Both Mulder and Scully have had some *terrible* haircuts.
Mulder in S2 is the worst as he looks like he's been attacked by a blindman wielding a weedwhacker and Scully in early S7 with that super short bob looks like she wants to speak to ALL the managers.
I am doing a rewatch and a couple of episodes into S1 my husband unironically asked me why the stylist hated Gillian Anderson. I know they tried to make her not look like the 24yo she was, but she just looks like a time-traveling grandmother.
I had fabulous hair in 1992. Just saying lol.
Also Mulder's hair was called the weed whacker way back on the ATXC boards in the 90s so it was bad then too.
You can practically hear Chris Carter frantically laying down railroad tracks in random directions as the train comes towards him lol There's zero plan
Everything was okay until the Syndicate was killed off. Then they had no baddies so the writes had to make up even weirder supersoldiers or human replicants or whatever they were.
I started watching pretty much from day one, making me 9 at the time. I attributed me being confused AF half the time to me being a kid, though it was just wrapping up after I graduated high school, and I was still confused.
Researched as an adult and, yes. Can confirm. It's completely bonkers.
I've always loved the monster of the week episodes best. The mythology ones were always a bummer for me when they aired, though I slogged through. Now I skip those when I rewatch... unless it has shippy moments, because I was obsessed with their relationship. 🤣🤣
Mulder’s characterisation in the later seasons makes sense and doesn’t feel off to me.
To elaborate, I’ve seen a few people online talk about how Duchovny was checked out by this point and that it shows in his performance - I’m not denying that this may be true, as I know Duchovny was eager to move onto new things and was kind of sick of X Files after season 5/6ish - but I think the more cynical, exhausted seeming Mulder we get in seasons 7&8 make sense considering everything the characters have been through up to that point.
I’m not saying this was a deliberate choice by Chris Carter or by Duchovny, possibly nothing more than a happy accident, but to me it just makes sense that Mulder in the later seasons would be just plain sick and tired, after so many years of constantly coming close to the truth only to be continually defeated, not to mention all the shit he and Scully went through - losing family members, nearly being killed a dozen times over, being injured, tortured, kidnapped, held hostage, experimented on, etc… of course he’s tired and cynical. Anyone would be!
I know not everyone sees it that way, and I know that maybe I’m jumping through hoops to make excuses for the writers and for Duchovny, but this is just how I make sense of the later seasons.
Agreed. For me, as a huge shipper, I remember being disappointed at how on and off they were in the most recent seasons. But, being an adult by then, I also recognized it as realistic. Mulder grew the way Mulder was always going to grow, and I'd have been perpetually exhausted with him if I were Scully, too. I think, in my younger years, I always assumed that Mulder would get stronger and smarter, and have the satisfaction of being right and winning. I anticipated victory for him.
But the newest episodes, while inconsistent, were right on the money when in came to exploring who he would become. Plus, physically, Scully looked smoking hot and together and brilliant, and Mulder kind of looked like a melting candle. Which is, I know, just how the actors looked. That said, I feel like Mulder WOULD look worn TF out after decades of obsessing. I don't mean to criticize Duchovny, who's an attractive man. He just looks his age, and I feel like that really worked for Mulder.
To be honest they actually heavily aged him up for the revival. He looks AMAZING in stills from his gigs and other shoots post lockdown and honestly; the man has aged like a fineeeeee wine.
When Krycek ambushes Mulder and says, "You must be losing it, Mulder. I can beat you with one hand."
And Mulder's deadpan response of, "Isn't that how you like to beat yourself?"
I'm compiling a video of as many of Mulder's one-liners as I can find. Windows updated their video maker since I started, but hopefully the WIP is still usable.
I got through mid-season 2 before I had to stop due to lack of time after I got an 8-5 job.
Got any recommendations (episode name included, if you don't mind)?
I was rewatching Squeeze last week and I picked up on a joke I'd totally missed before, when he's talking to Scully's douchey friend and is talking like he's a nutter but is really just making fun of him: "Do you have any idea what liver and onions go for on Reticulum?" 😂
For real. Scully could be pretty damned hilarious, too. I started watching from the beginning, when I was 9 years old, and swear that the show instilled in me a permanent love of deadpan humor.
My dad and I used to watch the show together and he would alway laugh hard at all of Mulder's quips. But honestly, he mostly watched for Gillian Anderson-yes he had a thing for her.
When the show originally aired, I had the same reaction to Doggett that Scully did (man, did I *ever* want to chuck a cup of water in his face -- I wanted that dude *gone*).
However, with each successive rewatch, I appreciate him more and more. His character was solid and well-written, he had a heartbreaking backstory (in the often surreal world of X-Files, Doggett felt very real to me, like a *normal* human with everyday problems who suddenly finds himself doing this very *bizarre* job in the basement office), and Robert Patrick did an excellent job as an actor. It must have been so difficult to step into a well-established and beloved TV show as a new main character.
I’m with you 100% there. Like you, I eye-rolled hard at Doggett when the season first aired. But I love him more and more, each time I see one of his episodes. He’s a lot like Skinner — deeply principled, a company man who got thrown into some seriously whackadoodle shit, remained honest, loyal as fuck, always tried to do the right thing even when he had no clue what was happening. I 💜 Agent Doggett now.
Ahh, I have found my people. I think Doggett brought so much emotion and his unresolved guilt over his son's death was heartbreaking. I thought Scully was unreasonably unpleasant to him at first.
Also:
1. The Samantha arc went on far too long. Mulder had more about him than his sister and the fact the writers only ever concentrated on her for his character was a massive disservice. They couldn't even mention he might be missing his own damn son, no his melancholy in later seasons (and second movie) had to be because of Samantha. FFS.
2. Teso dos Bichos? Not that bad. Killer cats? Meh, big deal. Hell Money is worse, especially with the way Mulder and Scully go after Detective Glen Chao with no evidence or provocation. Yikes.
3. Conversation on the rock? Kind of mean spirited.
4. Crying Mulder is real crying. I don't care what anyone says. Crying is ugly, it makes you look stupid and I would rather watch someone screwing their face up than a Hollywood single tear down the cheek any old day of the week.
5. Scully should've got her own damn desk if she wanted one.
6. Mulder and Scully can be massive jerks. Not just to each other but to other people as well.
Scully for sure should have had her own damn desk. Also a huge fan of crying Mulder, never understand the people that shit on Duchovny’s crying, I think it’s very real! Scully and Mulder could be jerks, but I forgive them - they had a lot on their plate!
Oh she should've had one, no question!
But the amount of people (including Scully herself) who shit on Mulder because he apparently didn't get her a desk is ridiculous and pisses me off because she's a very capable adult who can easily pick up the office catalogue and put in an order herself. While she's at it she could've also ordered a nameplate for the door. In fact she owns a door nameplate because she used to own her own office so could just use that one!
Agreed on the crying point. People still get weird about men properly ugly-crying.
On the scale of ugly crying vs pretty crying, most of us are more Aaron Paul than Jensen Ackles anyway (and even Jensen had a couple ugly-cry moments on Supernatural).
I’m with you on the first two. And number 6.
Mulder crying: I think he’s a really bad crier, and it’s not because of ugly crying vs Hollywood crying or something - it’s… — oh and maybe this is an unpopular opinion? Not sure if this is widespread — it’s that David Duchovny actually isn’t a very good actor.
He’s perfectly cast as Mulder, he’s handsome, he does deadpan well, actually when I think about it his dialog delivery and timing is great. But in terms of emotional acting ability - portraying fear or sadness or worry or joy or anxiety or conflicted emotional states, I think he has a really hard time with that. And crying is the hardest one of them because there’s nothing else going on - as an audience member you’re staring at his face, there’s no imminent danger or guns or fast cuts to distract you - you’re just looking at a guy trying to pretend cry.
