In May 2009, Doux writer Jess Lynde took on a daunting retro project – writing reviews of all nine seasons of The X-Files. She got to season two before asking for help, and several Agents of Doux answered the call: ChrisB, drnanamom, Heather, Juliette and Mallena.
Work on The X-Files continued sporadically for years. In 2016, the series was unexpectedly rebooted, and the valiant X-Files reviewing team sprang into action and covered that, too. By 2018, Doux Reviews had completed reviews of ALL of The X-Files, including the nine-season original series, the two-season reboot, and even the movies. It's actually kind of miraculous.
One of the X-Files team, ChrisB, will take it from here.
ChrisB: After years of rolling at my eyes at anyone who told me I would love The X-Files and to give it a chance, I finally gave it a shot after it had finished its run. Of course, I loved it and binged through all nine of the first seasons. When I found Doux and was only a commentator, I followed Jess’ reviews of the show and was in awe of the fact that she had taken on such a big project, but kind of wishing that I could join her.
I got my wish when Jess moved on to other things. I was involved in the reviews for many of the middle seasons and, if I am being honest, think I wrote some of my best reviews for this show. Luckily, I had a lot of help and so bit by bit we were able to get the whole show up.
I haven’t revisited the show in a while, but I am sure I will some day. It still ranks as among my favorite shows of all time and the Mulder/Scully partnership is still the best I have ever seen on a screen either large or small. Yes, the mythology got out of hand and became a bit silly at the end, but the overall arcs of the show, the juxtaposition of believer and skeptic, and the blossoming of a deep friendship will always keep this show at the top of the list.
This show is so amazing! I started watching it back in the 90s when it aired, but I often worked at a coffeeshop on whatever day it aired (was it Sundays?), so I sometimes missed out on entire arcs. I've rewatched all of it at least once.
ReplyDeleteDagoo!
Like Forever Knight, this was a show I did watch but not regularly. It was mostly good from what I did watch though.
ReplyDelete100% agreed on the Scully/Mulder dynamic, and it did get rather silly near the end.
The X-files was one of the very few shows I watched regularly while it aired. When I was in grad school, a bunch of used to gather to watch it and then play cards afterwards, all the way through seasons 2 to 5, which coincidentally were the show's strongest seasons.
ReplyDeleteAt the time, it was a really groundbreaking show. Long arc storylines were not common at the time, and it was a show that mimicked procedural dramas in some ways but completely broke their structure with its open-ended, ambiguous or inconclusive episode endings.
It was not a show that was consistently great, but Mulder and Scully were almost always worth watching. Scully was one of the very best characters on TV at the time and I was really impressed by Gillian Anderson's ability to convincingly carry off playing a 30-something skilled professional woman at an age when most actors are still playing teenagers.
X-Files = X-Cellent
ReplyDeleteI have so many good memories of watching each week with my family. The Bare Naked Ladies immortalized it in song and even Buffy coined the phrase of “Muldering out some answers.” Shows like that don’t come around too often.
playing a 30-something skilled professional woman at an age when most actors are still playing teenagers.
ReplyDeleteIt's certainly a lot easier to play a 30-something skilled professional when one is, well, just about 30.
Anyway, as long as I'm here, another round of applause for The X-Files, one of my favourites of all time, despite the occasional lapses (I mean, even Star Trek managed to misfire on rare occasion). Mulder and Scully were, for me, the Kirk, Spock, & McCoy of the 1990s.
The X-Files is one of the very few shows that I have had the pleasure of doing a full re-watch. My oldest was into GhostHunters and the paranormal as a teenager and I suggested it knowing she would love it - I was not wrong. She kept an “I want to believe” poster on her bedroom wall for years afterwards, and I got a wonderful dad memory of spending time with her. She was more into the grand conspiracy and I preferred the monster-of-the-week format, but one thing was certain - episode after episode stood the test of time for those early seasons.
ReplyDeleteLater on it got a little long in the tooth, and by season 9 the teeth had fallen out. Season 10 I guess were the dentures and there were a couple good episodes, but the conspiracy had long fallen flat by then and I never came back for the final season.
I just know this - as long as the Cigarette Smoking Man is alive, the Bills will never win the Super Bowl, so i want to believe he’s still in shadows, even today…
A classic is a classic. I never watched all of it, but sometimes I will pick an episode at random and watch it. The best shows are the 90's shows.
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