The End of The X-Files

fonixmunkee writes "CNN is running this story that says the cult TV classic, "The X-Files," shall be no longer after this season. I have been a huge fan of this show since it started in '93, so I'm quite saddened by it's projected departure." The story originally showed up in Daily Variety, saying that Chris Carter wants to move on to other projects.

X-Files has gone down hill

[SomethingOrOther]

I gave up watching the x-files a long time ago.
Origionaly it was very good but the writers seemed to confined with the same plotlines and format of each episode.

Had the program been given a freer reign and alowed to evolve over time (think star-trek) I think I would be still watching it today.
Shame

About Time!!!

[bjb]

I gave up finally on the X-Files with the season that ended in 2001. I was a devoted fan for many years, but after Mulder initially left, things just never made sense anymore... ok, not that many things made "sense", but you could tell that due to Duchovney's inability to decide if he was going to be a movie star or a television star, the writers had to keep making fix after fix to the story continuity.

With the season that ended in 2001, it was obvious that way too many patches had been applied to the story continuity, and with the season finale, I simply gave up. The show just sucked at this point. Heck, my sister and I decided that when something sucked real bad, we would simply call it "X-files bad".

I do feel bad for the show and Duchovney. He is a very likeable actor, however, he has been severely typecasted (see the last two or three movies he's been in) and I don't think he can really shake that off. I don't even know if Gillian Anderson can make the break, but she probably has a better chance.

Anyway, R.I.P. .. you were once the finest bit of programming on television, but lately you just can't cut it.

Re:X-Files has gone down hill

[jamesoutlaw]

I agree with you.... The first few seasons were fantastic and I watched the show religiously. There were some incredible episodes during the early years.

Then as time went on, I grew extreamly bored with the same old conspiracy plotline and the government coverup BS. It's cool to have some sort of a continuing theme that runs through the life of a program, but The X Files took that to an extreme. I stopped watching it about 3 years ago.

A Mercy Killing...

[kzinti]

I've been watching X-Files since its first season, and let's face it... it's been pretty terrible in recent years, even before Mulder and Scully were written off into the margins. How long can you milk an alien colonization/invasion/kidnapping/master-race-breed ing conspiracy before the plot twists and turns cease to be surprising? Personally, I think they should make more episodes involving... what was her name, Candy? the entomologist. Or more episodes where Mulder kills vampires by driving stakes through their hearts. Or yes, more carnie episodes with real Geeks and the puzzleman!

I'm not going to miss X-Files. Give me the reruns!

--Jim

Let's all pretend it ended after season 7

[tenzig_112]

It's like watching a friend marry someone you don't like. When it ends badly, you are neither completely sad nor completely happy.

Agnst over the show's direction, the carrot-and-stick approach to the Mulder/Scully relationship, and the exodus of the show's better writers has been building up for years.

If it weren't for the failure of Milennium, Harsh Realm & TLG, the show would have gone off with a satisfying bang years ago. Sad, really.

Further reading:
Chris Carter Plots Series Finale- On The Toilet [ridiculopathy.com]

X-Files: "We're going to dish out answers this time, we swear!" [ridiculopathy.com]

1 Season too late, methinks

[eclectric]

It seems to me that the season ending kiss between mulder and scully at the end of last season would have been a fine farewell for the show... instead, they had to drag us through a season of "Bobby Ewing" (if you don't get that reference, think TV's "Dallas")

Re:Millennium

[don_carnage]

I agree, but it's timing was all off. Chris Carter was looking to take control of Fox Friday night along with Sunday night. Unfortunately, that was back when X-Files was still a decent show and no one had enough time to try to keep track of two twisting storylines. Millennium would have been a great followup to the end of X-Files.

In a mountain village, somewhere in Central Asia..

[hughk]

In Uzbekistan a former Soviet Republic, the Government still believe in firm control (democracy is good, but the people aren't ready for it), they really are responsible for everything - probably even Little Green Men. The security police, the SNB, formerly the KGB, are their Men In Black who quietly conspire leaving the people ignorant.

In a hotel in a small mountain village, Chimgan, on the edge of the Altai mountains there is a hotel. At 2$/night, you may guess that this isn't the Hilton.

On entering the hotel, I sneaked passed the reception (I was registered as a local there)and we passed a television room where about 30-40 people were watching TV with rapt attention,

It was the X-files, of course (earlier episode with Mulder as well as Sculley). In a country where the government really does have control, it was hot stuff, even when badly dubbed into Russian.

Everyone has it wrong.

[taxman_10m]

The show did not go downhill after Mulder left. The show went downhill after Cancer Man left. He was the face of the conspiracy. He was the glue to it all. Without him the show has languished and there appears to be no overarching purpose anymore.

