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Television Media

'The X-Files' Returns For 8th Season 100

Posted by Hemos from the we-won't-get-fooled-again dept.
Shturmovik[KGB] writes "It's official - Scully and her assistant, what's his name, that guy, umm, Mulder, that's right, are back for another season, though it looks as if Agent Mulder will appear in only 6-9 episodes: but then, as long as we have Agent Scully, who cares...? Check out the official announcement here at the FOX XF Web site. "
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'The X-Files' Returns For 8th Season More

'The X-Files' Returns For 8th Season

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  • Feh. (Score:1)

    by PanDuh ( 56522 )
    The show is so over-the-hill. They are totally running out of ideas, and it seems like all the interesting premises have already been visited.

    The only thing that makes this show halfway interesting is the banter between Mulder and Scully, and the appearance by the Lone Gunmen. I also enjoy the romantic tension between the two agents, especially because Mulder is such an introverted geek (like me).

    But otherwise, the show has become so blase, and once The Sopranos comes back on, I'm not even going to think twice about switching to HBO.

    The Lone Gunmen RULE!

  • Keep this hush-hush, here's the lowdown on some of the new plotlines for the latest series of the X-Files!

    - Mulder finds yet another facet to his sister's disappearance (episodes 1 thru 12)

    The X-Files, duller than ditchwater since 1996.

    --
    jambo
    system.admin.without.a.clue
  • I agree. I should say I'm an avid X-Files fan, though. (I've seen every episode broadcast to date.) I think the show has been getting tired for the last couple of seasons. Going Mulderless for most of a season should force the writers to break new ground. It could breathe new life into the show before the movie franchise resumes.

    Of course, the unfortunate thing is that the Lone Gunmen spin-off was supposed to become a mid-season replacement if The X-Files got renewed. I'm looking forward to that more than season 8.

    David Duchovny said he'd only sign if he got to write and direct more often. He's done this twice before, with "The Unnatural" (alien baseball player) and "Hollywood A.D." (guest starring Tea Leoni and Garry Shandling). This may or may not be a good thing, depending on which fan you talk to.
  • Personally, my vote for a co-host is a resurrected (or never actually dead) Jose Chung. Or did Charles Nelson Reilly finally die IRL?


    According to the Dead People Server [dpsinfo.com], Charles is still alive.

  • This show was great the first two seasons. Then X-File Mania Hit Full Swing and it was still good but I started to get reall sick of it reall quick. This show should ended a while ago... How many times will Mulder And Scully get soo Close but never ever get an answer?
    the show has two major issues.
    1. It suffers from the "gilligans Island" syndrome
    2. It suffers from the "gilligans Island" syndrome
    What i mean is this. We all know that Mulder and Scully will never get what they are looking for. In order to keep the audience captive, the show must keep some sort of reality. And Admist all of the monsters and such Mulder and Scully never do _really_ get proof of anything. That way some doubt can be left to the viewers mind. The show has always been like this and we know darn well it won't change.
    Secondly... Carter has stated numerous times Mulder and Scully will never have any kind of real romantic relations (Yea they might have almost did once but I remember scully getting stung by a Bee right before it happened then they dropped it). And because carter has stated this we know it aint gonna happen. When either do the show is over. This applies to Gilligans Island because.
    The whole premise behind that show was a Cast of Tourist stranded on a desert Island looking for ways to get off. They won't get off.. If they did the show would be over.... And do you remember when they did? They went on another cruise and ended up on the same STINKIN island (IIRC).
    Anyways
    Tag
  • The X-Files was a great series when it came out, and lasted well for what it was, but no show should be pushed beyond its shelf life.

    Any show gets old after you've watched it too long. For people who only started watching recently, the new ones are just fine. But those people don't get to rant on about how great things were back in The Day and how the scene has totally fallen part.

  • Don't get me wrong - there are some great episodes in the later series, but it's the fact that they're getting few and far between that's the sign of a decline. And there have been some shows which seem to reuse themes from earlier shows as well.

  • Phat ? I can't think why being phat would be a good thing. Obesity is the #3 cause of death in the world today. Being Phat is NOT a good thing.


  • If you flesh Scully out any further you're going to burst her bra.

    And is this is supposed to be a bad thing?
  • Especially since this is the the second(?) season after the "full disclosure" 2-part episode which was supposed to answer all the questions.

    I'm not even interested in the episodes that deal with the long-term plot anymore (Mulder's quest for truth/sister, who's the smoking man, etc). I think even Chris Carter is getting tired of trying to come up with new material. I'm not quite the X-files freak I used to be either, but I still love watching shows from the first 4 seasons or so.
  • Was that the episode when Scully slept with that guy that had a tatoo that talked to him? That was a good one!

    "...we are moving toward a Web-centric stage and our dear PC will be one of

  • They could do worse. "The Unnatural" was a wonderful show and "Hollywood A.D." while sloppy, had a lot of energy and turned out to be better than it had a right to be.
  • Read the other replys to my comment. apparently this is a money issue caused by Fox screwing over the actors and giving the syndication to Fox affiliates. I saw a great interview on PBS with Charlie Rose and David. He really has the right attitude. As far as the conflict between personal life and work, we all have this problem. Balance is important.
  • I'd actually rather watch a show die due to lack of popularity. At least then I would know that the show doesn't have anything else left in it instead of wondering if I missed something good if it was still on. And as for Seinfeld, it was passed its prime and was really crappy when they canceled it. The show was supposed to be based on real life but by the end, it all turned into a cartoon. The episodes were moronic and the jokes were childish.
  • Before the show closes, I want to see one episode where Mulder and Scully act upon their sexual attraction between each other!

    It has to happen because we have been putting up with their self-restraints for years, and we desrve to see it happen.

