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By
WAYNE KLEIN
I'm sure you're thinking
"now that the series has been completely milked
for each every dime, it makes sense for Fox to put
out these theme driven sets to further take
advantage of the fans." I'd have to answer yes and
no. For those fans that were big on the mythology
episodes and tolerated all the other ones between
them, this is the perfect set to own. It also
makes "The X-Files" more affordable with 16
episodes running the span of the series. The
mythology story arc focused on the fact that
extraterrestrial aliens have been among us since
the beginning of time. Let's be honest about "The
X-Files"; like any show it had its share of
clunkers. Most of the mythology episodes were
highlights of the series. These episodes were
built initially around Mulder's sister who was, he
believes, abducted by aliens. His search pushes
him forward into a dark, mysterious world where it
turns out that aliens are the dominating force in
every government throughout the world. It seems
that they have plans to colonize Earth. Why and
how is what Mulder and his FBI partner Scully must
discover.
The second set will, sadly, be flawed by the hasty
and inconsistent conclusion that Carter came up
with for the series. Frankly, there's no way that
Carter or his collaborators could have come up
with a perfect conclusion to please everyone. The
concluding episode of "The X-Files" ranks up there
with the stinky final episode of "Enterprise" as
one of the genre's worst moments on TV. Given the
pedigree and the talent that created both shows
that's a surprise.
With sixteen episodes spread over the set, the
image quality is exceptionally good throughout. It
appears as if these are the same transfers that
Fox used for the entire series when it first
brought them out on DVD. While they've been
tweaked a bit here and there they do also suffer
many of the same flaws including halos, edge
enhancement and other digital issues. The 2.0
soundtrack is crisp and clear with nice
reproduction of the dialog and the music by Mark
Snow.
In the new 30-minute documentary Carter comments
on how Gillian Anderson's real-life pregnancy
impacted the storytelling arc of the series.
Suddenly, Carter and his crew had to create a
series of episodes built around her abduction and
her unavailability for shooting. There's also a
discussion on the development of the Cigarette
Smoking Man throughout the series. When Bill Davis
first appeared in "The X-Files" the writers didn't
know how good an actor he was because they hadn't
seen most of his work. So the episode where Mulder
threatens the Cigarette Smoking Man with a gun had
tension not only because of the conflict but
because they weren't sure how the scenes would
truly play out. "Colony" and "Endgame" are two of
the most popular episodes due to the creativity of
Carter, Frank Spotnitz (who was brought in when
Carter needed help on the series in developing the
mythology). The two in collaboration created much
of the complex narrative. There's interviews with
Brian Thompson who played the Alien Bounty Hunter
gives his take on the character. "Anasazi" one of
my least favorite of "The X-Files" two partners
takes on new life (pardon the pun) due to some of
the comments from Carter and Spotnitz. Inspired by
a trip to Sedona, Arizona where he saw images that
reminded him of drawings of aliens, Carter crafted
the cliffhanger for season two advancing the
series again. The complexity between the first
season vs. the second season is like comparing
learning the alphabet to reading whole sentences;
both are important but one expressed sounds the
other ideas.
Featuring new commentary tracks by the directors
and writers of each episode, this set is more than
just a reissue or repackaging. Fox has attempted
with these new commentary tracks and short
documentary to provide additional value much as
they did with the season boxed sets. On the other
hand, it is a selling point designed to move more
product among fans. For example, Director R. W.
Goodwin does the commentary track for "Anasazi"
and he provides both quite a bit of trivia about
the mythology episode we're watching as well as
trivia about the actual production. We learn, for
example, that the sequence where the boxcar was
discovered is actually a quarry far from Arizona
which Goodwin had his crew paint to match the sand
in Arizona. They painted about a mile of the area.
What the Indian community discovers there and what
it brings to them changes that community forever
but it also has an impact on the life of Agents
Mulder and Scully. Carter's commentary as always
is intelligent and insightful for his tracks.
A creative show that fell on hard times by the
end, "The X-Files" was a fresh, vital series for
much of its run. The mythology episodes related to
alien abduction are among the creepiest and best
the series produced particularly ones like "Duane
Barry." In many respects the first season struck
me as being only slightly better than the two
1970's TV series (and one of its inspirations)
"Project Bluebook" and "Kolchak: The Night
Stalker." That's where this boxed comes in handy.
We get the better episodes of season one as well
as those related to the central story arc that
Carter carried (too long) throughout the series 9
year run. Combining those series with the dark
conspiratorial tones of the post-Watergate era,
these episodes are among the best in the story
arcs Carter established for "The X-Files." |
