Rating: 
Summary: THE BEST SEASON
Review: ..... I'm a fan of the series and i think this is the best season.Most of the episodes are fantastic like the 2 parts of Emily,the incredible Chinga{writen by Stephen KING},Detour,PATIENT X and THE RED AND THE BLACK{The best episodes in this season}and of course the END a fantastic finale.Dont miss this incredible box set with many extras like the truth about season 5 and many others.This season is a must for every X-filer.
Rating:
Summary: the end of the Vancouver era
Review: Although most diehard fans of THE X FILES are in agreement as to the merits of Season's Three and Four, the 5th year seems to have elicited more of a mixed response. Certainly the season, to which I give an unqualified recommendation, was unique from a number of perspectives. Most crucially, the chronology of the production was different from any of the previous years. The crew went into production of the X FILES MOVIE in the summer of 1997 immediately after finishing Season 4. For this reason Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny were, for the first time, aware in advance of where the show's mythology arc would be leading them. It seems impossible that this foreknowledge would not affect their performances; the sustained dramatic intensity characteristic of Season Four was loosened quite a bit in Season Five. The actors weren't alone in having a tough time adjusting to this odd schedule. The excellent staff writers, having in the two prior years wrung out the most consistently creative scripts in the history of the show, now had their own work looming as their most formidable obstacle! So, from the writing standpoint it is hardly a surprising that Season Five would present a unique challenge. What is remarkable is that apart from a few notable misses ( and one complete bomb ), this year had so many excellent scripts, especially in the "stand alone" episodes. In contrast to its immediate predecessor, Season Five's strengths are weighted toward scripts displaying some of the humorous eccentricities of the 3rd year, most evident in Vince Gilligan's three contributions ( a sort of equivalent to Darin Morgan's famed triptych from Season 3 ). His "Bad Blood" is an absolute tour de force for the actors. The script draws on subtle aspects of the Scully/Mulder personalities and then "tweaks" them, presenting their differing recollections of a single case; slightly distorted perspectives from both agents with neither one corresponding exactly to what actually occurred. Gilligan's knack for characterization also shines in his "Unusual Suspects", which fleshes out the Lone Gunmen in way that had not heretofore been done. His "Folie a Deux" is not quite at the same level but contains some classic X FILES moments. John Shiban's "Pine Bluff Variant" is a tightly scripted espionage thriller, one of the finest examples of his writing. David Duchovny seems to revel in the physicality of this episode. Chris Carter's bizarre but touching "Post Modern Prometheus" ( filmed in black and white ) is essentially an X FILES fairy tale, owing as much to David Lynch as to the gothic horror novel written by Mary Shelley. "Kill Switch" was written by the science fiction authors William Gibson and Tom Maddox. I'm not familiar with their work but the episode, with its blending of computer technology and contemporary "cyberpunk" subculture, is very well done. The beautiful oldie "Twilight Time", sung by the Platters, is nicely integrated into the framework. Frank Spotnitz' "Detour" links with previous episodes ( "Darkness Falls" and "Quagmire" ) in its forest setting and environmental theme. This fun "monster of the week" script ( hellishly difficult to film ) has a beautiful scene with Scully and Mulder stranded together in the woods ( mirroring the "holdout" scenes in the other "forest" episodes ). "Chinga", credited to Stephen King and Chris Carter, is easily the weakest episode of the season as well as the worst script I can recall from the first five seasons. Carter obviously had to dress this one up in a way that plays strictly for laughs. As regards the mythology arc, the two season opening episodes ( "Redux" / "Redux II") were part of the trilogy linking the previous season's cliffhanger and features some flashback sequences similar to Oliver Stone's "JFK". This two-part script, while quite good, was the first of many future myth episodes that were somewhat self consciously "explanatory" in nature. A heaviness began to set in, with the episodes from mid season ( "Patient X"/"The Red and the Black" ) suffering from increasingly confusing and tangential plot developments. I attribute these problems primarily to the conflicts between the storyline the film would be using, which effectively shut the writer's out of being able to develop the "A" material for television. Additionally, a tinge of ambivalence