    Also, the Simpsons is the stalest show on TV IMHO. I do not even watch it anymore because I am always disappointed by it. I am so sick of everything revolving around stupid Homer who acts like a retard constantly getting into troubles.

    Futurama is 10x better than the Simpsons.

    Also, I think the X-Files could probably be massively reworked and saved. Or maybe there could be an X-Files, The Next Generation series where Mulder and Scully's kid, Fox Jr, pursues the Cigarette-Smoking-Man's grandson. haha.

    Or maybe not...


    "...we are moving toward a Web-centric stage and our dear PC will be one of
  • The Lone Gunmen are my least favorite characters on the show. They just sort of babble on in the X-Files equivalent of marketspeak -- "You mean they downloaded the virus into the defense mastrix and how the system is overloaded and can't be rebooted? What about the carrier tones"....

    Well thats a product of poor writing. I enjoy the premise of the Lone Gunmen however. They were pretty cool in the introductory episode where they first run into Mulder (the scene where they are playing D&D in a backroom was classic), and the whole "white-hat", "black-hat" thing. With some better writing and dialogue, I think it would be an enjoyable show to watch. You have to remember that William Gibson wrote the FPS episode, and from what I hear, he is kind of out of touch with what the "reality" of gaming and technology is currently.

    Besides, everytime they come on the plot ends up being "we need to save our friends!" like in that lameass FPS episode.

    Well, they're hackers, not federal agents, so some situations that involve high-level espionage and physical violence and gunplay, are somewhat out of their realm. But from what I've seen, in most of their appearances, the Gunmen are crucial to the solving of cases, like when stuff needs to be hacked into, or codes need to be cracked. I also enjoy the geeky environment that the Gunmen exist in. There's just nothing like it, outside of X-Files.

  • Thanks.Also one of the members of Butthole surfers is the son of Gavin MacCleod. On some channal you can still catch Night stalker.
  • The actor who will forever be known as Mulder has not finish contract negotioations and is still involved with his lawsuit with Fox and Chris Carter.
    The show could go away now. which would please me to no end. I was a fan of the show, but it has almost become a parody of itself. Sculy finds an invisible body, completely covers it with yellow dust on it then takes pictures, and when the body disappears? I guess it didn't happen. grrr.
    Mulder gets 3 wishs, doesn't even occur to him to do anything about his sister? jeezz. I say either rap up the plots in some earth changing way then end the show. If it has become too difficult for the writers to write something intelligent anymore, then just end it.
    That is just my opinion, intelligent respose welcome, flamers need not apply.
  • "Especially since this is the the second(?) season after the "full disclosure" 2-part episode which was supposed to answer all the questions."

    The show's production staff didn't say it would answer all questions, the Fox marketing people did. 1013 has taken a lot of criticism over someone else's mistake. In fact, they said it WOULDN'T answer all questions before it hit the air. They said it would answer a lot, and it did.

    In terms of your other comments on long-term plot, Mulder knows what happened to his sister, and CSM's identity has been (almost) wrapped up. There's a question of whether or not he's Mulder's father, but that's it.

    Before I get flames from people saying "He is!", this is what we know: he claimed to be Mulder's father after making sure Mulder couldn't read his mind ("Biogenesis"/"6th Extinction"/"Amor Fati"), and Diana Fowley believed CSM was his father (same three-part episode). There was some circumstantial evidence back in seasons 2 and 3, but nothing concrete.

  • Is it just me or did anybody else notice this last season having a lot of episodes with the feel of Millenium? I'm not complaining, although it does get me nostalgic.

    I get the feeling Chris Carter misses the show and it is creeping into the X...

    ...Then again, maybe it is just because I really miss it.
  • Aliens and corporations sound like a cooler match. Maybe they should pervert the show for the last episorde so that the aliens and the government are the "good guys" trying to figure the heck out of M&S.

    --
  • "TV actors sign a five-year contract with a two-year renewal option."

    In this case, Chris Carter and David Duchovny are (now) signing on a year-by-year basis, but Gillian Anderson has been signed to season 8 for a number of years. As it stands, none of them are required to return for a ninth season. Based on statements I've heard in the past, it could mean all three walk at the end of this season, dealing only with movies.

    Fox has expressed interest in running the show without Mulder and Scully, to overwhelmingly negative fan response. Some will still give it a chance, but most have little hope for the show's future without the stars that define it.
  • I feel the show has run it's course. I watched it from the first season, and have seen it's ups and downs. The ups have become fewer and fewer. Sigh. All I want from next season is some closure on the secret group stuff. I'm really getting tired of waiting until midweek to watch the Sopranos, so... and let's see some comedic action. I want more Lone Gunman!
  • I think they should either evolve or spin off a series centering around the Mulder's hacker buddies 'Lone Gunmen'. Their interactions with Scully are always hilarious. With Scully and those 3 guys i wouldn't even miss Mulder. Just think of all the sci-fi plots they could do. I always thought one of the big problems with the x-files is that little thought is put into the plot and a whole lot of reliance is put onto atmosphere. I always fell like the show is 'Oh look Mulder something really weird happened and we have absolutely no explanation as to how and why'. With Scully and Lone Gunmmen and a few imaginative writers we could maybe have a few in depth plots that explore interesting ideas. Maybe the general public isn't tready for that.
  • The show intended to use more of Krycek, but Nick Lea was busy in Australia with other work. Chris Carter promised we'd see him this season (after the premier) though. If that's true, he'll be there on Sunday.
  • If you flesh Scully out any further you're going to burst her bra.
    --
    Have Exchange users? Want to run Linux? Can't afford OpenMail?
  • What i used to really like about X-Files was that the show wasn't serial. You could watch any episode as a stand-alone mini-movie. Then two years ago they started turning it into a soap opera. Recent episodes have been better, but the stories seem to lack the same creative inspiration of the origional stories. For awhile I thought they were shifting more from space alien stuff to the supernatural. But recent episodes seem to be all over the place.

