X-Files help

[Guest ZeusFaber]

For me, it very much returned to how the show used to be. For the first time, they were able to recapture the atmosphere of Vancouver in LA where they failed to do so in Seasons 6 and 7. We got some dark tales again and a scary mood, and for me anyway, the mythology became more intense and interwoven again with some truly epic moments. I find Season 8 to be far and away superior to Season 7.

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[Guest Laurent.]

I completely agree with ZeusFaber on this one! Seasons 8 was superior to its predecessor.

And concerning this comment by MillenniumIsBliss:

It just felt scattered. One episode you have Doggett and Scully, then you have Doggett and Reyes and no Scully, then you have Mulder pop up once in a while. To me, it felt like Duchnovney and Anderson were not committed to the show anymore, and they were just trying to squeeze them in here and there to make the fans happy.

I think it may seem that way if you seldom watch reruns of the shows but if you take the time to complete the episodes in order it really doesn't feel scattered. Season 8 only has Scully and Doggett (each one of them in pretty much every episode) searching for Mulder while investigating other X-Files, until Doggett brings Reyes to help find Mulder. It's clear that Duchovny's involvement was reduced because he wasn't committed to the show but it wouldn't be fair to say the same thing for Anderson. Of course, there were episodes in which she only had a small role but it didn't felt weird since, after all, Scully can't be chasing monsters in the middle of her pregnancy. And it's pretty much more of the same in season 9 except for a less interesting mythology and the fact that the show lost some of its darkness again.

[Guest MillenniumIsBliss]

I completely agree with ZeusFaber on this one! Seasons 8 was superior to its predecessor.

And concerning this comment by MillenniumIsBliss:

I think it may seem that way if you seldom watch reruns of the shows but if you take the time to complete the episodes in order it really doesn't feel scattered. Season 8 only has Scully and Doggett (each one of them in pretty much every episode) searching for Mulder while investigating other X-Files, until Doggett brings Reyes to help find Mulder. It's clear that Duchovny's involvement was reduced because he wasn't committed to the show but it wouldn't be fair to say the same thing for Anderson. Of course, there were episodes in which she only had a small role but it didn't felt weird since, after all, Scully can't be chasing monsters in the middle of her pregnancy. And it's pretty much more of the same in season 9 except for a less interesting mythology and the fact that the show lost some of its darkness again.

I stand corrected if Gillain was in fact fully committed to the X-files, and no provisions were made to facilitate her other interests. I was making the assumption that her string of movies and appearances during the span of the X-files (1993 - 2002), such as "The House of Mirth", "The Mighty", and "Playing by Heart", to name a few, were likely interfering with how much time she had to participate in the X-files. However, I guess it is possible that most or all of these appearances were done when X-files wasn't shooting.

I agree that part of the reason that it felt scattered is not so much that I didn't watch them in order, but that I haven't really had an opportunity to review the reruns, at least not for many years. I would guess the last time I saw any reruns of seasons 8 and 9 with any regularity would have been about 4 or 5 years ago.

Given what you have told me about seasons 8 and 9, I would now have to say that it probably came down to simply not liking the show as much with long stretches with no Mulder and episodes with very little of Scully. Robert Patrick was fine as Doggett in my opinion, but lacked the degree of charisma that Mulder had, or maybe I simply couldn't get used to him being the lead instead of Mulder. It's too bad I have so many series on my agenda and can't afford to pick up these 2 seasons and view them with a more open mind. Oh well, maybe some day.

[Guest ZeusFaber]

I would now have to say that it probably came down to simply not liking the show as much with long stretches with no Mulder and episodes with very little of Scully.

I think it's also worth noting that this was already the case, to a degree, in Season 7. The likes of "Hungry" were designed to keep shooting days for DD and GA to a minimum to allow time for their feature film commitments, and there is a long string of episodes toward the end ("En Ami", "Chimera", "all things", "Brand X") which do the same to facilitate room for each of them to work on writing and directing their own episodes amongst other things.

Just something to keep in mind.

[Guest MillenniumIsBliss]

I think it's also worth noting that this was already the case, to a degree, in Season 7. The likes of "Hungry" were designed to keep shooting days for DD and GA to a minimum to allow time for their feature film commitments, and there is a long string of episodes toward the end ("En Ami", "Chimera", "all things", "Brand X") which do the same to facilitate room for each of them to work on writing and directing their own episodes amongst other things.

Just something to keep in mind.

Funny thing is that I never run across those episodes either, so I get the seasons a little mixed up towards the end there. The things you mention are probably a big reason why I generally regard season 7 to be a step down from season 6, which is a step down from season 5. Another reason why I wasn't as fond as seasons 8 and 9 is that it just felt like everything was changing and becoming unraveled and the end was near. Even up until say, season 5, the show still felt intact, and like it was still going strong. By season 8, the show had lost it's freshness for me and was starting to get old, in addition to the other issues I had with the show. This is another reason why I often wonder what I would have thought if I had stepped in as a viewer at the beginning of season 8. I should check out S8 and S9 used on DVD on Amazon.com. Heck, it was so long ago, and my memory is such a sieve that it would probably feel like a whole new series that I have never seen.

[HighPlainsDrifter]

Bliss- whos that woman in your avatar?

[Guest MillenniumIsBliss]

Bliss- whos that woman in your avatar?

That's the wonderful Emm Gryner. By the way, she is one of my top 5 unknown female musicians.

[HighPlainsDrifter]

Hey, have you ever heard of Kim Richey?

[Guest MillenniumIsBliss]

Hey, have you ever heard of Kim Richey?

Yes, she is pretty good too, although I think her CD Glimmer is far and away my favorite by her (and one of my favorites by any artist), and the rest of them, while being very good, are not quite great. Maybe I would enjoy them more if I listened to them more extensively, but when I am in the mood for Kim, I always grab Glimmer.

[Guest ZeusFaber]

The things you mention are probably a big reason why I generally regard season 7 to be a step down from season 6, which is a step down from season 5.

I agree with that, which is all the more reason why I found S8 to be such a breath of fresh air, a return to form, and a reversal of the petering out sense of things I got from S7.

I do recommend you try and pick up those DVDs some day. If you thought S7 was a bit of a slide the same way I did, who knows, you might find S8 to be just the tonic the way I did too.