Season Six: "believe the lie"

Overall Rating: 2.81 out of 4 (circa 2003)

This season started off on a snarky note in many ways. There were those who were making snide comments about the fact that the show had moved to L.A. and had therefore lost its dark edge. (Funny, all the years in which it had been produced in Vancouver, no one had ever really said that the city was the real reason behind the success of the show.) A certain subset of those individuals then began its requisite DD-bashing. Personally, I thought that the first part of the season was just shaky in terms of quality. It had nothing to do with where they were filming. But as the "controversial" season wound down, I was pleasantly surprised by the results. At this point, (although I haven't finished rating all the episodes for all seasons) I'm pretty sure that the 2.8 rating above might actually be the highest total.

Worst / Best

The worst of the bunch is usually pretty easy to identify. My vote goes to Alpha. Close seconds are Agua Mala and The Beginning or One Son. Huh you say? Strange choices? It's the "morning after" syndrome, or some "settling down" of intense feelings after watching episodes for a second and third time. For example, I hate Drive less over time, while I dislike the above mentioned ones more over time. In fact, I recently watched The Beginning and thought, what a goddamn mess... they've left Gibson out there for two years!

Episodes that have turned out to be "not so memorable" for me on subsequent viewing include S.R. 819 (although it was good the first time out), Tithonus (surprisingly enough), and Trevor.

The best of season six? Wow. Quite a few towards the end. How do you choose from among Monday, Milagro, The Unnatural and Field Trip? Each one of these episodes evokes a strong emotion from me, and in very different ways. In the end, I love the message and the feeling behind The Unnatural, simply because it was so new and fresh for The X-Files. Every time I watch it, I seem to come away with some new insight into what's important in life.

Most Disappointing / Most Surprising

The previous season (five) ended on a dramatic note, with what I thought were a lot of unresolved feelings and issues between our heroes. The bridging movie seemed to indicate that they had worked out their difficulties; at least that was my impression upon seeing their "cuter than cute" interactions at the start of the film. Therefore the honour of most disappointing has to go to The Beginning, for taking so many steps backwards in the respective behaviours of Mulder and Scully. He, for seemingly siding with Diana Fowley for no good reasons that we were able to see, and she, for being so hideously and grossly unsupportive that it more or less drove him into "The Foul One"'s arms. This of course, sets up my second pick for most disappointing, One Son. 'Nuff said.

I'm picking Field Trip for most surprising, with Monday coming a close second. From hearing their respective spoilers, both seemed somewhat unoriginal and had the potential to be contrived and uninspired; they were anything but. Field Trip in particular brought some nasty feelings between M&S to the surface. How does a partnership made up of individuals so different survive the perceived blows to their respective egos and belief systems, time after time? Will the differences eventually destroy them? Not necessarily, because everyone is capable of growth in areas that they wouldn't think possible. In any case, this episode had a lot to more to say and show us than an unlikely x-file involving magic mushrooms.