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The X-Files - The Complete Third Season

The X-Files - The Complete Third Season

List Price: $99.98
Your Price: $74.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best seasons
Review: This season is, to me, one of the best ones for the X-Files. There are so many good episodes, it's hard to know where to begin. I guess the beginning.

The Blessing Way / Paperclip is the best season-opening story in the history of the show, IMO. It's non-stop action and revelation, tinged with a bit of mysticism as well. The stand-off between Skinner and Scully at the end of Blessing Way is not to be missed, along with the exchanges between CSM and Skinner.

It continues on with other winners, Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose, Jose Chung's From Outer Space (both by the incomparable Darin Morgan), Oubliette, Revelations. My favourite of the conspiracy eps, though, is Wetwired. I've seen it many times since I bought this DVD, and it never fails to thrill. The descent of Scully into mania, Mulder's determination to know the truth, save his friend, and unmask what's really going on, it's all here. All of the episodes (with the exception of the really terrible Teso Dos Bichos) have at least something to offer, even if they're not the best.

I've talked a lot about the season itself, but how are the discs? The picture quality is really good, the extras are interesting, but there's one thing that brings this set a step above the first two seasons (other than the season itself being the best). Commentaries!!!!!

Yes, the X-Files people have finally decided to include audio commentaries of a couple of episodes. I didn't realize what I was missing until I watched Jose Chung's From Outer Space with the commentary track on. Darin Morgan is a god, and Rob Bowman plays well off of him. I loved hearing the behind the scenes details of why this happened, what Darin was trying to say when that happened, etc.

The commentary for Apocrypha is also very interesting, though I find Chris Carter's voice a little annoying. Still, he is the main X-Files guy, and it was interesting. Being from Vancouver, I found Carter's insights about shooting up here were worth the price of admission by themselves.

Buy this DVD set now. Buy the first two if you can, but definitely buy this one. Then, in November, buy Season 4, which is the second best season. Then prepare to be entertained for a long, long time.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Brilliant
Review: By it's third season, it was clear The X-Files wasn't what everyone had expected from the time it had premiered. Now, creator Chris Carter begins to bring the long running alien conspiracy story arc to the forefront; and this season is nothing short of brilliant, and is possibly the best season in the show's history (and that is saying something). David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are perfect as ever as FBI Agents Mulder and Scully respectively; and this season contains some of the series' most memorable episodes. It was also in Season 3 that the series' style of subdued satirical comedy began to shine, but it is the mythology of the series that made this season go excellent. Standout episodes (and there are aplenty) include the season opener The Blessing Way, Paper Clip, Oubliette, Nisei, 731, War of the Coprophages, Grotesque, Pusher, Avatar, and Quagmire; but the main season (and series) highlights include Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose (which features a standout performance from Peter Boyle) and Jose Chung's "From Outer Space" which features a great commentary track from fan favorite series vets Darin Morgan and Rob Bowman (both of whom helped craft the brilliance of the show). All in all, this is possibly the best season of The X-Files, and if this handsome package came in widescreen format this would be essential.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Keep em coming
Review: This is the season when the show broke out. The best episode this season is "Piper Maru."

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fantastic Season
Review: Once again, the creative team behind the X-Files brings us another season. And it topped the first two combined! The Alien mythos was even more in the forefront, with the "The Blessing Way and Paper Clip" concluding the last season's cliffhanger finale. It was clear that the mythology was going where no one had expected - and that was a good thing. This was the most exciting aspect of the show. We were always given something new, and yet still kept guessing. It really made you want to keep watching the show to find out what happens next - even so much as sitting through a bunch of stand-alone episodes(great in and of themselves) to get to the next mythology episode. I think that this is the show's greatest strength. It wasn't all mythology, so that made it so that when we did get a mythology episode, we were excited!

Also, this season introduced the black oil plot, and the alien-human hybrid plot. We also got more into the plot of the shape-shifting aliens and their abilities.

Yet another brilliant season. And as always, we get "The Truth about Season [fill in the blank with the corresponding season]" documentary, as well as other great special features that are worth watching for any X-Fan.

