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Customer Reviews of The X-Files - The Complete Eighth Season (Slim Set)

A great season that many fans do not give a fair chance
The new slimpack releases of Seasons 7 through 9-which are essentially the original sets with the extras disc removed as well as many other special features-will complete the entire rerelease of all the X-FILES in affordable editions. I've been disappointed to find many of the special features missing in the first six volumes, but given that I couldn't afford the original editions, I'm all in all delighted to finally own my own copies, instead of relying on video stores and Netflix. <
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>A huge number of fans of the first seven seasons have either failed to give Season Eight a fair viewing, or have refused to see it at all. This is a shame, because this is for the most part an enormously entertaining, marvelously produced season. No, it doesn't come quite up to the level of the first six seasons, which were astonishing for their consistency, but I have to confess that I might overall prefer Season Eight to Season Seven, which despite some great moments was subject to some inconsistency. The major reason people do not like Season Eight is the greatly diminished role that David Duchovny's Agent Fox Mulder played in the show, and indeed, for those of us for whom the interplay between Mulder and Scully represented one of the high points in television history, it was a major loss indeed. For all practical purposes, Mulder is missing from the first two thirds of the season, and even when he comes back, his presence adds less than one might have hoped. Still, for those with open minds, Season Eight remains a worthy successor to the X-FILE mantle. <
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>The main reason Season Eight succeeds is that one performer achieved the near-impossible: Robert Patrick as Agent John Doggett steps into Fox Mulder's shoes and pretty much fills them. It is an absolutely astonishing achievement, and I can't think of another performer in TV history replacing an iconic character and more or less managing to succeed. Doggett and Scully do not have anywhere near the ying-yang chemistry of Mulder and Scully, but they end up having a nice working relationship of their own. Scully is adamantly determined not to get along with Doggett, but as she puts it later in the season, she comes to respect his depth of character, as does Mulder upon his return. Unlike Scully and Mulder, Doggett is an FBI man, a career law enforcement professional who is more of a cop than anything else. He is stubborn, loyal, courageous, and possesses a vast amount of integrity. As an actor, I love Patrick's low, gravelly drawl (without checking to see where he is from, I'd bet somewhere from the Old South, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, or Mississippi). Like many X-FILE fans, I refused to even watch the last two seasons at the time, and upon watching recently on DVD, I'm amazed at how very much I like him on the show. With increased recent talk about a series of X-FILES movies getting started (largely coming from David Duchovny, who speaks of a late 2005 start of filming for a 2006 release), I am actually happy to hear that Doggett is going to be included. <
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>Until the end of the season, when the story arc starts that runs into Season 9 (some would say, destroyed Season Nine) begins, the season is more monster-of-the-week in format more than anything else. Whatever story arc exists focuses more on Dana's coming to deal with Mulder's disappearance and her own pregnancy, and her reluctance to accept John Doggett has her new partner. Along the way we get a series of absolutely brilliant standalone episodes that are as striking and original as most in the history of the X-FILES. <
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>Nonetheless, the last three seasons of THE X-FILES represent in the overall context of the series a decline. This didn't mean that there weren't many, many brilliant moments and many great episodes. But Season Six had more or less stopped the long story arcs, something that hurt Season Seven to a great degree. There were not so much ongoing arcs as remnants of arcs, a problem the show suffered since the resolution of the alienation colonization arc and the demise of the syndicate. The networks, as they always do, detested anything other than the monster-of-the-week scenario. Arcs shows are less friendly to either new or occasional viewers. Monster-of-the-week shows are very friendly to occasional or new viewers. Seasons Eight and Nine tried to reintroduce some arcs, but unfortunately they were arcs that even the most faithful fans of the show have trouble enjoying. For once, the formidable skills of the X-FILES writing staff failed them. The other downside of Season Eight was the unpleasant presence of Assistant Director Kersh, unquestionably the recurring X-FILES character with the fewest redeeming characters. <
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>But decline or not, Season Eight still presented television at its absolute best. I will admit a pang of agony the first time the opening credits ran and began not with the familiar picture of Mulder's FBI ID, but began instead with Scully's. The greatest team in television history was parted! And though Mulder would be back for a few more episodes they would not actually be a team again. All good things must come to an end. But hopefully Mulder and Scully will ride again if the films that Duchovny, Patrick, and Carter all say they hope to make soon come off.

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The 8th season starts with a bang
Agent John Doggett (Robert Patrick)carries on the hunt for Mulder who Scully and Skinner believe has been abducted by aliens. Doggett's a firm disbeliever until some bizarre things occur during the first two episodes of the season. Robert Patrick brought much needed focus and energy to the eighth season. While the eighth season didn't match the highs of the best seasons of the show it had some strong outstanding episodes and it appeared after a wildly uneven 7th season that the show might actually be on track again. Agent Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish)was introduced as a semi-regular during this season as well working in conjunction with Doggett and Scully. <
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>Among the outstanding episodes are one in which Doggett and Mulder check out a oil refingery rig that's pumping something other than oil, another stand out episode involves a tense one set in the deserted subway tunnels of Boston where something is literally dissolving passengers as they ride the rails. Doggett goes underground to investigate while Scully works against the clock to figure out if there's a biological contagion. The conclusion is disappointing but the episode itself is a tense 45 minutes. <
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>The 8th season saw a return to the spookier, darker episodes that made "The X-Files" a close cousin to "The Night Stalker", "Trilogy of Terror" and "The Norliss Tapes" (three terrific made-for-TV movies). There are those that argued that Patrick's Doggett wasn't as compelling as Mulder's character and I'd have to disagree--over the short two seasons that Patrick played Doggett he created a character every bit as memorable as Duchovny's Mulder and just as different. <
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>The 8th season reduced cost set has commentary tracks on "Alone" by Frank Spotnitz and by Kim Manners on "Existence". There are also a couple of episodes with deleted scenes that you can watch restored to the respective episodes via the main menu. We also have more of those goofy international clips but all the extras on the seventh disc aren't included. The 8th season compares favorably to the first two seasons of "The X-Files" but not as well as when the show was in full swing with seasons 3, 4 5 and 6. Nevertheless, there's still plenty of quality episodes here. <
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