My Thoughts on the X-Files: One fan's opinions on the series and how it ended up.
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Here are a few
unrelated thoughts about the X-Files. I apologize if anyone is
offended by these opinions. Let
me know what your thoughts are on the
series, I'd like to hear them.
My
thoughts on the 2000 season:
In
a word, lame. Too many questions were left unresolved. The audience
has to be satisfied every once in a while or they feel like they
aren't making any progress. Also, the writers missed a great chance
with the Mulder/Dogget relationship. Instead of going for something
original, like Mulder and Dogget liking each other, the writers went
for the cliche of having them butt heads as if they were a pair of
rutting moose. And the business of giving the aliens more and more
powers until they were more like magical characters turned the series
into a fantasy show instead of science fiction. They tried the same
thing with the original Fantasy Island series and it cheapened what
was, at the start, a unique show. (Side
note, the concept for Fantasy Island was stolen from an an early
episode of The Avengers series titled "Honey for the
Prince." In it, Emma and Steed fought villains working through
the "Quite, Quite Fantastic" company. This company did
exactly what Mr. Roarke on Fantasy Island did.) The
problem with making the aliens so powerful is that it makes any
victory by the hero unbelievable. Also, villains should have a
weakness to help the audience identify with their feelings so that
when they are vanquished, the audience feels their tragedy. All in
all, I'd say the year was out of focus. It was as if there was no one
in charge to provide direction, continuity, and some resolution to
the series. I'm so disenchanted that I seriously doubt that I'll
watch it next year. One thing the next year's show won't have that
may help it in that Duchoveny won't be there. In his final shows he
seemed to be more about attitude than acting.
1. Gillian Anderson is a much better actor than David Duchoveny. She's also been able to maintain her professionalism better than him. While his performances started to go flat around the fifth season, she's been able to keep her character alive.
2. The writers should never have written a scene with Mulder crying. Duchoveny's face pouts up like a baby's when he cries making him look foolish and the scene unbelievable.
3. Mulder has become less intelligent as the series has progressed. In the early years, Mulder was portrayed as having a special talent for connecting clues that no one else could. Later, this ability seemed to be ignored. He became like every other police investigator on television.
4. Scully's theme song. For some reason, even though it doesn't reflect Scully's disciplined character, the song "Every Little Thing She Does," by the Police makes me think of her.
5. I believe that many of the obvious omissions that leave important details of an episode unexplained are a calculated ploy to upset viewers in an effort to evoke a reaction, even a negative one. A good story touches a viewer's emotions. For decades, directors have crutched-up weak stories by exploiting easy tricks like profanity, violence, nudity, or sex to get a reaction, any reaction, from their audience. Leaving details unexplained is just another variation on this theme. Similar to this are scenes or plots that employ something that is physically impossible. X-Files viewers aren't stupid and can spot these problems. (One example was the webbing between the arms of the bat man in the current season that was supposed to be enough to make him fly. Any child would know anything as heavy as a man would need much larger wings.) Disgust at such poor (by design) writing is an emotional reaction the producers plot to evoke. All of this follows the same type of philosophy that any type of publicity is good publicity. In the case of the X-Files, any type of emotional reaction, even a negative reaction, is good because it gets the viewer involved. My complaint is that it's a cheap trick. I'd rather watch well-rounded stories. The writers of West Wing do it every week. The X-Files writers should try emulating them.
6. One thing I did like was the New Year's Eve episode where Mulder kissed Scully and then said something like, "The world didn't end after all." I saw that as Chris Carter's way of thumbing his nose at everyone who kept pushing him to have Scully and Mulder have an affair, an idea that I think would have been such a cliche' that it would have seriously weakened the series.
7. I never saw anything that indicated sexual tension between Scully and Mulder in the early years. That was one of the things I liked about the series. Every other man-woman team on television used this theme. The fact that Scully and Mulder didn't was one of the things that made their relationship unique. and interesting. I believe the love angle is so common that many people automatically saw it where there was nothing to see.
About the eighth season: I watched the first few episodes and found the acting forced with no chemestry and the plots working so hard to create such a convolution of twists that it gave the impression of being over-written. I regret to say that I don't care for the series anymore.
2016 UPDATE!!! The 6-episode mini series in early 2016 was interesting but it didn't work for me. Scully had aged unattractively and the series now seem too talky. Also, the blatant cliff hanger at the end was inappropriate in as much as there is no guarantee that a follow-up series will be made.
