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Date Posted: 09:37:18 05/04/02 Sat
Author: the badly dressed man
Subject: where the show went wrong...(very long..sorry)
In reply to: detoured 's message, "Re: "William"" on 01:21:51 05/04/02 Sat

For me and maybe some others like Rabid, I saw the show in trouble in S6. Now I suppose TXF was concieved as an episodic show. Each week, a new strange menace investigated by our 2 heroes. Just like older shows that CC claims as influences like Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The Invaders, Project UFO or lots of old cop series.

Now, in the 90s most shows had broken away from the episodic format. TV execs realized that an audience could actual watch week to week and follow a storyline. If the shows good, an audience is built in and one doesn't have to worry about putting off casual viewers that come in in the middle and are lost.

Now, CC did S1 mostly episodic. We did have the Samantha story in the background as motivation. We had Deep Throat's cryptic appearences. CC didn't know if the show would last past S1 so he gave us quite a variety of weird threats and ended the season with the hint of something bigger (the mytharc) and the X-Files are closed down which would have been a good ending for a one season show.

Then, S2 kicked things into high gear with 2-3 part stories and more info on this myth arc. As those early seasons went by, we got a little more each time and got the frustration of them never getting a firm hold of it. There was the abductions with the metal implants, the black oil, the chameleon bounty hunter, the use of bees, small pox vaccines being used as a way to track us all, the alien rebels. All very intriguing, each a piece of a puzzle that I'd hoped would make sense at some point.

Scully's cancer was an excellent on going storyline. Something that happened in S2 took to S5 to play out. It may have seemed too soap opera-ey but it was handled well. Was the cure too easy? Maybe. We also had the false Samantha sightings. Nicely done but by the third one, we start to groan. How many times can Mulder almost get her only to have the rug swept out from under him. Well, if they solved the whole thing, the show would be over but I wish there was a way to keep the mystery going without M/S having the wool pulled over them again and again. And what happened to the Navajos translating the secret files back in Paper Clip? Never heard about that again, was that the big breakthrough they needed?

Now some say S5 as the start of CC's mytharc collapsing under its own weight. The rebels? Where'd they come from all of a sudden? Whats their story? Well, haven't seen them since S5 except for 2 Fathers/1 Son. Spender and Fowley were hated as new characters. They were there to complicate matters, didn't bother me. Gibson Praise was introduced as the ultimate answer to everything (how many times have we heard that phrase). CC ends the season with the X-Files being destroyed and M/S relived once again. This was so dramatic and yet we see no consequences of this later on. Just ask that goofy accountant agent about the older cases, she remembers them all.

The movie changed alot of our notions. The oil was a virus that eats a person up until theres just an alien left. Why didn't it do that before? Why was the syndicate unaware of this and why wouldn't they break off from any alien cooperation upon finding out? The syndicate guys themselves said Mulder only knows part of the truth but is essential to what will happen. Huh? How so?

So S6 rolls around and we have Gibson slipping from their fingers yet again, M/S still not on the X-Files, Mulder breaking every rule and not getting fired, lots of light eps and lots of M/S teasing that stems from the movie. Then came a 2 parters that promised answers. The syndicate and Cassandra get wiped out by the rebels. Big deal! So was Cassandra the big answer or not? Can't someone just do it again? Why is the threat gone if one person dies? Why is the invasion called off because the syndicate is gone? And M/S seem reduced to mere witnesses during these events, hardly attive participants.

Now the Biogenesis/Sixth Extinction story seemed to redeam this somewhat. The mental powers of Gibson are now in Mulder somehow. CSM takes them, don't know why. I thought the next time we saw him, he'd be a man with a power like so many others M/S met over the years. But instead he just dies out. What good was taking it in the first place? To save his other son? He killed one without remorse. Because Mulder is SO important? Why? Other than the fact that M/S are the leads, I don't see why they must be preserved by the bad guys all the time. Deep Throat said killing Mulder might make people think he was right which makes sense and he's survived attempts on his life but we have yet to see his place in the big picture.

All those space ship writings haven't geled well with the other mytharcs concepts. What do they mean inthe big picture? Another thing that was dropped as it got interesting. Fowley and Spender both redeemed themselves and got promptly "killed". More anti-climaxes.

But the biggest one came next, the Samantha conclusion. After all the false leads and years invested, this was a big letdown. S6 & S7 made me feel the show had run its course. Sure, there were some good eps but I saw repetition and bad choices. I wished CC had wrapped it up in S7 and gone out on top. Perhaps Fox is more to blame as they didn't want to give up a winner.

So we have the search for Mudler while Scully's pregnant. Now the pregnancy is an off-shot of the whole Scully abduction/cancer story as she lost the ability to conceive. This might have been nice as a finale revelation. Scully running around on cases pregnant, now that is soap opera. That is what I thought this show wouldn't stoop too. Nothing against Doggett or Reyes, they both do a good job but they are hardly as engaging. The show should have concluded with the 2 leads.

So we invest a season on the birth which ends with the aliens showing up to see it and then leave. The happy "family" is reunited and all seems OK. S9 got even stupider. Mulder's gone again while Scully and the baby are open targets. The baby is important after all. Why? Who the hell nows. He has those same Gibson powers that Mulder had, I guess. Now we have these UFO cult people taking up the slack now that the syndicate is gone.

So heres where they end up, send William out of harms way. Thats what they should have done from the beginning. Mulder should have took the baby with him into hiding. I agree with Det, if they take him back later or if the adoptive parents are evil-Scully's an idiot either way. I say they've done with William, couldn't stand the prospect of dealing with him in the finale or the movies. CC's out of answers, never had any. You can always pop up a character like the burned up Spender with vague explainations to take care of loose ends.

The whole thing has gotten silly. We'll see if theres any more for CC to pull out of his hat in these final 3, he may want to correct some past mistakes. But in doing that, he may only make it worse. Maybe he should have stuck with an episodic show.

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