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What is your favorite, and least favorite, episode of The X-Files?
- Thread starter crienne
- Start date
I don't know if it's the best, but one of the episodes I could never forget was "Ice".
Now I understand it was based on "Who goes there?"/"The thing", but I was barely 8 years old back then and it left a profound mark in my young mind.
Now I understand it was based on "Who goes there?"/"The thing", but I was barely 8 years old back then and it left a profound mark in my young mind.
Can we split these into ones that were part of the overall mythology and ones that maybe weren't?
I didn't like the episode that wrapped up the Samantha stuff, for instance (the cop and his missing son).
I ended up liking a great deal of the 'Mulder is leaving' eps too. Doggett/Reyes were cool too.
Pusher would be my fave. Excellent baddie.
I didn't like the episode that wrapped up the Samantha stuff, for instance (the cop and his missing son).
I ended up liking a great deal of the 'Mulder is leaving' eps too. Doggett/Reyes were cool too.
Pusher would be my fave. Excellent baddie.
"Bad Blood" still makes me chuckle to this day, it was such a perfect microcosm of Mulder and Scully's relationship.
"First Person Shooter" is pretty bad and hard to watch, but I really really can't watch "Kill Switch."
"First Person Shooter" is pretty bad and hard to watch, but I really really can't watch "Kill Switch."
Best: Musing of a Cigarette Smoking Man
Worst: That episode with the twins played by Kathy Griffin
Worst: That episode with the twins played by Kathy Griffin
+1
First Person Shooter was an abomination. And I greatly enjoyed many of the later Scully/Mulder years in spite of the drop in quality overall, but FPS was so bad.
The seeds of Breaking Bad being planted here are amazing in hindsight.
OP
OP
I'd welcome anyone wanting to split this into mytharc & motw. Good call for those that said Pusher. Cerulean blue is a phrase that's baked into my brain.
As much as I dislike the reboot, the bulk of the series most hated episodes are in Season 7.
Fight Club, First-Person Shooter, Signs & Wonders, Brand X, the Samantha two parter (which has some good moments imo) and the genie episode (which I also think has some good moments).
But Space in Season 1 is so, so terrible. Maybe the worst episode.
The best?
Clyde Bruckman, Bad Blood, Field Trip, John Doe, Monday and that season finale that lead into the movie, are all favorites of mine.
Fight Club, First-Person Shooter, Signs & Wonders, Brand X, the Samantha two parter (which has some good moments imo) and the genie episode (which I also think has some good moments).
But Space in Season 1 is so, so terrible. Maybe the worst episode.
The best?
Clyde Bruckman, Bad Blood, Field Trip, John Doe, Monday and that season finale that lead into the movie, are all favorites of mine.
One of Vince Gilligan's best. Not sure how well it has aged though, heh.
I think 'Home' was the last episode I saw.
Some of my favorites were 'Ice', 'The Erlenmeyer Flask', 'Anasazi', 'War of the Coprophages'.
Some of my favorites were 'Ice', 'The Erlenmeyer Flask', 'Anasazi', 'War of the Coprophages'.
Ohhhh can't wait to rewatch them when they come to disney+ here in Austria tomorrow.
I never watched all of them but a good deal when i was a kid. I remember a freaky episode with a worm man in the sewers. Conjoined twins from a Freakshow, green spiders in the woods. A woman in a skateboard thingy under a couch? Man it's been some time.
I never watched all of them but a good deal when i was a kid. I remember a freaky episode with a worm man in the sewers. Conjoined twins from a Freakshow, green spiders in the woods. A woman in a skateboard thingy under a couch? Man it's been some time.
There are so many good episodes that can't really pick one. I guess the funny ones stand out like the one with cockroaches or Bad Blood. I also like the episodes where the characters are isolated from the outside world, something like Ice from first season.
There is fair number of stinkers as well. Never liked the ghost episode in the nursing home. It's one episode I always skip.
There is fair number of stinkers as well. Never liked the ghost episode in the nursing home. It's one episode I always skip.
Can't think of a least favourite right now, but one of my all time favourites is 'Closure' from season 7. The ending is just perfect and the use of Moby's My Weakness hits all the right emotional cues.
Pusher, Jose Chung, and Clyde Bruckmans are my favorite. I too have Cerulean Blue stuck in my head, enough that I didn't even remember the episode name until this post.
I also loved Tombs. Enough that my very first internet nick was Edward E. Tombs lol.
Squeeze fucked my world in 93. It's really fantastic, structurally. I was eight and had two vents in my room.
God I loved this show.
God I loved this show.