    ``All over the place'' would be a fairly good way of putting it. However, I do think they've come out with some fairly decent episodes more reminiscent of the earlier seasons; ``Chimera'' (with the wife of the cheating husband turning into some sort of monster), ``Brand X'' (the tobacco company one, almost had horror movie class nastiness in it, partially!), and the one with the genie in it were all quite cool and entertaining. :-) Before that, though, I almost got the feeling they were so sure this was the last season that they started to goof off wildly with the Cops episode and the ``First Person Shooter'' one. I enjoyed those, too, but I can see how a lot of people were mildly upset over them...

    -pf

  • He's not being a price. From what I've read, he's tired and wants to go home to his family. Nothing wrong with that. It isn't _him_ that is beating a dead horse.
  • Amen to that. And let's add to it.

    There was a time when Fox was a cutting edge network. They moved faster, and kept up with the times better than any of the Dinosaurs (ABC, NBC, CBS).

    Remember when the Simpsons debuted?

    Fox still has some fast-movers, like MadTV (which is hands-down better than the current SnL), but it's lost it's way. The edge has gone dull on crap like COPS and 9021blow. retch!

    There are still SOME good shows out there, but they're spread out all over the channel spectrum, and often at inopportune times.

    Looks like I'll be treating myself to a TiVo or ReplayTV. Now, about getting bigger HD in those puppies...
  • The movie was disappointing to most of us, actually.
    Let's hope they don't go down the road that Star Trek did...I'd hate to see "X-Files III, Saving the Whales with a Lame plot and Bad Co-Stars".

    The Divine Creatrix in a Mortal Shell that stays Crunchy in Milk
  • That was supposed to be my point, guess I didn't word it very well. IMO the movie was hyped to be "the answers to all the open plots" and in actuality it blew chunks. It closed the "are there really aliens" plot line but didn't address the inter twined relationship stuff which made the show interesting. I stopped watching after the movie came out, most of the shows now just seem silly.
  • I don't really have any opinion one way or another... I have never watched an Xfiles episode. A show has to capture my attention enough that I can watch it sporadically and still be into it, and for some reason Xfiles has never interested me.

    The only shows I like are Whose Line is it Anyway, South Park, Drew Carey, 20/20, Dateline, Simpsons.

    I think this sort of says something about present day TV programming... it sucks. There are no shows that I have to watch every week. My DVD player gets a LOT of use.

    But anyways, back to Xfiles... as with any tv show, if the show is still reasonably popular, and they still make enough ad money, they'll keep it on the air. An exception might be 90210 which I quit watching after the first or 2nd season. What the HELL are they thinking keeping that show on so long?? Who watches it??

    And then there was the Lois & Clark series... I used to watch it every week, and then they moved the time slot. And then they spent a month or two with episodes trying to get Lois and Clark married. Then once they got married, they came up with some totally far fetched episodes... they go back in time... things like that.

    Old sitcoms get the "new child at old age" syndrome, in order to keep some life into the show. You know, once the kids get grown up enough that they're no longer that interesting, the parents have another kid. And that kid grows to be 5-10 years old really quickly. Then they realize that the show really IS not that interesting any more, even with the new kid, and finally kill it off.

    Maybe that's what Xfiles should do... have Scully have a baby, the baby grows to be 5 in 2 months, and then she finds out it might be an alien.
  • Dear god I'm a sap. I have to be honest, after being an x-files fan since the beginning all I really care about, at this point, is wanting to know that the, obvious, mulder/scully romance is going to go somewhere. I know there is a hug scene in the season ender. Will it lead to the infamous 'bee sting' scene from the movie? I swear guys I usually could care less about this stuff. Man, maybe I should start watching soaps. ;)
  • You whiners. The X-Files has at least one more good season in its hoary old body, and here's what should happen:

    Duchovny signs on. It's announced that this is the last season. The entire season is spent in a wind-down of Mulder/Scully vs. the Mega-Conspiracy. CM plots to completely shut down the X-Files investigations for good, and succeeds. At the end of the season, Scully/Mulder are fired and are set up to become X-file-investigators for hire, which will be the theme used in several follow-up movies that will make everyone rich.

    The Llama King | Q3A\\ClanDamn

  • If you think the recent stuff is good, catch some first season stuff, very good. The current X-files is a pale shadow of its former self. continuing the series now would be like have muhamid(sp?) Ali step into the ring today.

  • Re:Feh. (Score:2)

    by EvlG ( 24576 )
    The Lone Gunmen are my least favorite characters on the show. They just sort of babble on in the X-Files equivalent of marketspeak -- "You mean they downloaded the virus into the defense mastrix and how the system is overloaded and can't be rebooted? What about the carrier tones"....

    You get the idea. They try to be geeks for non-techy people, but I just don't think it works.

    Besides, everytime they come on the plot ends up being "we need to save our friends!" like in that lameass FPS episode.

    I really, really hope Fox kills that stupid idea for a Lone Gunmen series after the pilot is made. It just won't be worth watching.
  • This message assumes you are in the USA:

    If you're staying at home anyway, you might as well order from Future Shop in Canada. The Canadian exchange is always better on electronics and media. I paid $99 Canadian for the X-Files box set.

