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31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
the light shines in the darkness, August 22, 2006
The 9th (and final) season of THE X FILES (2001-02) stands, along with Season 6, as the most consistent of all the years filmed in Los Angeles and exhibits a number of unique qualities.
First and foremost, the loss of David Duchovny's participation created the necessity to play off (as in Season 8) his absence. While the (not insignificant) feeling of contrivance concerning yet another Mulder disappearance was unfortunate, the writers made full creative use of this (business related) circumstance. Specifically, through scripts (mostly "stand alone") that fleshed out new characters (Agents John Doggett & Monica Reyes) and through the mythology arc, in which themes from the previous year (and the series as a whole) were developed.
Secondly, the show regained a sense of equilibrium, its structure a throwback to the Vancouver years, where the (uniformly interesting) "mythology" episodes were aired at specific points: early, mid, and late season. This well-planned strategy mitigated the effect of some of the more routine "stand alone" efforts while moving inexorably towards a conclusion illuminating much of Chris Carter's "underground project".
STAND ALONE EPISODES:
There were several efforts by writers ( relatively ) new to THE X FILES:
An ambitious attempt to marry characterization to storyline appears in two of Steven Meada's scripts: both "4-D" and "Audrey Pauley" share similar sci-fi plots against a backdrop of (implied) romantic affection shared by Agents Doggett and Reyes. "Audrey Pauley" in particular, benefits from excellent writing as well as fine performances from the principles (esp Annabeth Gish) and guests (the actress playing Audrey was previously seen in the 3rd Season masterpiece "Oubliette").
Writer Thomas Schnauz also turned in two scripts: "Lord of the Flies" (the season's only overtly comedic take) is a clever but at times strained affair. The main attraction is really for diehard X-philes, since the episode is full of playful allusions to writer Darin Morgan's classic 3rd season script "War of the Copraphages". More effective is Schnauz' "Scary Monsters"; while its surface story is purposely borrowed from THE TWILIGHT ZONE, the whimsical "Mulder vs Doggett" subplot is a fun spoof. Agent Scully's impromptu "kitchen autopsy" is also a great bit, harkening back to the classic comedy of the series' golden years.
Three more scripts, in what could be termed the "Exorcist File" vein, were seen in Season 9:
"Daemonicus" (written & directed by Frank Spotnitz) features some eerily creative camera work and a "Hannibal Lechter" type villain while adding further details to the character of Agent Doggett. The graphically violent "Hellbound" outlines writer David Amann's deliberately odd theological juxtaposition: Calvinist predestination and Buddhist reincarnation. John Shiban's "Underneath" is a disaster; easily the worst episode of the season.
Chris Carter wrote and directed the superb "Improbable", the latest in a long line of quirkily humerous yet serious scripts (a la Darin Morgan) that deal with perennial philosophical issues (free will/determinism good/evil, et al ). The episode features an excellent performance by Burt Reynolds; the brilliantly shot street scenes (and music) are a Carterian homage to Italian "cinema dell'arte".
Longtime staff writer Vince Gilligan's two contributions are mixed affairs: the sepia-tone cinematography of "John Doe", coupled with Robert Patrick's fine acting make this episode enjoyable up until the oddly strained "crash and bang" finale. "Sunshine Days" is one of Gilligan's rare missteps; a re-tread of his "Je Souhaite" (Season 7) with an unfortunate undercurrent of saccharine sentimentality.
The ongoing subplot (treated in various episodes of Seasons 8-9) relating to Agent Doggett's personal tragedy was resolved in "Release" ( particularly beautiful music by Mark Snow ). It is a testament to the quality of THE X FILES that in their last season the staff writers (John Shiban & David Amann) would prepare so properly respectful a vehicle for Robert Patrick, whose performances were so vitally important for the series in its final years.
"Jump the Shark" was neither the best nor worst treatment that could have been prepared as the swan song of the beloved Lone Gunmen. However flawed the script, the heroic efforts of the three misfits in this episode were a necessary correction to the idiotic mischaracterization that shot through the (mercifully short-lived) series (Spring 2001) that bore their name. In "Jump the Shark" some of the eccentric nobility of the Lone Gunmen was restored.
