Product Details

• Actors: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Derick Alexander, Brien Blakely
• Directors: Barry K. Thomas, Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz, Kim Manners, Peter Markle
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Color, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 6
• Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: November 4, 2003
• Run Time: 984 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (110 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00008YGRY
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #55,605 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  Movies & TV > Drama > Television > The X-Files > Seasons

• For more information about "The X-Files - The Complete Eighth Season" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

• This is item 8 in The X-Files Series.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The eighth season of The X-Files will always be remembered as the year of brave decisions. David Duchovny's increasing dissatisfaction with the role meant he'd only appear in a few episodes. The solution? Enter Agent John Doggett (Robert Patrick) who basically stole the show within his first two minutes of screen time (and watch out for several Terminator 2 in-jokes too!). Scully (Gillian Anderson) switched roles to being the believer alongside Doggett's skeptic in a year that was more reliant on the background story arc than ever before. Her pregnancy remained at the foreground, while a more prominent Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) joined in a hunt for the abducted Mulder that drew upon the black oil, cloning, and bounty-hunting aspects of the convoluted alien conspiracy story. A distinct lack of guest stars or writers indicated maturity beyond the need for ratings stunts: dedicated fans were pleased to see sinister Krycek, the reliable Lone Gunmen, and the return of the show's very first abductee. The real strengths of the season came from new characters, including alternative female role model Special Agent Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish), and some terrific standalone episodes. Investigations covered a man going backward in time, deaths aboard an oil rig, a contagion in the Boston subway tunnels, and creatures resembling bats and slugs. Agent Leyla Harrison (named after an X-Files fan who died of cancer) got to ask all the petty questions regular viewers want to know themselves. With season 9 promised to be the last, this year was a remarkable achievement so late in a show's life. --Paul Tonks

Product Description

Now you can own the entire eighth season of THE X-FILES™. ALL 21 classic episodes are available for the first time in this exclusive 6-disc collector's edition. From the arrival of Agent John Doggett in "Within" and Mulder's miraculous resurrection in "Deadalive" to the birth od Scully's baby in "Existence," these Season Eight episodes are a must of every X-Files fan!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some of the best writing and acting of the series!, May 23, 2004

By	Just Bill (Grand Rapids, MI United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Until just recently, all my wife and I had were The X-Files Seasons 1-7 on DVD. We watched 1-6 of these seasons with rapt fascination, enjoying each one it its turn.

Then we watched Season 7 and thought, "Hmmm. Something is different. The episodes are lighter, somewhat goofier, more humorous...but, thankfully, Mulder and Scully seem to be getting closer emotionally."

In other words, even though Season 7 contained a few good episodes, we thought it was the weakest season we had watched to date.

Since I knew David Duchovny's character (Fox Mulder) essentially left the show at the end of Season 7, I didn't have high hopes for Season 8. I read a few Amazon reviews and was expecting Season 8's stories to be just as fluffy, uneven and unsatisfying as those of Season 7. So I held off buying Seasons 8 and 9 until just last week. (I'm a completist and I really *had* to have all 9 seasons, even if they weren't up to par with the first 1-6.)

What a mistake! I shouldn't have waited! Season 8 is amazing!

Season 8's episodes are darker, more intense, and better written than any I've seen in a long time. Agent John Doggett (Robert Patrick), whom my wife and I were all set to dislike with a passion -- because he took the place of Fox Mulder, one of TV's most all-time enjoyable characters -- surprised the heck out of us.

Robert Patrick is an excellent actor, and his character has shown a lot of depth, emotion and change over the course of the 15 episodes of Season 8 we've watched so far.

We tend to measure a show's Creativity Quotient by how often our jaws drop and we say, "Wow." Season 8 of The X-Files caused us to do that a lot. So many times we wouldn't go to bed until 11:30 or later because we had to watch episode after episode to find out what happens next.

We did that tonight, in fact. We just watched the episodes where Mulder comes back from the dead ("Deadalive") and the one following ("Three Words"). We were blown away -- totally swept away by the emotion Scully felt for Mulder, completely caught up in the unfolding story lines.

That's how the entire Season 8 has been for us, actually. Each episode took us by surprise. We haven't been let down by a single episode in this season! Really. Of all the seasons of The X-Files we watched, Season 8 surprised us the most. It just flat-out surprised us.

If Robert Patrick had not been such a great actor, and if the stories had not been so gripping, the loss of Fox Mulder would have sent The X-Files into a tailspin. But it's impossible not to like Agent Doggett. The character showed that he's a man of ethics, loyalty and determination. In his own way, Doggett is just as driven to find "the truth" as Mulder is.

The bottom line? Season 8 didn't spiral downward. And it certainly isn't as weak as other reviewers have lead you to believe. Instead, the writers and directors and actors in Season 8 reached deep and made the show about STORY rather than CHARACTER. The solid stories have carried the day. And then some.