    I don't know how much shipping charges are, but I doubt they're enough to offset the saving from the currency exchange.
  • The government has been "Protecting" The publics Interest since before the 50's. What you call Conspiracies are usually Matters of National Security. And only about 15% of the Population of the US belived in Little Green Men, Prior to Close Encounters of the Third Kind and ET and even afterwords Very few belived. Now that X-Files mania is out and about Alot more belive Like 60/70 Percent. (Hows that for TV corrupting you..)
    Secondly, Corporations Do not "Control" the government. Corporations Control the TV-Brainwashed Public. But the public Controls the government. And by controling the public Corporations get what they want.
    If you remember the Sin Tax Proposal on Cigarettes to raise the price a Pack to 5$ The Tobbacoo Industry unleased a Multi Million Dollar Ad Campaign Targeted at Senator John McCain because McCain was one of the few Senators who were Very FOR passing that bill. What the Tobbacco industry did was convience the public that McCain wanted to raise "the taxes of Middle Class 18-35 year olds by So much money and Create 17 new government offices at the expense of those tax payers" What the commercials failed to say was that the So called tax was only on Cigarrettes and that the people that were gonna be hit by it were only smokers and that the new Government Offices that were to open were to help cover their health care. As a result the public cried bloody murder and the bill went flopping.
  • Night stalker. that was a great,for the 70's, show. every week this reporter would go out and dig up some 'monster' then defeat it in the end. the Actor (Gavin McCloud(?)) was on an episode or 2 of the X-files. When Mulder first went to visit him, I thiught the y where going to tie the 2 shows together, in a loose sort of way. I think it would have been cooler then the actor playing a retired FBI agent.
    Foe some strange reason Chris Carter didn't ask for my opinion on that one... ;)
  • I agree. This last season has been very disappointing, almost as if they were trying to make us look forward to it beeing over. I've noticed a number of episodes this season where Mulder and Scully just did not stay in character. The story lines have also seemed to occasionally contradict previous seasons stories.
  • Hence, my point.

    Actors have real lives. In this case, David wants to spend his time with his family. His contract is up. But if he doesn't renew his contract, he's looked at as a "prick". Tell me the reasoning behind that one.

  • Mulder is expendible (Score:4)

    by way2slo ( 151122 ) on Wednesday May 17, 2000 @08:47AM (#1067427) Journal
    Hear me out. Mulder is expendible. His entire purpose in the show is to make the initial correlation, either through the X-File archives or through investigation, of the new case to some myth, obscure fact, government cover-up, or whatever. After that, anybody could do the investigation. Sure, Mulder also supplied his natural intuition to take the path less traveled, but that too can come from somewhere else. The obvious answer is The Lone Gunmen.

    I can imagine several ways to set up the main storyline, but this is one:
    Kill Mulder off. That would have been what I would have done seasons ago if I were one of the government guys trying to cover up my conspiracy. Why risk him finding you out and shutting you down? Ok, so they finally wise up and kill Mulder and get rid of their greatest liability. They killed Deepthroat and his sucessors, it's about time they got to Mulder.

    Mulder is dead so they try to shut-down the X-Files, again. No. They should have learned by now, over the past 7 seasons, that they can't really kill it. There will always be an FBI unit that has X-File cases shoved it's way. They reason that by taking Mulder out of the picture it is crippled, or so they believe. They leave Scully to do the X-File investigations with the idea that she can't make the same connections that Mulder did and therefore will be ineffective. Weather the FBI assign her a new partner or not is trivial. Trying to duplicate the chemistry between Scully and Mulder would be a bad idea, IMHO. She should probably be on her own as an agent making it more difficult for her to figure out the government coverup.

    But that eliminates the conversations between her and a partner. Well, that is another area where the Lone Gunmen can play. Besides, there does not need to be that much dialogue. You can do a lot with the camera. Have Scully just observe and as you see her investigate or just look around the camera angle switches and zooms in on the clue. Or maybe she dosen't see it and leaves, but the camera pans over to show it to us and maybe she finds it later in the episode after she as learned more and it becomes signifigant. There are lots of things that can be done.

    The other elements, the "path least taken" intuition and the initial correlation of the case to an X-File type thing, should come from The Lone Gunman or others, which ever is more appropriate for the plot. Like Deepthroat, they can tip Scully off to things, but more importantly they can play a role in the case as well. Not just as mere informants, but as co-investigators behind the scenes doing what they do best. They could be worked in as much as the plot needs.

    Still, there is one small problem. Why would they stop after killing Mulder? Why not just kill off everyone and assign the X-File cases to some new rookie agent that is in way over their head and has no clue. Why not hunt down and kill off The Lone Gunmen if they appear to be helping. Well, they could cover their tracks digitally, but sooner or later a standard tail on Scully would reaveal them and then that would be it. It's obvious that there needs to be some kind of trump card that is throw to counter that sort of thing. A gardian-angel of sorts.

    Someone, or something, that intervienes on their behalf once in a while when it looks as if they might get caught or worse. The gardian should be totally mysterious. Perhaps you never even see it, just the results of what is has done to save Scully and the Lone Gunmen, but the show should not focus on it that much and make it into a "transporter" that always saves the day like on Star Trek. The government guys would try a couple attempts and when they are mysteriously foiled they go "What the heck?!?!" and stop the attempts until they figure out who is helping them. Perhaps Scully and the Gunmen know who/what it is? There are different angles that could be played with it.

    With all that going on and add in some neat/creepy storylines, a good plot, and good scripts. It would be easy to keep the show going for another season without Mulder. There is nothing wrong with re-inventing yourself from time to time.

    "A little revolution now and again is a healthy thing, don't you think?" - The Hunt for Red October

  • I say that they should have a second show called "X files: Syndicate" starring Mimi Rodgers (Agent Fowley) and Krycek. They would take orders from Smoking Man and try to rebuild the syndicate that got burnt up. I just think there should be more shows focusing on bad guys.

    -B

  • The first X-File (Score:3)

    by Breakdown ( 5084 ) on Wednesday May 17, 2000 @02:34AM (#1067429)
    Looks like the first X-File for the new season should be to figure out what's wrong with Fox's javascript on the X-Files press release page.