MYTHOLOGY EPISODES:
The symbiotic partnership between Chris Carter & Frank Spotnitz continued with their co-writing of 6 of the 7 myth arc episodes airing in Season 9 (the finale was penned by Carter alone).
The ambitious 2-part opener ("Nothing Important Happened Today I/II") fuses the familiar "alien hybrid" concept with the newer (logically consistent) element of "supersoldiers".
The Orwellian/Kafkaesque atmosphere of "Trust No1" is a compellingly well-framed continuation of the myth arc as well as a dark commentary on certain governmental strictures enacted in the wake of 9/11.
An extraordinary degree of openly religious (Christian) symbolism (in terms of plot, dialogue and cinematography) pervades the mid season 2-parter titled "Provenance/Providence".
"William" is taut episode creatively directed (and co-written) by David Duchovny; the clever double twist ending has dramatic ramifications that extend backward and forward in time. Gillian Anderson puts forth a customarily moving performance emphasizing Scully's unique qualities of nobility and loving self-sacrifice.
The grand 2 hour finale ("The Truth") exudes a special glow, starting out ("in media res") with the return of Mulder, lagging a bit during the lengthy court-room trial scenes and ending with a fireworks flourish in which director Kim Manners pulls out all the stops. The final scene of THE X FILES is a quiet coda; a truly beautiful moment between Mulder and Scully as they share their mutual belief that, in spite of all appearances, hope is not lost and that "the light shines in the darkness" .
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46 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Uneven 9th season still had diamonds in the rough, March 11, 2006
The 9th season of "The X-Files" was announced as the last and, as such, Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz, Vince Gilligan and Kim Manners tried to imbue the last season with the top notch writing quality that had been a hallmark of the first 6 seasons. Unfortunately, the series didn't quite live up to its potential during the 9th season. With the fate of Mulder, Scully and their baby still hanging along with too many loose ends from the mythology arc (and a new mythology arc that was begun during season 8)the show had to juggle too many balls with too few hands. Still, the last season had some diamonds in the rough and a strong cast to polish them. The show looks extremely good in this DVD set and the boxed set is a lot smaller than the previous set because of the use of the thinpak holders.
"Underneath", "Scary Monsters" (an interesting variation on the same themes and material as Jerome Bixby's story "It's a Good Life"), "4-D", Sunshine Days" and most of the stand alone episodes are better than many of the mythology arc episodes particularly the finale "The Truth" which crams the previous seasons loose ends into a mishmash that doesn't quite work. "The Truth" in fact feels like it was setting us up for a sequel that has yet to be made (although Carter is reportedly working on a screenplay for a film)particularly since William disappears from the lives of Scully and Mulder for his safety. "Release" is a pivotal episode from this season and provides Robert Patrick with an opportunity to shine as well as Cary Elwes and Annabeth Gish.
Carter and his crew would have done better to play wrap up the season over five or six episodes and dropping some of the weaker episodes in the season. "Jump the Shark" where the Lone Gunmen meet their fate is either brave or incredibly stupid depending upon which fan you talk to. It also ticked off a lot of fans that these quirky and enjoyable characters finally meet (SPOILER)
their end.
The thinpak boxed set has all 19 episodes. Despite comments to the contrary some extras ARE included for this set including the commentary track for "Improbable" by Carter, writers Gilligan, John Shiban and Spotnitz on "Jump the Shark" and director Kim Manners on "The Truth". Deleted scenes are also included for episodes and can be reintegrated through the main menu (a small X will appear in the corner noting which are deleted scenes). The shows are presented in anamorphic widescreen with exceptional transfers. During some of the darker scenes in a couple of episodes the transfer turns murky for a brief period of time but that's few and far between. The Dolby Digital Surround tracks are nicely used to create atmosphere and add to the tension for the best episodes.
What's missing? The documentary on the making of "The Truth", the deleted scenes that were grouped together on the last discs, the profiles, featurettes and the DVD-ROM game "The Truth". While it would have been nice to have these on this set they are hardly essential for fans that want the shows themselves.
