I have been watching through the entire X-Files run. I even watched the movies, and the spin-off, The Lone Gun Men.I’ll pick up Millennium at some point as it ties in through a cameo from Lance Henrikson. I’ve been mostly impressed.
Season 8 flagged like a mofo and had two of the worst episodes in it – one weirdly written by William Gibson. It’s mostly aged well though. The Lone Gunmen I liked, but not as much. I think they were played too often as the butt of the joke in their own series, and with their whole shtick being that they were more paranoid than Mulder, they didn’t really tackle any stories with real meat on the bones. The problem with actors who look like comic relief occupying the major roles in a story, is that they don’t get given the heroic storylines. In The X-Files they somehow sidestepped being relegated to complete clowns.
Some of the Monster Of The Week episodes were amazing, but the real bite, and the thing I loved seeing on the screen, was the mytharc. I am not at the end of it yet. I am barrelling towards the end of the ninth season, which was where the original run terminated. Doggett and Reyes are pretty good, and add a different flavour to the mix, but the big star is weirdly the absence of Fox.
I am interested to see where 10 and 11 go. I held off watching them until I had filled in the gaps and watched all the episodes I had missed.
It doesn’t need to land an end to have been a worthwhile journey, but it is a series that has promised that “The Truth Is Out There” from day one. The first conspiracy may have bee wrapped up, but Mulder keeps going, and the second thread that was picked up in Scully’s baby needs resolution.
I’ll follow this up once I have crossed the finish line.