  • It's time to give up (Score:4)

    by spiralx ( 97066 ) on Wednesday May 17, 2000 @02:33AM (#1067430)

    The X-Files was a great series when it came out, and lasted well for what it was, but no show should be pushed beyond its shelf life. There always comes a time when it's obvious that a show should stop, but it seems like Fox is so desparate to make money from it that they're going to keep pushing it, even though one of the two main characters is practically pulling out.

    No, it's time for the X-Files to bow out gracefully. Eight seasons is too many - even Star Trek only ever lasts for seven.

  • I didn't know there was a guy on that show. I love it at the end when they pull the mask off the groundskeeper and he says, "YA, And I would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for you pesky kids"!.....no...wait... that was Scooby Doo. The more you scare people, the more they will pay you.

  • Re:Kill the show already! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    No, it is the only true insight we have to the secret workings of the American government and the shadey links between the CIA, FBI and the aliens who have been visiting Earth over the last few thousand years.

    As long as the X files is popular, the spies within the establishment will be safe to leak out top secret information to the public, take away the X files, and they will disappear, and we will NEVER know what is really going on.

  • I never watched that show until just recently, but it's pretty damn interesting. At least I have another show to watch reruns of after midnight :-)
    --
  • Yup - I agree that this show should be killed off.

    Maybe they should do a show about a Canadian conspiracy? :-)

    It's getting tired.

    I don't think its got the 'Fraiser Factor' (i.e. gets funnier each season).

  • Should End It (Score:3)

    by BWS ( 104239 ) <swang@cs.dal.ca> on Wednesday May 17, 2000 @02:33AM (#1067435)
    They should've end it now instead of dragging on for another seasons.

    This happens to a lot of shows and they drag it on till the show is no longer popular and then cut it off. This is like what happened with 'Home Imporvement'.

    I thought that XF should go out when they were at least popuplar. That's what 'Sienfield' did and people still rate that show as #1.

    I think that basically, they should end it now. And espically if Mulder isn't on everyweek, its going to suck. One of the best things about the show was the heat/arguments between Mulder and Scully. Without Mulder, Scully can't argue unless she's arguing with herself but then that would be crazy.

  • Once they got away from the "Criecheck(sp?) and CSM" style plots, the show seemed to suffer. The ongoing saga of the government conspiracy to hide alien experiments and such was at least entertaining. Now the story lines just seem weird and unconnected. They should have stopped with the release of the movie.

  • Sopranos (Score:1)

    by bjb ( 3050 )
    Dammit! And just when I thought my conflict with watching The Sopranos was going to be over! At least with the Sopranos, I'm able to watch it during the week.. X-Files offers no such convenience.

    --
  • So now I suppose we have a "Mulder captured by Aliens" plotline while he pumps Fox for more money, sort of like the "Scully captured by Aliens" plotline while she was pregnant? Nice. I still like this show and all, watch it every week, but I think the quality of episodes has severely declined. One more season will be appreciated, I hope they use the time to tie up all the loose plot ends. But in the end, this show has had a pretty good run; it's time to wrap it up before it becomes embarassing.
  • True. Companies like MS, McD and Nike.
  • Hardly an excuse since they moved the show to California for him. As far a beating a dead horse, there are virtually no limits to what stories they can persue. Unlinke a lot of shows where the characters are limited by either storyline continuity or setting, X-Files could do anything.

  • Face it, the X-Files has just deteriorated into a parody of itself. It's time to let it go.

    My gf got me into it a couple of years ago, and there were a few really thoughtful and brilliant episodes, and the big main storyline held my attention. But now, where are they? At the open and close of the season we get an episode about this impending invasion of earth and the conspiracy to conceal it, but in between it seems everybody forgets about it and we get tongue-in-cheek episodes about brain-eating, shapeshifting fast food workers, the occasional slimy monster, and just plain idiotic concepts like "First Person Shooter," written specifically to make gamers watch and see Mulder and Scully dress in ridiculous outfits, "disappear into the game" (oooh! original!) and display combat tactics that would lead me to sneak up behind them with the gauntlet and get a quick "Humiliation!"

    I say, finish the damn story; it's interesting. Forget the cheese whiz space-fillers. Then move on.


    TomatoMan

  • Not over - we've only just begun! (Score:4)

    by fleener ( 140714 ) on Wednesday May 17, 2000 @03:35AM (#1067442)
    If Mulder leaves, have the alien conspiracy shift to strip clubs. Scully goes undercover to investigate. Turns out the strippers are using innocent club customers for deviant sexual encounters to produce hybrid offspring to combat the government's own hybrid project. Byers, Langly and Frohike play starring roles as they willingly provide their seed in an undercover operation.
  • IIRC, there are talks, rumors, etc. that they're going to put the Lone Gunmen in their own series. Here's a link, [naplesnews.com] though it's a bit dated, that has a bit of rumor-mongering of such a series.
  • Ok kids, here is a reality check.

    The X-files is a television show. One that used to be pretty cool, before Fox killed it and started beating it like the dead horse. I used to watch it because I liked it. Now I don't like it, so I don't watch it. For me, this is the same as it being cancelled. Instead of sitting in front of your box, crying about how bad the show has become, just change the channel or turn it off. It was good while it lasted, now it is time to move on.

  • I'm not sure how the show will be without the Scully / Mulder interaction. However, there were episodes before with one or the other missing, and they weren't all bad (remember the Scully-in-Maine episode?).

    I also hope for the conspiracy-crap being dumped forever -- I can't stand that subplot.

    But I guess I'll miss the humour in the dialogue between the two.
  • The earlier ones were much better, IMHO -WD
  • They aren't puppets there for our amusement. They have real lives. More big actors should be this intelligent.

