January 17, 2002

7:43 AM

David Duchovny why won't you love me?"The X-Files," the Emmy-winning sci-fi drama that thrust two federal agents into spooky paranormal situations, will end its nine-season run on the Fox television network in May. It is still uncertain whether Duchovny, who is no longer involved with the show, will make an appearance in the finale.
posted by ry (30 comments total)

Personally, I think the show has been going downhill for the last 3 years. I thought Fox would end it when Duchovny left, but I assume they wanted to milk it for all it was worth. Replacing the primary characters (Gillian Anderson had also been phasing out her involvement this season) and keeping the audience's interest is a tough stunt. I guess Fox figured if Law & Order could do it, the X-Files could too.
posted by ry at 7:51 AM on January 17, 2002

For me the show jumped the shark just about the time the feature film came out.
posted by viama at 8:23 AM on January 17, 2002

I'm sad to see it go, but I'm glad someone finally had the courage to pull the plug. Unlike Law & Order, which is a primarily plot-driven show with an ensemble cast, the X-Files evolved over the years to be a much more character-driven show that relied on the relationship between the two lead characters to make the bizarre, complicated storyline worth following and caring about. The way the show dealt with Duchovny's departure last season was extremely disappointing and so far this season, the show has been a sad charade of rehashed storylines and melodrama. I hope Duchovny does come back for the finale and that this time, fans are finally given some long overdue closure.
posted by mariko at 8:32 AM on January 17, 2002

Yeah, the show should have ended a couple of seasons ago, or at the latest last season when Mulder and Scully had the baby, fought the bad guys, kissed in the last ep of the season, and the X-Files was taken over by Doggett and Reyes. Has anyone watched this year? My God it's horrible, like some cheesy weekend syndicated sci-fi show, with bad writing, bad plots, and an odd sense of "needlessness." They've destroyed the premise of the show, the humor, the wit, the intelligence.

Nothing against Patrick and Gish, but Duchovny was the heart and soul of "The X-Files." Let's hope they give him a billion dollars to appear in the finale. Whatever it takes.
posted by sassone at 8:34 AM on January 17, 2002

i agree the (top-five all-time best in my book) show is way past it's prime and ready for big-screen only storylines ... but i've enjoyed this season. the new agents bring that oh-so-fresh feeling to the same ole plots ... im serious
posted by danOstuporStar at 9:03 AM on January 17, 2002

I just hope that Fox replaces it with two episodes of the Simpsons and not some new dumb lame sci-fi x-files replacement.
posted by panopticon at 9:10 AM on January 17, 2002

I wonder how many people picked up on the Bree Sharp reference in the link, hmmmmmmmmm?

"David Duchovny,
Why won't you love me?
I'm cute and I'm cuddly.
I'm gonna kill Scully"

posted by SweetJesus at 9:17 AM on January 17, 2002

The baby was Mulder's? Oh, no.
posted by sudama at 9:33 AM on January 17, 2002

Maybe they'll give Futurama one-half of the X-File's time slot? Hey, I can hope.
posted by benjh at 9:34 AM on January 17, 2002

David Duchovny did kill the X-Files, but not when he left the show. He killed it when he made them move production to California. Losing the Pacific Northwest feel, the misty forests, the rain, changed the tone of the show for the worse.
posted by chrismc at 9:56 AM on January 17, 2002

I think the writers killed this show. It seems like there was some kind of pattern to the shows- You'd have one episode that dealt with the underlying plots and characters throughout the whole show. The next week would just be a fun episode that didn't deal with these plots or characters at all. It was simply Mulder and Scully going on a case.

Now it seems that every episode deals with the underlying plots and characters. Miss one week, and you gotta spend some time getting up to speed.

This is mind-numbingly boring in my book. They have completely sucked all the fun out of the show.
posted by ttrendel at 10:12 AM on January 17, 2002

David Duchovny did kill the X-Files, but not when he left the show. He killed it when he made them move production to California. Losing the Pacific Northwest feel, the misty forests, the rain, changed the tone of the show for the worse.

Eh. That's a fallacy. (In fact, the very first "made in L.A." episode, "Drive," was one of the series best). Sure, I guess it had a different "feel" after the move, but that was the fault of the writers and the age of the show in general.

