THE X-FILES returns, in HD and widescreen

[Jen'ari]

15 hours ago, Jack Bauer 24 said:

I'm thinking about starting the series from the beginning. When does it start going off the deep end?

Ive only seen the odd episode here and there, but I don't know if I could start watching it from the beginning, the sheer volume of episodes is overwhelming.

Also I don't think it's going to help having watched Californication first, I will keep expecting Mulder to be asking a hooker about her hopes and dreams whilst snorting coke off her ass, as to not do so would just be ungentlemanly.

[Lord Varys]

2 hours ago, RumHam said:

Oh, I didn't realize these episodes were shot in Vancouver. Hopefully at least the were-monster one will have that classic X-files atmosphere. 

I just re-watched the episode with my girlfriend. There is an awful lot of sunny days and bright scenes in that episode - the Washington settings (actually shot in Vancouver, of course), the rural setting of Sveta's house, and the place of Mulder's own house - even the flashback is pretty bright as well as nightly meeting with the source guy.

That was clearly intentional and I did not like it all that much.

2 hours ago, sifth said:

So after last nights episode, are we to believe that the whole 2012 alien invasion was fake? If so I'm a little confused here. We had plenty of scenes with the members of the Syndicate talking about the invasion even when Molder wasn't around. Also how the heck is Spender/CSM still alive? The guy was blown up in the final episode of the original show.

After re-watching it, I really can't take the setting and the conspiracy talk seriously. Who cares about America, really? (Well, perhaps you self-involved Americans, of course, but even you should realize that an alien re-population of the entire Earth resulting in the extinction of humanity is a scarier scenario.) Our best guess is that this whole 'new spin' on the mythology is a red herring, just as the Kritschgau story was back in season 5. If Carter tries to sell us that as 'the truth' he is pretty much done, I'd say, because that doesn't make any sense in light of the stuff that has been already established.

You simply cannot go against or around that. I mean, he gave us the story of the colonization and the collaborating Syndicate in the first feature film. If that just suddenly 'didn't happen' you can no longer take him seriously. If he wanted to do that he should have rebooted the entire franchise instead...

The biggest weakness in the episode is that Mulder would actually fall for this crap without any real proof. Not to mention that he didn't include known/confirmed mythology pieces into all that like the alien virus, the bees, and so on. He wouldn't buy or come up with stuff like that without good and real new evidence. Military UFOs and hundredth female abductee isn't going to do the trick. At least not with the old Mulder. Perhaps the fact that the colonization didn't begin in 2012 did something to him...? And now he is willing to buy pretty much everything that is put in front of him to give his life meaning?

The fact that the CSM retains (most likely) slowly healing burn scars suggests that he could either heal himself in the wake of his ultimate death, or was healed by people/beings who can do that after the end of the show. The fact that he still has to smoke/breathe through that whole in his neck suggests that he may himself gained some alien healing powers - after all, the reason for his health problem was that operation in the beginning of season 7 when he had alien genes harvested from Mulder's brain into his own body - genes that were supposed to transform him into an alien-human hybrid. If that actually worked he could have the powers to survive his own death/heal his burned carcass (and previously also survive the fall down the staircase).

I must say the comics took a much better route bringing him back (as a hybrid clone with some of the original memories of the real guy) than the show most likely will. But then, the show already brought him back twice - and only his first death had a reasonable back door for his return. The second time - Krycek throwing him down the stairs - sold his ultimate demise pretty well, I must say.

Scully's talk about the children without ears is clearly buildup for a future episode, by the way. She told us that this condition is frequent among the Navajo, and we all know that have always been hints that various Native American culture are strongly connected to the aliens (the Anasazi figured out how to resist them, the Navajo presumably adopted their language - via the Anasazi) and there were many attempts to include/make a story arc showing that those ancient cultures and their gene pool had either a natural immunity to the alien virus or some other close connection to them (for instance, the mind-reading boy Gibson Praise was actually supposed to be descendant of such an indigenous culture, from the Philippines).

[Martini Sigil]

4 hours ago, Lord Varys said:

You simply cannot go against or around that. I mean, he gave us the story of the colonization and the collaborating Syndicate in the first feature film. If that just suddenly 'didn't happen' you can no longer take him seriously. If he wanted to do that he should have rebooted the entire franchise instead...