crept into David Duchovny's performances. In the prior year Scully's bought with cancer set the stage for the more purely dramatic type of storyline seen in the 5th season's introspective two-part episode titled "Christmas Carol" / "Emily". This script features well-known "Scully" themes from prior seasons: her grief and guilt over her murdered sister, the loss of her ability to conceive, the flowering of a previously dormant religious faith, the emotional bond with Agent Mulder. As some of the steam went out of the myth-arc storyline in the following years, the longstanding "Scully" storyline moved into the foreground and grew into a highly complex melodrama focusing on the two agents interdependence. This approach was not without its aesthetic pitfalls but it seems fitting that the unique Scully/Mulder "symbiosis" would dominate THE X FILES in its final seasons. Finally, the concluding episode of the Fifth Season was appropriately named "The End", the title reflecting not only the myth arc plotline but also signaling the end of the show's production in Vancouver. The location in British Columbia furnished so much of the shows ambience that it's hard to imagine THE X FILES ever becoming the phenomenon it did without it being filmed there. There are clear signs that point to the Vancouver era ( esp Seasons 3 thru 5 ) as the absolute creative apex of THE X FILES. The location, along with the vital and often cited contributions of the actors/writers/crew, played an important role in lifting the show to the heights of its well-deserved success.
Rating:
Summary: The last of the classic years.
Review: Anyone who is buying any of the X-Files season sets should at least have Seasons 3-5. These are the years when every aspect of production is at its peak, with the talent on a roll and the right amount of money behind it. In particular, Season Five is perhaps the perrenial image of The X-Files that will linger in collective consciousness long after the fact, being the most highly watched, and with the movie coming out, most highly promoted season of all, and with the leads at the turning point in their famously addictive personal dynamic while in the full bloom of their beauty. Many otherwise commonplace monster-of-the-week episodes are made outstanding by some little inserted scene or set of moments that play this up between them. As for which are the good and the bad episodes, based on what I have already read here the individul opinions will vary widely depending on what you most enjoy about the show in the first place. I think, however, that it's safe to compare this season to your experience of Seasons Three and Four: if you found a handfull in these that struck you as dumb, but liked them overall, you can probably expect the same here. The Postmodern Prometheus and Bad Blood can be compared to the creative deviations of Darin Morgan; A Christmas Carol/Emily, a set based mostly in Scully's point of view, repeats the elegance of Season Four's Momento Mori. Chinga, the submission by Stephen King, is definitely one of the scariest episodes ever produced. To me, it's out-of-hand bad-taste scary, but to those that, for instance, liked Season Four's Home, it may be another classic. I think the episodes with the bizzare Latinate/foriegn names are generally forgettable; but if you love what The X-Files does best, there's no doubt you'll find plenty of it here.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: As a fan of the X-Files from the beginning, I have waited eagerly for this set of dvds. I also have 1-4. There is a great mix of "mytharc", "humorous" and "monster of the week" episodes. There is enough in this dvd set and the others to keep the fan satisfied, until the rest of the dvd sets come out, that is.
Rating: 
Summary: some great stories
Review: but i didn't get the improved picture i'd hoped for with the wider picture they made this season with. there's a comentary of the "post modern promethus" episode that's
in this set.
Rating:
Summary: Weak mythology, but some good standalones in 5th Season
Review: By the end of the fourth season of THE X-FILES, Mulder had discovered that everything he had believed in about the existence of extra-terrestrials had been a big lie. Seemingly, he had killed himself as a result of this blinding revelation...but of course, who really believed that? So of course Mulder is back in Season 5 trying to dig deeper into the deep, dark secrets of aliens and our own government, and undergoing a radical ideological change in the process. By "Patient X"/"The Red and the Black", he has turned into a skeptic, even as a faceless alien rebel force had suddenly made its way onto our planet and caused mass murders. But as "The Red and the Black" closes, Mulder even starts to question his own skepticism. Boy, the lengths X-FILES creator Chris Carter will go to frustrate his audience.