Re:Good riddance

[Anonymous Coward]

When Scully started to believe the dynamic was ruined. The audience wants to believe (had to use it) the unbelievable, to be Mulder, but needs a doubting Thomas to convince or disagree with. It's the same formula that keeps sitcoms on (think husband and wife arguements over toothpaste caps, for example). When everyone is in harmony, the audience goes to bed.

My favorites were always the monster hunts...the conspiracies became pathetically twisted and ridiculous. Although the black oil coming out of faucets onto helpless prisoners was unsettling...

Re:Good riddance

[Anonymous Coward]

The shows went bad when they moved production of X-files from Canada to California. The show lost its feel, its mood, its whole character. David D. got married and demanded that the show move to California so that he could be close to his wife. David was the main reason the show was likable and also the main reason why the show sucks now...

Next movie

[iamjim]

This isn't new news. After Carter closes down the series he plans to (allegedly) grab mulder & scully (and whomever is in the current cast who wants to join in on the party) and put together another movie. It was suggested that we could be looking at another trek-like franchise of movies and spin-offs.

At Last

[awol]

Thankfully I will no longer have to deal with Xfile zealots whining on about "We'll you just never know".

The problem with the Xfiles was that at the heart of it's fundamental premise was a contradiction. They existed in "our" universe, but shit happened that was total fantasy. As a result, science would always fail to explain what was happening because it was bound by the rules of the real universe but the "other side" of the dramatic tension, was not. This really annoyed the shit out of me. I mean it _REALLY_ annoyed me, to the point that I could just never watch it.

I think the comedy analysis with Dallas was quite pertinent. Xfiles was soap opera and nothing more. I have never found a soap opera compelling (unless you count Chances in the last series or so, but then they got canned with funding for another 12 episodes or something and so that just got bizarre!). BTW I would argue that Bab5 was not soap (definitely) and that shows like space 1999, dr who, start trek, stargate (not all are series I like) whilst not necessarily "dramtically complex" are not soap opera either.

X-Files Still One of the Best Out There, By Far

[instinctdesign]

For awhile I was thinking that it was time for the X-Files to end. Many of the most recent plots centered around a hackneyed government conspiracy and the acting was only good at best (save Robert Patrick, he's been very good in my opinion.) but I hardly think that the X-Files has gone downhill as badly as, say, the Simpsons.

This was until I saw the latest episode last Saturday, which I can venture to say was one of the best X-Files Episodes I had ever seen. The plot was great, the acting likewise was excellent, and the cinematography was top-notch. It was really a testament to how well the X-Files has been able to recover after losing one of their stars, and nearly losing the other. Another of my favorite episodes also was a fairly recent one, also starring Robert Patrick and not David Ducovney, namely the one starring another Terminator 2 alum, Joe Morton. This was the one where the lawyer seems to be moving backward in time from when he is killed by the father of his wife who he allegedly killed, to the actual murder itself. The plot was ingenious, the acting equally as good, and ranks among my top 20 or so episodes. First rate work, and although I commend them on choosing to go out on top, unlike many of the posters here, I will be sad to see the show end.

Re:About Time!!!

[d-e-w]

Anderson's been doing 'arts films' in the off-season and has indicated she's perfectly happy with continuing to do smaller films like those and theatre. She's more of a classic actor than a big-name star. I've really liked all the smaller budget films she has done, and she really does have a greater talent than you'd suspect from just the X-Files.

As for DD--he was okay in "Return to Me." Nothing else he has done has impressed me; part of the problem there was the poor quality films he seems have have chosen. Evolution *gag* I think that he's partly been type-casted, and partly doesn't have a clue at how to pick films that'll use his talents.

Re:The show relied too much on Mulder...

[rtkluttz]

Aww... come on :)
I was so disappointed that Millennium ended. IMHO Millennium was much better than the Lone Gunmen series and it was cool because it was even darker than the X-Files. They could have done some really impressive crossovers between the two other than just the hints they gave us. The years that M and X were a 1-2 punch on the same night were the best TV watching years of my life so far (Ok.. so I need to get one (a life that is)).
I've also always liked Lance Henrikson. He along with Michael Ironside are two of the best actors for "dark" roles out there.

.

Re:go out with a bang?

[Sethb]

I got into the X-Files during the 2nd or 3rd season, while I was in college. I loved it, never missed an episode, and loved trying to figure out what happens next. I kept thinking that Carter was going to tie it all together, that there was some story arc going on that was so big I couldn't even see it all, and that at least a few of the plot lines would come together.