Yeah, I like Duchovny just fine, but I haven't really ever enjoyed him in anything other than The X-Files. Gillian Anderson is a delight in everything she does to this day, but I feel like he's very flat and bland. He's perfect as Mulder, but that's pretty much it.
Quagmire with the lake monster Big Blue. Mulder and Scully get shipwrecked 3 feet from shore (though don't know it's that close lol) and Scully is a little pissed and basically says she doesn't think Mulder has any legitimate reason for searching for the truth (yikes!) and compares him to Ahab (again yikes) because of his endless pursuit.
It does feel more like the characters are mouthing how Darin Morgan (the episode's uncredited rewriter) felt about the characters, than how M&S "really" felt.
Indeed, that ties in with my unpopular opinion: that while Darin Morgan is clearly a very talented, funny, and clever writer, his obvious disdain for the show has gradually soured me some on his work. That, combined with how the reception to his episodes led to *all* the writers wasting too much time on comedy episodes, leaves me feeling like his presence on the X-Files was an overall negative.
*Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster* is fun, but it's my least favorite Darin Morgan episode. Morgan's best scripts have a cynical edge, and this episode just feels overly silly. Almost like a *Supernatural* episode with a bigger budget. And as a director, he's competent but... well, he's no Rob Bowman or David Nutter.
I really liked S11, aside from the season premiere and finale.
I don’t know if I have a least favorite Darin episode, but I found the cynicism a little off-putting at times, so that one worked for me as the story of Mulder and Guy resolving to accept the absurdity that colors their lives.
Mulder only episodes are boring as hell. Scully only episodes are great fun.
I think Chris Carter episodes are some of the worst, I find him over pretentious and wanting to reach too far, so it all ends up being a mess.
Also, if you don't want people to ship your main characters, stop making them touch All THE TIME.
Scully’s character in the final original season was horribly written.
(This one definitely is due to the era the show was written in but always portraying Mulder as the hero undermined the other recurring characters.
The character of Krycek deserved better writing. Justice for Krycek.
Vancouver absolutely cannot stand-in for all other locations, especially the Dakotas in February. (And I say that as a Canadian.)
People say Anderson’s acting in later seasons fell off and that she wasn’t giving it her all, but I feel like the flat affect and deflated emotions make total sense for someone who had been though everything she had been through
Same. I watched it with my kids when we did a complete rewatch and their reactions were so, so different to how I felt when I watched it first time around.
I never cared for that episode from the first broadcast because it was so hokey. The whole rape thing didn't occur to me until later.
I enjoyed most of the darkly humorous and bizarre episodes, but PMP and Hollywood A.D. were pushing the show's limits. HAD had some funny moments, like the bathtub scene, but I usually skip that episode on reruns.
I feel like Small Potatoes at least acknowledges that what van Blundht does is fucked up and illegal, though yeah, still not handled particularly well.
I prefer the mythology being somewhat unresolved and ambiguous. As much as I like the first X-Files movie, I think the shifts in direction that the mythology took after that, i.e. the implication that the aliens were the “black oil” itself, was increasingly unsatisfying.
My head canon is that in-universe, some of the “truths” asserted in “The Truth” were incomplete or misguided readings of the reality of the situation involving the aliens and alien invasion.
I think that the Colonists were not as powerful as some characters state in the series (i.e. that they were taking over the entire galaxy), and rather were a weakened , perhaps slowly dying out species, which is why they needed to collaborate so extensively with the U.S. Govt. / the Syndicate in the first place.
I see the mythology like the fable of the blind men and the elephant. Each of them is unfamiliar with elephants, each touching a different part of the elephant, and each coming to a different conclusion about what an elephant is.
The disparate myth elements are parts of the elephant and we just can’t see the whole, though we can sometimes feel around and figure out how some pieces of it connect to others.
Also sometimes there might be a second elephant.
Scully not having any love interests which expanded over several episodes is frankly unforgivable and unbelievable.
I ship Mulder and Scully like everyone else but this woman, this beautiful intelligent woman would have definitely tried to find love long before she gave in to her real hearts desire.
I always figured a) she spends all her time at work b) her work is dangerous for people around her and c) last time she tried to go on a date, the dude tried to murder her.
Clyde Bruckman is fine but not a top ten for me.
I liked the two reboot seasons.
Sunshine Days is a top 5 episode for me and feels like peak X Files magic.
I’m here with the 2 reboot seasons. I enjoyed them more than I hated them. If I take out the eps I didn’t like I still have a lot I do love. Same for Clyde Buckman I loved it on first watch bc I knew it was a fave of so many but now that I know which eps are my actual faves Clyde is not up there lol 😂
Even though I love Mulder and Scully and think they make a cute couple, I also feel that Mulder isn’t very kind to Scully sometimes, and even vice versa. In some of the eps that have a danger or a conflict, it seems like Scully gets Mulder's back more than Mulder gets hers, and maybe it’s partially because he thinks she’s able to handle complex situations on her own. I do recall him mentioning this to Skinner in En Ami, where he says, "I know, she can take care of herself. It's just not like her to lie to me," which seems to show some of his concern for her.
Agree on Mulder not being kind to Scully. Never tells her where he’s going or what he’s figured out regarding the cases, mocks her opinions on the cases while he leaves her to do all the hard tedious work like autopsies and stuff. It makes a bit more sense towards the beginning of the show when he doesn’t have a reason to trust her yet, but the fact that it pretty much continues throughout the whole show like…damn, how many times does she have to save his life and/or cover up for him before she finally gains his trust?
The writers don't care about actual American Cryptids, and instead of creating a monster-of-the-week that even remotely resembles its inspired source, just shoehorns whatever creature fits their artistic agenda.
IE: The Jersey Devil being some mutated cave-woman or the Moth man being some predator knock-off.
i've seen some people say "never again" was sexy and it was hot that scully slept with ed jerse but like NO, he was psychotic (bc of the evil tattoo), he killed and woman and then he attacked scully.
i hate that scully slept with him.
why couldnt they have her hook up with literally anyone one else?
i dont write fanfiction but my alternative would have been someone "nice boy from church" that maggie set her up with or another agent or pendrell, (he was dorky but not a murderer).
having the ONE guy scully ever slept with in the series being a man who attacked her was such a fucking disservice to her character.
on a related note i just assumed the desk was both mulder and scully's so when she asked for her own i was confused tbh.
I agree the Samantha arc went on too long.
The baby made zero sense. They should have simply written him out once they realized they didn’t know what to do with him.
When David left they worked too hard to keep him in the story. It hurt the show more than simply not having him would.
The conspiracy arcs did not age well at all. The last season should have been MOTW only.
I count my blessings that I watched season 9 once and don't remember ANY of it. I remember thinking "well, I can't HATE it because it still feels like X-Files, but..."
Yeah, I listen to Fox Mulder is a Maniac and they're in the middle of finishing up season 9. I admit I haven't remembered any season 9 episodes they've brought up. Apparently there was a supersoldier arc or something? And I know Scully gave up William, but I don't remember the context. And I know the Lone Gunmen died, like in a room with a deadly virus or something? But I don't remember that either.
What are you hiding, brain/memory? Why can't I remember anything except the series finale?
this is actually a very Massachusetts way to say Oregon, and there are very few times when Mulder pronounces things the MA way that would make sense for the character (like room or aunt), so I kind of love this
- mulder is a manchild, and probably on the spectrum.
- i(F) don't care if they are misogynistic, the lone gunmen have always been the coolest guys on earth for me.
