Amazon.com video review:
By its third season, The X-Files had grown from a cult hit to a global phenomenon, becoming the most popular show in many countries outside the U.S. Armed with the knowledge that the show was here to stay, series creator Chris Carter expanded its mythology, and the 24 episodes in this boxed set represent arguably the strongest of all the X-Files seasons. As usual, stand-alone episodes explored the paranormal and sometimes terrifying possibilities in mythology, pop culture, and religion. Darin Morgan helps the show to mature by expanding its use of humor, directing classic episodes such as "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" (featuring a fabulous performance from Peter Boyle) and "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space.'" Meanwhile, two-part episodes continue to delve into the X-Files own mythology, introducing the alien black oil, the implant in Scully's neck, the mysterious Agent X, and the shape-shifting Jeremiah Smith. But following the complex mythology is not crucial to enjoying the show. The strength of the X-Files lies not in resolution but in feeding the paranoia of its rabid audience by revealing conspiracies that linger in the mind as unanswered questions. Series creator Carter realized wisely that fans did not look to the X-Files to explain the unexplained, but to question that which they thought they understood. The third season was effective because it hinted that while the truth was out there, it was more complex, sinister, and amazing than even Mulder had imagined.
Commentaries and deleted scenes are available for some of the 24 episodes, and the last disc in the set contains numerous TV spots and interviews with the creators about the filming of the third season. --Eugene Wei
Amazon.com video review:
In season four, The X-Files continued to expand the
breadth and complexity of the mythology established in the previous two
seasons while developing a deeper, romantically ambiguous relationship
between its photogenic leads, FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder (David
Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson). New players such as
United Nations official Marita Covarrubias and virus-carrying bees
joined familiar faces like Cigarette Smoking Man, Alex Krycek, the
blockheaded Alien Bounty Hunters, and the Consortium in the growing
cast of a global struggle involving multiple factions of alien forces.
It was a season in which Mulder and Scully seemed to lose ground to the
global forces surrounding them, in which Mulder was infected with the
black oil and Scully discovered she had cancer. With even the loyalties
of Assistant Director Skinner and Mulder's mother in doubt, Mulder and
Scully learned to trust only each other in their pursuit of the
truth.
The show also continued to take breaks from the dizzying, heavy
mythology to serve up standalone episodes with the show's unusual blend
of sophisticated humor and creepy paranormal explorations. In "Musings
of a Cigarette Smoking Man," the show parodied the scope of the
public's conspiracy paranoia, implying that Cigarette Smoking Man was
involved in everything from JFK's assassination to the Buffalo Bills'
four straight losses in the Super Bowl. The three previous seasons had
not exhausted the list of popular paranormal phenomena to tackle, and
season four covered a wide range of topics from invisibility
("Unrequited"), past lives ("The Field Where I Died"), and inbreeding
("Home") to shape-shifting ("Small Potatoes") and golems ("Kaddish").
The X-Files proved, again, to be that rare science-fiction show
that could both frighten and touch its audience, telling intelligent
stories that resonated with the skeptic in each of us, all the while
sprinkling in a few laughs. --Eugene Wei
Amazon.com video review:
While the first season of The X-Files introduced us to Scully
and Mulder, the second season finds the show confidently hitting its
stride. Building on its earlier success, the show evolves, and in
these 25 episodes, a glimpse is shown of a longer-running story line (which will continue through subsequent seasons) that is woven into the usual stand-alone episodes of the paranormal. These so-called mythology episodes hint at a global conspiracy involving sinister government agents, UFOs, alien abductions, genetic engineering, the ever-lurking Cigarette Smoking Man, and Fox Mulder's father. Season 2 fleshes out Mulder's family history, including the childhood abduction of his sister Samantha, an event that would shape him for life. Actress Gillian Anderson (Scully) became unexpectedly pregnant during season 2, but series creator Chris Carter managed to dance nimbly around her absence and even integrate it into the show. As in season 1, Mulder and Scully are surrounded by a strong supporting cast, which adds a suspicious new agent named Alex Krycek, an informant named X, and a seemingly indestructible alien bounty hunter.
