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The X-Files - The Complete Sixth Season Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 18 Reviews)

Strong season for "The X-Files"
A strong sixth season as "The X-Files" continued to stroll along in top form. Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz, Vince Gilligan and the rest of the writing/directing/producing crew created a number of strong memorable episodes during season six. While the mythlogy episodes are pretty terrific, the ones that stand out in my mind are the individual stand alone episodes. "The Beginning" manages to fit events from the movie into the series quite neatly so if you haven't seen the film, you'll be able to keep track of much of the action.

Among my favorites this season included "Terms of Endearment (featuring Bruce Campbell as, well, kind of a devlish guy),the unusual "Triangle" where suddenly Mulder finds himself as a Nazi officer during World War II in a time warp where all the various characters from the series show up. The Duchovny penned "The Unnatural" where we discover that the best player in baseball didn't quite fit into any league at all. M. Emmett Walsh guest stars (Darren McGavin wasn't available to reprise his part). The tongue-in-cheek two parter "Dreamland" is charming and funny. Here Mulder switches bodies with a government agent who's in charge of black ops (and who suspiciously looks like Michael McKean from "Spinal Tap") The Lone Gunmen make an appearence in "Three of a Kind" revisitng where Byers finally meets up with the mysterious Suzanne again (by the way "The Long Gun Men" 13 episode first season is coming to DVD shortly as well).The Suspenseful "Drive" and cliff hanger "Biogenesis" where Mulder seems to be losing his mind and the only clue is an alien artifact uncovered along the coast of Africa. This fine episode leads into the two part conclusion of season seven.

With season six Scully moved from role of doubter to a believer of sorts. While season seven had its high notes (most notably the two part opener), season six was the last most consistent season of the series (although season seven was exceptionally good as well).


All in all, a great season that continued to keep audiences spellbound.



Starts very badly, redeems itself completely
Season 6 had a lot of opportunity to go wrong. Coming straight off the back of a very successful motion picture with an entirely new crew and shooting location, it was clear that people were worried that the magic formula that had made Seasons 1-5 so excellent might be lost. If you judge it by the first 6 episodes, they could have been right.. but they weren't.

"The Beginning" attempts to link the film into the series, and more or less accomplishes this goal (but doesn't really add anything to the mythology), and "Drive" is acceptable despite lacking any real drama. But "Triangle", "Dreamland I & II" & "How The Ghosts Stole Christmas" are the worst the X-Files had been up to this point. The fact that in the DVD extras these three episodes are not praised for being well written but for how they've been shot says a lot.

While "Triangle" may be very cleverly filmed, it's a completely pointless and meaningless story that doesn't even make sense within itself (why are people from Mulder's life on this ship, as other people, for example?).

"Dreamland I & II" takes all the most annoying parts about all the previous comedy episodes, stretches them out over 2 hours and tries to attach a serious story to it, with a solution that doesn't work anyway (SPOILER: if time hasn't really been turned back and everything did occur, as would be suggested by Mulder's apartment still being redecorated, then how come NO ONE asks where they've been for the last few days and there's no repercussions to their actions?).

"How The Ghosts Stole Christmas" is basically just a way to do an episode without spending much money (they almost come right out and say as much in the DVD extras). Badly paced, pointless.. just downright bad.

However, once we get to "Terms Of Endearment", the old X-Files magic seems to be back, and every episode from here to the end is excellent, sometimes the best this show has ever been. Highlights for me are "S.R. 819", "Tithonus" and "The Unnatural", but they're all excellent.

Of special mention has to be the two parter "Two Fathers"/"One Son" - these episodes are so important that they're worth the price of this set alone. The mythology that has been built over the last 6 years ends here. If you had been put off buying this show's box sets through a fear of getting into a story without a satisfying conclusion, as I had, you could end your collection here with One Son if the rest of the seasons don't interest you. Its that big.

Of course, having effectively ended the most important part of the whole series, they needed to find a new mythology, which is begun in Biogenesis and presumably carries over into the final 3 seasons - therefore it's probably best to leave discussion of that for their reviews.


Overall, despite a very bad start, the good outweighs the bad by being not just good, but superb. Buy this.

Great series continues in another place
Following hot on the heels of the movie, Series 6 is remarkable for the switch from Vancouver to the US.
There was quite a change in the film quality, it's noticably lighter, friendlier, and lost the familiar " X-File Creepiness"
Despite this, the quality of the writing and casting continued throughout the season, the changes of location were quite refreshing, and on the whole the stories highly interesting.

Highlights for me included the following:
"Dreamland 1 & 2" Hilarious in parts, this is the far fetched ( aren't they all...) story of Mulder changing places with an Area 51 employee. The story was highly interesting, exploring the UFO conspiracy from yet another angle.

" S R 819" was another high quality, taut thriller involving Skinner, who is infected with a mysterious disease, which keeps the viewer guessing. Excellent tension.

" Two Fathers" & "One Son" , although interesting, really ended the mythology concept for me. The mythology episodes were never the same after the syndacate was killed off in these ones. However, these episodes are very thought provoking, and left Carter room to move in another direction.

" Monday" Groundhogdayish, Mulder keeps waking up repeating the same day, over and over.

" Alpha" I loved this, although many bagged this one. Mulder & Skully investigate a wild dog that supposed attacks and kills people. Lovely creepy feeling akin to earlier seasons.

" Trevor" Interesting story of a man who can move through walls- great special FX

" Three of a kind" Excellent Lone Gunman episode set in a casino in Las Vegas. And yes, the babe IS hot!

" The unnatural" this had a great feel about it too- recounts the story of an African American baseball player who actually was an alien. Love the atmosphere they managed to create in this episode, especially on the bus travelling.

" Biogenesis" Superb cliff hanger to end the season, with Scully travelling to Africa to investigate a mysterious relic.
X-Files at it's brilliant best!

The season did contain a couple of stinkers, as was the case by this stage of the X-Files- none more so than " Field Trip" & " Agua Mala", but hey nothing's perfect.

Once again, more lightheartness is prevailing through the season, with Duchovy giving just the first small hints that he's had enough of the Mulder character.
Despite this, overall it's a show that more than worth watching, with the usual extra's that form part of this set- this is definitley an X-Files season that won't disappoint!

The Quality is still there, and worth adding to your collection

Thanks for reading

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