x-files...I had no idea......

[Ttam Legacy]

I had no idea how great this show was, and I feel bad for not knowing. My mom used to watch the re runs as much as she could but I never did. Then, a few weeks ago, my roomate got netflix and they have seasons 1-9 to watch and I watched them all. What an incredible tv show. Wow...speechless.

Paul

 

[DarkHelmet]

But miss one episode and you're screwed. Miss one scene from an episode and your screwed.

I remember the days before DVR and getting distracted for a moment and just throwing my arms up and changing the channel. Trying to salvage the episode was an exercise in madness.

 

[El Duderino]

They have the entire series on Netflix on stream, I love this show.

 

[Too Much Garlic]

But miss one episode and you're screwed. Miss one scene from an episode and your screwed.

Never had that issue... found you could just jump in at any time and not have missed much.

 

[Risu]

I was watching it on Netflix but stopped midway through season 2. It got a little boring. Does it pick back up again?

 

[cayman shen]

I loved the first 5 or so seasons. My girlfriend (then wife) and I were so, so addicted to this show in high school and college.

 

[Solo4114]

First seven seasons are great. And there are some amazingly awesome standalone episodes, too. By the time Duchovny left, though, things went downhill. I heard the finale of it went out with a whimper rather than a bang.


My two favorite episodes:

- Jose Chung's From Outer Space

and

- Home


there was also the one with the vampires that was pretty funny. It had Luke Wilson and the chubby kid from the Sandlot.

 

[Jehudah Design]

I saw the second movie first, liked it, bought the first movie too, then saw some of the episodes late at night and thought it was really good, but unfortunately I couldn't find any collectors box with all episodes in it, but I sure want to buy it if I do.

 

[Solo4114]

There's no "Complete Series" DVD set? I'm surprised at that, actually.

 

[jcoffman99]

I'm with ya. I just discovered these too via Netflix. (I was always out on Friday night when they were on TV.) Just started season 2. We watch one each night with dinner. The one with the worm guy that was hanging out in the waste treatment plant was creepy.

 

[Solo4114]

Yeah, honestly, looking back, I'd say that the "monster of the week" episodes were actually better because they didn't tease you about grand mysteries that'd never really be explained effectively. Plus they were just CREEPY episodes.

FYI, they moved the show to Sunday nights around...Season 4? Maybe 5? I know it was some time around then, because we used to have a Sunday night regular viewing thing in college.

 

[moffeaton]

I loved that show. Fav episodes for me were:

Squeeze - Tooms was such an awesome character.
The Erlenmeyer Flask - Deepthroat getting shot? We all screamedin shock!
Firewalker - that spore bursting from the neck was awesome.
Home - savage, terrifying.
Our Town - cannibalistctastic!

The one with Darren Mcgavin and the one with Charles Nelson Reilly were pretty amazing, too. Jose Chung!

Any of the conspiracy episodes from the first few seasons were super engaging. It did get watered down over the last few seasons, and that last season was a chore.

 

[Apollo]

First five years were great.

It went downhill for me after that

 

[dualedge]

First seven seasons are great. And there are some amazingly awesome standalone episodes, too. By the time Duchovny left, though, things went downhill. I heard the finale of it went out with a whimper rather than a bang.

...

there was also the one with the vampires that was pretty funny. It had Luke Wilson and the chubby kid from the Sandlot.

Ditto. I have a lot of love/hate feelings toward the show. They definitely should have stopped after season 7 though.

When it first came out I thought the monster of the week episodes were stupid and wanted more of the alien conspiracy stuff. Then they got to the point where the alien conspiracy stuff just became so convoluted and never resolved anything that I hated it. So now, I love many of the standalone monster episodes and hate the alien conspiracy stuff that never made sense.

Solo, you're thinking of Bad Blood which was absolutely one of my all-time favorites ("you must be the guv'ment peeple" :lol ). There were quite a few others that were sheer genius. Some of my other favorites are the ones that similarly tend to be on the more humorous side:

Small Potatoes (the shape shifter that got women pregnant)
Arcadia (life in an HoA subdivision)
Je Souhaite (the genie that grants wishes with unpleasant twists)
Rain King (person that controls the weather)

 

[moffeaton]

I used to do work for Palisades toys, and they had planned the Alien fetus in the liquid nitrogen container prop, from The Erlenmeyer Flask episode. I was tasked with coming up with an audio sample that would trigger when you opened the lid. When you watch the show, there is a great sound effect heard when Scully cracks the lid - a psssssh of air and a crackling "cold" sound. Unfortunately, there is incidental music playing over the entire scene.

So I recreated it by using a locomotive air brake sample and playing with the pitch/time, and sampled bacon frying, layering and tweaking the sample - it sounded AWESOME, and I was so proud... and then Palisades went under before the prop could be made past the prototype stage. Sigh.

 

[Solo4114]

Small Potatoes was a great one! I don't really remember the others. But yeah, Bad Blood was good. I love the different perspectives that Mulder and Scully give on the story, especially the sequence where Mulder wakes up from a daze and starts reciting the theme song from Shaft -- and then cuts into the narrative saying "I DID NOT!!!" :lol

 

[WarPig]

Ok, your assignment: watch the *first* episode of the spin-off "Lone Gunmen" series. Your skin will crawl.

The LG episodes of X-Files are always fun; the LG series itself went a bit over the top, though.

As for X-Files proper, we're in the process of re-watching the series. I agree with everyone else: seasons Eight and Nine were not good. They had the potential to develop a new team, and totally blew it.

 

[SSgt Burton]

One of my favourites was an episode that was a version of the "Cops" reality show.

It opened with a typical first-person "filming the cop driving his squad car at night while he talks about being a cop."

He gets a disturbance call, goes to the location, and tries searching in a backyard with his flashlight- the camera doesn't follow him all the way.

He rushes back completely freaked out screamning, "GET BACK TO THE CAR! RUN! RUUUUN!"

Typical "man running with a camera" shot back to the car. Get inside and the camera is now filming from the back seat. The cop is screaming into his radio for backup and 999! 999! as the car is lifted up and tunred over onto its roof!


The opening was done so perfectly that my wife believed it was an episode of Cops and not X-Files at first. When the car was turned over her jaw dropped. :lol


Man I used to love this show! I was addicted! Taped it religiously. It really hit its stride at the end of the second season. Third and fourth seasons were the best for me.

As already said, the show went downhill after Duchovny left. And the Finale was anti-climactic to say the least. Really unfortunate for such a great show.


How did it go again?

First arc- Aliens exist and the government is covering it up.

Second arc- Aliens do not exist, but the government is making them appear to exist, in order to hide their secret inhumane experiments.

Final arc- Aliens exist and are going to invade.


Did they ever really invade? I don't remember. :lol


Kevin

 

[Solo4114]

Well, as of the 2nd movie, I don't think they'd invaded yet.

I was never entirely clear on the whole alien thing, either. You had:

- The bounty hunters with the little icepick things.
- Shape shifters
- the black oil
- The greens
- The greys
- Whatever they were doing with the bees in the first movie

and so one and so forth. Was the government helping the aliens? Fighting the aliens? Both? It was never clear.

Classic case of "We really have NO idea where we're going with this" writing.

 

[moffeaton]

Haha, the episode with the cockroaches - and a roach crawls over the credits like it's ON your TV screen? TERRIFYING. Especially back when we had curved 32" tube TVs.

Reminds me of that episode of Millennium, where there's a deadly contagion storyline. They aired a weird act after the commercial break, with non-cast members and different music/tone/cinematography, where everyone around the dinner table coughs up blood and DIES - we thought it was a commercial at first and it was SO unsettling!