barrettchase.com

barrettchase.com
obey the rules. often enter. organize your material.

Tue, 08 Feb 2011

It all started when somehow I wound up on the Wikipedia page, "List of The X-Files episodes." I can't remember how I ended up there. Maybe I read an article or a blog post about the show, or maybe I happened to catch a rerun on TV and decided to look it up myself. What excited me was how there are asterisks after certain episode titles, indicating that those episodes collectively make up The X-Files ongoing mythology. The so-called X-Files "Mytharc" relates the story of how the planet Earth is on the cusp of an alien invasion, and how conspirators within the US government are simultaneously covering up the impending invasion, are helping the aliens subdue the human population in exchange for key positions after the invasion, and are secretly developing weapons to fight the invasion if the chance should arise.

I was a big fan of the show when it was on TV in the late 90s. I watched it on TV, but also rented the videotapes as they came out so that I could re-watch and study the conspiracy. I had an extremely worn copy of Entertainment magazine that listed an episode guide for the first several seasons. The problem was, whether on TV or on videotape, watching the show chronologically meant watching not only the Mytharc episodes, but also the much more common "Monster-of-the-Week" episodes, which are fun but tend to drag you out of the Mytharc and make you forget key details of the conspiracy. Staring at the Wikipedia page, I realized that since I now had this all-encompassing guide, and since every episode of the show was available on Netflix Instant, I could finally watch the entire Mytharc in one long stream.

Also, I could finally figure out why, if I loved the show so much, I stopped watching it long before the series reached its last season.

Tonight, after several months of viewing, I watched the series finale.

The first few seasons were familiar territory. Somewhere along the line, there had been a weekend-long marathon. And even though I didn't have cable at the time, I commandeered a VCR at my parents' house and recorded the whole thing. These were also the seasons explained in that copy of Entertainment magazine. I'd often watch them when I was sick or when I had insomnia or after coming home from the bars. They were good, but a little worn out in my mind.

Seasons 3-5, on the other hand, were much less familiar and were utterly, utterly awesome. Even if you've never seen the show before, I think if you watched it for the first time you'd have to agree that this is where the show is most on-point. The character development in particular is incredible, but also every episode is funny and suspenseful, not to mention creepy.

Next came Fight the Future, which is the feature film that came out in theaters. It's okay. I'd give it 3/5 stars. But it's kind of soured in my mind, because it's also the beginning of the end. I think a big reason why the series was so good had to do with David Duchovny, and likewise, I blame most of the show's downfall on him as well. Here's why.

Up through season five, the show was filmed in Vancouver. This really affected the show's aesthetic. Everything was green and lush and, consequently, shadowy. The forests of British Columbia made it easy to believe that you were watching events unfold all across the country: in Michigan, in Maine, in West Virginia, or in the forests of New Jersey. In season six, Duchovny stipulated that if he was going to remain with the show, shooting would have to be done in Los Angeles. The entire aesthetic changed, and while there were some good scenes set in the desert, for the most part, The X-Files began to look like every other show on TV.

Speaking of which, this was also the time when other unique aspects began to melt away in favor of cliche, as the show attempted to appeal to a broader audience. The solidly platonic relationship between Mulder and Scully, I always thought, was its strongest aspect. This isn't supposed to be a romance. Despite Duchovny's looks, you're supposed to believe that Mulder is an obsessed geek so deep within his own thoughts that he barely has time to feed his pet fish. Scully is a careerist and a scientist thrust into an adversarial relationship with Mulder. I'm not saying the romance that eventually develops in implausible (implausible would be either one of them falling for a third party), I'm saying that it was refreshing to see a show that resisted romantic cliches.

Another problem with the later seasons is the introduction of several less-interesting characters, who almost completely take over the series not to mention the actual X-files. By the time seasons eight and nine roll around, Fox Mulder is barely even in the picture anymore, frequently getting kidnapped or in hiding, even imprisoned. Two other agents, John Doggett and Monica Reyes, take over the X-files office, while Dana Scully goes about the business of gestating yet another alien baby. Practically every one of Scully's scenes post-birth involve her placing the baby in its crib or taking it out of the crib.

Some critics say that the show ultimately failed because the conspiracy became too elaborate. This might be the case, but only because of the often weeks-long lapses between Mytharc episodes when they originally aired. Consumed the way I just did, the story is baroque, but certainly manageable. I also read somewhere that some blame 9/11 for the show's demise, citing a 1/3 loss in viewership after the terrorist attacks. Well, it might be that viewers stopped watching because they were suddenly too patriotic to watch a show about government conspiracies, but I'd wager it had a lot more to do with the fact that one of the show's main characters was unseen for months on end while the other was suspended in a seemly infinite loop of lifting a baby out of a crib and putting it back again.

Personally, I stopped watching because while the show's creators and stars were trying to keep all the balls in the air at the same time -- the story, their careers, their egos -- they lost track of what made the show great in the first place: the characters.

[filepath: /assessment]