    To a large extent they ARE. They are payed very well to assume a role and act. They signed a contract to do that. It's not like they didn't know what was expected of them. That's what being under contract is all about. IF he wants out, don't sign another contract when the current one is up.

    If somebody doesn't want to be bound to the terms and conditions of a job, pick a different one.

    Sheldon
  • PHAT not FAT

    PHAT - Pretty Hot And Terrific
  • "Secondly, Corporations Do not "Control" the government. Corporations Control the TV-Brainwashed Public. But the public Controls the government. And by controling the public Corporations get what they want."

    Which leads to fear which leads to anger which leads to hate which leads to suffering....

    But if Corporations control TV, don't they control the X-files? That's why you'll never find a corporate conspiracy on tv. It's not part of the regular brainwashing programming.
  • I enjoy the "mythology" episodes more.

    After the movie too much was answered to keep things interesting. All they could reasonably get out of the series was one season past the movie to add some closure like Mulder learning the truth about his sister and perhaps...

    1) The good aliens defeat the bad aliens and humanity never knows what happened. (we're not evolved enough to handle the truth)
    2) The good aliens are assisted by humanity, people learn the truth and we have our new friends come visit.
    3) The bad aliens start the invasion and the future of humanity looks bleak. - Ths opens the opportunity to new plots in future periodic movies - somewhat like StarTrek.

    I like #3 the most.
  • 7 DVD's, 24 Episodes, plus dozens of commercials/previews/'insiders' from FX channel.
    Best $105 (from Best Buy) I have spent recently.

    Even if it ends this season, I look forward to owning the next 6 seasons on DVD also.
    Now, if only Law and Order, Homicide and The Simpsons would release THEIR episodes this way...I would never leave the house again.



    "Don't try to confuse the issue with half truths and gorilla dust."
    Bill McNeal (Phil Hartman)
  • Actually SNL spoofed the Fact that Corporations Control TV etc... It aired ONce. Live.... Never again.. PBS shows it occasionally when they do documentaries on the News Media.
  • 3) The bad aliens start the invasion and the future of humanity looks bleak.
    This looks a lot like "The First Wave" that is running on Sci-Fi opposite "The X-Files." So wouldn't you have real problems being original with your new series?
  • Clooney sucked in ER.

    Clooney was great in Northern Exposure.

    I just remembered this old Metallica song. . .
  • "Better yet, there needs to be an episode where the x-files explores the possibility that all this conspiracy mongering and ET hysteria is getting in the way of the plain, simple facts"

    They already did that. I think it was the beginning of season 4 when Mulder was going around to the UFO conventions telling people that the ET hysteria was generated by the government in order to hide the fact that the THEY were doing medical experiments on their own citizens. He had to be re-convinced that aliens exist.
  • Mulder already found out what happened to his sister. And didn't you see what happened when that guy wanted his brother back?

    The Djinn(sp) was angry that she made her wish, and thus cursed every subsequent wish that she was to grant, no matter how specific the wish was made. Mulder ended the viscious cycle by giving the Djinn back her mortality.

    Personally - I wish that they'd let the X-Files end. I've spent the past 7 or so years glued to my television set watching my 2 favorite agents, and this past year's episodes were embarrassing at best. I'd be happy with a movie or two... either that or start writing better scripts!
  • The X-Files is a good show, on and off... but for those of you who like conspiracy-driven suspense, I have two words:

    Nowhere Man

    When it first came on, I thought it was going to be a lame rip-off of The Prisoner, but once I followed the story arc for a few episodes I found that I had discovered the coolest show since Twin Peaks... and nobody saw it.

    A big part of what killed it was that it follows the horrid season one of "The Dreadful Star Trek Spin-off Whose Name I Shall Not Speak", so most true sci-fi fans were doing something else that night. It's realy too bad. The final episode (a cliffhanger which will forever be unresolved) was as good of a series finale as I have ever seen.

    DVD's and videos of this show are available nowhere... so get your hands on bootlegs if you can. I assure you it is worth hunting for.

  • yes I saw what happened when the guy got his brother 'back'. My point was that he has access to this fabulous power, yet did nothing in such away to deal with his 'search'. Instead of peace on earth' going all wrong. Maybe he should have wish the goverment public admit to aliens, then have it go all wrong. attacking aliens, enslavement of the human race, whatever. Peace on earth was way to predictable, and more importantly, boring.
    I must of missed the episode that exlains his sister this season. I really haven't watched it much this season. the writing has gone way down hill, plus I got pissed when they wanted to charge me money in order to show me more of the plot.(movie). I mean I am one of the fortunate people that stumbled onto the X-Files first show, but apparently watching the show regularly, and geting other people to watch the show isn't enough. oops slipped into a rant, sorry.
  • Dear lord, couldn't agree w/you more. I too thought that show went completely unappreciated in its time. For anyone interested- he is telling the truth- the show truely rocked the house and is quite worthy of looking up and attempting to acquire past episodes (if you have the means).
  • I think there's an opportunity for Scully to become Spooky Scully when Mulder leaves. I would make a very interesting character development, showing how she's seen so much she can no longer be as skeptical as she once was, to the point where she can take Mulder's place when he leaves. Then they get a new guy to come in and be the skeptic.

    I've a feeling they won't have the guts to do that, though.

    I haven't been able to stand the X-Files for the last couple of seasons. I can't bear to watch shows about a conspiracy the writers seem to be making up as they go, and which can never be revealed unless the show finally ends.

  • Why /. keeps falling for trolls (OT) (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Sorry this is offtopic and all, but I'm curious about what people think and there's not really anywhere ontopic to post it, so I'm posting it here as an AC. Thanks :)

    Every so often I see posts like this [slashdot.org], which are pretty blatent trolls to me, but time and time again I see /.ers falling for them hook, line and sinker. This seemingly complete inability to spot a post that overtly relies on a hostile reaction seems puzzling at first given that /.ers are supposed to be intelligent, thoughtful people (or so I've been led to believe), and I've come up with some ideas about why trolls are so successful here on /.