I've been watching the XF DVDs, and it's amazing how good this show once was. Now it's a shell of its former self, and it's actually depressing to watch. I just pray that DD comes back for the finale, and they really wrap things up.
posted by sassone at 10:13 AM on January 17, 2002

I must admit that I stopped following X-files for a while. I don't know if I was the most loyal viewer before--I always watched the episodes involving the long-arc alien conspiracy and sometimes skipped the more episodic monster/vampire/demon tales (though many of those are excellent). Lately, I've been watching the show more, and think the quality of the show is still amazing. Patrick and Gish play wonderful characters (I have such a crush on her), the stories have been interesting (including the new long-arc stuff they've been working on), and Anderson's role this season, even with less screen time, has given her new dimensions (amazingly performed).

I think that, outside of the audience just getting tired of characters and story lines, excellent shows like this eventually raise our standards to a level beyond which they are able to deliver. If this season of X-files were the first season of the show, we might be talking about how great it is, but since we're already used to that, we want it to keep getting bigger and better to hold our attention. It would be a shame to say X-Files is not as good as it used to be, when the quality and integrity of the work are as good as, if not better, than four years ago. A new episode of X-Files still beats the crap out of much of what is on TV today.

By the way, am I the only one watching '24'? That show blows me away every time...
posted by troybob at 10:14 AM on January 17, 2002

I don't mind the show dealing with the underlying plots and characters motivations and the whole alien storyline arc. It's just since DD left, those plots and character motivations have been made silly and boring by the writers. DD leaves the show, Anderson is unhappy with coming back, they kill off Krycek and CSM (probably), change the whole alien storyline til it's unrecognizable from earlier seasons, destroy the Skinner character, etc, etc.

If anything, I think every episode this season should be focused on the alien/government cospiracy arc. I mean, these aliens are going to take over the planet, right? Seems kinda important, not something that the writers and Scully/Skinner/Dogget/Reyes can just forget about, going on to other cases and teaching. The whole show is ridiculous now. Bring on the finale and the movies with Duchovny.

As for "24," I liked it at first, but then found it tedious, and the whole "real time" thing bogus. "Alias" is much, much better (and it's on at the same time as "The X-Files," another reason not to watch).
posted by sassone at 10:22 AM on January 17, 2002

I don't mind the show dealing with the underlying plots and characters motivations and the whole alien storyline arc. It's just since DD left, those plots and character motivations have been made silly and boring by the writers. DD leaves the show, Anderson is unhappy with coming back, they kill off Krycek and CSM (probably), change the whole alien storyline til it's unrecognizable from earlier seasons, destroy the Skinner character, etc, etc.

If anything, I think every episode this season should be focused on the alien/government cospiracy arc. I mean, these aliens are going to take over the planet, right? Seems kinda important, not something that the writers and Scully/Skinner/Dogget/Reyes can just forget about, going on to other cases and teaching. The whole show is ridiculous now. Bring on the finale and the movies with Duchovny.

As for "24," I liked it at first, but then found it tedious, and the whole "real time" thing bogus. "Alias" is much, much better (and it's on at the same time as "The X-Files," another reason not to watch).
posted by sassone at 10:24 AM on January 17, 2002

Sorry for the double post. (And now I'm sorry for yet another post apologizing for the other post...)
posted by sassone at 10:25 AM on January 17, 2002

I'm still hooked on '24' at the moment, although I fear the realtime thing might backfire if the storyline doesn't pick up a bit. The last couple of episodes didn't match the frenetic pace that had me hooked before.
posted by viama at 10:30 AM on January 17, 2002

They should have cancelled this show a LONG time ago. Fox is also cancelling The Tick, which seems stupid since they barely have given it a chance and switched the time slot several times.
posted by kingmissile at 12:30 PM on January 17, 2002

I've never watched it, but it is a cultural phenomenon and I did catch the movie on TV. It seemed to me that the problem with it is that it eventually collapsed of its own weight. The conspiracy kept getting deeper and more prevalent and more dangerous; at some point they really needed to start answering questions and solving puzzles and providing solutions.