The biggest weakness in the episode is that Mulder would actually fall for this crap without any real proof. Not to mention that he didn't include known/confirmed mythology pieces into all that like the alien virus, the bees, and so on. He wouldn't buy or come up with stuff like that without good and real new evidence. Military UFOs and hundredth female abductee isn't going to do the trick. At least not with the old Mulder. Perhaps the fact that the colonization didn't begin in 2012 did something to him...? And now he is willing to buy pretty much everything that is put in front of him to give his life meaning?

 

Holy shit, yes. It's like the feature film never happed

Mulder seemed like a characterization of himself.... like someone was writing fan fiction..... All predicated on an Alex Jones-like douche 

[Durckad]

Well, that was definitely an episode of a show on TV! 

Not a very auspicious start for a reboot/sequel/whatever. Duchovny seemed like he was sleepwalking through half of the episode, McHale was largely wasted, and the plot was pretty uninteresting. Lots of rehashing existing lore and, when it wasn't doing that, ignoring it. Honestly, this should've been a two-hour event because it seemed like it was rushing to get somewhere - anywhere - and it just didn't have the time to dwell or expand on things properly. There's a germ of an interesting idea and new spin on The X-Files here but, judging by this first episode, I'm not sure if Carter has the skill for it anymore.

I'm going to give this at least two more episodes before I pass judgment since the critics seem to agree that the first one is the worst, but I don't have high hopes for it.

[Jack Bauer 24]

Anyone notice Abigail from Hannibal in the second episode? That was pretty cool seeing her and Gillian together.

[Durckad]

9 hours ago, Lord Sidious said:

Ive only seen the odd episode here and there, but I don't know if I could start watching it from the beginning, the sheer volume of episodes is overwhelming.

Also I don't think it's going to help having watched Californication first, I will keep expecting Mulder to be asking a hooker about her hopes and dreams whilst snorting coke off her ass, as to not do so would just be ungentlemanly.

Back when I first got Netflix (which was maybe four years ago?) I rewatched all 9 seasons of The X-Files. It took around 6 months since I took a few breaks, but it was ultimately worth it. The first season is a bit ropey (sp?) and the last one is kinda dogshit but there's great stuff sprinkled throughout the entire show. Seasons 2 through 5 are especially great. Would it be worth all the time spent? No idea, but it might be worth it to Babylon Five the first season (ie watch only the best and most important episodes in the season and ignore the rest) before jumping in to the better stuff and then just stop watching at the end of Season 7 or, if you're up to it, the end of Season 8 even.

It would be interesting to watch the show with someone who's never seen it before as it's difficult to ignore the nostalgia while making a more objective assessment of its qualities. I still love the show but there's definitely some personal bias in there.

[Red Hermit]

I definitely enjoyed the second episode more than the first.  It wasn't great but it felt more like a typical creepy episode of X-Files.  The first episode focused too much on plot and too little on atmosphere/horror.  I always had low expectations for the main plot given how long it has gone on, but I have hope for the "monster of the week" episodes.

[Lord Varys]

The second episode was actually pretty good. Especially due to the fact that they tied in the case with the personal issues, that's working great (and was unfortunately never done back when they made the old episodes).

And it seems that the Syndicate is still there, with Mulder actually mentioning their attempts to create hybrids in the episode. How that figures into the actual new conspiracy thing I don't know. But I can just repeat that this 'world domination conspiracy thing' most likely won't turn out to be 'the truth' because that would essentially be just a stupid plot line, really. Humans or self-created alien-human-hybrids simply aren't as creepy or as big as actual aliens trying to repopulate the world and devouring humanity in the process...

I've began watching the old episodes since the BluRays came out. It is always worth a re-watch, and I actually did one with my girlfriend a few years ago.

[Jen'ari]

15 hours ago, Durckad said:

Back when I first got Netflix (which was maybe four years ago?) I rewatched all 9 seasons of The X-Files. It took around 6 months since I took a few breaks, but it was ultimately worth it. The first season is a bit ropey (sp?) and the last one is kinda dogshit but there's great stuff sprinkled throughout the entire show. Seasons 2 through 5 are especially great. Would it be worth all the time spent? No idea, but it might be worth it to Babylon Five the first season (ie watch only the best and most important episodes in the season and ignore the rest) before jumping in to the better stuff and then just stop watching at the end of Season 7 or, if you're up to it, the end of Season 8 even.

