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The X-Files - The Complete Fifth Season

The X-Files - The Complete Fifth Season

List Price: $99.98
Your Price: $74.99
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Greatest Science Fiction Show Hits Season 5
Review: If you are reading this, you are proabbly a very big X-Files fan like me. If you are not a fan, you have no idea what great stuff you are missing. So here is the lowdown. As most of us nerds know, X-Files Season 5 was the first season to be filmed in anamorphic widescreen, but it was broadcast in fullscreen.Fox has announced though that the DVD's (Thank You Jesus!)will be presented in their originall anamorphic widescreen! Now for the episodes...
Disc 1: Unusual Suspects, Redux, ReduxII and Detour
Disc 2: Christmas Carol, Post-Modern Prometheus, Emily and Kitsunegari
Disc 3: Schizogeny, Chinga, Kill Switch and Bad Blood
Disc 4: Patient X, The Red and the Black, Travelers and Mind's Eye
Disc 5: All Souls, The Pine Bluff Variant, Folie a Deux and The End
Disc 6: Supplemental Materials.
And for the special features...
The audio will be presented in Dolby Surround 2.0. There will also be international clips for several episodes, deleted scenes from The Post-Modern Prometheus, Christmas Carol, The Red and the Black and All Souls, audio commentaries for The Post-Modern Prometheus and The Pine Bluff Variant, a thirty minute documentary - The Truth About Season Five, Behind the Truth Spots, special effects clips with commentary, a two minute featurette from the FX network, tv spots, and a DVD-ROM game.
I hope this helps ... and remember THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The X-Files Season 5 Another outstanding season!
Review: Intricacies, subtleties, nuances and BLAM straight in your face, long awaited revelations are what Season Five is all about! All of it leading up to "Fight the Future" which was filmed prior to filming this entire season that leads up to the movie! Simply stated, Chris Carter and his entire staff are geniuses.

Redux - {mythology} - Last seasons "Gethsemane" ended with Fox Mulder appearing to be dead from a self inflicted shotgun blast. Mulder is able to obtain an ID that allows him access to a DOD complex where the CSM allows him to escape with the cure for Scully's cancer.

Redux II - {mythology} - This is the outstanding conclusion to the mini trilogy. The CSM offers Mulder all the answers. Scully's cancer is finally in remission thanks to the device that Mulder found. Mulder weeds out the FBI mole, who is shortly thereafter assassinated. The big news, the CSM is shot in his own apartment, yet no body is found. With episodes like these first two, season five continues to prove what an excellent experience The X-Files is.

Unusual Suspects - {mythology} - A beautifully well scripted episode detailing the events in 1989 that brought the "Lone Gunmen" together. This episode also includes a surprise appearance by "X" as well. Surprisingly enough, the events of this episode are what put Mulder and the Lone Gunmen on the quest that they are all on.

Detour - Another well written episode where Scully and Mulder are stuck having to go to team building retreat with a married pair of agents. Fortunately for Mulder's sanity, they have to stop along the way because of a police road block. They find out that people were coming up missing in the woods in a strange way. This episode has some very touching scenes belying the relationship that is building between Mulder and Scully.

The Post-Modern Prometheus - This episode is an absolutely wonderful, campy black & white episode where The X-Files once again proves that they can lighten up and have a little fun. Jerry Springer stars as himself in the background as Mulder and Scully find themselves in a town full of die hard Springer fans and a monster in "The Mutato."

Christmas Carol & Emily - {mythology} - Simply stated, these are two of the finest, touching and most heartfelt episodes of not only the season but the entire series! Scully is on Christmas vacation with her family in California and receives what seems to be a phone call from her sister, who was killed in an earlier season. This phone call leads to the discovery of a little girl that Dana believes to be the daughter of her sister! "Emily" brings Mulder into the picture and the real "mythology" aspects of these two spectacular episodes kicks in! These two episodes alone make the entire season!

