When I started this series, I expected to immediately like it. I had high expectations for the show and I thought I would have no trouble getting into the show. I also weirdly expected a small peak that the show would only reach for a couple seasons, and gradually declining years until it became unwatchable. As you've probably gathered, this is not at all what happened to me. The high expectations made the first season a disappointment - it has one of the better season-long storylines and a few good episodes, but that's pretty much it. That initial disappointment kept me at arm's length from loving the show for longer than it otherwise would have - although I'm only now seeing this in hindsight.
Anyway, my other "problem" with truly getting into The X-Files is that I was fully aware of the mythology before I started. By that I mean, I knew it wasn't really going anywhere and would ultimately stop making sense or just start getting stupid. While this did lead to not being frustrated at all when the mythology got that way, it also meant I pretty much never got invested in any early season mythology. Welcome to the only show where I infinitely prefer the standalone episodes to their serialization.
So here I am in season six and the show's been mostly churning out 20 or so quality episodes each year for the past five years (with the exception of the fifth season, which had less episodes due to the movie). So I didn't really expect to gain an appreciation for the show in its supposed decline years. But my opinion of the show is much higher than it was in the second season or third season, perhaps because there are very few shows that remain good in its sixth season. It's clear the show is starting to run out of ideas, but they are responding to this by being creative and experimenting with ideas.
The mythology is never less important than the sixth season, which I certainly am not going to complain about. The show also took some backlash for two developments and I'm not sure how related they are to each other: season six tries to be funny for like six episodes in a row (it seems that long at least) and the production moved to California because David Duchovny didn't like Vancouver (this is at least what I've read so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).
Despite the brighter colors and the shift in tone at points, you can't really say the show is that much worse than before. It's probably not better than the 2-4 seasons, but during the fifth season, they were so clearly focused on the movie that it led to an inconsistent season with some rather high points. The sixth season, whatever flaws you may give it, is a fairly consistent season at the very least. "Milagro" is about the only really bad episode in the season, but to be fair wow did I hate that episode. Thanks for wasting John Hawkes guys!
However, the best episodes of the sixth season tend to have one or two flaws preventing it from really matching the best episodes of the previous years. "Triangle" is a lot of fun, but it makes no damn sense. "Tithonus" is basically Vince Gilligan's attempt at writing Darin Morgan, and while he's a great writer, it's no "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose." Not many things are, but it kind of invites the comparison and can't help but pale in comparison. "Arcadia" is another fun episode, but the monster is fairly bland, dragging it down a bit. "The Unnatural" is mostly a great episode because Jesse L. Martin is fantastic and it's kind of pointless to write down the flaws since those are also what makes it kind of endearing.
There's also "Drive," the episode that brought Bryan Cranston to Vince Gilligan. Cranston is pretty much as good as advertised and you can definitely see how he convinced Gilligan to cast him in Breaking Bad. "Monday" is the X-Files Groundhog Day episode (does every long-running genre series eventually have this type of episode? I saw a Star Trek: Next Generation episode like this, but it aired before Groundhog Day. It's basically the perfect format for TV). I don't think I have ever not liked a Groundhog Day episode before, but I'm sure a bad one exists somewhere.
"Field Trip" is maybe my favorite episode of the season (oh look Vince Gilligan had a hand in that. Shocker). "Three of Kind" is a perhaps unexpected an dunnecessary sequel to the Lone Gunmen episode from the fifth season and probably falls apart if you think about it, but I had a lot of fun watching it. Lastly, "Dreamland" has no business being a two-parter, but its got Michael McKean and he's always great. I keep naming episodes I liked, but there's a lot of them. (Last one: "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas" is great if nothing else for the performances by Lily Tomlin and Edward Asner.)
Are there X-Files fans who are mythology-driven and those who only want the standalone episodes? The mythology probably sheds more light on the character of the two leads than the other episodes so they had their use in the beginning seasons. But still... I think I can count on one hand the number of mythology episodes that seemed useful. (My impression is that I didn't really love those episodes even in the early seasons, but that could be just because I don't remember them at all. Seriously these episodes do not stick in my brain like other episodes do for some reason.)
The sixth season was much better than I ever expected. Besides season three, it might even feature the most good to great episodes. (Though looking at my past grades, season four might have something to say about that.) If I decide to rewatch the series and limit it to my most enjoyable or favorite episodes, this very well might have the most episodes on that list. You'd think five seasons and a movie would diminish the writers' capacity for new ideas, but you can't really tell by the quality of these episodes.
Grade - A-
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