Season by Season TXF Commentary
Opinions drive all sorts of interesting TXF discussions, so when I thought about what I might include on my old website besides fanfic, it just seemed natural to add my humble little episode reviews to the pile. I decided fairly early, however, that I'm not one of those who has the time or inclination to do comprehensive reviews or recaps that go on for pages. What I ultimately put together was more in the style of "opinion" rather than complete reviews.
And I think this goes without saying, but I will say it anyway: spoilers abound if you read any of these posts about any episode. And I mean, about any episode. Since we are talking about a series that went off the air over a decade ago, comments that I make while re-watching a season one episode may trigger comments about something seen in season seven. Don't say you haven't been warned.
The 20th Anniversary Re-Watch
Each episode review will be uploaded as an individual blog post. Titles that have [REVISITED] attached to them will contain new commentary (in this colour) and an updated rating (where applicable) based on a recent viewing. I will be doing these in order, with at least one post per day.
A Note About Sequencing
I originally started writing these reviews at the end of season six. You will notice (when we get to that point) that several writeups from that year were very brief. (I wasn't quite sure how extensive I wanted them to be at that time.) From there, I progressed to a once-a-week update schedule as season seven rolled out. During the same time period, I also began to work backwards on reviews from season five.
When I learned that season eight would only include DD's involvement on a part-time basis, I decided only to watch/review the episodes in which he appeared. This period also marked a serious downturn in my feelings for the show, as evidenced by the heightened emotion shown in each episode's extended commentary.
Since my website was meant to be a refuge for those who believe that TXF largely ceased to exist after "I'm pregnant", I have no reviews for anything beyond that half of season eight. Instead, I continued my walk down memory lane and slowly completed season four. I almost hit the wall in terms of lost interest by the time season three appeared on my plate, but knowing that it would be a huge accomplishment to complete the entire set (and knowing that I had regular visitors who were actually reading these things back then), I persisted. With a significant push in the spring of 2003, I finally got the job done.
The Ratings and What They Mean
The ratings used for each episode are as follows:
* POOR: Falls below expectations of normal TXF standards
** AVERAGE: Not deemed memorable, but meets baseline expectations
*** GOOD: Not the best of the best, but definitely right up there as being memorable
**** EXCELLENT: The epitome of what The X-Files stands for in terms of quality and story-telling
I compare each ep against other "like" eps, meaning that while season seven's Closure and X-Cops ended up with the same rating, I do intend that they should each be looked at against episodes of the same genre. (That said, you may also want to consider that I rated season eight episodes against a slightly lower standard than "normal".)
Season Summaries
At the end of each season, I also put together a summary that averaged together all of the ratings and highlighted the best and the worst, etc. As part of my re-watch project, I will also add some updated thoughts to those as well.
Top Ten List
Over on this page, you will find my picks for my personal top ten defining X-Files episodes. I've chosen them for the fact that they — to me, anyway — define what the show is about, covering one-off monster-of-the-week eps to the confusing mytharc shows (although I think I've chosen a couple of the less confusing mytharc shows that are out there), capable of taking the viewer from agonizing depths of despair to outrageous heights of laughter. These are the episodes that I would use to introduce someone to The X-Files.
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