X-Files 1/27/02 - Time to skin the series. (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

It was mighty predictable and pointless. It was less than a filler episode, if that was even possible. What we are seeing is a show cruising into the sunset.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Yeah what was up with all of a sudden given Reyes these bad dreams? All of a sudden she's the Savior of the reincarnated? Who did'nt know the sheriff was thebaddie. At least when the Mulder series did gore they did it to add to a good storyline. And hey was Doggit Boppin Reyes there? Think So

 

[Michael St. Clair]

I can't say I'm surprised.

I agree they should can a couple of planned episodes this year and use it to crank the budget up to make the last 2 really worthwhile. Actually, if they can get Duchovny back for the last two, they should make the previous two episodes build up to it (sans-Mulder).

There is a lot they could resolve and build interest for future films in 4 episodes if they did it right.

 

[brentl]

yep Patrick as soon as I saw Patrick Swayzes brother I knew the episode would suck.

Brent

 

[Mike St.Louis]

According to the article in Cinescape (see last week's X-Files thread for the link), the ending of the series has not changed the plans for the rest of the episodes - except perhaps the series finale.

I had read an article in X-Files magazine 3 or 4 years ago that if the series went into an 8th season, that season would be used to tie up loose plot threads that had never been resolved. Guess that idea went out the window.

 

[Dave Barth]

Man, I'm reminded of over in the Simpsons thread, the complaints there.
This episode was stylish, spooky, and competently executed, with a few exceptions. In particular, the ending was too much telling, not enough showing. However, it was done much better than the similarly themed The Field Where I Died. (Bonus points for the big flashlights and character wardrobe here, too.)
I would agree the show is a shadow of its former self, but this episode was far better than many of the shows from seasons 6 and 7.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

yep Patrick as soon as I saw Patrick Swayzes brother I knew the episode would suck.

Strangely enough, for all of the things that were sub-par about this episode, the performance of the Swayze-kin was actually not one of them.
Regards,

 

[MickeS]

I thought the episode was pretty decent, and I think this is the way they should have taken the series from the beginning of this season.

Sure, it was a bit predictable, but not much worse than other episodes. The reyes "psychic" thing has been touched upon before, so I didn't see it as coming out of the blue.

/Mike

 

[Chad R]

At least it was one step above 'Daemonicus.' But, even as trite as that or this one was, they were better than 'One Man Shooter,' the one with the warehouse size video game thing. That's still, to me, the worst..episode..ever.

The thing that bugged me about this episode the most was the tacked on ending with the 'prospector' being reincarnated once again. Didn't the fact that the fourth victim wasn't killed and Reyes 'didn't fail' break the chain?

I still think a humor episode is needed to lighten precedings up a bit. Let's have some fun with these new characters. Wouldn't you love to see a scene where Scully turns around to Dogget and tries to correct the way he says Mulder?

Scully: It's Mulder.

Doggett: Molder.

Scully: No. Muhl-der.

Dogget: Mohl-der.

Scully: Forget it.

 

[MickeS]

Chad, I didn't like the ending either. yes, it seemed to me that since the prospector was killed before he killed all 4, the chain would be broken.
The episode was called "First Person Shooter" (like the type of games) by the way, and that was indeed a pretty bad one.
Oh, and the thing about "Molder", yes I'd like to see that!
/Mike

 

[Dave Barth]

I think it's arguable whether Fight Club is worse than First Person Shooter, but I'd agree that both are candidates for "worst episode ever".

 

[Jason Moreland]

I wouldn't say that episode was bad, in fact, 3 or 4 seasons ago I think I would have liked it a lot. I just don't get the Reyes character, she's just...weird. It's like they tried to give her Mulder's uncanny ability to figure out what's going on, yet it's never explained how she comes up with it, it just sort of pops into her head, I guess. At least Mulder had read each X-file 15 times and anything else odd, the connections were a stretch, but it was at least rationalized.
I think the X-files theme has just run it's course - that is there is sort of "nothing left to see."
I mean there are only so many ways you can tell stories about aliens, ghosts, shamen, psychics, mystic murderers, evil machines, etc. After a while, nothing will surprise you because you've seen every variation and the story plays out in your head.
I wonder if the writers begin to play on old scripts, that is take a plot from a few years ago, change the villain and the setting, keep a similar freakish occurance, and presto, new episode.
Just a thought, nothing left in the X-file well...

 

[Rex Bachmann]

I still think a humor episode is needed to lighten precedings up a bit. Let's have some fun with these new characters.