It would be interesting to watch the show with someone who's never seen it before as it's difficult to ignore the nostalgia while making a more objective assessment of its qualities. I still love the show but there's definitely some personal bias in there.

I know I'd find it enjoyable to watch, even if it is a bit dated, it's just it is such a monumental task to undertake as there's just so much of it.

Can you follow the complete storyline without watching all the episodes?, is there a fair bit of filler?.

[Lord Varys]

25 minutes ago, Lord Sidious said:

I know I'd find it enjoyable to watch, even if it is a bit dated, it's just it is such a monumental task to undertake as there's just so much of it.

Can you follow the complete storyline without watching all the episodes?, is there a fair bit of filler?.

If you want to go with only the mythology episodes that's a relatively easy task. Just watch all the episodes listed here: http://www.eatthecorn.com/mythology-episodes-database/

The other episodes are essentially all standalone episodes, or episodes with their own limited arcs, say, when a mutant/monster from a previous standalone episode returns (e.g. Eugene Tooms from 'Squeeze' returns in later in 'Tooms').

But that aside there are only very few episodes you have to watch to understand stuff. Perhaps you should also watch 'Beyond the Sea' from the first season depicting the death of Scully's father, an event that is later referenced a few times.

Aside from that you could add some of the more popular standalone episodes (like 'The Host', 'Pusher', or the episodes by Darin Morgan) but if you want to go just for the overall mythology then the episodes from the link above are enough.

[Jack Bauer 24]

25 minutes ago, Lord Varys said:

If you want to go with only the mythology episodes that's a relatively easy task. Just watch all the episodes listed here: http://www.eatthecorn.com/mythology-episodes-database/

The other episodes are essentially all standalone episodes, or episodes with their own limited arcs, say, when a mutant/monster from a previous standalone episode returns (e.g. Eugene Tooms from 'Squeeze' returns in later in 'Tooms').

But that aside there are only very few episodes you have to watch to understand stuff. Perhaps you should also watch 'Beyond the Sea' from the first season depicting the death of Scully's father, an event that is later referenced a few times.

Aside from that you could add some of the more popular standalone episodes (like 'The Host', 'Pusher', or the episodes by Darin Morgan) but if you want to go just for the overall mythology then the episodes from the link above are enough.

Why are some highlighted in white?

[RumHam]

15 minutes ago, Jack Bauer 24 said:

Why are some highlighted in white?

It's just because they aren't links. I guess that site doesn't have writeups for those episodes. 

[Lord Varys]

2 hours ago, RumHam said:

It's just because they aren't links. I guess that site doesn't have writeups for those episodes. 

Yeah, that's the reason.

Thinking a little bit more about the whole mythology thing, it is quite apparent that 'The X Files' suffered even more from the 'Babylon 5 syndrome' in regards to continuation.

Things are really set up for an ending in season 6, and Carter goes to great lengths to kill pretty much all of the recurring characters, including those who could actually have taken over the show if they had been planning for an eighth season (i.e. Jeffrey Spender and Diana Fowley). But the fact that the Syndicate story was essentially tied up in season 6 also crippled the show's capability to really continue the mythology.

In season 8 the writers are then forced to introduce new characters from scratch, and Carter apparently didn't feel that it would make much sense to drag the few loose ends from the old seasons (essentially only Krycek and Covarrubias) into the new mythology. That makes the continuation very awkward and clumsy at first, and once they settle in in the ninth season the show is over.

If Carter had known that there were nine seasons they certainly wouldn't have ended the Syndicate plot in season 6 but rather in season 7 or 8.

[Durckad]

4 hours ago, Lord Sidious said:

I know I'd find it enjoyable to watch, even if it is a bit dated, it's just it is such a monumental task to undertake as there's just so much of it.

Can you follow the complete storyline without watching all the episodes?, is there a fair bit of filler?.

Like Lord Varys said, you could easily boil down the show to just the mythology episodes but, IMO, you'd be missing out on some of the best episodes of the series.