The seven-disc boxed set includes some interesting background material, but again, the heart of the set is the episodes themselves. Among them are standouts such as "The Host," "Duane Barry/Ascension," "Humbug," "Dod Kalm," "Colony/End Game," and "Anasazi." These episodes are a powerful reminder that The X-Files, like no other show on television, can span horror, suspense, mystery, romance, drama, and comedy, sometimes all in the same episode, and always with the production values of a major feature film. --Eugene Wei
Amazon.com video review:
"The Blessing Way" and "Paper Clip" (third season, episodes 1
and 2) conclude the ambitious three-part series begun with the second
season cliffhanger, "Anasazi," which left Mulder (David Duchovny)
facing certain death in a burning inferno. Mulder is saved by a Navajo
Elder (Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman), who performs the healing ceremony
"The Blessing Way," while Scully (Gillian Anderson) discovers a
computer-chip implanted in the back of her neck. In "Paper Clip,"
Mulder and Scully are reunited and uncover a hidden American
government program known as Operation Paper Clip, which is somehow
connected to the UFO reportedly recovered in New Mexico in 1947 and a
secret underground warehouse that contains the DNA samples of every
American who ever had a smallpox vaccination. This trilogy, personally
scripted by creator Chris Carter, jacks the stakes up from tiny group
of plotters to an national conspiracy of global proportions. Recurring
characters Alex Krychek (Nicholas Lea) and the Cigarette Smoking Man
(William B. Davis) are joined by another mysterious figure, the
Well-Manicured Man (John Neville), a deceptively paternal looking
figure who has his own reasons for keeping Mulder and Scully
alive. Fan faves Lone Gunmen help out Mulder and Scully with
background information while the motivations of Assistant Director
Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) are further complicated with teasing
suggestions. --Sean Axmaker
Amazon.com video review:
This pair of third season episodes from the irreverently
inventive pen of Darin Morgin have become fan favorites. Peter Boyle
stars in "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" (episode 4) as the reluctant
psychic Bruckman, whose flashes of future events inevitably revolve
around an individual's demise. Mulder (David Duchovny) enlists
Bruckman's help in finding a killer known as the Puppet (Stu Charno),
another man with psychic powers. Morgin's mix of mirth and melancholia
creates an offbeat but moving episode, highlighted by Boyle's sad
performance as a man who can't escape his visions of death. "War of
the Copraphages" (episode 12), the story of a cockroach "invasion" of
a small Massachusetts town, is (among other things) a witty homage to
Orson Welles's 1937 radio play War of the Worlds, right down to
the mad panic. As Mulder investigates a series of deaths connected to a
sudden infestation of cockroaches, he discovers a dead specimen that
appears to be metallic rather than organic. With the help of a
beautiful entymologist named Bambi (Bobbie Phillips) and a robotics
scientist (Ken Kramer), both of whom just happen to be studying in
this same obscure town, Mulder attempts to explain this overpopulation
and the mysterious metal bug while Scully rushes in from Washington,
D.C., to make sense of the sudden rash of deaths. Morgin's deadpan
screenplay piles crazy coincidence with outrageous situations,
concluding in an explosive finale involving an enormous stockpile of
manure. --Sean Axmaker
Amazon.com video review:
This two-parter (third season, episodes 9 and 10) picks up
threads from the season opening three-part story. Mulder (David
Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) track an "alien autopsy" tape
to its source only to find the sender murdered and the killer a
high-ranking Japanese government official protected by diplomatic
immunity. As Mulder follows clues recovered from the killer to a
decades old series of experiments he believes involves alien DNA and
human subjects, Scully meets a group of women who possess the same
computer-chip implants and memories of abduction that she has and
discovers a secret camp, ostensibly a leper colony but also the site
of genetic experiments. Their two lines of inquiry meet on a
government train car seen in the very tape that Muldar saw at the
beginning of "Nisei." Deep Throat's cagey successor, known only as X
(Steven Williams), takes the most active role he's ever undertaken in
the series while FBI scientist Pendrell (Brenden Beiser) helps Scully
investigate her implanted chip and freelance pals Lone Gunmen help out
in their own unique way. Director Rob Bowman brings an understated
creepiness to the adventure with his desolate settings and
dripping-with-dread atmosphere. --Sean Axmaker
Amazon.com video review:
This outstanding set of six episodes from the fourth (1996) season of The X-Files offers an equal balance of superior stand-alone stories and intricate chapters of the show's ongoing conspiracy "mythology," providing viewers with an opportunity to savor consistently excellent writing and direction. The primary reason to own this set is the inclusion of "Home," an episode so unsettling that it was banned from Fox-TV after just one network broadcast (thus making it the most cherished episode for collectors). But the good news here is that all of these episodes are equally outstanding, representing the series cast and crew at their seasoned best, when the show had fully settled into the tantalizing complexities of its overall structure (most evident here in the related episodes "Herrenvolk," "Tunguska," and "Terma"). These shows also give David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson some of their finest moments, both dramatic and deliciously sarcastic, as the Scully-Mulder dynamic reaches its most satisfying level of comfort and teasing ambiguity.
