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X-Files Reviews
by xgirl
Top Ten ListThese are my picks for my personal top ten defining X-Files episodes. I've chosen them for the fact that they — to me, anyway — define what the show is about, covering one-off monster-of-the-week eps to the confusing mytharc shows (although I think I've chosen a couple of the less confusing mytharc shows that are out there), capable of taking the viewer from agonizing depths of despair to outrageous heights of laughter. These are the episodes that I would use to introduce someone to The X-Files.
Season by Season TXF CommentaryOpinions drive all sorts of interesting TXF discussions, so when I thought about what — besides fanfic — I might include here, it just seemed natural to add my humble little episode reviews to the millions that can be found out there on the web. I decided fairly early, however, that I'm not one of those who has the time and inclination to do complete reviews a la Autumn T (and in any case, I'd never be able to do it better than her). So what I have here are more in the style of "opinion" rather than complete reviews. Click on one of the links below and you will be taken to the appropriate season. (And just to be clear — the partial season eight that I have is the end of the road with respect to these efforts; having not seen any episodes beyond these, I'm not doing any further reviews.) Note that this is not meant to be a comprehensive episode guide — I assume that you are familiar with the basic plot of each show. And please don't think that I consider myself an important person whose opinions are more worthy than the next viewer's! :) This is just me having a bit of fun. Season Five | Season Six | Season Seven | Season Eight A Note About SequencingI started writing these reviews at the end of season six, so you may notice that several writeups from that year were very brief. (I wasn't quite sure how extensive I wanted them to be at that time.) From there, I progressed to a once-a-week update schedule as season seven rolled out. During the same time period, I also began to work backwards on reviews from season five. When I learned that season eight would only include DD's involvement on a part-time basis, I decided only to watch/review the episodes in which he appeared. I also decided that I wasn't about to wait until he "came back" so to speak, so I didn't get around to watching some of his earlier sporadic appearances until well after their original air dates. For the latter part of the season, however, I churned out the reviews shortly after the episodes aired. (This period also marked a serious downturn in my feelings for the show, as evidenced by the heightened emotion shown in each episode's extended commentary.) Since this site is meant to be a refuge for those who believe that TXF largely ceased to exist after "I'm pregnant", I have no reviews for anything beyond that half of season eight. Instead, I continued my walk down memory lane and slowly completed season four. I almost hit the wall in terms of lost interest by the time season three appeared on my plate, but knowing that it would be a huge accomplishment to complete the entire set (and knowing that I had regular visitors who were actually reading these things), I persisted. With a significant push in the spring of 2003, I finally got the job done.
The ratings used for each episode are outlined in the table below. I compare each ep against other "like" eps, meaning that while season seven's Closure and X-Cops ended up with the same rating, I do intend that they should each be looked at against episodes of the same genre. (That said, you may also want to consider that I rated season eight episodes against a slightly lower standard than "normal".)
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Interpreting the Ratings Season 1
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