If you haven't yet purchased Season 8 of The X-Files because you've read some negative reviews, please reconsider. If you don't think The X-Files could be any good without Mulder, please think again.

I'd rate Season 8 of The X-Files right up there with my favorite seasons, which are probably Seasons 3-5. Season 8 offers incredible stories, powerful emotions, and a new character (John Doggett) that you'll respect and, eventually, grow to like (and admire) quite a bit.

I highly recommend Season 8 of The X-Files.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Here's the problem..., December 3, 2003

By A Customer

I'm not nearly as prolific as some of the reviewers here, but I nonetheless had to add my two cents about this season. I've been an X Files fan since the very first episode aired back in '93. I know there are all sorts of wonderful things people can and have said about the mythology and the science vs. paranormal aspects of the show, but for me, the focus was always the relationship between Mulder and Scully.

Now, when Season 8 came out and 1. Mulder was gone, 2. Scully was pregnant with whose baby? 3. They had essentially replaced Mulder with some street smart cop that was excellently portrayed by Robert Patrick but ultimately superfluous (in my opinion), 4. There was no real acknowledgement of a Mulder/Scully relationship prior to the pregnancy (beyond hints in "All Things", "Requiem", and maybe, if you're reaching, "The Goldberg Variation"), and 5., what had bothered me most about the majority of season 8, was that they KEPT INVESTIGATING REGULAR CASES when they should have been out searching for Mulder, I was more than a little wary.

While plot-wise, I thought the standalone eps were pretty good, the context in which they were presented made them unnecessary and distracting. They would have been great if they had happened in the "regular" show, with Mulder and Scully investigating, but with all this other stuff going on, it just seemed like they kept getting sidetracked from the matter at hand: finding Mulder. Not to mention that pregnant Scully was more emotional than ever (and, while understandable given her relationship with Mulder, we've seen her hold it together better than that when her sister and father died, and on the numerous occasions when her mother's life was in jeopardy) and it started to get tedious seeing the amazing Gillian Anderson have to portray such a strong character with such weak characteristics. In addition, it really bothered me how they kept it a secret who Scully's baby's father was when it was so obvious, even without hints from Season 7. I mean, who else has she even DATED, let alone slept with, in the last 7 years? And she hasn't been recently abducted, so the birth couldn't have resulted from that. I mean, c'mon! To keep it a secret, hidden and obscure when it was so blatant was just foolish. It seemed at this point that Chris Carter was trying to keep hidden the fact that these characters were together because it would mean going against his previous adamant statements that that would never happen. So, what? They keep it a secret for at least several months(assuming things started with "All Things") and then Suprise! Not only have they been together all this time, but they have a baby now! I thought that was a betrayal to all the fans who wanted them together because it denied us the opportunity of seeing it, and now that they finally are and are in the open about it, Mulder's gone.

So, anyway. I kind of went off on a mini-rampage, but basically I wanted to say that the lack of the Mulder-Scully dynamic really hurt this show, and while it was a decent television show, it stopped being The X Files as we knew it when Mulder left. Different isn't always better. So, I still haven't made up my mind as to whether or not to buy this set (I own all previous 7), but I wanted people to know that if you watched this show for this relationship, don't even bother. (On a side note, why do these sets continue to be so expensive when you can get the complete seasons of Alias, 24, and West Wing for less than half the price?)

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Get season eight - it's worth it!, November 8, 2003

By	Kim B. "Kim B." (Newton, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

Lets be honest, we all tuned into The X-Files each and every Sunday night (originally Friday night) to watch the adventures of Mulder and Scully, but by season seven it was evident David Duchovny wanted out and his heart just wasn't into it anymore. I missed him, but it didn't take me long to embrace Robert Patrick as tough cop turned FBI Agent John Doggett. I'm not going to say I wasn't apprehensive about the introduction of the new characters, but I was pleasantly surprised. I think Robert Patrick did a fine job and the introduction of Annabeth Gish at the end of season eight was a nice way of introducing her before season nine, which I can't wait for either. My only complaint regarding season eight is I believe they were trying to juggle too many main characters. There was the introduction of John Doggett, Scully was still around, Mulder was making an appearance and there was the introduction of Monica Reyes. I believe many fans took this as an insult when in fact TPTB were only trying to make the transition to season nine easier. It's easy playing Monday morning quarterback when you don't have the executives from Twentieth Century Fox breathing down your neck.

I would have like to have seen more extras on the DVD's. It's 2003 now and I don't understand why the studios skimp on this and yet they're raking in huge profits. Fans love to see outtakes and behind the scenes action and for the life of me I don't understand why execs haven't figured this out yet. We're not interested in seeing every single deleted scene or Chris Carter's narrative on location selection - WE WANT TO SEE OUTTAKES. This isn't specific to FOX, apparently all the studios have yet to figure this out.

Season eight will never go down as being as strong as seasons three through five, but that doesn't mean it should be discounted either. It's a must have if you're an X-Files fan.