Thread sent me down a weird rabbit hole. Was lookin for this episode with demons talking in a diner about their job through little vignettes. I still remember the jokes and some of the plot to this day. Just rewatched it, turns out it's from Millennium and mostly full of boomer comic style jokes, Christian moral soapboxing, and meta murdering a fox network censor over censoring X-files.
Didn't realize the show was made by the X-files people and this episode was the same writer as Clyde Bruckman, Jose Chung's From Outer Space, and humbug. Now I realize why I confused it for X-files.
Episode was Somehow, Satan Got Behind Me.
Didn't realize the show was made by the X-files people and this episode was the same writer as Clyde Bruckman, Jose Chung's From Outer Space, and humbug. Now I realize why I confused it for X-files.
Episode was Somehow, Satan Got Behind Me.
Favourite : Folie a Deux - Its scary, its weird and it has great Mulder/Scully relationship stuff.
Worst : First Person Shooter - Its just shit honestly.
Worst : First Person Shooter - Its just shit honestly.
It's really damn good. It's actually a pretty slow and sort of thin plot but the characters and acting really kill it.
The casting director deserves an Emmy.
I only ever watched it sporadically (reasons...) but one that sticks in my mind is:
The one where people hear sound and eventually their heads blow up. And the one old lady who wasn't dying but kinda started to die so Mulder had to drive her away from the sound to ease her suffering.
The one where people hear sound and eventually their heads blow up. And the one old lady who wasn't dying but kinda started to die so Mulder had to drive her away from the sound to ease her suffering.
Disclaimer: I didn't see any episodes after the end of season 7 (including the recent revival).
The best episode has to be "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" (plus its small coda in "Tithonus"). Honorable mentions to any episode written by or featuring Darin Morgan. Oh, and "Home". Fuck, there are just way too many good ones.
The worst, probably the one with Kathy Griffin (I think it's called "Fight Club") and also "First Person Shooter" for being so unbelievably dumb.
For anybody watching The X-Files for the first time today, I would recommend to not worry too much about the mythology episodes as they really don't go anywhere useful in the end. Better to focus on and enjoy the "monster of the week" episodes as many of those are still excellent even by today's standards of TV.
The best episode has to be "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" (plus its small coda in "Tithonus"). Honorable mentions to any episode written by or featuring Darin Morgan. Oh, and "Home". Fuck, there are just way too many good ones.
The worst, probably the one with Kathy Griffin (I think it's called "Fight Club") and also "First Person Shooter" for being so unbelievably dumb.
For anybody watching The X-Files for the first time today, I would recommend to not worry too much about the mythology episodes as they really don't go anywhere useful in the end. Better to focus on and enjoy the "monster of the week" episodes as many of those are still excellent even by today's standards of TV.
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How did he not have more of a career outside of the X-Files? His episodes were head and shoulders above level standouts.
Favorite: Jose Chung's From Outer Space
Runner Ups: Humbug, Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose, War of the Coprophages, Small Potatoes, A Post-Modern Prometheus, Bad Blood, Darkness Falls
Worst: Honestly just about anything from the last two seasons, but outside of that Teso dos Bichos was astoundingly bad. There were a lot of bad episodes, really.
Runner Ups: Humbug, Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose, War of the Coprophages, Small Potatoes, A Post-Modern Prometheus, Bad Blood, Darkness Falls
Worst: Honestly just about anything from the last two seasons, but outside of that Teso dos Bichos was astoundingly bad. There were a lot of bad episodes, really.
Fantastic scene to highlight. This always hits me emotionally. I thought it was an excellent way to finish that particular story.
I was just Googling some best of lists to jog my memory. It's crazy how many incredible episodes this show has. I can't pick my favorite. For me it's the best TV show of all time.
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Can never remember the names. I think for me the last episode from the show that captured some of the former glory was the one with the Goonies house.
There were stinkers throughout the series however. I seem to remember one with some kind of native American werewolf plot and finding it unbelievably boring
There were stinkers throughout the series however. I seem to remember one with some kind of native American werewolf plot and finding it unbelievably boring
I love bad blood. I also really like triangle. Basically any of the weird super concept episodes in the height of the show's popularity, they're all great.
Bad episodes? Idk. You forget them because they tend to bleed together. The VR episode sucked. The ATM episode sucks too I guess.
Bad episodes? Idk. You forget them because they tend to bleed together. The VR episode sucked. The ATM episode sucks too I guess.
Favourite: Home. By far the most realistic and down to earth monster of the week episode. Unnerving to the very end. Leaves you with that sick feeling at the back of your throat.
Least favourite: the later overarching conspiracy about the government and Mulder's sisters abductions got a little too drawn out.
Least favourite: the later overarching conspiracy about the government and Mulder's sisters abductions got a little too drawn out.
