Thad wrote:I like the early alien stuff fine, aliens in jars and shit, whatever that business was with the train at the end of season 1. I'd say the mythology stuff doesn't really start to wear out its welcome until season 4-5. And even in there you've still got the movie, which is pretty good.
And then of course there's alien stuff, or at least possible-alien stuff, in some of the good MotW episodes; Jose Chung is the biggest example but there are some other good ones I can think of like The Unnatural. (I think I actually classifed Unnatural as a mythology episode in my list because it's got an alien bounty hunter and an Arthur Dales in it, but the categories tend to be a little fuzzy around the edges. Anyway, it's a good one, and Jesse L Martin sings in it.)
But alien DNA and alien-human hybrids? When those phrases appear in a script, nothing good is going to come of it.
I have come to understand why a certain subset of X-Files fandom hates Chris Carter as much as a certain subset of Star Wars fandom hates George Lucas. Even Carter's best episode is rapey and problematic.
True, the movie was great. If they'd used it very sparingly, the alien stuff could've been really good.
I feel like Jose Chung could've been about anything, they just picked aliens. Incredible ep, but, not really due to it involving aliens at all.
It's also strange that the black oil aliens were much more weird and interesting, and used far more sparingly.