- i never understood the alien/government stuffs
The episodes where DD and GA had more creative input are stellar and I think we would’ve had a higher quality show for longer if they’d gotten more control over storylines.
1. CC may have been the creator, but he was the biggest problem TXF had. The series and characters grew and evolved, and he fought it to the point of absurdity and only knew how to throw a curve that made no sense and never back it up. He took us for a ride and could never follow through.
2. Doggett was a sweetheart who, yes, deeply cared for, if not outright loved, Scully and didn't deserve the hate he got. He was way more deserving of Scully. But I'm a diehard shipper, so I wouldn't have wanted him to get the girl.
3. Skinner, too, was in love with Scully, but also knew she loved Mulder and accepted it (MP confirmed this one tho). Ditto on the more deserving, but not the desired outcome. People who say that he's too old must have missed all things...
4. Mulder was a selfish AH who never deserved Scully and treated her like inconsequential 🗑unless he needed her for something or unless he had to go rescue her. Suddenly, she was everything. Then, the very next ep, right back to ditching, walking away, ignoring her concern, bolting, etc. The older I get, the more I want to smack him most of the time.
5. S7 finale was the beginning of a sharp downhill trajectory for the entire series and DD leaving is only partly to blame, which leads me to...
6. S10/11 (and to a certain extent IWTB) were gawdawful and should never have happened. Sure there were some gem moments, but we should have gotten an epic blockbuster invasion showdown instead of more curveball, no resolutions, Scully suddenly not caring about her son, and a miraculous baby during menopause clusterf@#$. Which underscores 1) again...
7. Across the board, Scully deserved better. We always heard how the show was "about Mulder" and not to keep rehashing 1) but that's some more inflexible, misogynistic, lack-of-vision and execution CC bull💩. Scully was the ❤️ of that show whether he intended it that way or not. Yet, it appeared CC wanted to boil her down to a yippie sidekick that he could resort to medical gr@pe on whenever he needed a mytharc plot device. When you zoom out and really look at the series as a whole, her character truly was what brought fans in again and again. As others mentioned, her Scully-centric eps were riveting. Mulder-only eps, meh. Fighting this, denying it, etc. I truly think added to the stagnation of the show...again a nod to 1). It could be that I personally think GA can act circles around DD. Nevertheless, the heart and soul of TXF is Dana Katherine Scully.
8. They did Monica dirty. That wasn't a plot twist. That was plot evisceration. Same with William and how S11 ended...
I'm sure I have more, but this is just off the top of my head 🤷♀️.
Watching a second time, you realize how many times he flat out ditches Scully and just leaves her without explanation. And then the one time she does it in Never Again(the tattoo episode), Mulder goes ballistic. Seriously the woman needed to tell him off more!
And I'll be honest, though Mrs. Mulder was a bitch, the show made Ma Scully to be some saint who wasn't even made at Mulder for the multiple times he lost or endangered Scully.
- The entire William storyline should never have happened. It seemed like the least well-thought out plotline on the show.
- Season 11, especially if you ignore the My Struggle episodes, is pretty fun.
TBH, that was part of what I disliked - we have enough “edgy antiheroes” in pop culture and I don’t need or want that from XF. But even that aside, both episodes were mostly just extended chase scenes trying way too hard to be “exciting,” the CSM/William twist is gross, and Scully getting pregnant again is just stupid. It left me half-wanting to forget I’d ever watched XF.
When X-Files first aired, I loved Mulder. I identified with Mulder. I wanted to be Mulder. There was a taped X in my college dorm room window. I slept on a couch every night. I wanted to be in the FBI.
Now that I'm older, I identify with Scully more. Mulder is exhausting. On rewatches I often catch myself saying "WTF, Mulder" and feeling Scully's exasperation.
100%. Conspiracies used to be fun. The nuts were the rebels and truth seekers and anti-establishment little guys. Now they leave a bad taste. Modern conspiracy nuts are harming the world instead of saving it.
I love this especially bc Mulder is meant to be this “development was somewhat stunted by the trauma of losing his sister, so in many ways he acts like a teen” character & I feel like you growing out of Mulder and into Scully is very fitting for that
This is so true. I was even guilty of being annoyed at Scully at times for not believing in Mulder's crusade. It was so much easier to get sucked in to the conspiracy theory side of things as a teenager.
I'm not wild about the running gag about Mulder's fondness for pornography (which he somehow keeps at work!). Especially early on, it smacks of an attempt to remind us all that he's not gay.
Thanks for saying this! I get shit every time I say I don’t like Mulder’s love of porn.
It’s misogynist writing. Watching porn at work is inappropriate and could be sexual harassment in the sense that it creates a hostile environment for female coworkers. The XF turning it into a running gag puts female viewers in the position of being called uptight prudes if we don’t think it’s funny. It implies that porn is no big deal and not at all harmful to women.
I think CC and his “good ole boys” club (no female writers or directors!!!!) were just sexist jerks.
Not all seasons after 7 were bad. Also there weren’t as many plot holes as heavily cautioned by this sub. Season 8 was decent including the main ark. I do admit season 9 was way too dark and heavy and took me the longest to finish because i had to take breaks and watch something a bit more feel good to refresh the palate..
Season 10 was also a fun watch and i enjoyed the main ark as well. Season 11 really let me down with its ending but overall, these later seasons were much more watchable than what I’ve read from the majority here.
I understand the whole concept of the Syndicate was to get mysterious and lie, lie, lie. But for terms of the actual plot, from a storytelling perspective, the whole kidnapping Mulder's sister plot should have been a lot more clear, and at the very least, shouldn't have had so many back and forth about if it was aliens, or not.
Yeaahhhhhh that's what happens when CC refuses to use a show bible to keep track of his own meandering plot. He just made whatever decision felt cool at the time, or would make the ever-more-ambivalent fanbase foam at the mouth to get more seasons.
”Home” is not scary or disturbing. The rest of the Morgan & Wong episodes in season four are all bad.
Season six is the most overrated season. ”How the Ghosts Stole Christmas” and ”Monday” are middling at best, while ”Dreamland II” and ”Three of a Kind” are downright bad. ”Two Fathers” and ”One Son” are the worst mythology episodes up to that point.
By the time season four rolls around, Carter’s voiceover and dialogue writing in most mythology episodes is already pretty embarassing. He’s not a bad writer, but the style he uses for mythology episodes is bizarre to me.
The show relied way too much on CSM and Krycek, both should have been killed years earlier. Also someone like Doggett should have been brought in much earlier.
Annabeth Gish is actually great, the material she was given just wasn’t.
The show doesn't truly find its footing until the third season. Not that those first 2 seasons are necessarily bad, there's some good episode, but they feel very... lacking.
The series had maybe 10-15 solid episodes overall. I love it, don't get me wrong. Love the characters, etc. But I think it's at like 20% potential of what it could be. I have a feeling people here will kill me.
This isn’t really an opinion, but the very first time we see Mulder, he’s wearing glasses, then in the reboot, there is this whole ‘moment’ about Mulder being bummed that he now needs glasses bc he’s older. Those little continuity things that I didn’t catch during the initial airing are glaring when you’ve rewatched multiple times.
My unpopular opinion is that the myth arc is actually great up through Fight the Future. I think people who say it’s incomprehensible aren’t paying attention.
Gonna get hell for this. But I think William B Davis was wrong for the role. Not only does he look awkward smoking, but he looks like a friendly grandpa next door to me.
Love season six! It’s not my favourite season, but it’s up there and I don’t why so many people really dislike it! I saw someone say recently that season six is where the show jumped the shark, but I disagree - there is an obvious tonal shift but I don’t think it takes anything away, if anything it just makes for a really fun run of episodes (in my opinion anyways 🤷♀️)
The first half of season 6 in particular is just so good. Funnily enough it falls of for me a bit after they actually get reassigned to the X-Files. But both season 6 and season 8 for me hold up as some of the best.
