|
The X-Files - The Complete Eighth SeasonRating:
Release Date: 04 November, 2003 Retail Price: $99.98 OUR Price: $69.99 You SAVE: $29.99! Cast: |
The X-Files - The Complete Eighth Season Reviews
So Very Underrated
I am a huge fan of The X-Files, and I widely consider it to be amongst one of the greatest TV shows ever created. All the fans know the supposed demise of the show after its first seven seasons. Apparently, Mulder and Scully can only work together. They were considered the nuts and bolts, and even the bloody glue that held the show together. I thought I agreed, until about a week ago when I watched Season 8 again.
I was a latecomer to the show, and Season 7 was the first season I watched in full when it was broadcast in the UK at the start of 2000. Therefore, I didn't have as much nostalgic memories about the previous six seasons with Mulder and Scully, so a drastic change such as the departure of Mulder in Season 8 didn't seem like such a big deal to me. Okay, the show is definitely better with both Mulder and Scully in because they are just two parts of a whole. They fit together and have an on-screen chemistry that runs Buffy and Angel's into the ground! But some people were so obsessed with this pairing that once they knew Mulder wouldn't be in the large majority of Season 8, they refused to even watch it, calling it terrible and boring! Those people will never change their minds on the last two seasons of this show, which I think is a great shame because this is actually one of the strongest seasons of the show.
I originally believed all the haters of Season 8 and approached it with much caution. Did I really want to be watching these episodes, one after another only to be let down every time? There was only one way to found out, and that was by watching the bloody things! What I found surprised me because, yes, for a little while I was noticing the absence of David Duchovny, but I soon forgot about it, because what stands in his place are some really superb stand-alone episodes. The writers and producers of the show knew that they had to write some amazing stand-alones to make this a good season without Mulder. Gillian Anderson is as her best in Season 8 out of all these seasons. She conveys such a tremendous variety of raw emotions. The arrival of Robert Patrick as Agent John Doggett was the reason a lot of people disliked this season, but over the episodes here you grow to love him. He's a great character, that's all there is to it. The addition of Monica Reyes later in the season was also what some people considered the final blow to the show, but I disagree. She's nothing like Scully. She's a bit of an airhead, and you learn to love her caring character, especially in the finale.
The mythology of Season 8 is one of my favourites, and it is certainly much stronger than it was in Seasons 6 and 7, and possibly even Season 5. With Scully revealing her pregnancy and Mulder abducted in the Season 7 finale, the two-part opener of Season 8, "Within/Without," is a stunning search for Mulder in the middle of the desert. It's also two episodes where Scully and Doggett are forced to work together and their conflicting opinions come to a head. After ten stand-alone episodes, we are treated to four back-to-back mythology episodes. The first is "Per Manum," which focuses on Scully's pregnancy and the fact that a dangerous organisation could be killing mothers of babies once they have just been born, to hide something about the experimentation of alien DNA on human ova.
"This Is Not Happening" sees the returm of Jeremiah Smith who had the power to heal any injured people no matter what their condition in the Season 3 finale. In this episode, he is healing alien abductees who have been returned to Earth, but there's a darker secret at work. This episode also sees the return of Mulder, but who is dead on arrival. "Deadalive" is the next episode, where Mulder is buried, but dug up again and found to actually be alive. With the help of a cure, Mulder is fully restored to life. This episode also sees the return of one Billy Miles from the first-ever episode of the show, which shows just how wrong the rebirth of an abductee can go if not treated with a cure.
"Three Words" is an action-packed mythology episode which sees Mulder breaking into a high-security government facility to extract information about his abduction, and other secrets. It's also a great episode which deals with the tension between Mulder and Doggett as they come to blows over Scully. The next stand-alone is the superb "Vienen," which deals with the reappearance of the black oil on an oil rig offshore of New Mexico. The focus in this episode is how the oil is being killed off inside its host. Radiation is ruled out, as the oil itself has elements of radioactive qualities to it. Mulder and Doggett work together on the rig, against Deputy Director Kirsch's orders (and against each other to begin with) but ultimately strike up a great partnership in which they are able to discover the extend of devastation on the rig.
"Essence" is the second to last episode of the season and is a fantastic one which deals with Scully's pregnancy. Her baby is thought to be in danger from a group of people intent on stealing the baby. They fear that it could be the ultimate human being, because of how Scully's ova were experimented on. This is continued in the season finale, "Existence," where Scully and Reyes are forced to go into hiding hundreds of miles from home to escape Billy Miles who is now a super-human machine intent on destroying everything in his path to get at the baby. This episode is one of the most action-packed of the entire scene, includes some shocking twists, and includes a high-speed car park chase mixed with Scully's pregnancy as the people who want to take her child watch on. A superb ending.