The 5th Season of THE X-FILES---which lasted a mere 20 episodes, as the crew was working hard on the upcoming X-FILES movie---still finds the show in good form, but it is with the mythological developments of this season that I think the alien mythology of the show began its decline into muddle and, eventually, painful drawn-out death. In the first three seasons, THE X-FILES' grand conspiracy story deftly mixed our deepest paranoia with our love of the freaky to make it fun and exciting. But, with the blinding revelation of Season 4's concluding "Gethsemane" and the introduction of the faceless alien rebels in Season 5, I personally started to feel less intrigued than exasperated at its hard-to-swallow twists and turns. (Guess again if you think one of the main characters is really dead by the end of "Redux II"; notwithstanding Mulder's resurrection in Season 3's "The Blessing Way," it seems like all the wrong characters come back to life in this X-FILES universe.) In his quest to continually keep his audience on its toes, Chris Carter kept piling on the twists until, by Season 6 onward, there was nowhere left for the alien mytharcs to go but down...and down it went.
Still, "Redux"/"Redux II" was a fine opening two-parter, filled with the kind of convoluted plotting and strong emotions that made the opening diptych of Season 3 classic mythological X-FILES. (The tears Mulder sheds at Scully's hospital bedside in one scene in "Redux II" will break your heart.) Unfortunately, "Christmas Carol"/"Emily", in which Scully discovers she bore a daughter during her abduction experience, seems more emotionally brutal than gripping---poor Scully has already gone through a draining bout with cancer; now she has to go through another (futile) life-saving bout on account of a daughter she never knew she had? It's a little much, if you ask me. And the aforementioned "Patient X"/"The Red and the Black" just seemed lifeless, totally lacking in the kind of spark that infused, say, "Colony"/"Endgame" (still the most viscerally thrilling of X-FILES mytharcs). Finally, the season ends with "The End," which introduces another mythological chess piece: Gibson Praise (Jeff Gulka), the young mind-reading kid who may or may not be part-alien.
If the mythological developments of Season 5 sometimes fail to stimulate, there are still some excellent standalone episodes to keep your eyes open (which, arguably, were the only reasons left to watch the show in its later seasons). As with the previous season, the highlight of these standalones is another Vince Gilligan foray into hilarious self-parody and satire, "Bad Blood." The RASHOMON-like structure of the first half, especially, is a brilliant masterstroke, cleverly revealing the way both Mulder and Scully see each other. (The truth may be out there, but as Kurosawa masterfully demonstrated in his classic film, it is ultimately unknowable...except for the part about the buck teeth.) Other notables include:
Chris Carter's clever B&W comic-book "Post-Modern Prometheus," a modern-day retelling of Mary Shelley's classic FRANKENSTEIN tale, with John O'Hurley---commonly known as SEINFELD's J. Peterman---well cast as the (subtly) mad Dr. Pollidori.
The convoluted, jargon-filled, yet thrilling "Kill Switch," co-written by famed "cyberpunk" author William Gibson and directed by Rob Bowman, who has an unerring sense of the kinetic. Gibson and co-writer Tom Maddox create a dark, ugly, chilling tale about paranoia and live artificial intelligence.
"Mind's Eye" has a terrific performance from Lili Taylor as a blind woman whom Mulder believes is innocent of murder, regardless of all the evidence stacked against her. Taylor vividly creates a spunky, sometimes abrasive character who refuses to be pitied under any circumstances; it's a memorable, touching performance.
Religion-themed X-FILES episodes are usually stimulating, and "All Souls" is no exception, an episode which finds Scully still dealing with the emotional grief of having lost her daughter Emily. Perhaps actress Gillian Anderson's finest episode.
Rob Bowman returns to the directing helm with the exciting "Pine Bluff Variant," in which Mulder gets involved in a bioterrorist plot. As an action hero, David Duchovny has nothing on Bruce Willis, but the episode nevertheless is a lot of fun, provided you don't think too much about it afterward.