Personally I felt that the show could have continued if they had eased out Mulder and Scully in season 8 as the characters of Doggett (Robert Patrick) with his hardnosed approach and Reyes (Annabeth Gish)with her new age, quirky personality would have made for an interesting series by itself. Perhaps they should have kept the characters for a spin-off outside of "The X-Files" either way the two actors had nice chemistry together and Patrick had a dynamic screen presence that would have insured an intersting show. Deputy Director Kersh (James Pickens Jr) and Cary Elwes' Brad Folmer made gret foils/allies during this season. Elwes' Forlmer was a complex villian and he does a terrific job of keeping the character intersting throughout the season. Either way it was time for Carter to wrap up the tattered ends of the mythology and the relationship for Scully, Mulder and William their baby William.
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31 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Weak compared to the rest of THE X-FILES, but great compared to most other TV shows, March 27, 2006
The new slimpack releases of Seasons 7 through 9-which are essentially the original sets with the extras disc removed as well as many other special features-will complete the entire rerelease of all the X-FILES in affordable editions. I've been disappointed to find many of the special features missing in the first six volumes, but given that I couldn't afford the original editions, I'm all in all delighted to finally own my own copies, instead of relying on video stores and Netflix.
Even great things must come to an end. After nine marvelous seasons, in which the series managed to establish new benchmarks in quality television, THE X-FILES wrapped up its run with what is unquestionably its most controversial and reviled season. Although Season Nine has come in for a vast amount of criticism, I firmly believe that much or most of it is undeserved. Many of its critics have obviously not seen all or even most or perhaps even any of it. For instance, if one scrolls down to the reviewer from Sweden, they complain that Scully spends the season crying over the fate of poor William. Actually, she spends very little time during the season crying, and she doesn't cry any at all in the two episodes that immediately follow her decision to put William up for adoption. She does cry briefly when telling Mulder in the series finale about having to give up William, but that hardly justifies the claim that she spends all of her time crying. One finds literally dozens of inane comments on the season like that one. All in all, Season Nine is a worthy successor to the eight that preceded it. It remained to the very end one of the finest series on all of television.
My own belief is that Season Nine was more often criticized than watched, and that those who did watch and still criticized did so mainly because it no longer felt as familiar has it had been in the past. Many hated Doggett and Reyes primarily because they were not Mulder and Scully. Many hated the fact that while Scully was back, she was no longer officially on the X-Files, though she spent so much time helping Doggett and Reyes-and vice versa-that the distinction in the end was a bit meaningless. But for those willing to get past the fact that Mulder was no longer there and Scully only unofficially part of the X-Files, Season Nine was yet another season filled with riches. The show was always split between stand-alone episodes and mythology episodes. I will be the first to admit that this year's mythology episodes left a lot to be desired. Though I think criticism of Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish, who I both thought did marvelous jobs and should definitely play roles in future X-FILE movies, was simply wrong-headed, I will be the first to agree that the Super Soldiers story arc simply sucked. It lacked originality, passion, and the power to fire the imagination of the show's viewers. There were despite this some good moments, especially Terrance Quinn's (aka Terry O'Quinn, who went on to a great year as a regular on ALIAS in that show's Season Two and currently is superb on LOST as former paraplegic and resident knife-throwing badass John Locke) appearance as a Super Soldier, by and large this arc was an utter mistake. But the stand-alone episodes were absolutely first rate, with several as good as anything seen in any previous season. The season opening two-parter, "Nothing Important Happened Today," had some great moments, many of them thanks to Lucy Lawless, who had just departed XENA. "Hellbound" was not merely one of the most haunting episodes in X-FILES history, but the point where Monica Reyes became integrated into the show. "Lord of the Flies" was simultaneously one of the funniest episodes of the season, and one of the most transcendently weird, as Doggett, Reyes, and Scully (aided by a self-smitten scientist who insisted on being called "Rocky") investigate a boy who has the ability to manipulate flies. "John Doe" is truly as good as any stand-alone episode in X-FILE history, as John Doggett wakes up in Mexico with no memory of who he is. "Trust No 1" is one of a couple of great Scully episodes, where she discovers that she has been the focus of the attention of a nebulous secret governmental organization. And for those who had hoped for the blossoming of a Mulder/Scully romance, her e-mail to Mulder in the episode confirmed that that had finally taken place, even if after Mulder had left the show (but meaning that he could