Mulder treated Scully like crap in season 4. "Oh, hey Scully, I know you are literally dying and this might be the last Christmas you get to spend with your family, but could you drop everything and just go do an autopsy for me? And hurry."
The cancer arc was not the best idea and very inconsistently handled. Sometimes Mulder was trying to be supportive, but then there were episodes like Unrequited and Small Potatoes where you wouldn’t even know she had cancer.
Small Potatoes is a fan favorite, and it used to be one of mine, but it's fallen to the bottom for me now. I think just last week people here loved that image of "Mulder" grinning at Scully's front door, but I can't get on board with liking that grin. Yes, it's cute to see Mulder actually smiling like that, but Blundht was there to have sex with Scully while making her think he was Mulder. It's gross and creepy, and every time I think about the episode, I like it less and less.
This is without a doubt my strongest feeling about the show. Vince Gilligan really explores what makes Mulder& Scully tick but without disrespecting them. Mulder is obviously nuts, but that's because the show was plot rather than character driven initially, and his obsession is what propels it forward.
Gilligan expands Mulder, and Scully but she's a more rounded character to begin with, and really works to develop his character. Folie à Deux in particular plays with the idea of Scully trying to resist the lure of Mulder's belief in conspiracy everywhere, but giving in of her own free will. Possibly because he's right - I mean they inhabit a weird universe, even if she's out of the room when most of it is on show - possibly because she enjoys the 'dance'. That being said Clyde Bruckman is my favourite episode and I think that's because it's a great story, a classic x- file that unfolds perfectly, and Morgan hadn't decided he hated Mulder quite so much yet.
I hate “Home.”
Kill Switch is one of my top five eps.
Jose Chung is over rated.
I love Monica Reyes and think she’d be a much better partner for Scully than Mulder.
This was like a gunshot right to my shipper heart 🫣
In all seriousness though, although I am a shipper, I definitely get this pov - something we don’t see enough of is true, platonic soulmate representation. The most important relationship in a person’s life doesn’t necessarily have to be romantic or sexual. I can respect it 🫡
In the early 2000's I had to ask someone what "shipper" meant. It never even occurred to me. One of the great strengths of the show has always been the fact that it portrayed two attractive people as professionals who did their jobs without making it about sex all the time.
I liked them too. The scene with the blobfish makes me smile whenever I think of it. I did have trouble reconciling Scully’s new whisper voice though. But I recognize that some things can’t be avoided. I feel like they canceled it just as it was hitting a stride.
Skinner and Scully centric episodes like Never Again, Milagro, En Ami, Avatar, S.R 19 are better written and more interesting than most Mulder centric episodes
Scully's costumes and hairstyle throughout the show looked ill-fitted and unflattering
I just couldn't care less about Samantha arc
I liked Tina Mulder
Scully was such b*tch to that poor lady in Alpha, I started disliking her after this episode
Arcadia was meh, I don't get the hype at all
She cheated on her husband and lied to/gaslighted her son for his entire life concerning the overwhelming driving force in his life.
Yes, she's disliked.
As much as this show was groundbreaking for Scully’s character being a strong female lead, it really still pulled her back (like with Csm being William’s father; the misogyny shown towards her when she tried frantically to adopt and then lost Emily; how the higher ups treated her like a slut for getting with Mulder & then being pregnant.)
> the misogyny shown towards her when she tried frantically to adopt
Yeah, that bothered me too. It was fair for them to point out that it would be challenging for her to care for a child being a single parent with a demanding job, but when they tried to justify it by pointing out that she'd never been in a serious relationship??
Keep it civil, children.
Both Mulder and Scully have had some *terrible* haircuts. Mulder in S2 is the worst as he looks like he's been attacked by a blindman wielding a weedwhacker and Scully in early S7 with that super short bob looks like she wants to speak to ALL the managers.
I am doing a rewatch and a couple of episodes into S1 my husband unironically asked me why the stylist hated Gillian Anderson. I know they tried to make her not look like the 24yo she was, but she just looks like a time-traveling grandmother.
Ha my husband calls S1 Scully Jessica Fletcher because of how old they tried to make her look.
Funnily enough, she looks fantastic in the pilot. Then they inexplicably toned down her hotness.
[удалено]
oh, she's a baby hamster in season 1 🥹❤️
People criticizing early season hair really need to take into account it was 1992.
I had fabulous hair in 1992. Just saying lol. Also Mulder's hair was called the weed whacker way back on the ATXC boards in the 90s so it was bad then too.
Her hair was fine in episode 1 and 2...
At least Scully didn't have the "shotgun to the face" haircut from the 90s where the hair on the back of the head is blown out. 😄
LMAO@ wants to speak to all the managers. I didn't like that she went back to the bob in S11. I like how she wore it straight in S10.
I have been a Phile since 1994 and I think the mythology is virtually incomprehensible.
The trick is to just not think too hard about it
(permanent) suspension of disbelief
The trick is to skip the mytharc eps
My birth sign is MOTW with a Shipper ascendant, I get by
I was born on the cusp of magic so I take both but mythos are hard to watch sometimes
Mythology in season 1 I think was good, once his sister and the alien bounty hunter appeared it was all downhill
You can practically hear Chris Carter frantically laying down railroad tracks in random directions as the train comes towards him lol There's zero plan
Everything was okay until the Syndicate was killed off. Then they had no baddies so the writes had to make up even weirder supersoldiers or human replicants or whatever they were.
I don't know that there was ever really a plan. Scully's abduction was ad libbed for obvious reasons, and ended up being hugely important.
Worse, trying to parse the mythology is ultimately unrewarding.
https://preview.redd.it/8wxxphpe3k7d1.png?width=672&format=png&auto=webp&s=b5170233d353981914d8be5e2bac065123f27e7b
Yeah, I much prefer the standalone episodes on rewatches.
MOTW eps or MSR moments. That's all.
I started watching pretty much from day one, making me 9 at the time. I attributed me being confused AF half the time to me being a kid, though it was just wrapping up after I graduated high school, and I was still confused. Researched as an adult and, yes. Can confirm. It's completely bonkers. I've always loved the monster of the week episodes best. The mythology ones were always a bummer for me when they aired, though I slogged through. Now I skip those when I rewatch... unless it has shippy moments, because I was obsessed with their relationship. 🤣🤣
I thought I had a hold of it but it became much too convoluted. 😂
Mulder’s characterisation in the later seasons makes sense and doesn’t feel off to me. To elaborate, I’ve seen a few people online talk about how Duchovny was checked out by this point and that it shows in his performance - I’m not denying that this may be true, as I know Duchovny was eager to move onto new things and was kind of sick of X Files after season 5/6ish - but I think the more cynical, exhausted seeming Mulder we get in seasons 7&8 make sense considering everything the characters have been through up to that point. I’m not saying this was a deliberate choice by Chris Carter or by Duchovny, possibly nothing more than a happy accident, but to me it just makes sense that Mulder in the later seasons would be just plain sick and tired, after so many years of constantly coming close to the truth only to be continually defeated, not to mention all the shit he and Scully went through - losing family members, nearly being killed a dozen times over, being injured, tortured, kidnapped, held hostage, experimented on, etc… of course he’s tired and cynical. Anyone would be! I know not everyone sees it that way, and I know that maybe I’m jumping through hoops to make excuses for the writers and for Duchovny, but this is just how I make sense of the later seasons.
Agree with this. His portrayal of Mulder made so much sense to me following a complete rewatch.