1 hour ago, Lord Varys said:

Yeah, that's the reason.

Thinking a little bit more about the whole mythology thing, it is quite apparent that 'The X Files' suffered even more from the 'Babylon 5 syndrome' in regards to continuation.

Things are really set up for an ending in season 6, and Carter goes to great lengths to kill pretty much all of the recurring characters, including those who could actually have taken over the show if they had been planning for an eighth season (i.e. Jeffrey Spender and Diana Fowley). But the fact that the Syndicate story was essentially tied up in season 6 also crippled the show's capability to really continue the mythology.

In season 8 the writers are then forced to introduce new characters from scratch, and Carter apparently didn't feel that it would make much sense to drag the few loose ends from the old seasons (essentially only Krycek and Covarrubias) into the new mythology. That makes the continuation very awkward and clumsy at first, and once they settle in in the ninth season the show is over.

If Carter had known that there were nine seasons they certainly wouldn't have ended the Syndicate plot in season 6 but rather in season 7 or 8.

Did Carter ever say why he chose to wrap up the Syndicate stuff so early in the show? It just seems like incredibly poor planning to end the long running story and replace it... almost nothing. I mean, it didn't even get a season finale ending (that was saved for the supremely underwhelming Sixth Extinction arc).

Back on new X-Files:

The second episode was better, mostly because it was given a bit more time to breathe. It still feels a bit ham-fisted with the way the X-Files are reopened and Mulder and Scully are now working for the government again. Why would they even WANT to work for the government again? Both of them know how seriously corrupt, underhanded, and compromised he government is and both of them have seen enough weird shit over the years to know they don't need anymore evidence. It's just strange that the government would be like 'Hey let's reopen that thing that caused us a bunch of trouble twenty years ago' and Mulder and Scully were like 'Yep, that's a good idea. Let's do it.'

[Lord Varys]

10 hours ago, Durckad said:

Did Carter ever say why he chose to wrap up the Syndicate stuff so early in the show? It just seems like incredibly poor planning to end the long running story and replace it... almost nothing. I mean, it didn't even get a season finale ending (that was saved for the supremely underwhelming Sixth Extinction arc).

Back on new X-Files:

The second episode was better, mostly because it was given a bit more time to breathe. It still feels a bit ham-fisted with the way the X-Files are reopened and Mulder and Scully are now working for the government again. Why would they even WANT to work for the government again? Both of them know how seriously corrupt, underhanded, and compromised he government is and both of them have seen enough weird shit over the years to know they don't need anymore evidence. It's just strange that the government would be like 'Hey let's reopen that thing that caused us a bunch of trouble twenty years ago' and Mulder and Scully were like 'Yep, that's a good idea. Let's do it.'

I'm not really an expert on Carter interviews over the years, but I remember that they sort of felt they had to decide between introducing another layer to the whole mythology, or taking the radical approach they took. In light of the first feature film this makes at least some sense considering that most of the answers had already been given back in the movie. On the other hand, the movie introduced a very interesting new layer to the whole thing - the actual nature of the alien virus and the full scope of the plans of the alien colonists. A plot that would have had a lot of potential in future episodes (the show only dealt with that in the episode 'The Beginning').

But they actually had plans to continue the plot around the alien rebels and the loose ends left dangling - essentially until today - from 'One Son', but didn't get around making that stuff. For instance, the Sixth Extinction thing originally was supposed to be a two-partner in season 6, followed by a concluding episode in season 7 (the second episode in season 6 was scrapped, and the Amor Fati episode in season 7 added after David Duchovny provided some input - essentially that stuff had nothing to do with the other plot in that trilogy).

And then there was supposed to be a Krycek episode possibly connected to the alien rebels/Russian resistance plot in season 7 which was scrapped, too. There are remnants of that in 'Requiem' when Krycek suddenly shows up in a Tunisian prison without any good explanation how he got, not to mention that Marita suddenly is herself again after all those tests.

