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The X-Files - The Complete Second Season Customer Reviews (10 - 12 of 27 Reviews)
Maybe the best X-FILES season of the nine
It was very early in the second season that I got my first whiff of THE X-FILES. I remember walking into my parents' bedroom one night and seeing my dad watching something on TV---some scary story about a human flukeworm. I am referring, of course, to the season's well-known second episode "The Host," and it was from that episode on that I was hooked on the show, with its glorious mix of the creepy, the paranormal, and the paranoid.
I recently decided to start collecting all nine seasons of THE X-FILES on DVD, and while of course the logical thing to do is to start with the very first season, I simply could not resist starting the collection off with this DVD set of the complete second season. There are just too many memorable moments in this season to count! I don't dare pick one lone favorite episode from any of the 25, since almost all of them have something stimulating or just plain freaky in them---and even comparatively weaker episodes at least have Mark Snow's brilliant (if sometimes repetitive) underscore to set a properly scary mood.
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So, some personal highlights from this great season:
"The Host": the first X-FILES episode I ever saw
Scully's abduction in the "Duane Barry/Ascension" mytharc, which leads to her emotional return in "One Breath" (David Duchovny affectingly portraying Mulder's anger and frustration)---certainly one of the better mytharcs, although for me it is topped by...
Mulder's sister's supposed return in "Colony/Endgame," still for me the best, most gripping two-parter the show ever conceived
"Irresistible" saw a very vulnerable Scully clearly rattled by a case involving a death fetishist (chillingly played by Nick Chinlund) who is now resorting to murder to satisfy his twisted mores. One of the more disturbing stand-alone X-FILES episodes of the season, and one that doesn't skimp on character development, like some other stand-alones do
"Dod Kalm" is not an episode that is mentioned a lot by fans, as far as I know, but I think its moody, contemplative, slow-moving flow---as well as some priceless interaction between our two heroes at the end---works to make this a highlight of the season (despite the contrivances and the cheesy make-up on the aging Mulder and Scully, although I find the latter at least to be forgivable here)
"Humbug," the first "humorous" X-FILES episode from writer Darin Morgan, and a rightful classic
"F. Emasculata" shows one of the show's best directors, Rob Bowman (he of course directed the X-FILES movie), in top form, sustaining considerable tension in a tale about a deadly plague and efforts to keep it under control (and under wraps). Sure, it's derivative of the movie OUTBREAK, and yea it's gross, but it still works
And of course the cliffhanger at the end of "Anasazi," one of the better season-ending cliffhangers of the show
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This was the season that expanded the popularity of THE X-FILES, and it is not hard to see why: gripping stories, consistently good acting from Duchovny and Anderson, and the fact that it touches upon a chord of paranoia that has always been an undercurrent in this country. I will always have a soft spot for Season 2 of THE X-FILES---and even though the show died out with a disappointing whimper by the end of the ninth season, the show will always have its rightful place in television history, if not all of sci-fi/horror history too.
The first of a string of exceptional seasons
With the second season "The X-Files" raised the bar and managed to maintain a series of excellent seasons through the sixth. After that, the distraction from the production of the movie and Carter's other lesser series ("Millenium" which borrowed the look and texture of "Seven")began to take its toll. Nevertheless, even season seven was far above average.
The story arc involving the alien conspiracy kicks into high gear and all the major players are in place by the time of the second season. Season two starts off with "The X-Files" closed down. Mulder and Scully have been reassigned nevertheless, "X" is Mulder's friend inside the FBI. Eventually, the X-Files are reopened and Mulder & Scully discover far deeper mysteries than they ever imagined during season one.
We get all the original broadcast episodes with the addition of Chris Carter's commentary on nearly half of the season. There's also international clips (which are always good for a chuckle)and also a number of great extras. What matters is whether or not the set is worth it based on A) The quality of the episodes and B) The quality of the transfers.
A) The writing establihed a benchmark that all other series (from "CSI" to "Buffy")benefited from. While Carter may have been inspired by "The Night Stalker" television series, he way beyond that series with drama that could hold its own with the best of mainstream television.
B)The transfer by Universal Studios is quite good. The compression technlogy used to create the DVDs does suffer a bit from all the dark sequences. The picture isn't always as clear as it could be but, again, we've got nearly 4 hours of complex images on one dual layer disc.
The set comes with a twelve page booklet that details every episode and gives the general production info. It also includes a picture from these which, if you're like me, helps because I can never remember the title of many of my favorite episodes.
While I didn't like the accordian style presentation of the DVDs at first, they're pretty well put together and, when compared to those for other sets, are well designed with a great deal of care put into the art direction. Overall, it's a classy package and the price has never been better.
One of the Greatest Season of the X-Files
This season by far is the best season of The X-Files because even though that Mulder and Scully were off the X-Files, There were some of the greates X-Files told, like Scully's Abduction that left were barren so she could not have children, until she found that out at the end of Season Seven and then we were introduced to the Ailen Bounty Hunter which had killed the Ailen Clones, and it started off with a whole new Conspiracy theory, in what led Agents Mulder and Scully to kill these Ailen Bounty Hunters that led up to the Eighth Season where they had abducted Mulder.
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