And "Folie a Deux" is a fine penultimate episode involving a telemarketing company who may or may not be under the control of a man-bug who sucks the life out of his victims. If you think Mulder went to the edge of madness in Season 3's underrated "Grotesque"...he goes even further in "Folie a Deux." Just look at the title.
Sure, the quality of the standalones may not be as consistent as they were in Season 3---don't even bother with the pointless "Kitsunegari" if you loved Season 3's "Pusher"---but, even in lesser episodes, there was always the rapport between David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, still managing to strike some sparks here and there to keep us intrigued in their characters' relationship.
All in all, the 5th Season of the X-FILES is not one of the show's best---it is done in by the rather lackluster mythology episodes. Still, there are some worthy episodes here that make it worthy of the X-FILES name.
Rating:
Summary: Some good stuff here
Review: Despite what anyone else might think of this season, I will come out and say that this is one of my absolute favorite seasons. While others argue that the show loses its magic by this point, I loved every minute of it. "Bad Blood" is one of my favorite episodes. I love the humor, the acting, the script, everything. Then there's "Unusual Suspects," "Post-Modern Prometheus," "Detour," and the "Christmas Carol/Emily" storyline is powerful, in my opinion. I won't go into great detail, like other reviewers. I think I got my point across. Varied type of episodes, interesting scripts, I think the show got even better with season 5, and I can't wait to own it on DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Watch out for something funny
Review: Episodes are in widescreen. One episode should've remained pand and scan because of a visual error: "Bad Blood". Eleven minutes before the end of the episode, when Mulder breaks a chair to go after Ronnie, a hand comes in the bototm left corner of the screen to hand him the wooden stake that later kills the said vampire. Hilarious!
Rating:
Summary: The X Files a its best
Review: Even if it only has 20 episodes (The shortest season being the 9th), this season marks the end of the Vancouver era. After this and the movie, TXF team moved to LA and started what i think tobe the best season of all (The 6th), changing the full screen format for a more cinematographic style, with darker photography and the character`s image transformed into a cooler version of themselves. Mulder with his colored shirts and Scully with his different hairstyles.
About the episodes, I think this season in particular contains most of the finest of the whole series.
Here`s my top ten (Taking two parters as one): SPOILERS!!!
10.- Chinga. I`m a Stephen King fan, so in spite of what you`ve heard of this episode it must be considered a highlight (including the gross factor).
9.- Folie a Deux. Mulder in a mental institution? A must see!
8.- Christmas Carol - Emily. More consequences from Scully`s abduction. Shocking!
7.- Post-Modern Prometheus. A superb black and white cinematography, and Chris Carter`s excellent involvement in one of the best humorous episodes.
6.- Kitsunegari. Find out for yourself why this is a great episode. A come back from a season 3 character!
5.- All Souls. Gillian Anderson at it`s best. His actoral range expanded to frontiers never explored. Grand!
4.- The Unusual Suspects. WOW! The trio`s origin. A cameo from a shadow of the past.
3.- The End. And what an end it is! Heartbreaking.
2.- Redux - Redux II. Scully in peril. Mulder brought to the edge. TXF at it`s best!
1.- Patient X-The Red and the Black. A shocking two parter that deserves a 10. Scully`s first Close Encounter!!! For me the best XF season is the 6th, but this one brought the series to new heights of enterntainment that would expand the mithology and would draw it near its conclusion.
Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: End of Vancouver...
Review: For the first five seasons of the show, they filmed in Vancouver. After that, they moved to LA. Even through all that, the show remains incredibly well done. In this season, we have a cure for Scully's cancer, we find out what really happened in the Season Four finale episode, and we learn just how deep the conspiracy goes. We also learn more about what happened when Scully was abducted in "Christmas Carol/Emily," and more in "Patient X/The Red and the Black." The latter two-parter also expands more into what the aliens are really up to. The season ends with a decent finale, although not as good as last season's. But that's ok, because a month later we got the movie! Great season, great DVD.
|