Kitsunegari - Déjà vu', Robert Modell from the third season episode "Pusher" is back. He's survived the bullet that Mulder put in his head and he's back to "pushing" people into what he wants them to do. This episode is one of the most intriguing of the season.

Schizogeny - This is a particularly intriguing episode about child abuse and the way one woman dealt with her abuse.

Chinga - Written by Stephen King and Chris Carter. This episode certainly qualifies as one of the best of the season and the entire nine year run as producer Chris Carter welcomes the "King of Horror" in Stephen King as a co-writer. This episode has everything that one can expect from King, suspense and horror in full measure. This is certainly a classic X-Files episode that is not to be missed.

Kill Switch - This is a superb episode in both its setup and execution as The X-Files explores Artificial Intelligence in the best way that only they can. This is a perfect "Lone Gunmen" style episode.

Bad Blood - This is another outstandingly funny, yet scary episode that the producers have proven their superiority at. Mulder and Scully find themselves in Texas looking for a vampire and ultimately find much more than they bargained for. The banter between them just keeps getting better and better.

Patient X & The Red and the Black - {mythology} - Two outstanding episodes that serve extremely well to further the mythology of "The X-Files." Mulder's lost faith is quite prominent as Scully gains faith in the possibility of aliens. Some of the "facts" that die hard fans have been waiting several years for are beginning to slip from Chris Carter finally. This is also the episode that introduces Agent Spinder, CSM's son.

Travelers - {part mythology} Travelers is a brilliant prequel episode that first takes us back to 1990, before Mulder's taking the X-Files, then takes us to a case going back to 50's and his father working for the State Department.

Mind's Eye - A beautifully well written episode that is both touching and heartwarming. It is about a woman, blind from birth who has been accused of a brutal murder.

All Souls - This is another breathtaking episode where The X-Files explores Scully's faith in God.

The Pine Bluff Variant - Agent Mulder finds himself undercover and in the midst of one of the very government conspiracies that he seeks to expose, but finds the truth too shocking to reveal.

Folie a deux - This episode contains the best one liner to date in the series. Mulder is sent to Chicago to discover who is threatening an office with terrorism and finds that he is seeing the same thing that the "madman" was seeing.

The End - {mythology} Another outstanding season finale that leads up to the movie. CSM is back and in full force and doing his thing. This is the episode that introduces Gibson, the child who, born with alien DNA is capable of reading minds. CSM succeeds in having The X-Files closed.

Extra Features - Just as it was with the first four seasons, the special features disk for season five is outstanding. This one finally includes some blooper scenes.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The series expands .
Review: Keeping in mind this review will probably get buried amongst the countless others . . . Most people feel that Season 5 was the last real good season of the X-Files. For me it was season 4, but there is still much to enjoy here in this season-it's just that Carter and the character of Mulder seem much more cynical now, after the season 4 cliffhanger of Gethesame. What made season 5 interesting for me was the way the mythology story arc expanded to include a rebel branch of aliens. All of the supporting characters from Krychek to the Lone Gunmen were becoming larger than life; you have a real sense of an epic rapidly approaching some kind of resolution. There are two two-parter stories that in some way expand upon the central story arc: Christmas Carol/Emily and Patient X/The Red and the Black. Of these, the first pair was weaker because they shamelessly worked the motherhood card with Scully and revolved around her emotional relationship with a little girl; it also laid the seeds for her bigger motherhood experience to come later in season 8. It's hard to work action sequences into a eugenics episode. Emily has some fine eerie music to it, however. The second two-parter was much more satisfying, because the pace was kept much more constant and tense. As for the coined Monster of the Week episodes, my favorites were: Bad Blood for its humorous Rashoman take on vampirism in a small town; Schizogeny, a chilling black magic episode; and finally, the best, Folie a Deux, a truly hallucinogenic episode! Post-modern Prometheus, Carter's special take on the Frankenstein mythos, deserves special mention, because it tries so hard to be striking and original--but it isn't. The episode tries to do too much: shot in black in white, weird perspective shots, humor, and a meta-realistic ending that derails the whole story. Another special mention: Kitsunegari was one of the first of a few episodes to bring a past villian out of ice in a shameless, sensationalistic attempt to bolster ratings (which were already high in the first place). This story at least is involving and suspenseful, with an ending that lives up to the story that builds up to it. Featured also in this series were two prominent guest writers: Stephen King and William Gibson in the respective episodes Chinga and Kill Switch. Chinga is best not talked about, but Kill Switch was triumph of technobabble meets tense edge-of-your seat action. The greatness of a season can be measure by how fast it passes without you knowing it. To be sure, by the time I had finished the season closer, The End, I felt time had slipped so suddenly. Then it was time for Season 6 . . .