Great season, great DVD!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Top-league stuff from the best TV series ever...
Review: You ask any X-files die-hard fan about which is the best season of the series and they will readily answer either the third or the fourth. This is no coincidence, and i would totally agree with them.
In this third season all the elements of the series come of age: the two main protagonists are at the top of their game giving very high quality performances and cementing the legendary characters of Mulder and Scully. While in the first 2 seasons these two characters were essentially still being constructed and the relationship between them two still being built up, in the 3rd installment this has all fallen into place making it a very solid, very well put together dram-plot, equal of which you'd have to search hard to find in TV history.

But even better than that, the script-writting hits masterpiece levels, not in a few episodes, but rather all and throughout. In fact, as far as season 3 is concerned, any "weak" episode would still be considered top-level stuff for any other TV series. But the overall level of the storylines introduced here is so high that your expectations rise as you move along from episode to episode. This is basically a season that made anyone that watched it at the very least more suspicious (do a simple search on google on some of the storylines and you'll understand what i mean) or simply a more intelligent viewer and thinker alltogether.

Another important factor introduced in Season 3 is that certain plotlines were here to stay, that is, they were stories to be extended and interweaved in following seasons as well, stories that were among the very best the X-files have offered us.

Big time fans of the series (and man, there are many) cherish this season for mega-classic episodes such as :
"Paperclip",
"Nisei",
"731",
"War of the Coprophages",
"Grotesque",
"Apocrypha",
"Jose Chung's "From Outer Space"
"Wetwired" and
"Talitha Cumi"....

But watch anything at random from the 6 DVDs with episodes and the chances are very high you'll be in for a major cerebral treat.

The success of this tremendous series is not only on the artistic achievements but even more so on the fact that most of the dramaturgy involved in the X-files is tied with multiple leads to realities most people are absolutely unaware of, in certain cases even X-Files fans themselves. This is a feat only achieved to a similar degree in that other TV classic from the 60s, the Twilight Zone.

If you're not very familiar with the series i wouldn't reccommend you to start at Season 3, mainly because you simply need to watch the characters develop from the very beginning, at Season 1. What i am saying though, and that with emphasis, is that having watched all of the seasons involving Mulder and Scully, Season 3 and Season 4 are beyond any doubt stunning.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fantastic Season
Review: Once again, the creative team behind the X-Files brings us another season. And it topped the first two combined! The Alien mythos was even more in the forefront, with the "The Blessing Way and Paper Clip" concluding the last season's cliffhanger finale. It was clear that the mythology was going where no one had expected - and that was a good thing. This was the most exciting aspect of the show. We were always given something new, and yet still kept guessing. It really made you want to keep watching the show to find out what happens next - even so much as sitting through a bunch of stand-alone episodes(great in and of themselves) to get to the next mythology episode. I think that this is the show's greatest strength. It wasn't all mythology, so that made it so that when we did get a mythology episode, we were excited!

Also, this season introduced the black oil plot, and the alien-human hybrid plot. We also got more into the plot of the shape-shifting aliens and their abilities.

Yet another brilliant season. And as always, we get "The Truth about Season [fill in the blank with the corresponding season]" documentary, as well as other great special features that are worth watching for any X-Fan.

Great season, great DVD!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Keep em coming
Review: This is the season when the show broke out. The best episode this season is "Piper Maru."

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: one of my favorite shows
Review: Season two had ended with such a cliffhanger episode that my anticipation was very high for this next season. Fox Mulder (David Duchovney) was assumed dead when the train car he was in (filled with alien bodies) was bombed and exploded. The season opens with the discovery of Mulder's body and he is barely clinging to life. As he is nursed back to life, Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) has to deal with the suspicions surrounding the absence of her partner, and the murder of her sister (Scully was the target). The first several episodes of this season deal with the mythology of the show, and the conspiracies that abound. We get deeper glances into what may really be going on, and who is respsonsible. When things get a little bit settled (with just as few answers as you might expect), we get more of the "monster of the week" episodes that this program does so well. Season 3 mixes in some of the alien/conspiracy storylines in with the MOTW episodes and just when I thought the season was not building to anything, the season finale throws me for a complete loop (in a different way than the ending of season 2 did) and I'm now looking forward to Season 4 and seeing how this storyline progresses.