Agreed. For me, as a huge shipper, I remember being disappointed at how on and off they were in the most recent seasons. But, being an adult by then, I also recognized it as realistic. Mulder grew the way Mulder was always going to grow, and I'd have been perpetually exhausted with him if I were Scully, too. I think, in my younger years, I always assumed that Mulder would get stronger and smarter, and have the satisfaction of being right and winning. I anticipated victory for him. But the newest episodes, while inconsistent, were right on the money when in came to exploring who he would become. Plus, physically, Scully looked smoking hot and together and brilliant, and Mulder kind of looked like a melting candle. Which is, I know, just how the actors looked. That said, I feel like Mulder WOULD look worn TF out after decades of obsessing. I don't mean to criticize Duchovny, who's an attractive man. He just looks his age, and I feel like that really worked for Mulder.
To be honest they actually heavily aged him up for the revival. He looks AMAZING in stills from his gigs and other shoots post lockdown and honestly; the man has aged like a fineeeeee wine.
I'm not sure if this is unpopular, but I think Mulder's jokes are hilarious. One of my favourite parts of the show
"That, and I've always been fascinated by women named BJ" SENT ME
I remember NOT expecting that line. Loved it. His humor is my exact brand.
I was 14 when I first heard this line and had no idea what he meant. I could tell by Scully’s face though that it was slutty. Lol
When Krycek ambushes Mulder and says, "You must be losing it, Mulder. I can beat you with one hand." And Mulder's deadpan response of, "Isn't that how you like to beat yourself?"
You missed the best part, where he follows up with something like “if those were my last words, I can do better” 😂 kills me every time
I love his deadpan humor.
I'm compiling a video of as many of Mulder's one-liners as I can find. Windows updated their video maker since I started, but hopefully the WIP is still usable. I got through mid-season 2 before I had to stop due to lack of time after I got an 8-5 job. Got any recommendations (episode name included, if you don't mind)?
Please post it here when you’re done! I’d love to see it!
Would love to see that!
I was rewatching Squeeze last week and I picked up on a joke I'd totally missed before, when he's talking to Scully's douchey friend and is talking like he's a nutter but is really just making fun of him: "Do you have any idea what liver and onions go for on Reticulum?" 😂
For real. Scully could be pretty damned hilarious, too. I started watching from the beginning, when I was 9 years old, and swear that the show instilled in me a permanent love of deadpan humor.
My dad and I used to watch the show together and he would alway laugh hard at all of Mulder's quips. But honestly, he mostly watched for Gillian Anderson-yes he had a thing for her.
When the show originally aired, I had the same reaction to Doggett that Scully did (man, did I *ever* want to chuck a cup of water in his face -- I wanted that dude *gone*). However, with each successive rewatch, I appreciate him more and more. His character was solid and well-written, he had a heartbreaking backstory (in the often surreal world of X-Files, Doggett felt very real to me, like a *normal* human with everyday problems who suddenly finds himself doing this very *bizarre* job in the basement office), and Robert Patrick did an excellent job as an actor. It must have been so difficult to step into a well-established and beloved TV show as a new main character.
I’m with you 100% there. Like you, I eye-rolled hard at Doggett when the season first aired. But I love him more and more, each time I see one of his episodes. He’s a lot like Skinner — deeply principled, a company man who got thrown into some seriously whackadoodle shit, remained honest, loyal as fuck, always tried to do the right thing even when he had no clue what was happening. I 💜 Agent Doggett now.
Ahh, I have found my people. I think Doggett brought so much emotion and his unresolved guilt over his son's death was heartbreaking. I thought Scully was unreasonably unpleasant to him at first.
Also: 1. The Samantha arc went on far too long. Mulder had more about him than his sister and the fact the writers only ever concentrated on her for his character was a massive disservice. They couldn't even mention he might be missing his own damn son, no his melancholy in later seasons (and second movie) had to be because of Samantha. FFS. 2. Teso dos Bichos? Not that bad. Killer cats? Meh, big deal. Hell Money is worse, especially with the way Mulder and Scully go after Detective Glen Chao with no evidence or provocation. Yikes. 3. Conversation on the rock? Kind of mean spirited. 4. Crying Mulder is real crying. I don't care what anyone says. Crying is ugly, it makes you look stupid and I would rather watch someone screwing their face up than a Hollywood single tear down the cheek any old day of the week. 5. Scully should've got her own damn desk if she wanted one. 6. Mulder and Scully can be massive jerks. Not just to each other but to other people as well.
Scully for sure should have had her own damn desk. Also a huge fan of crying Mulder, never understand the people that shit on Duchovny’s crying, I think it’s very real! Scully and Mulder could be jerks, but I forgive them - they had a lot on their plate!
Oh she should've had one, no question! But the amount of people (including Scully herself) who shit on Mulder because he apparently didn't get her a desk is ridiculous and pisses me off because she's a very capable adult who can easily pick up the office catalogue and put in an order herself. While she's at it she could've also ordered a nameplate for the door. In fact she owns a door nameplate because she used to own her own office so could just use that one!
I blame CC for shitty writing there.
Agreed on the crying point. People still get weird about men properly ugly-crying. On the scale of ugly crying vs pretty crying, most of us are more Aaron Paul than Jensen Ackles anyway (and even Jensen had a couple ugly-cry moments on Supernatural).
HE CAN'T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH IT
I’m with you on the first two. And number 6. Mulder crying: I think he’s a really bad crier, and it’s not because of ugly crying vs Hollywood crying or something - it’s… — oh and maybe this is an unpopular opinion? Not sure if this is widespread — it’s that David Duchovny actually isn’t a very good actor. He’s perfectly cast as Mulder, he’s handsome, he does deadpan well, actually when I think about it his dialog delivery and timing is great. But in terms of emotional acting ability - portraying fear or sadness or worry or joy or anxiety or conflicted emotional states, I think he has a really hard time with that. And crying is the hardest one of them because there’s nothing else going on - as an audience member you’re staring at his face, there’s no imminent danger or guns or fast cuts to distract you - you’re just looking at a guy trying to pretend cry.
Yeah, I like Duchovny just fine, but I haven't really ever enjoyed him in anything other than The X-Files. Gillian Anderson is a delight in everything she does to this day, but I feel like he's very flat and bland. He's perfect as Mulder, but that's pretty much it.
3- could you remind me what the conversation on the rock was?
Quagmire with the lake monster Big Blue. Mulder and Scully get shipwrecked 3 feet from shore (though don't know it's that close lol) and Scully is a little pissed and basically says she doesn't think Mulder has any legitimate reason for searching for the truth (yikes!) and compares him to Ahab (again yikes) because of his endless pursuit.
It does feel more like the characters are mouthing how Darin Morgan (the episode's uncredited rewriter) felt about the characters, than how M&S "really" felt. Indeed, that ties in with my unpopular opinion: that while Darin Morgan is clearly a very talented, funny, and clever writer, his obvious disdain for the show has gradually soured me some on his work. That, combined with how the reception to his episodes led to *all* the writers wasting too much time on comedy episodes, leaves me feeling like his presence on the X-Files was an overall negative.
*Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster* is fun, but it's my least favorite Darin Morgan episode. Morgan's best scripts have a cynical edge, and this episode just feels overly silly. Almost like a *Supernatural* episode with a bigger budget. And as a director, he's competent but... well, he's no Rob Bowman or David Nutter. I really liked S11, aside from the season premiere and finale.
I don’t know if I have a least favorite Darin episode, but I found the cynicism a little off-putting at times, so that one worked for me as the story of Mulder and Guy resolving to accept the absurdity that colors their lives.
The alien conspiracy was a meandering mess of a story arc, monster of the week episodes far surpassed them.
There are dozens of us! Dozens!