I think they've already attempted such an episode with "The Lord of the Flies". Really! That was intended to be funny, with puppet-faced Dr. "Bonzo" (or whatever his name was) trying to "hit on" Scully throughout the episode.
As regards the previous post, I too believe that an awfully large part of the perception of the decline of the show has to do with changes in the audience, as well as changes in the show itself. "Novelty"---or its perception---is a key criterion in this culture for quality. It's the same deal with The Simpsons and Seinfeld. (Not to say that there wasn't/isn't real drop-off in quality there.)
I still can't stand most of the episodes featuring the "Lone Gunmen". I'd vote for them as the series' low points for me.

 

[Steven K]

Worst episode ever?

"First Person Shooter" is right there. Also, let's not forget such "winners" as "Teso Dos Bichos," "Hell Money," and "El Mundo Gira."

 

[Dave Barth]

Rex,

I'd agree for part of the show's run, but not others. In particular, seasons 6 and 7 bore little relation to the show in its early years, and season 5 was wildly uneven.

I think the shows they are doing now are in the spirit of the early years, and it's too bad they are being rejected by much of the show's audience. The emphasis on comedy--done well by Darin Morgan but never a key element of the early shows--has been greatly reduced, and the shock and horror elements seem to have been racheted back up.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Mr. Barth:
Just to make myself unambiguously clear---and I'm not sure I have---I don't mean to imply that I DON'T think there hasn't been a drop-off in quality here, as I define it. I think there definitely HAS. But then the definitions change with the people, don't they?
I was just trying to say that PART of the reason lies in the---shall we say?---"jadedness" of the audience. And this seems to be the rule. Some the same kinds of complaints I read/hear about The X-Files seem to resonate with what I was hearing a few years ago about Seinfeld, to use a prominent example. Seinfeld did decline near the end (preciptously so in its final year, in my estimation), but I still got the feeling that part of this "malaise" was also from the audience. Sad to say, it was still a better comedy in its final year than about 90% of what passes for "sitcoms" today.
I agree with you completely that The X-Files has tried to restore the spirit which informed it in the early days. I will be sorry to see it go, despite its fall-off in quality. There's simply nowhere else to go for a NON-JOKY, well-produced treatment of the supernatural and horror-tinged science fiction on tv (and with the demise of Special Unit 2, even the joky shows in similar vein are getting the boot---well, there's still The Chronicle, but . . . .)

 

[Gil Jawetz]

I like the idea of trying to pinpoint the worst episode ever, although Hell Money and El Mundo Gira were both, I thought, really good.

The worst, in my opinion, have been (and in no particular order):

"3"

"Fight Club"

"First Person Shooter"

"The Amazing Maleeni"

"Tesos Los Bichos"

It's so hard to judge the last couple of seasons on this scale. It's like trying to decide which is the worst episode of VIP.

 

[DonMac]

Well, I set my recorder to pad the end of the show by 5 minutes. But the football game caused the FOX schedule to be off by 15 minutes, so I missed the final 10 minutes of the show. Can someone provide a short synopsis of the ending of Hellbound? (NOTE: thexfiles.com site doesn't have a synopsis for this ep yet)
I saw it up to the point... ...that Reyes found the skins and the perp told her that she'll fail again as she did before.
Thanks!

 

[MickeS]

I'll not put this in spoilers, since anyone reading a thread about a specific episode should expect the plot of that episode to be discussed...

Don, the killer turned out to be the local sheriff (not surprisingly).

She finds newspaper articles from the 1800's, and it turns out that back in 1862 (or whenever it was) a prospector was killed by four men over some land dispute (or something like that). Ever since then, about every 30th year or so four men have been skinned alive, and every time the local sheriff has killed himself afterwards.

Reyes deducts that the local sheriff is in fact the reincarnated prospector, and that the 4 victims are the reincarnated killers of 1862, and that the prospector's soul is forever destined to come back and kill the reincarnated killers, just like they are destined to always be reborn to be skinned alive. The only way to stop it is to "break the chain", although she doesn't know how to do this.

Now, my memory of the very ending is a little blurry, but IIRC, the sheriff escapes from the mine, and Reyes calls the female counselor, figuring she is the next victim (the 4th reincarnated killer), to warn her. Reyes and Doggett make it there just in time to shoot the sheriff just as he's about to kill the counselor. He doesn't die immediately, but at the hospital, and he says that they can't kill him, that she can't break the chain, or something like that, again I don't remember exactly.

The final scene shows the sheriff die, and then fades to a scene of a newborn baby at a hospital, screaming, thus suggesting that the prospector has once again be reborn to kill again.

Sorry I don't have more details than that, maybe you can fill in the blanks when the website summary comes up.

/Mike

 

[Dave Barth]

Rex: I agree with your (clarified) position. All I have to add is that while the show won't be going out on its strongest note, it also won't be going out on its weakest (seasons 6-7).