The X-Files goes all-in on the shipping in “Arcadia”, and then in “Alpha”, a ship brings trouble.
Tuning In Episode 105: The X-Files: Arcadia/Alpha
The X-Files goes all-in on the shipping in “Arcadia”, and then in “Alpha”, a ship brings trouble.
Michael
-Like the X-Files that had run their course at this point, you stopping the reviews is a good call. Not because they’re bad by any means, but because there can be too much of a good thing. It would be great though if you could wait a year or two and then do a one-off review of the second movie, with a focus on the nostalgia aspect.
The idea of having the series end with Two Fathers/One Son, and then giving Anderson her own show offers a perspective on the actual remainder of the X-Files that hadn’t occurred to me: In a way it does become her own series, just with too much room given to Duchovny who apparently just went through the motions at that point. Creatively, they could have also ended the series around the time of the first movie and turned the X-Files into a fantastically successful big-screen franchise… … hold on, why am I suddenly hearing the Star Trek Generations theme? 😉
Goofyness aside: Her series could have replaced a couple of the other attempts that Carter made at repeating his singular stroke of genius. How that would have turned out is anybody’s guess, but from what I gather it’s not a stretch to say that the last seasons of the X-Files have not enough in common with the earlier ones, anyway.
Your comments on the lack of an honest evaluation of the relationship that Scully+Mulder could have had were spot on, and very much in line with what you’ve said time and time again. At least that’s what I’m taking away from all this. And that’s what makes your podcasts so special. — Friendship turning into love turning into something else that defies conventional categories, and without the “oh they’re *finally* becoming a bog-standard heterosexual TV couple with jealousy and passive-aggressiveness because that’s the way it has to be” aspect, now that could have been refreshing.
Eric Brasure
-I think they either should have: ended the show after the fifth season and make movies, as you say–which was also the original plan (if you believe Chris Carter)–but Fox didn’t want to lose their biggest hit and convinced them otherwise. Or, they should have left Mulder and Scully off The X-Files after Duchovny quit, and just turned it into a show with a new set of characters. I actually don’t think the eighth and ninth seasons are that bad (although sometimes tedious) but a lot of it was ruined by a stubborn insistence not to get rid of Scully. She would pop up from time to time with no justification given as to why she was there.
David
-I’ll miss the podcast, but I get stopping if you’re no longer feeling it (although I was really hoping this would turn into a Buffy podcast next). In my rewatch of the show, I found I was kind of emotionally done with it once they wrapped up the sister storyline in that season 7 episode, even though there’s a handful of episodes I like after that.
I really didn’t like Mulder and Scully getting together at the time, but I found with the second movie and the revival that the idea made more sense to me for some reason, maybe just because it’s played more casually.
Eric Brasure
-We actually had discussed doing Buffy at one point, but I honesty don’t think that I personally would have much if anything to say about it. It’s also aged weirdly. Not badly, just… weirdly.
Mari
-I’ve listened to almost every episode of both your podcasts, I started watching X Files for the first time this year in part because of Tuning In, and was using it as a guide for which episodes I should watch since I believe self-editing can vastly improve these long 90s series and mitigate fatigue–and because I trust your sensibilities and assessments after going through so much Trek with you.
Interesting that you say the series is revitalized in the later seasons, because I’ve always heard it becomes really terrible, I was hoping through Tuning In to derive some kind of respectable answer as to where I should stop watching in order to best preserve my appreciation of the show, rather than going through an unpleasant downturn and souring on it, which is a sucky way to end off. Would you recommend sticking through to season 11, or is there some more dignified point to get out?
I understand the decision to quit the podcast with season 6 though–I had been thinking back to your DS9 discussions which were totally alive with your guys’ intense brand of discussion covering politics, economics, sociology, themes, character, and all the other examination a show like DS9 facilitates. Now that you’re in the midst of Voyager and X Files’ 6th seasons, it feels like a lot of the time the commentary is inevitably: “Well, the show isn’t that good”, and it seems like you’re wasted on this kind of material which is mostly spinning its wheels at this point. You guys were made for better shows!
I really appreciate hearing your takes on stuff, and I hope you continue to do it whether the show is Star Trek or anything else, as long as it’s material worth your time. My hope is that the remainder of Voyager and Enterprise after it won’t burn you out or bore you the way X Files has, because Trekabout is too good to end that way–even if you have to start covering other stuff to keep it fun, we’re still behind you! Godspeed!
Eric Brasure
-Thank you so much!!! This is super nice. We miss DS9 so much. 🙁
As for The X-Files–you know, it’s a hard question to answer. For the longest time I told people to get out after the fifth season, because I just didn’t like the way the production of the show changed after they went to Los Angeles. Then I modified that to the seventh season, because that’s when Duchovny quit as a lead and for the most part I like seasons 6 and 7, although they are… lesser, because the show flounders a lot in season 6 because they never intended to actually make it and so they put all this shipping stuff in in lieu of something else.
Now I say, if you continue to find the show intriguing, by all means, keep up with it, although much of the last two seasons are pretty tedious. I don’t think seasons 10 or 11 are… necessary… but there’s some good stuff in there, including an episode in season 11 that is basically a silent movie. Oddly enough (or perhaps not) the weakest parts of later X-Files, including the revival seasons, are the monster of the week episodes, because what else can you do with them after a while? The show never found a satisfactory answer to that.
Eric Brasure
-Oh, and I’m actually really looking forward to Enterprise, because it’s such a fucking weird show.