    Firstly I think that a lot of the problem is the strong opinions about certain subjects that is so prevalent on /. and seen in the bias imposed by the selection of stories and the moderation system itself, which is a system which rewards conformity and inclusion rather than promoting diversity. /. suffers a lot from what is known to social psychologists as community reinforcement and propagation, in which a community is the process by which people promote other people with whom they agree with and push out those who are not within the accepted range of beliefs for that community, hence the reinforcement part, and since this behavoiur snowballs we get the propagation part.

    This process is often not a conscious one on the part of the members of the community, but even a little thing such as only replying to people with whom your opinions mesh can accomplish the driving out of others with undesirable beliefs. After all, nobody wants to admit to themselves that they are biased against other opinions in any way, no matter how small, but the end result is the same whether done purposefully or not.

    The trouble with /. is that the moderation system takes this subconscious prejudice and places it at the level of doctrine. Moderators are encouraged to use their points to "promote discussion" and since the vast majority of /.ers are Linux and open source zealots, promoting discussion means moderating up party line posts which do not conflict with the majority of readers views. These highly rated posts which agree with people's views are safe to reply to - they provide positive reinforcement of the views that are already held and do not require the reader to challenge their core beliefs through a process of argument and counter-argument.

    Anyway, the reason why /.ers fall for trolls is related to this principle. Since the moderation system reinforces already held beliefs /. readers are used to a parade of easy to digest party line opinions, and their scepticism is slowly subsumed by an apathetic view of the world where the party line holds truth. When a troll comes along that is a) written in complete sentances and b) written by someone with at least half a brain this apathy overcomes the scepticism that people should bring to bear on every post they read.

    Even with the false information, erroneous logic and blatent flamebait contained within a troll it is still accepted as being a genuine and valid point of view no matter how extreme, and the /.er is forced to accept that someome holds a different view from what they have become used to. Since the average /.er is a zealot at heart and used to a comfortable world of agreeing viewpoints, they become enraged at this deviation from their belief system, and fall hook, line and sinker for said troll.

    So anyway, my point is that as long as there is /., there will always be Slashbots who fall for trolls. The dynamics of community interactions and the nature of /. demands it.

  • the last few series I watched had defaulted into a well oiled routine something out of a sitcom, not a sci fi series, even less one that had as good a start as M + S did

    I fess upo here - totally missed nearly all the early series until a few re runs, then thought "cool" as the sarcasm and wit filled my heart in an altogether new way, with help from Suspicion.

    But now all I get is some laughs- hell even the "serious" episode just make me laugh and switch off

    Sorry guys but keep on like thi sand the Files ends up as a Cosby Show stand in for young children aired in the a.m.

    doomsaying mode off

  • Without direction (Score:3)

    by BoLean ( 41374 ) on Wednesday May 17, 2000 @02:44AM (#1067463) Homepage
    What i used to really like about X-Files was that the show wasn't serial. You could watch any episode as a stand-alone mini-movie. Then two years ago they started turning it into a soap opera. Recent episodes have been better, but the stories seem to lack the same creative inspiration of the origional stories. For awhile I thought they were shifting more from space alien stuff to the supernatural. But recent episodes seem to be all over the place.

    Its sad to see that Duchovney(sp) is being such a prick. I've seen him in numerous interviews and he is a really sharp, funny guy. His movies have been flops for the most part so I wonder why he is dissing the show that made him. If he could manage to get the right movie role he could become much more sucessful, but until then he really should give his old fans some respect. In this respect Clooney from ER is really a cool guy. I hardly ever watched ER buy most of his movies have been great. The days of actors having to choose beteen a screen career or TV career are over.

  • "No, it is the only true insight we have to the secret workings of the American government and the shadey links between the CIA, FBI and the aliens who have been visiting Earth over the last few thousand years."

    Awww, c'mon! Government conspiracies are so '90s. Get with the times!

    We all know that it's the corporations that are behind everything.
  • No. /. and /.ers don't fall for trolls any more often in comparison to the amount of trolls than everyone else, e.g. on Usenet. The difference: there are a lot more trolls on /. than in any given Usenet group. The reason? The moderation. It makes trolling /. a real challenge. Flooding, too. It's an arms race that cant be won.

    Heh. Different path, same conclusion.

  • His movies have been flops for the most part...

    There was Kalifornia. I thought that was quiet an interesting film, and if i remember correctly it pulled in a fair sized audience.

    And yes, i am conveniantly forgeting The Red Shoe diaries...;)


  • David Ducovney is suing Fox.

    The dispute is over how the company sold the rights to the syndication of the show. Instead of handling it via a normal bidding war open to all stations everywhere, they simply gave it to all the FOX affiliates for a set price in every FOX market. This resulted in Rupert Murdoch cutting his own tv stations a cherry of a deal while screwing over the actors' whose contracts featured strong compensation via the syndication revenue.

    I am betting that Mulder will win the lawsuit and get a huge amount of money to coast on for the rest of his life, regardless of how his future movie career unfolds.



    Seth
  • The URL above is taken from within a frameset. You link to it directly, and references to other frames don't work properly.
    Silly.

    -WD
  • A series based on the Lone Gunmen? All we'd get would be 45 minutes of three guys sat about earting pizza, hacking Perl code, and reloading Slashdot once a minute?

    Come to think of it, that sounds like the Slashdot crew....maybe Fox should just take a couple of cameras into the geek compound for a couple of weeks? ;)
  • Sopranos wins that fight. On New Years, when HBO had a Sopranos marathon at the same time Sci-Fi Channel had a Twilight Zone marathon, I couldn't figure out which one to watch. The Sopranos is that fsckin good. X-Files doesn't even come close, especially not after the early seasons.


