.

 

[PaulP]

Well I plan on getting them all, and can be had new for around $70, so I see little problem.

 

[Paul_Stachniak]

they had a great chance to let Scully and Mulder ride off into the sunset

They had that chance at the end of Season 5. The plan was to end the TV serise at 5, and move the franchise into a movies serise, ala Star Trek. However, that didn't happen, and things got way out of hand. Which is why I'm not buying anything above Season 5. As the last episode in that set is called 'The End', and I plan to stick with that.

 

[David Susilo]

To me, X-Files ended at the end of Season 7 (although the were done being watchable at the end of Season 5)

 

[richardWI]

Annabeth Gish WAS terrible. Her character was awkwardly introduced and she just took up space on a show that once moved efficently. It was just too obvious that she was there only to be groomed as Scully's replacement if Gillian jumped ship like David.

What really destroyed the X-files was Carter's refusal to give the audience satisfing pay-offs. It was all myth-arc build up, season after season, with another mystery piled on top of the previous one without any resolution. Audiences are not dumb, they know when they are being milked.

And in the rare times they actually did try to resolve a storyline it was really bad. The "resolution" of Mulder's sister's abduction was a slap in the face to long time fans. We waited all those years to get that touchy feely, new age, hug-a-tree explanation.. Really weak.

The movie was the peak of the series because it showed just how far you can take a mystery and not resolve it.

 

[Daniel Kikin]

I doubt they will do this in the US, but the Season 9 finale is availale on R2 DVD (with a episode called William) if you can play PAL. I think most of the 2 parters from Seasons 8 and 9 are on R2 DVD as well.

I doubt they will here too but it would be nice if it happened. I can't play PAL so the R2 DVD is a no-go.

 

[Ryan_C]

What did happen to his sister, I forgot. I do remember one ep where they were at an old army base when Mulder's family had lived, and Anthony Heald, from Boston Public, played a psychic. Something to the effect that "light spirits" or something took the children away that were going to have bad things happen to them. Or something. And that is what the psychic told Mulder happened to his sister, as well as the psychic's son also I believe.

Was that the final resolution? I got the sister resolutions confused, as there were a few. If they one I am thinking is the real one, then yeah, that is somewhat of a letdown.

 

[richardWI]

RE: Mulder's sister:

She became "starlight" along with other children and they all joined hands to the sounds of Moby. They came down from the stars and went back I guess. I'm not making this up!

 

[Ryan_C]

Well alrighty then.


Thanks for the clairification though Richard. I thought that was the final one, but wasn't sure.

 

[DAN NEIR]

I remember that, that was horrible!!!! It was stuff like that and the refusal to give good payoffs that killed the show. I stopped buying the sets after season 2 as they became too expensive. If they were more affordable like the Buffy sets I mightget up to season 5. 1-4 were excellent in my opinion and 5 was ok but I would only get it to go along with the movie.

 

[DAN NEIR]

Going back to the Mulder's sister thing, wasn't there an episode where CSM brought Mulder's sister to a diner so that they could talk. His sister told him the CSM was her father, what ever happened with that? I don't recall any resolution, was I just suppose to believe that that was a clone? It was left up in the air just like how exactly did Scully get pregnant? She asked Mulder to be a sperm donor, the procedure was done, she was told it failed, Mulder tells her don't worry miracles do happen and then at the end of season 7 she announces that she's pregnant. SO did they sleep together and if so when? And lastly what was the silly nonsense with the baby being possible part alien? I still gag when I remember Krychek's line about Scully having a baby "more human than human". I also remember the baby using the force to make the toy above his cradle spin faster and faster before Jeffrey Spender showed up and gave him a shot to make him stop. The show just went straight to hell.

 

[Ryan_C]

Yeah, the show did have it's problems. Did they ever do anything with the spaceship they found off the coast of Africa that was driving Mulder nuts? I don't remember if they did or not. I was a sporadic watcher after I got to college, so I missed alot of eps from probably season 5 on.

One thing is for sure, Chris Carter can defintely write himself into a corner.

 

[Paul_Stachniak]

^^^ From what I recall, the space ship had all of the different religious scriptures written on it. Thus the connection was made that aliens created everything. Mulder's insanity was a result of exposure to an artifact of the ship. Which triggered some dormant alien gene that exists in all humans. However, this was removed by some other shadow group, and the CSM had it inserted in him. But then he started to age, and Mulder was the same and not... and then they killed the Shadow group, and then the super soldiers....

*sigh. Even as I was writing that spoiler, I couldn't believe how stupid it all sounded. The show went downhill FAST!

 

[DAN NEIR]

Oh God the spaceship that drove Mulder crazy, I remember that. It's pretty laughable when you look back on some of those stories.

 

[Michael Martin]

It's pretty laughable when you look back on some of those stories.

After Season 5 - after the movie - I came to really appreciate the standalone/MOW eps a lot more. Once I realized the Chris Carter had no intentions of ever giving satisfying and clear resolutions, and that he refused to admit that he was making a lot of it up as he went along, the mythology eps lost their appeal.

In fact, when watching the eps again, I think it's the standalone eps that really stand the test of time. The mythology eps, as you progress through the seasons, just seem silly.

 

[Lyle_JP]

For me, the mythology ended with the episodes "Two Fathers" and "One Son" in the middle of the sixth season. All the mythology episodes which followed felt almost like stand-alone episodes, since they never ended up going anywhere anyway. That is, until the ridiculous "super soldier" storyline reared its ugly head in Season 8. I really had hoped Carter would get quickly bored with that one, but no, now that had become the integral piece of the alien invasion, and there couldn't be a mythology episode without it.

As for the resolution of Mulder's sister storyline... I'm already on record as being a fan of the episodes "Sein Und Zeit" and "Closure", but not because I felt that it was (or wasn't) a satisfying way to wrap the Samantha storyline up. I love those episodes because they were, as a self contained story, a good piece of television sci-fi that dealt with letting go and accepting loss. I really enjoyed the sentimentality of the end of "Closure", because it was a rare moment when we could actually see our hero Fox finally unburden himself of some of his pain and obsession, and feel a little bit free.

It reminded me a bit of the episode "The Unnatural", which also had a great, somewhat sentimental ending with Fox and Scully letting go of their battle against whatever and just enjoying the simple pleasure of hitting some baseballs.

-Lyle J.P.