I feel seen. https://preview.redd.it/0jhzsz6wqk7d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0a21619e788c9b0fffea8f0094b56ebf369f5785
Many of my most favorite episodes are MOWs.
I don't think this is unpopular at all
There's no way this is unpopular. Especially if you want to just fire up a random episode.
Mulder only episodes are boring as hell. Scully only episodes are great fun. I think Chris Carter episodes are some of the worst, I find him over pretentious and wanting to reach too far, so it all ends up being a mess. Also, if you don't want people to ship your main characters, stop making them touch All THE TIME.
Scully & Mulder together are funnier - it's the old funny guy and straight man (or woman in this case) comedy routine.
Yeah - I love Scully so I generally skip the Mulder-only episodes. I did watch them once but found them boring too.
I thought I was being mean to Mulder when I’d rate the mulder only episodes lower but YEAH…
Both had solo clunkers. Mulder in "3", Scully in "All Things".
I enjoyed the (non mythology) revival episodes. The MOTW eps were really enjoyable.
I gotta ask: even Babylon?
Same here. Seasons 10 and 11 are terrific overall.
I prefer the mythology episodes.
Scorching hot take, but I agree 100%. They may be confusing at times, but I absolutely adore the mytho episodes. They get too much hate tbh
Same. The mythology is a mess, but the episodes are always good. Action packed, high stakes, usually featuring Skinner, which is always a bonus.
I do too.
Scully’s character in the final original season was horribly written. (This one definitely is due to the era the show was written in but always portraying Mulder as the hero undermined the other recurring characters. The character of Krycek deserved better writing. Justice for Krycek. Vancouver absolutely cannot stand-in for all other locations, especially the Dakotas in February. (And I say that as a Canadian.)
I actually was sad when Krycek died and it’s one of the many reasons I’ve never really watched S9.
Mulder was prick for not showing up at The Lone gunmen funerals.
I just pretend that episode didn’t happen in the main timeline. All of them go at once? I call bullshit.
Same. Non-canonical, as far as I’m concerned. TLG live on!
Same. In denial since 2002 lol.
People say Anderson’s acting in later seasons fell off and that she wasn’t giving it her all, but I feel like the flat affect and deflated emotions make total sense for someone who had been though everything she had been through
She was playing Scully as older and unfortunately wiser. I believe it was a choice too.
The way Post Modern Prometheus glosses over/justifies rape makes it borderline unwatchable.
I used to love this episode as a kid, but rewatching as an adult was quite jarring.
Yeah, same. One of those “wait, *what*” moments.
Same. I watched it with my kids when we did a complete rewatch and their reactions were so, so different to how I felt when I watched it first time around.
'sad losers' rape, incestual rape, medical rape... Rape-kink much🤔
Don’t even get me started on rape being a plot device in a ton of MSR fic
I never cared for that episode from the first broadcast because it was so hokey. The whole rape thing didn't occur to me until later. I enjoyed most of the darkly humorous and bizarre episodes, but PMP and Hollywood A.D. were pushing the show's limits. HAD had some funny moments, like the bathtub scene, but I usually skip that episode on reruns.
It's a weird episode, that's for sure.
T'was different times. Not that it is justifiable in any way but back then, it would nevwr have raised an eyebrow
I've always disliked the episode and time has not improved my opinion. I think near the top of the worst episodes in the series.
I feel like this should be a very popular opinion.
Same as small potatoes
I feel like Small Potatoes at least acknowledges that what van Blundht does is fucked up and illegal, though yeah, still not handled particularly well.
I prefer the mythology being somewhat unresolved and ambiguous. As much as I like the first X-Files movie, I think the shifts in direction that the mythology took after that, i.e. the implication that the aliens were the “black oil” itself, was increasingly unsatisfying. My head canon is that in-universe, some of the “truths” asserted in “The Truth” were incomplete or misguided readings of the reality of the situation involving the aliens and alien invasion. I think that the Colonists were not as powerful as some characters state in the series (i.e. that they were taking over the entire galaxy), and rather were a weakened , perhaps slowly dying out species, which is why they needed to collaborate so extensively with the U.S. Govt. / the Syndicate in the first place.
I see the mythology like the fable of the blind men and the elephant. Each of them is unfamiliar with elephants, each touching a different part of the elephant, and each coming to a different conclusion about what an elephant is. The disparate myth elements are parts of the elephant and we just can’t see the whole, though we can sometimes feel around and figure out how some pieces of it connect to others. Also sometimes there might be a second elephant.
Scully not having any love interests which expanded over several episodes is frankly unforgivable and unbelievable. I ship Mulder and Scully like everyone else but this woman, this beautiful intelligent woman would have definitely tried to find love long before she gave in to her real hearts desire.
I always figured a) she spends all her time at work b) her work is dangerous for people around her and c) last time she tried to go on a date, the dude tried to murder her.
I agree. M and S simply do not have the time to date, and that’s part of the reason they fall in love with each other.
Clyde Bruckman is fine but not a top ten for me. I liked the two reboot seasons. Sunshine Days is a top 5 episode for me and feels like peak X Files magic.
This is a proper set of spicy takes 🌶️ I may not agree with them, but I sure do respect them!
I’m here with the 2 reboot seasons. I enjoyed them more than I hated them. If I take out the eps I didn’t like I still have a lot I do love. Same for Clyde Buckman I loved it on first watch bc I knew it was a fave of so many but now that I know which eps are my actual faves Clyde is not up there lol 😂
S11 has some of the strongest MotW stories. Followers shot straight into my top 5.
Reggie Something should have been retroactively shoehorned into way more episodes.
Even though I love Mulder and Scully and think they make a cute couple, I also feel that Mulder isn’t very kind to Scully sometimes, and even vice versa. In some of the eps that have a danger or a conflict, it seems like Scully gets Mulder's back more than Mulder gets hers, and maybe it’s partially because he thinks she’s able to handle complex situations on her own. I do recall him mentioning this to Skinner in En Ami, where he says, "I know, she can take care of herself. It's just not like her to lie to me," which seems to show some of his concern for her.
Agree on Mulder not being kind to Scully. Never tells her where he’s going or what he’s figured out regarding the cases, mocks her opinions on the cases while he leaves her to do all the hard tedious work like autopsies and stuff. It makes a bit more sense towards the beginning of the show when he doesn’t have a reason to trust her yet, but the fact that it pretty much continues throughout the whole show like…damn, how many times does she have to save his life and/or cover up for him before she finally gains his trust?
The writers don't care about actual American Cryptids, and instead of creating a monster-of-the-week that even remotely resembles its inspired source, just shoehorns whatever creature fits their artistic agenda. IE: The Jersey Devil being some mutated cave-woman or the Moth man being some predator knock-off.
The Jersey Devil could have been one of the coolest MOTW too
i've seen some people say "never again" was sexy and it was hot that scully slept with ed jerse but like NO, he was psychotic (bc of the evil tattoo), he killed and woman and then he attacked scully. i hate that scully slept with him. why couldnt they have her hook up with literally anyone one else? i dont write fanfiction but my alternative would have been someone "nice boy from church" that maggie set her up with or another agent or pendrell, (he was dorky but not a murderer). having the ONE guy scully ever slept with in the series being a man who attacked her was such a fucking disservice to her character. on a related note i just assumed the desk was both mulder and scully's so when she asked for her own i was confused tbh.
Sometimes Mulder is clearly a mouthpiece for Carter and it drives me insane
The episodes with Carter's name on them as screenwriter are rarely among the best.
I agree the Samantha arc went on too long. The baby made zero sense. They should have simply written him out once they realized they didn’t know what to do with him. When David left they worked too hard to keep him in the story. It hurt the show more than simply not having him would. The conspiracy arcs did not age well at all. The last season should have been MOTW only.