In essence, the mythology could still have continued in some interesting fashion even after the Syndicate was destroyed - after all, the alien colonists were still out there, and the rebels just had destroyed their human collaborators (people the colonists may already have decided to discard - after all, the result of the feature film essentially is that the aliens finally learn/realize that the Syndicate is developing a vaccine against the virus). But they just decided to end other potential plots by killing a lot of recurring characters, and never continue the alien rebels plot in the entire show (that seems to be changing with the new series, though, since the warring aliens were already mentioned in the first new episode).

I'd agree that the pretext for the reopening of the X files is effectively not there. That was handled very badly if you actually think about it.

[sifth]

On 1/26/2016 at 9:13 AM, Lord Varys said:

The second episode was actually pretty good. Especially due to the fact that they tied in the case with the personal issues, that's working great (and was unfortunately never done back when they made the old episodes).

And it seems that the Syndicate is still there, with Mulder actually mentioning their attempts to create hybrids in the episode. How that figures into the actual new conspiracy thing I don't know. But I can just repeat that this 'world domination conspiracy thing' most likely won't turn out to be 'the truth' because that would essentially be just a stupid plot line, really. Humans or self-created alien-human-hybrids simply aren't as creepy or as big as actual aliens trying to repopulate the world and devouring humanity in the process...

I've began watching the old episodes since the BluRays came out. It is always worth a re-watch, and I actually did one with my girlfriend a few years ago.

 

So what's the deal with the 2012 invasion not happening? Is the show even going to address this once, because if not it sort of ruins the meaning of the final episode for me.

[Lord Varys]

13 minutes ago, sifth said:

So what's the deal with the 2012 invasion not happening? Is the show even going to address this once, because if not it sort of ruins the meaning of the final episode for me.

I guess that will come up eventually, when they interact with actual aliens/hybrids and/or the CSM. Presumably Mulder and Scully are going to meet him in the final episode, demanding at least an explanation why the hell he is still around after his last death. And, of course, why the hell the whole colonization thing apparently didn't happen.

My personal guess is that the trouble with the alien rebels - whoever that guys actually are (my guess originally was that they aren't exactly another alien species but rather a faction of hybrid clones created by the colonists who eventually turned against their masters - there are hints in that direction due to the fact that many of them look like the alien bounty hunter clones with scarred faces) - forced the aliens to postpone the beginning of the colonization.

Of course, what's also still completely unresolved and has yet to be addressed is the question of the alien replicas/super soldiers which began replacing key personnel in the administration in a body snatchers-like manner in the last two seasons. Those people effectively replaced the Syndicate and should have been able to ensure that the colonization started in 2012 unless something happened that prevented it.

[Jen'ari]

Thanks Lord Varys and Durckad, I think really, I'm going to have to watch the whole thing, it's one of those shows I've known about and been interested in for a while but I'm too young to have seen it when it originally aired.

For some reason I have a picture in my head that it will be like a strange mix of CSI and Angel, although I'm also fairly sure that's not accurate.

[Lord Hanna]

On 1/26/2016 at 9:13 AM, Lord Varys said:

The second episode was actually pretty good. Especially due to the fact that they tied in the case with the personal issues, that's working great (and was unfortunately never done back when they made the old episodes).

And it seems that the Syndicate is still there, with Mulder actually mentioning their attempts to create hybrids in the episode. How that figures into the actual new conspiracy thing I don't know. But I can just repeat that this 'world domination conspiracy thing' most likely won't turn out to be 'the truth' because that would essentially be just a stupid plot line, really. Humans or self-created alien-human-hybrids simply aren't as creepy or as big as actual aliens trying to repopulate the world and devouring humanity in the process...

I've began watching the old episodes since the BluRays came out. It is always worth a re-watch, and I actually did one with my girlfriend a few years ago.

How do the blu rays look compared to let's say, the netflix quality? 

 

Thinking of buying the set, but it's quite expensive. Wondering what the video quality is like compared to netflix. 

 

Also, if you have time, any extras worth getting the blu rays for (episode commentary, etc) ?

[Jaxom 1974]

With the second episode, the cold opening, that was classic X-Files.  It set a real tone.  The rest of the episode followed suit.  Where it differed was that it connected so well with what went on in the first episode and the overall story.  What I mean by that is that the best stand alone episodes in the early days would, occasionally, seem like they could easily connect back to the conspiracy plot, even if they didn't come out and say that it did ("Eve" from Season 1, for example).