Before I get to the second movie (that'll be on Monday), I might as well go through the series and talk about some of my favourites. I feel like such lists would have been made a lot in 2002, and since the movie didn't come out until six years later, I don't think there's much left to be revealed that would influence my list or anyone else's. I can list things I really liked, and maybe a few things I really didn't, and I'll write about I Want To Believe next week.
First, let's cover the characters. My favourite character is obviously Dana Scully. There's just no question about this. She's awesome in pretty much every way, even when the writers give her crap lines and make her a little more incredulous than a real person might otherwise be. Though Mulder is definitely great, and even Reyes, despite not having very much time to develop as a character, was pretty awesome, especially in 'The Truth'.
And let's also not count out Skinner, who really turned out to be a good guy in a bad situation. Even the Cigarette Smoking Man, as much as he was just an awful person, was a great character, at least until they ran out of ideas for his character in season six.
And naturally, the Lone Gunmen, who I guess should maybe be considered separate characters, since apparently Frohike appeared in three episodes more than Byers, who appeared in one episode more than Langly (which I'd never even noticed - I think early in the series they appeared separately a few times?), but they were all fun and usually provided a good break from the seriousness of even some of the darker episodes.
And speaking of episodes...
Because there are just SO MANY good ones (so many episodes in general) it's impossible to list my favourites in any kind of order or with any limits, really, so I'm just going to kind of spew them out here.
Well, first I'll go through the seasons.
I think at least for right now, I consider season six my favourite. Yeah, it had some dreadful episodes - 'Alpha' is definitely among the worst in the entire run - but it was kind of the bridge season between the Syndicate arc and the continuation of the alien invasion, or rather return plot, which of course we only just learned 'The Truth' about finally. This season also started out stronger than most, with the tense 'Drive' and the bizarre yet awesome 'Triangle', and it ended just as strong, with a sequence of episodes that I don't think any other season could have matched, from 'Milagro' to 'The Unnatural' to 'Field Trip', 'Three of a Kind', and 'Biogenesis'.
Of course, this could all change tomorrow, because there are some very close contenders.
Season five is a very close runner up, and it makes sense now that the first movie followed this outstanding season. The shorter order (20 episodes instead of 22 or 24 or season two's 25) really helped with this. It put the mythology episodes closer together and really, the standalone episodes in the season were mostly solid - 'Unusual Suspects', 'Detour', 'Bad Blood', 'Folie a Deux'. Sure, there were some duds like in all the seasons - I won't be rewatching 'Schizogeny' or 'Travelers' any time soon - but as a whole, I think this was a really good season of television.
And season seven can't be far behind five. True, season seven forced us through the utterly awful 'Fight Club' and the bizarrely pointless 'En Ami', but in what should have been the final season, the story was again very good and the episodes between the story were similarly good - 'X-Cops' is probably one of the best episodes this series has done, and I think even some of the earlier ones like 'The Amazing Maleeni' and 'Signs and Wonders' are kind of underrated.
I enjoyed season four, as well, but it suffered from the early series problem of just being way too long. And also 'Home' and 'Sanguinarium', the latter being one for which I don't know if I can entirely forgive the writers. Scully's cancer plot was heartbreaking (I'll never forget the ending of 'Leonard Betts' - talk about a wham line) and at this point the Syndicate were still rather mysterious and good at their jobs, which added to the tension in the mythology episodes.
After that, it gets a little trickier, because I don't think any of the remaining five seasons was that great. Each of them had some amazing moments, but there were some huge problems with them, too. Since season three had three of the best episodes of the series, all written by the incredible Darin Morgan, it really has to come next. And season one started it all and, let's be honest, got me hooked, so credit where credit is due to the sixth best season of The X-Files. Of the early seasons, two was the worst, although its mythology episodes were outstanding. I just can't get over the awful strings of episodes from 'Excelsis Dei' through 'Fresh Bones' (minus 'Irresistible', which was good) and 'Fearful Symmetry' through 'Our Town' (minus 'Humbug', which was extraordinary). Also '3', which was dreadful.
And that leaves the final two seasons. I don't think season eight was really that bad - in fact, it might one day move past season two in my rankings, because the back half, once Mulder had returned, was actually quite good. Doggett never really became more likeable, and I kept worrying he would be a traitor to the cause, but despite turning out to be a good guy in the end, he was never that interesting. Plus, there was the whole Jesus thing with Scully's pregnancy that kind of put me off.
But season nine will probably always rank as my least favourite season. Even 'The Truth' couldn't save it because let's face it, 'The Truth' wasn't that good. Yes, it had 'Provenance' and 'Audrey Pauley', but two good episodes and seventeen mediocre ones (well, a couple of really bad ones, too - I'm looking at you, 'Lord of the Flies') don't really make for a good season. Plus, no Mulder until the very end really detracted from this one. Scully was barely in it half the time, too. It wasn't really the same show.
And because I can, I might as well list my favourite episodes, but these are in no particular order - I couldn't possibly choose just one to be my absolute favourite.
...
Well, OK, it's 'Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose'.
But also high on the list have to be, in no particular order (really just the order I remembered them), 'Bad Blood', 'War of the Coprophages', 'Triangle', 'Field Trip', 'all things', 'Audrey Pauley', 'Jose Chung's From Outer Space', 'One Breath', 'Beyond the Sea', 'X-Cops', 'Hollywood A.D.', 'How the Ghosts Stole Christmas', 'Ascension', 'Memento Mori', 'The End', 'Arcadia', 'Existence', 'Ice', and 'Provenance'.
I'm sure there's no question that my least favourite episodes are '3', 'Teso dos Bichos' and 'Alpha'.
And now, I have a movie to go watch.
No comments:
Post a Comment