Sadly, several years later, I still watch every week via my TiVo, but I do so only because I invested so much time before. Don't get me wrong, I like what Patrick and Gish have brought to the series, and though I miss Duchovny it's not about that either. I've come to realize that the Emperor has no clothes. Carter just drops some acid, pulls some wild conspiracy theory out of his ass for the week, and writes an episode. Nothing is resolved, nothing is explained, nothing even ties into another episode, you can watch them in almost any order.

The only way Carter could possibly redeem himself is by making a 2-3 hour movie that opens right after the series ends, that ties everything together, brings back Duchovny, explains the aliens/bounty hunters, Scully's Baby, Mulder's sister, Patrick's son, and whether chewing gum loses its flavor on the bedpost overnight.

As it is now, I'll kind of plod through it, fast forwarding through the slow parts, and yelling at the TV every 15 minutes. The Cigarette Smoking Man has won...

Carter is a no-talent hack.

[Fantastic Lad]

Chris Carter wants to move on to other projects.

Yeah. Like "Harsh Realms"?

I've hated the X-Files since the second episode. (The first episode was actaully promising, but then it got real dumb, real quick. Imagine how great the X-Files would have been if David Lynch & Mark Frost had worked the project.)

Carter was only successful because there was a severe vacum in culture which needed to have that massive up-swing in weird UFO, crop circle & abduction stories acknowledged in some manner. He did it in the dumbest possible way which has had the basic effect of making such material seem ridiculous and beyond consideration. "Nobody cool believes in conspiracies anymore!"

Nice job, Carter! You did a bang-up job of putting the nation back to sleep with your nose for extraordinarly DUMB writing. (The X-Files actually had one of those 'The Office Tower Computer has gone Homicidal' stories, for goodness sake! I thought we'd left that kind of crap behind with Wonder Woman and freeking Knight Rider!)

Good riddance, Carter.

-Fantastic Lad

Re:The Last Episode

[Katravax]

My mom always said the best ending would have been finding out Scully was Mulder's sister. They sort of made that impossible with some of their stories, but it could have been done if planned from the beginning.

Hell! Bring back Max Headroom!!

[Anonymous Coward]

X-Files has lived past its prime.

Max Headroom was vaguely prophectic and was in it's prime. Now there's more that can be done.

Lost it at the movie

[spamkabuki]

X-Files started to get caught in a kind of "Lost in Space" mode. Problem, adventure, no resolution, reset to starting point.

The movie is perfect example of this. It had to appeal to non-TV viewers by not being too convoluted. OTOH, it couldn't really change anything because it would void the upcoming season. Thus, the kind of "it was all just a bad dream" dynamic that started to take over.

IIRC, the plan was to have one season after the first film, then finis. The show would end, but allow periodic films that would really get things rolling. The various Trek franchises have proven the workability of this.

It seems Carter got greedy or scared. Either he wanted to keep the TV power he had, or he was afraid to give up his baby and make a serious jump to films and real plot development/resolution. The show has just been wallowing in a lot bad horror type crap lately (Didja see Dogget get amnesia from some fiendish soul sucker? Puh-leeze!)

I miss the dark paranoid tone of cancer man, aliens, conspiracy that was so cool. Is there any possibility that Carter can resurrect that on film? I dunno, but every new episode reduces the chances.

Just too bad; fine performances in the characters of Dogget and Reyes. Too bad they are wasted on lame plots.

Re:Carter is a no-talent hack.

[No Such Agency]

He did it in the dumbest possible way which has had the basic effect of making such material seem ridiculous and beyond consideration. "Nobody cool believes in conspiracies anymore!"

On the contrary, I would say that his treatment probably opened a lot of eyes to the real possibility of the government operating clandestinely. Of course the treatment was fantastic, ie. aliens, shape-shifting bounty hunters and black oil viruses, but substitute "JFK & MLK assassinations", "Ruby Ridge/Waco", or "Gulf War Syndrome" and you have what many people have come to believe about the US government in the last decade. Conspiracy theories used to be the stuff of tinfoil-hat-wearing schizophrenics, white supremacists and ranting cabin-dwelling hermits. Now they are part of the common lexicon. Almost everyone is now familar with the idea that their government does not always act in their best interests. (Now they just have to learn not to trust CNN...)

That said, some of the X-files' best episodes were non-conspiracy stories: "Beyond the Sea" (serial killer on death row claims he can psychically predict another killer's actions), "Squeeze" (preternaturally flexible liver-eating mutant), or "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" (old man seems to know how everybody else is going to die, but cannot predict his own death) for example.

Re:The Last Episode

[bughunter]

LOL, but honestly, I shall be tuning-in to the last episode, if only to see which loose ends they decide to tie off, and how they manage it...

The one loose end I'm really hoping they resolve is the prediction from "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" in which the title character, who can see how everyone he meets is going to die, predicts that Scully doesn't die.