From deeply disturbing plots to the brand of offbeat levity that gives the show its unique appeal, these six episodes reveal the series at peak maturity, willing and able to push the limits of terror as never before seen on television. Certainly not for every taste (since they're sure to prove unsettling for the uninitiated viewer), but for die-hard X-philes, this is arguably the finest boxed set available. --Jeff Shannon
Amazon.com video review:
This pair of stand-alone episodes from the third season
spotlights the two sides of the series. "Pusher" (episode 17) is the
gripping tale of a killer who uses his voice to control men's minds in
this literal battle of wills between Mulder (David Duchovny) and the
self-described "American Ronin" Robert Modell, who calls himself
Pusher (Robert Wisden). Helmed by Rob Bowman, one of the series'
strongest directors, this sleek, spooky thriller leaves the conspiracy
aside for a tale that combines science and the supernatural in the
form of an evil, amoral genius who uses his gift to terrorize and
menace. "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'" (episode 20), from the
fevered mind of Darin Morgin, sparkles with imaginative wit and
playful twists on convention. The story, of a possible alien abduction
that may in reality be a cover-up for secret air force experiments, is
told from the differing points of views of witnesses, all interview
subjects of "reality book" author Jose Chung (Charles Nelson
Reilly). Morgin takes the premise a step further, transforming the
re-creation of events according to the teller of the tale: Rashomon with a
satirical slant. With Bowman at the helm delivering Morgin's inventive
screenplay with deadpan accuracy, this episode's dry wit and satirical
skew has become a fan favorite. --Sean Axmaker
Amazon.com video review:
After "Wetwired" (third season, episode 23) you may never
watch cable TV again. Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian
Anderson) investigate a pair of multiple homicides in a small town and
find delusional killers with stockpiles of seemingly random videotaped
TV programs stashed in their homes. A high-tech cable tap may provide
the linking clue, but not before Scully starts showing strange
symptoms. Third season cliffhanger "Talitha Cumi" (episode 24) guest
stars cult actor Roy Thinnes as Jeremiah Smith, or rather many
Jeremiah Smiths, a man who may be clone, alien, mutant, or perhaps
some combination of the three. Mulder and Scully track the mysterious
Mr. Smith after he miraculously heals the victims of a shooting spree,
only to discover a veritable army of identical men working for the
government across the nation. Meanwhile the Cigarette Smoking Man
(William B. Davis) secretly meets with Mulder's mother, a rendezvous
recorded by shadowy X (Steven Williams) and presented to Mulder. As
with all season-ending episodes, the many threads strewn through the
season are pulled together and woven through with new characters and
clues--and left hanging until next season, or in this case, the next
video release. --Sean Axmaker
Amazon.com video review:
This box set boasts six of the best episodes from the first
season of the "uncanny" X-Files, which makes it an essential
part of any X-Files fan collection or a good introduction to
the series. The first tape contains the show that started it all: the
pilot episode and "Deep Throat," where Agent Mulder uncovers an Area
51-esque military outpost and is contacted by the first of many
informants. The second tape contains "Conduit" and "Ice." In
"Conduit," a young girl mysteriously disappears from a camping
trip. Agent Mulder suspects alien abduction, while Agent Scully
believes she ran away with the local biker gang. Evidence of
otherworldly goings-on pile up while the girl's younger brother stares
into the static of the television set, writing down what seems to be
random numeric code. In "Ice" (an episode on actors Gillian Anderson,
David Duchovney, and show creator Chris Carter's best episodes lists),
production design and special effects reign. A team of scientists in
the Arctic Circle are found dead. Mulder and Scully investigate,
discovering a worm-like parasite that buries into its victims causing
psychotic behavior. The third tape includes the episodes "Fallen
Angel" and "Eve." "Fallen Angel" is the series first introduction to
Max Fenig, a conspiracy-theory follower, Agent Mulder fan, and perhaps
alien abductee. Something crashes in the Wisconsin woods. The military
claims it to be a downed fighter jet, but Mulder suspects more. What
he discovers is a cover up on a massive scale. In "Eve," two men are
murdered in the same grisly way on different coasts at the same
time. The one thing in common? Their daughters look exactly
alike. When the girls are kidnapped, Mulder and Scully discover
something more sinister at the hands of government scientific
experimentation. All tapes are preceded with interviews with Chris
Carter, who gives some production insight into the episodes that
follow. --Shannon Gee