not return without the romance being fullblown). "Underneath" was a great episode about a Jekyll and Hyde personality, another great episode worthy of the X-FILE name. "Provenance" and "Providence" formed an excellent two-parter that developed William's story to a greater extent. "Scary Monsters" was a solid if unspectacular episode about a boy with the power to create monsters with his mind, while "Audrey Pauley" was an absolutely stunning episode about coma-victims, of whom Monica Reyes was one, who exist in a kind of limbo, but which a mentally impaired woman was able to visit. Up to this point there had been no truly bad episodes during the whole season, even if some of the Super Soldiers arc had not been especially stellar. But then the show turned it up a notch with Burt Reynolds supplying one of the best guest appearances in the run of the series in the great episode "Improbable." After this, however, the show did stumble for a few episodes, though even then they were not completely without interest. "Jump the Shark" saw the show saying farewell to the Lone Gunmen, with a demise that was dramatically flat. It was a terrible way to say good-bye to some of the show's most beloved characters. "Release" had some fine moments as one of Scully's students at the Academy displayed an uncanny ability to analyze the corpses of murder victims, but it failed at some crucial moments. "William," on the other hand, was very nearly a great episode, when a horribly disfigured man who seemed genetically similar to Mulder appears in the office of the X-Files. It slipped a bit with a lack of explanation of the emotional process that Scully went through to put William up for adoption. Nonetheless, a very fine episode. Many seem to like the episode "Sunshine Days," where a man with remarkable mental powers recreates the inside of his house as the Brady Bunch home, but apart from that gimmick I don't think it did very much. But the show went out marvelously with the final two-parter that formed the finale of both the season and the series, "The Truth." It also imposed order on previous seasons that in truth were not as clear as this episode would make them appear. For instance, it really wasn't crystal clear that the Cigarette Smoking Man was Mulder's father (there had been some clues that would suggest that he was lying to Mulder), or which account of what happened to Mulder's sister was true, or other details in the overarching mythology. I believe the final episode imposed an order that the show did not in fact possess. Nonetheless, they managed to provide something approaching a narrative of what the previous nine years had been about (more of this in a second). But the great thing for the episode for me was seeing Scully get Mulder back, for them finally to be able to affirm and admit openly what they meant to each other, and for the foundations for future movies to be laid down, as Scully asserts to Mulder that her goals are the same as his, and their implied joint assertion to continue the search for the truth.
Now, the reason I think that the final two-parter was a bit of a cheat was the fact that in a variety of places the writers and producers admit that they were pretty much making up the mythology as they went along. Frequently they tried things that were not truly compatible with what had gone before. A couple of times they painted themselves into corners. And on a few occasions they killed off characters with no very clear idea of why they were doing it (Krycek, the death of The Well-Manicured Man in the film, the first two deaths of the Cigarette Smoking Man, and the death of the Lone Gunmen are merely a few examples). Contrast this with BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, where Joss Whedon would plant hints of events that would occur a couple of years later, e.g., in Season Three where Faith mentioned something to Buffy in a dream sequence that would take place in exactly two years-what happened was Buffy died). But credit must be laid where it is due: the multi-season consistency that we saw in BUFFY was in large part made possible by the multi-season inconsistency of THE X-FILES. With THE X-FILES, it became possible for shows to develop long story arcs that would take years to tell, and in that way, among others, it has made a permanent mark on television. My own feeling is that THE X-FILES produced the greatest stand-alone episodes since THE TWILIGHT ZONE, but that its even greater influence could be in making it OK for shows like BUFFY to develop long, multi-season story arcs. The value of this can't be overstated. In the early 1990s I read an article by a television critic who argued that television, often considered the poor sister of the movies, actually had more potential for extended narrative than did film. I absolutely agree with this, and would insist that the two shows that most fully developed and confirmed the potential of TV are THE X-FILES and BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. Jointly they established the range of what television was capable of. In the wake of those two shows, it is impossible to imagine cinema ever developing story lines anywhere near as complex, or character analyses as rich and sustained as is possible in television. For instance, in THE X-FILES we gradually become sensible of the enormous contradictions in Scully's personality, a remarkably gifted and talented woman who has considerable personal achievements, who nonetheless has the self-realization that she has a...
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