Overall, this was a very strong season with several absolutely excellent episodes. My interest lies in the alien/mythology storyline, and this season touched upon that several times. I wish that I would have watched this show back when it was on television because after watching three seasons, this is one of my favorite programs. You really can't go wrong watching the X-Files, but as a suggestion to new viewers, start at the beginning, some things will make more sense in the mythology storylines. Highly recommended, but any person who is going to watch season three probably already loves the first two.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Almost Perfect
Review: Man I love this show. Always interesting on a cerebral level and yet each episode is easy to enjoy on a purely fun and entertaining level. The DVD quality is fabulous, even on my laptop, and the sound is magnificient. I never realized before I got this set(my first set of DVD's for this show) just how incredible the production values really were. The cinematography, especially in these early years, is something to marvel at.

My one issue with these and my S4 DVD's, and any other X-Files set I'm sure to get, is the major lack of episode commentary. I loved the Darin Morgan/Rob Bowman commentary on "Jose Chung's..." because they seemed to truly enjoy talking about the work and gave some insightful looks into the making of the episode and the show. But "Apocrypha" is the only other full episode with commentary, and Chris Carter does commentary on a bunch of DELETED scenes. S4 DVD's have just one episode with commentary. What's going on here? Is everyone just too busy? That's what makes me gripe with the price of these DVD's while a show like "BUFFY" goes for significantly less but evidently has much more to offer in terms of special features. But that's just one gripe.

All and all, having the episodes is more than enough for me. I LOVE this show and I'd pay anything to have it. Nobody will be disappointed by getting these. It's more than worth it! In it's prime, which is what these early seasons represent, THE X-FILES was one of the top 2 or 3 shows on television. It's enjoyable on so many levels, easy to admire everything from the outstanding acting to the marvelous writing to the sharp directing and, of course, the sensational cinematography! I LOVE THIS SHOW! AND YOU WILL TOO!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The X-Files in full swing.
Review: This is my favorite season of the X-Files, simply because it has the highest number of really good episodes per capita. The mythology has woken up with a yell, and through the season just keeps coming with the punches; the standalones stride out in several new directions. This is not the most tantalizing year in terms of Mulder and Scully's relationship, but everything else that runs the show, from the concepts to the production to the writing, is on a roll, making it the most heavily awarded season of the show's run.

Definitely in its favor is the contribution of Darin Morgan, the show's prototypical comic writer, and also the first to nudge it into its postmodern dimension, which gave it its last missing edge of sophistication. The season boasts three of Morgan's four scripts--Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose, War of the Copprophages, and Jose Chung's "From Outer Space"--along with a couple of follow up comedy efforts from the other writers--Syzygy, and the mock-serious Quagmire. David and Gillian prove brilliant at picking up the tone, and their frequent switching over the year between the high drama of the mythology and this smart self-irony is just irresistible.

Season three ties with season five for the most visually beautiful, which, fans of the show know, is saying a lot. Some of the most classic images from the show come from Paper Clip, the finale to the unprecedented mythology kickoff, Pusher, and the excellent Grotesque. The agents appear to have finally grown into themselves, while still bearing the last traces of dew that will be wiped off in season four. Revelations is the good annual detour into Scully's character; Obliette is a fresh Muldercentric standalone, while Avatar gives us the first and the best of the Skinner character episodes.

Many fans consider the three parter Anasazi, The Blessing Way, and Paper Clip to be the quintessential mythology episode, in spite of or perhaps because of its early date in the run of the show. The revelations here are the biggest we've had yet, and they bask in the promise of all that is to come. The Nisei/731 pair thrives on the show's famous mutability, making equally compelling cases for and against the existence of extra terrestrials, while the Piper Maru/Apocrypha pair opens still new doors. The finale Talitha Cumi is, among other things, perhaps the quintessential CSM episode, revealing his ancestry in Dostoevsky's The Grand Inquisitor through eloquent monologues.


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