The X-Files

[Rob H]

I think I stopped watching after the second season. Not because I wasn't enjoying the show, but because it just fell off my radar.

I see Amazon has the complete collection, including the movie, for around $160.

Thoughts on the show post season two? Is it worth it?

[jesse_custer]

If I remember correctly, the show is at its best with seasons three through six. My personal favorite is season four because it has the best X-Files episode I've seen: Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man. Also, some people don't like the sixth season because of its humorous and romantic leanings, but I thought it was quite good, with my favorite episode from that season being when Mulder and Scully visit a strange gated community.

Things start to go downhill with season seven and get really bad in the last two seasons.

Basically, you have a lot to look forward to and some material to be disappointed with. The movie is fine, by the way.

[Rob H]

The price just went down another $30 or so. :) Thanks for that Jesse, I bought it.

[The Batman]

Season 9 has some good stuff in it. Most of it is Dogget related stand alone material that gets back to the X-Files roots and avoids the by that point covoluted beyond all possible hope of recovery 'Mythology'.

$130 for the whole set is pretty good. Less, much less, than what I paid for all of them certainly. You've got a lot of good, disappointing, and so-so viewing ahead of you.

[ImpulseUCF]

The show started to noticeably change when they moved production from Canada to LA to accomodate David Duchovny. Not necessarily worse, but something was different. General consensus from what I've seen seems to be that the show was good from it's start until around the 5th or 6th seasons, give or take. Which seasons or parts are considered the best tends to vary by personal preference, but I think most people will agree that the show fell off the rails around season 7.

Lots of great, great stuff to watch for the first 5 or so seasons, to be sure. After that, it's iffy. It's like they ran out of ideas and didn't know what direction to go in and never wrapped up the story, but kept it going because it was profitable. Perfect example of why studios should allow creators to place finite caps on their shows as creativity is not necessarily limited...great support for Lost ending, for example.

[Chiasm]

Its one of my favorite shows of all time.

The problem with the last two seasons isn't that they sucked because they didn't. The problem is that Mulder was gone and Scully was MIA a lot and its the lack of these two that people hate. I think were you to just watch the last two seasons without knowledge of the history you would find the stories were still good (the finale being an exception).

[Rob H]

Here it is if anybody is interested....

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000X41AY8

The UK packaging is supposedly more stable than the US version but without some special features. It's also slightly cheaper.

[ImpulseUCF]

Also, I agree that the Doggett stuff was pretty damn entertaining. I think they could have run with that for a while longer but should have wrapped up Mulder and Scully's story first...clean break. "Retire" those characters into limbo so that if and when a new idea for them came about it was possible but without forcing them to stand around doing nothing for a couple years. My two cents, anyway.

[Parallax48]

I recently bought the complete collection.

Really good stuff. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the series until I started watching the first couple of seasons again. I just hope I can make it through before the movie comes out. ;)

[Rob H]

I just hope I can make it through before the movie comes out. ;)
I still have seasons three to six of The Sopranos to get through! :wink:

[Parallax48]

I still have seasons three to six of The Sopranos to get through! :wink:

I only have to watch Seasons 4 to 6. :biggrin:

Plus about 20 other DVDs to watch.

[Ryan K]

Seasons 1-5 are excellent in my opinion. Season 6 is where things start to go downhill in my opinion, but still worth watching along with Season 7 (if for no other reason than the touching episode with the truth about Samantha Mulder).

I can stomach Season 8 as well. I found Dogget to be an enjoyable character, plus you still get Mulder for half the episodes (which makes it worth it in my book).

Season 9 is a waste. Mulder's there for only the final episode, and I personally can't stand the character of Reyes. All of the Mythology episodes at this point are worthless, though I do remember some decent stand alone monster-of-the-week episodes here. I'm not a fan of the movie, but its watchable.

For that price I'd say it's more than worth it for the first 4-6 seasons alone. You'll find most fans have a different opinion as to when the show starts to dip in quality (though I've noticed most seem to say it's somewhere between seasons 4-6). In any case there's a good chance you'll enjoy the show even further along than that.

[Parallax48]

The packaging in really cool too.

[Rob H]

It arrived today. That was fast.