    -jpowers
    You Know You've Been Watching Too Much Ranma 1/2 When...
  • The Mulder character's gotten stale, the dialog between Mulder and Scully is so predictable that I suspect it's being generated by a vintage 80's AI program, and the sexual undercurrent between Mulder and Scully gives the program a soap opera feel.

    Now the show can move to a rotating co-host format. One week Scully's all teched-up with the Lone Gunmen. The next, she's pursuing Legion with Frank Black. The next, Krycek is let out of slash-hell and gets TV time again. Finally, while playing Quake, she accidently gets sucked into Harsh Realm and is cancelled mid-season....

    Personally, my vote for a co-host is a resurrected (or never actually dead) Jose Chung. Or did Charles Nelson Reilly finally die IRL?
  • Ya, moving it to California should've fixed it. Right.

    If the guy wants to be with his family, and he should, that means time, not location. He could work next door and not be spending enough time with them. X-Files is huge, and it probably requires a lot of dedication and time on his part. He may not have minded this 7 years ago, but now he wants it different.

    They aren't puppets there for our amusement. They have real lives. More big actors should be this intelligent.

  • David hasn't signed on yet. He has been really against this is the past.

    magic

  • I think the partial loss of Mulder really wont hurt the show all that much. The only thing that really relies on Mulder's presence is the whole conspiracy plot. I can't imagine those episodes working without Mulder being there to push it on. But other than that, the show could work very well with one of the two characters missing. Does anyone remember all those episodes a few years back that did not have Scully? Those were some very good episodes. There have been lots of great episodes that don't feature Mulder (maybe a small appearance on the phone). The show can work with one of them missing. What they really can't do is try and replace one of the characters. You can never really replace an essincal character.

  • I liked the comment someone made about making it from the CSM/Syndicates point of view.

    Background Mulder and Scully, so they get guest roles, but basically have random FBI agents getting assigned to cases which turn out to be X-Files, but there's no X-Files office to assign weird stuff now, so CSM/Syndicate have to cover it from the initial FBI investigator(s) as well as they can...

    Winton

  • I think they already did the one where Scully has an alien baby. Or was that Xena, where Gabrielle has a demon baby?

    Maybe they should do an episode where the same day repeats over and over again, until someone does something different to get it unstuck, like Groundhog Day. Or maybe they already did that one too. Or maybe that was Xena too. Maybe my life is stuck on the same day. Same old job, same crap on /., same TV plots. Can someone please click something different to get me unstuck?
  • This show has been dead since the movie. PLEASE STOP FLOGGING A DEAD HORSE. If you want a cool show put the Lone Gunmen into wacky situations on a weekly basis. And do yourselves a favor and get Darin Morgan to write another episode. Yet another reason to firebomb Fox headquarters.
  • This is nuts. Lets end it now while the show is still on top. Without Mulder there can't be an X-Files. He was the crusader of the show. The believer. If Chris Carter has any integrity he'll ditch this thing now and move it into the movies. Now it just seems like Fox and Carter are milking for another year. Just like a pro athlete who plays another season as a wash up. A has been. Its painful to watch! By time the next season plays out and they finally write Mulder back into a film no one is gonna care. What's it gonna be next year? Scully and the Lone Gunmen? How far is that going to go? Are they going to bring in some pretty boy new partner? Its going to take lot to convince me the story line would be better served on TV versus the movies at this point. Carter---don't screw it up!
  • Darren McGavin
    Gavin MacCleod was captain of the LoveBoat
    (Actually Murray on Mary Tyler Moore at the time)
  • ...has already happened: it's called ``Three'' and seems to be a thin clone of the film `The Mod Squad' which was a based on the series from long ago.

    Which just goes to show you that there is a serious lack of creativity on TV.

    Back to books.

  • I like the idea, but it would take some explaining or forgetfulness to work. They kind of made Mulder non-expendable back in season 3. Back in the Anasizi Episode of Season 2, Mulder met up with Albert Hosteen. In Season 3 "Paper Clip" it was revealed that if Mulder died Hosteen and his Navajo people would reveal the contents of a disk that Skinner had breifly. It detailed all sorts of damning stuff on the government and E.T.s.


    Here is the part from the X-Files website:

    Skinner threatens to expose the Cigarette-Smoking Man if any harm should befall Mulder or Scully. He reveals that Albert Hosteen-who read the computer disks-spread the contents amongst his Navajo people in the ancient oral tradition, chapter and verse, file for file.


    So you see, it would be kinda hard to just wipe out the Navajo without incident, no matter who you are.

  • Good point. I hate the soap opera crap on the show and I'm not remotely enticed by the sexual tension between the characters which has been built up for seasons. It used to be a good show, but it is a thorough waste of an hour now. I wish that Steven King would write another episode. Chris Carter has run out of ideas.
  • The code is out there...
  • I think giving Scully a few episodes to herself will be great. Face it, we already know everything about Mulder (Auto erotic aphixiation..) but we know nearly nothing about Scully. This will give the writers a chance to flesh out the character without having to shoehorn Mulder's wacky comments into the episodes.

    D

  • Re:It's time to give up (Score:4)

    by turg ( 19864 ) <[turg] [at] [winston.org]> on Wednesday May 17, 2000 @03:00AM (#1067485) Journal
    Eight seasons is too many - even Star Trek only ever lasts for seven.
    Well, that's got more to do with contracts than whether the show's gotten old. TV actors sign a five-year contract with a two-year renewal option. That means that after seven years, they're "free agents" and it has only been for a few rare shows that the producers have been willing to pay what the actors can ask after that.

    ========

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