As I said before, the stand-alone episodes of Season 8 are truly exceptional. The first is "Patience," in which Scully and Doggett investigate a bat-like creature that is attacking people in remote areas of woodland. "Roadrunners" is one of the most shocking and disturbing episodes of the show's entire nine-year run! Scully stumbles amongst a community of strange people who live out in the middle of the desert, away from civilisation. They worship this massive slug-like creature, which they implant in people. It then takes home on their spines and lives there, before ultimately destroying its victims. These people are obviously very deranged, and the way they trick Scully into staying with them so they can implant the slug is just so freaky! This episode made me scream and cringe!
"Invocation" is a very scary episode which focuses on a young boy who goes missing in 1990. Ten years later he is found again. He should be 17 years old, but he's still the same age he was when he went missing. His mother doesn't care because she's just got her pride and joy back, but strange things start happening. "Redrum" is a great episode which focuses on a man who is suspected of killing his wife. However, time begins to travel backwards for him until he can predict how and where his wife will die, so he can hopefully prevent it from happening. "Via Negativa" is a superb episode which should have fallen flat on its face, due to the lack of both Mulder and Scully. However, Robert Patrick put on a stunning performance in this episode about the fine line between illusion and reality in our dreams. "Surekill" is a bit of a boring episode in which two brothers can see through walls to fulfil their desires. They shoot drug-dealers from behind walls, then steal all their money.
"Salvage" is another rather boring episode, but I think it has a great and original storyline. A man was used as a test subject with metal in a terrible experiment gone wrong. He sets out to exact his revenge. He is extremely strong, obviously, being made of metal. He can wrap a car around himself when it's travelling at 40mph towards him and has the power to punch holes through 4 inch-thick steel doors. "Badlaa" was one of my favourite episodes of the season in which a small Indian man takes host in the stomachs of people, ultimately killing them, but getting to live their lives through his eyes. "The Gift" is a bit of a poor episode in which Doggett investigates a man/beast creature which has the power to cure illnesses. This episode also reveals that Mulder had an incurable brain disease because he visited the creature some time at the start of Season 7.
"Medusa" is another great episode where Doggett and Scully investigate a strange new chemical which is living in a train tunnel and eats away at the flesh of its victims. It's a truly horrifying episode, but fascinating nonetheless. "Empedocles" is a good episode which deals with a man who can't help killing people. He has visions of the victims as being totally burnt. Reyes sees this also and links this back to a case she investigated earlier in her career with Doggett when he son went missing. "Alone" is a great episode where Scully is sent on maternity leave. Doggett is assigned a new partner, a certain Miss Harrison. She's a bit obsessed with Mulder and Scully's past exploits, and let's her imagination run away with her. I was worried she was yet another addition to the show, but thankfully this is the only episode she appears in. Together, they investigate a creature which blinds its victims with a spray, before devouring them. Mulder is also excellent in this episode.
The Special Features in this box set are:
-Commentary by Frank Spotnitz on 'Alone'
-Commentary by Kim Manners on 'Existence'
-All-new documentary: "The Truth About Season Eight"
-Seven deleted scenes with optional commentary by Frank Spotnitz and John Shiban
-Seven special-effects sequences with commentary by Paul Rabwin
-Character profiles on Alex Krycek, Gibson Praise, and John Doggett
-42 promotional television spots
-6 international language clips
-All-new DVD-ROM game: Existence
All in all I found Season 8 to be a great season of The X-Files. People don't like change, which is why the Mulder-lovers hated this season. Don't get me wrong, I love Mulder as much as the next guy (he's bloody gorgeous!) but by the end of Season 7, the show was in desperate need of a revamp. The new characters in John Doggett and Monica Reyes provide this. FOX was providing the show with a $4 million an episode budget, which is a lot of money, but I think it was well spent because some of the sets in this season are very beautiful. A lot of people say that Chris Carter didn't want to let go of his multi-million dollar creation, but would you? I know I wouldn't. If you disliked this season, watch it again. You might find yourself surprised.
At this point the producers of the show are getting tired
This is a good and interesting season, but not as thrilling as "Agent Mulder" seasons 1-7.
More Customer Reviews (41 total)
You like The X-Files - The Complete Eighth Season?
|