What I'm wondering is whether they really will actually wrap it up, or just leave everything hanging? And how can they warp up years worth of loose ends in one show, even an extended one?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 12:46 PM on January 17, 2002

I've tried to watch a few x-files episodes, but it bugs me that everyone talks in a whisper all the time. anyone else notice this?
posted by witchstone at 12:51 PM on January 17, 2002

noir, baby, noir.

which I loved back when there was Mulder's goofiness to lighten things up, and the sexual tension was a nice break too (NEENER noromos!), but now everyone's all earnest and dull all the time. It's not the old chemistry that I miss so much as the old balance.

Furthermore, I'm still waiting for Gish's Agent Reyes to turn into an actual character. She's still eye-candy who Sees Dead People, as far as I can tell.

It's still the only show on TV I make a point to watch. Old habits die hard.
posted by Sapphireblue at 1:03 PM on January 17, 2002

The whole storyline involving the baby and then Mulder's "death" was just ridiculous. The show was always "out there," but it maintained enough internal logic and plausibility that it was believable and the characters' actions/motivations made sense. But I just couldn't buy it that two people who knew better than anyone how dangerous and horrible the world is (not to mention facing an inevitable alien invasion) would choose to bring a child into the world. That's when it really degraded into a soap opera.
posted by mariko at 1:35 PM on January 17, 2002

I still think The X-Files is one of the few shows on TV worth watching, but it has gone downhill (given a choice, I'd probably rather watch 24, which is still intense enough to keep me interested). The other day, I saw the X-Files episode from a few years back where some hick kid got hit by lightning, enabling him to kill others with lightning (and Jack Black played his buddy!). That reminded me just how great the show once was, even though it pales before some of the other early episodes.

And yeah, I wish Doggett would smile once in a while.

But Alias? I watched it once, and maybe everybody in the whole cast was having the worst day of their respective careers, but I found it horribly acted and even less plausible than aliens coming to take over the earth.
posted by diddlegnome at 2:22 PM on January 17, 2002

I used to defend this show to all the buffy-fanatics, but it became pretty obvious around the time Duchovny wanted out that Carter was just making this shit up as he went along. I thought there was an overall cohesive story, but the reason he kept us on the edge of our seats is by making up new things as he went along, and eventually dug a hole that he couldn't get out of. I mean, his sister was dead all along? Where'd the characters from the movie go?
Quite a bit of copping out as the show went along. Used to be one of my favorites, but as a whole, its just trash. Some excellent individual episodes, though.
posted by dig_duggler at 2:36 PM on January 17, 2002

I was always more of a fan of the self-contained episodes. It became too much of an effort to keep up with the overreaching "arc", which consistently doubled back on itself and ultimately became too complicated to keep up with. I did like the movie, but I felt that was never dealt with afterwards on the show.

sassone: I felt the exact same way about 24.
posted by ry at 2:56 PM on January 17, 2002

Stopped watching a single show after the movie came out. HOW, after all that happened in the movie, could they just go back to working cases? Ludicrous.

You know what show I miss? Milllenium. Absolutely badass.
posted by UncleFes at 3:05 PM on January 17, 2002

You know what show I miss? Milllenium. Absolutely badass.

Indeed. And another show that Chris Carter managed to completely screw up. The guy seems to have a gift for coming up with cool concepts, but no ability at sustained follow-through. Or at hanging on to good writers, for that matter. (Drat, I was going to link to the scathing multi-part article The Eleventh Hour did on CC, but their site appears to have vanished, and I can't find it archived anywhere. Drat.)
posted by Kat Allison at 3:57 PM on January 17, 2002

Yes, yes. Millenium had a lot of promise. But by the last season it was beginning to go the same way that X-Files went. I have no doubt that Carter would have absolutely ruined that show as well, in time. At least it ended before it became too ridiculous.

I think X-Files was ruined by season four or five. The background conspiracy crap just went in circles and became stupider as time went on.
posted by bargle at 3:59 PM on January 17, 2002

I'm coming in to this way late, but I need to say that for me the show jumped the shark when they killed Alex Krycek. I liked him more than Mulder.
posted by tcobretti at 5:11 PM on January 17, 2002

The X-Files? Is that still on? :)
posted by braun_richard at 6:23 PM on January 17, 2002