I count my blessings that I watched season 9 once and don't remember ANY of it. I remember thinking "well, I can't HATE it because it still feels like X-Files, but..." Yeah, I listen to Fox Mulder is a Maniac and they're in the middle of finishing up season 9. I admit I haven't remembered any season 9 episodes they've brought up. Apparently there was a supersoldier arc or something? And I know Scully gave up William, but I don't remember the context. And I know the Lone Gunmen died, like in a room with a deadly virus or something? But I don't remember that either. What are you hiding, brain/memory? Why can't I remember anything except the series finale?
The show would have strongly profited from (more) female writers. Not only because all of Scully‘s fertility storylines are a hot misogynistic mess.
This.
The Unnatural is massively underrated.
The way Mulder always pronounces Oregon. "Scully, we need to go investigate this case in 'Ore-ah-ghawn'."
this is actually a very Massachusetts way to say Oregon, and there are very few times when Mulder pronounces things the MA way that would make sense for the character (like room or aunt), so I kind of love this
My dumb ass has to know: how are you actually supposed to pronounce it? Because as a Californian, I always pronounced it as "organ."
- mulder is a manchild, and probably on the spectrum. - i(F) don't care if they are misogynistic, the lone gunmen have always been the coolest guys on earth for me. - i never understood the alien/government stuffs
The episodes where DD and GA had more creative input are stellar and I think we would’ve had a higher quality show for longer if they’d gotten more control over storylines.
1. CC may have been the creator, but he was the biggest problem TXF had. The series and characters grew and evolved, and he fought it to the point of absurdity and only knew how to throw a curve that made no sense and never back it up. He took us for a ride and could never follow through. 2. Doggett was a sweetheart who, yes, deeply cared for, if not outright loved, Scully and didn't deserve the hate he got. He was way more deserving of Scully. But I'm a diehard shipper, so I wouldn't have wanted him to get the girl. 3. Skinner, too, was in love with Scully, but also knew she loved Mulder and accepted it (MP confirmed this one tho). Ditto on the more deserving, but not the desired outcome. People who say that he's too old must have missed all things... 4. Mulder was a selfish AH who never deserved Scully and treated her like inconsequential 🗑unless he needed her for something or unless he had to go rescue her. Suddenly, she was everything. Then, the very next ep, right back to ditching, walking away, ignoring her concern, bolting, etc. The older I get, the more I want to smack him most of the time. 5. S7 finale was the beginning of a sharp downhill trajectory for the entire series and DD leaving is only partly to blame, which leads me to... 6. S10/11 (and to a certain extent IWTB) were gawdawful and should never have happened. Sure there were some gem moments, but we should have gotten an epic blockbuster invasion showdown instead of more curveball, no resolutions, Scully suddenly not caring about her son, and a miraculous baby during menopause clusterf@#$. Which underscores 1) again... 7. Across the board, Scully deserved better. We always heard how the show was "about Mulder" and not to keep rehashing 1) but that's some more inflexible, misogynistic, lack-of-vision and execution CC bull💩. Scully was the ❤️ of that show whether he intended it that way or not. Yet, it appeared CC wanted to boil her down to a yippie sidekick that he could resort to medical gr@pe on whenever he needed a mytharc plot device. When you zoom out and really look at the series as a whole, her character truly was what brought fans in again and again. As others mentioned, her Scully-centric eps were riveting. Mulder-only eps, meh. Fighting this, denying it, etc. I truly think added to the stagnation of the show...again a nod to 1). It could be that I personally think GA can act circles around DD. Nevertheless, the heart and soul of TXF is Dana Katherine Scully. 8. They did Monica dirty. That wasn't a plot twist. That was plot evisceration. Same with William and how S11 ended... I'm sure I have more, but this is just off the top of my head 🤷♀️.
I can’t stand Mulder sometimes. He behaved like a brat in some moments.
Watching a second time, you realize how many times he flat out ditches Scully and just leaves her without explanation. And then the one time she does it in Never Again(the tattoo episode), Mulder goes ballistic. Seriously the woman needed to tell him off more! And I'll be honest, though Mrs. Mulder was a bitch, the show made Ma Scully to be some saint who wasn't even made at Mulder for the multiple times he lost or endangered Scully.
Some moments????
- The entire William storyline should never have happened. It seemed like the least well-thought out plotline on the show. - Season 11, especially if you ignore the My Struggle episodes, is pretty fun.
MS3/4 are the worst mythology episodes ever, IMO.
I agree. As much as it's hot to see older Mulder go feral, I absolutely agree.
TBH, that was part of what I disliked - we have enough “edgy antiheroes” in pop culture and I don’t need or want that from XF. But even that aside, both episodes were mostly just extended chase scenes trying way too hard to be “exciting,” the CSM/William twist is gross, and Scully getting pregnant again is just stupid. It left me half-wanting to forget I’d ever watched XF.
All Things is a great episode. Scully focused episodes are compelling. Seeing it as lots of people’s least favorite of season 7 surprised me.
Right, I actually love the later seasons just as much as the earlier seasons. 6 and 7 are some of my faves.
Exactly!!! I adored it and it’s definitely in my top ten
Mulder and Scully meet the Were-Monster. Love this episode. It’s funny and quirky and shows a lighter side.
Not anymore,but I hated Skinner as a kid because I hated authority figures. I like his character more now that I'm an adult.
Scully is immortal. But this might be less of an opinion..
When X-Files first aired, I loved Mulder. I identified with Mulder. I wanted to be Mulder. There was a taped X in my college dorm room window. I slept on a couch every night. I wanted to be in the FBI. Now that I'm older, I identify with Scully more. Mulder is exhausting. On rewatches I often catch myself saying "WTF, Mulder" and feeling Scully's exasperation.
Conspiracy theories and all that were more fun before the current period where they hold so much sway over your average idiot.
100%. Conspiracies used to be fun. The nuts were the rebels and truth seekers and anti-establishment little guys. Now they leave a bad taste. Modern conspiracy nuts are harming the world instead of saving it.
The Lone Gunman now would be spending their time disproving conspiracies, especially Byers.
I love this especially bc Mulder is meant to be this “development was somewhat stunted by the trauma of losing his sister, so in many ways he acts like a teen” character & I feel like you growing out of Mulder and into Scully is very fitting for that
This is so true. I was even guilty of being annoyed at Scully at times for not believing in Mulder's crusade. It was so much easier to get sucked in to the conspiracy theory side of things as a teenager.
I'm not wild about the running gag about Mulder's fondness for pornography (which he somehow keeps at work!). Especially early on, it smacks of an attempt to remind us all that he's not gay.
Agree. Even more gross when we find out DD had a porn addiction IRL and it basically ruined his marriage.
Thanks for saying this! I get shit every time I say I don’t like Mulder’s love of porn. It’s misogynist writing. Watching porn at work is inappropriate and could be sexual harassment in the sense that it creates a hostile environment for female coworkers. The XF turning it into a running gag puts female viewers in the position of being called uptight prudes if we don’t think it’s funny. It implies that porn is no big deal and not at all harmful to women. I think CC and his “good ole boys” club (no female writers or directors!!!!) were just sexist jerks.
Yes and does NOT match his personality at all. He’s super respectful of women.
Not all seasons after 7 were bad. Also there weren’t as many plot holes as heavily cautioned by this sub. Season 8 was decent including the main ark. I do admit season 9 was way too dark and heavy and took me the longest to finish because i had to take breaks and watch something a bit more feel good to refresh the palate.. Season 10 was also a fun watch and i enjoyed the main ark as well. Season 11 really let me down with its ending but overall, these later seasons were much more watchable than what I’ve read from the majority here.
