Season Five of the X-Files begins as an immediate successor to Season Four before veering off into what feel like wildly different directions. The characters are the same, the paranormal elements are (usually) there, but something about it isn’t quite parallel. Mulder’s new-found skepticism is a big part of it. It’s as though, after coming so perilously close to The Truth by the end of last season, there was some need within the narrative to pull away from that. But whereas the previous odd-numbered season did it by injecting humor and whimsy, this one uses a more serious tone and plays with other, neglected tropes.
Season Five seems to rely on some role reversals: Scully as the (reluctant) believe, Mulder as the doubter, conspiracies that are present but mundane and solvable. In a lot of ways, it’s the spiritual successor to Season Two because it shows our protagonists at important crossroads. Considering Season Five’s position in the Series timeline, perhaps there are sound reasons to construct this arc in the narrative.
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Coming off the heels of Season Three, the fourth season of The X-Files is a bit of a strange animal. Whereas Season Three took a lot of chances with the narrative and let itself unpredictably intersperse humor throughout, Season Four seemed a return to the the otherwise dark and heavy subject matter that was more characteristic of Season Two.
Which is not to say that this season was without its humorous moments but it did not let its hair down in the same way the Season Three did.
That being said, Season Four is arguably a definitive one for the Series, perhaps more so than even the landmark first season. Many of the plot threads from the past 73 episodes come together in these twenty-four. And while most go unresolved in a fashion that characterizes the Series, the writer perform well overall, striving — and almost managing — to make every minute count.
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About 10 years has elapsed since the last time I saw an X-Files episode. While I would not say that I watched it religiously during high school, it was certainly a favorite. Who but Chris Carter was doing anything interesting on TV during the 1990s? It was somewhat amazing to me that Fox — the same network that had killed Profit and would later kill Firefly — could have such a winner on its hands and not screw it up. A. & I recently grabbed the DVDs of the first season to watch some X-Files — partly out of nostalgia and partly out of a sense of “we seem to have run out of TV series DVDs to watch”. Some comments, notes, remarks, and thoughts about the first season: Read the rest of this entry »