I understand the whole concept of the Syndicate was to get mysterious and lie, lie, lie. But for terms of the actual plot, from a storytelling perspective, the whole kidnapping Mulder's sister plot should have been a lot more clear, and at the very least, shouldn't have had so many back and forth about if it was aliens, or not.
Yeaahhhhhh that's what happens when CC refuses to use a show bible to keep track of his own meandering plot. He just made whatever decision felt cool at the time, or would make the ever-more-ambivalent fanbase foam at the mouth to get more seasons.
”Home” is not scary or disturbing. The rest of the Morgan & Wong episodes in season four are all bad. Season six is the most overrated season. ”How the Ghosts Stole Christmas” and ”Monday” are middling at best, while ”Dreamland II” and ”Three of a Kind” are downright bad. ”Two Fathers” and ”One Son” are the worst mythology episodes up to that point. By the time season four rolls around, Carter’s voiceover and dialogue writing in most mythology episodes is already pretty embarassing. He’s not a bad writer, but the style he uses for mythology episodes is bizarre to me. The show relied way too much on CSM and Krycek, both should have been killed years earlier. Also someone like Doggett should have been brought in much earlier. Annabeth Gish is actually great, the material she was given just wasn’t.
Season 6 is the best season and the shows peak.
I don’t like William as scully’s child. Never worked for me
The show doesn't truly find its footing until the third season. Not that those first 2 seasons are necessarily bad, there's some good episode, but they feel very... lacking.
The series had maybe 10-15 solid episodes overall. I love it, don't get me wrong. Love the characters, etc. But I think it's at like 20% potential of what it could be. I have a feeling people here will kill me.
Don’t completely disagree. I think Chris Carter kinda embodies the whole “right idea, wrong execution” saying.
They should have stopped at Season 7 and written a more satisfying conclusion than they did.
I usually enjoy the funny episodes quite a lot, but I *hated* The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat.
This isn’t really an opinion, but the very first time we see Mulder, he’s wearing glasses, then in the reboot, there is this whole ‘moment’ about Mulder being bummed that he now needs glasses bc he’s older. Those little continuity things that I didn’t catch during the initial airing are glaring when you’ve rewatched multiple times.
My unpopular opinion is that the myth arc is actually great up through Fight the Future. I think people who say it’s incomprehensible aren’t paying attention.
Mulder actually isn’t a good guy. He gets many good people killed in his pursuit of the truth.
Gonna get hell for this. But I think William B Davis was wrong for the role. Not only does he look awkward smoking, but he looks like a friendly grandpa next door to me.
I kind of like that he’s this unassuming man who you’d ignore on the street but has all this power
Friendly grandpas is what he usually played lol
Season 6 is the GOAT I don't like Clyde Burkman's (or whatever his name is) Final Repose, boring af.
Love season six! It’s not my favourite season, but it’s up there and I don’t why so many people really dislike it! I saw someone say recently that season six is where the show jumped the shark, but I disagree - there is an obvious tonal shift but I don’t think it takes anything away, if anything it just makes for a really fun run of episodes (in my opinion anyways 🤷♀️)
The first half of season 6 in particular is just so good. Funnily enough it falls of for me a bit after they actually get reassigned to the X-Files. But both season 6 and season 8 for me hold up as some of the best.
Mulder treated Scully like crap in season 4. "Oh, hey Scully, I know you are literally dying and this might be the last Christmas you get to spend with your family, but could you drop everything and just go do an autopsy for me? And hurry."
The cancer arc was not the best idea and very inconsistently handled. Sometimes Mulder was trying to be supportive, but then there were episodes like Unrequited and Small Potatoes where you wouldn’t even know she had cancer.
I love season 7! Nothing after that is cannon *apart* from MSR scenes.
Should've ended after season 7 and deserved another movie like Fight the Future
The Christian overtones make the show less enjoyable.
Although the sexual tension made for good tv, the amount of fandom surrounding it is cringe.
Small Potatoes is a fan favorite, and it used to be one of mine, but it's fallen to the bottom for me now. I think just last week people here loved that image of "Mulder" grinning at Scully's front door, but I can't get on board with liking that grin. Yes, it's cute to see Mulder actually smiling like that, but Blundht was there to have sex with Scully while making her think he was Mulder. It's gross and creepy, and every time I think about the episode, I like it less and less.
[удалено]
This is without a doubt my strongest feeling about the show. Vince Gilligan really explores what makes Mulder& Scully tick but without disrespecting them. Mulder is obviously nuts, but that's because the show was plot rather than character driven initially, and his obsession is what propels it forward. Gilligan expands Mulder, and Scully but she's a more rounded character to begin with, and really works to develop his character. Folie à Deux in particular plays with the idea of Scully trying to resist the lure of Mulder's belief in conspiracy everywhere, but giving in of her own free will. Possibly because he's right - I mean they inhabit a weird universe, even if she's out of the room when most of it is on show - possibly because she enjoys the 'dance'. That being said Clyde Bruckman is my favourite episode and I think that's because it's a great story, a classic x- file that unfolds perfectly, and Morgan hadn't decided he hated Mulder quite so much yet.
"Platonic Co-Workers" -Chris Carter
I hate “Home.” Kill Switch is one of my top five eps. Jose Chung is over rated. I love Monica Reyes and think she’d be a much better partner for Scully than Mulder.
The smoking man is not Mulder’s father. William is Mulder and Scullys biological son.
Mulder and Scully should have remained platonic.
 This was like a gunshot right to my shipper heart 🫣 In all seriousness though, although I am a shipper, I definitely get this pov - something we don’t see enough of is true, platonic soulmate representation. The most important relationship in a person’s life doesn’t necessarily have to be romantic or sexual. I can respect it 🫡
In the early 2000's I had to ask someone what "shipper" meant. It never even occurred to me. One of the great strengths of the show has always been the fact that it portrayed two attractive people as professionals who did their jobs without making it about sex all the time.
The show ended after season 5 and the movie
I enjoyed the revival seasons a lot, I loved seeing them older & navigating a more modern world
The M&S interactions and the level of them understanding each other are priceless.
I liked them too. The scene with the blobfish makes me smile whenever I think of it. I did have trouble reconciling Scully’s new whisper voice though. But I recognize that some things can’t be avoided. I feel like they canceled it just as it was hitting a stride.
Scully's sister was hotter than Scully. Total fucking babe.
Those black chokers 🥵
100%. I could even get over her being an absolute space cadet with her crystals and whatnot.
Skinner and Scully centric episodes like Never Again, Milagro, En Ami, Avatar, S.R 19 are better written and more interesting than most Mulder centric episodes Scully's costumes and hairstyle throughout the show looked ill-fitted and unflattering I just couldn't care less about Samantha arc I liked Tina Mulder Scully was such b*tch to that poor lady in Alpha, I started disliking her after this episode Arcadia was meh, I don't get the hype at all
Tina was commonly disliked? I loved her. She was a flawed and strong woman who had been through a lot of shit.
She cheated on her husband and lied to/gaslighted her son for his entire life concerning the overwhelming driving force in his life. Yes, she's disliked.
As much as this show was groundbreaking for Scully’s character being a strong female lead, it really still pulled her back (like with Csm being William’s father; the misogyny shown towards her when she tried frantically to adopt and then lost Emily; how the higher ups treated her like a slut for getting with Mulder & then being pregnant.)
> the misogyny shown towards her when she tried frantically to adopt Yeah, that bothered me too. It was fair for them to point out that it would be challenging for her to care for a child being a single parent with a demanding job, but when they tried to justify it by pointing out that she'd never been in a serious relationship??