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Box Sets Are Getting Better and Better
Review: Man I haven't even gone through all the episodes in Season Five of course, but that's okay I've seen all the episodes already. This is another classic season which has my favorite episodes such as: Redux I, Redux II, Unusual Suspects (The episode where The Gunmen and Mulder first meet), Detour (Scully sings "Joy to the World"), Post-Modern Prometheus (The Classic Black and White Episode), Christmas Carol, Emily, Chinga (Written by: Stephen King, and Chris Carter :), Bad Blood, and many more classic episodes. Unfortunately this is where I think after the season and the movie the X-Files Jumped the Shark I think. But definately get this DVD Box Set it's incrediable. It has a documentary "The Truth About Season Five," 45 Minute Special "Inside The X-Files," Deleted scene's with commentary by Chris Carter, Special Effects Section, More Episode Commentary, "Behind the Truth" From the F/X Spot, 40 promotional TV Spots, and a great DVD ROM Game called "Earthbound" which is really fun and in a way really hard if you have patients that is :) but don't worry it's really fun at the same time. I've already watched more episodes in the Season Five DVD Box Set. And went through the game and still need to go through all the other fun stuff. So far this is one of my favorite X-Files box sets and I have them all 1-5. If you love the Classic X-Files Episodes you'll need to get this. This season goes more into the mytharc, more into the Mulder and Scully relationship, and more comedy and just your fantastic "X-Files" episodes. I think I'm running out of more adj to say about this. But all in all buy it you won't be sorry I definately give it an A+++!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The last REAL season of The X Files!
Review: May is gonna be a big day for all x-fans; the last season of the series that was shot in Vancouver is realesed, and was coincidently (?) also the last year where The X Files were popular for obvious reasons! I think the 3rd, 4th and 5th seasons were the high-peaks of not only production value, but as the entire series itself, even though the myth started to grow old here in the 5th, with all that 'global' population, and take-over from aliens stuff - which I think kinda killed the realness of the show; - cuz before; it was all 'The Truth Is Out There', and became in this season different with none of that 'quest' theme, because the truth were virtually exposed; and really not that believeable; - I've always thought The X Files myth was cool because it left us question things, and made people wonder; but now it was all revealed, and the result was kinda dissapointing; kinda too much Sci-Fi, w/ that un-original theme about alien-colinization. BUT even though those negativ turns in this season; still by far most of the season was as good as the previous. Just think back on eps like; Kill Switch (classic x-theme story), Detour (another classic), Redux I+II (great myth-eps), Unusual Suspects, Folie A Deux (maybe the best), Schizogeny (S-J. Redmond is soo talented), Travelers (just great), and Bad Blood (even though, it's too much 'comedic'; I can't forget how funny it is, and what about those perf. by DD & GA - fantastic!). What I really hope with this next box-set, is that FOX/Carter include that TV-special entitled "Inside The X Files" from 1998 pre-movie with all those fun bloopers, and cool interviews with DD, GA, Nic Lea, Laurie Holden, Gunmen Trio, William Davis, Steven Williams, Mitch Pileggi etc. etc.!!
Anyway; don't miss this next great release in May: then you've completed THE X FILES on DVD collections to-keep 4ever; - ya know; I'm not really sure about the future DVD's, Season 6 onwards, ya know what i'm sayin'!
1993-1998 = Seasons 1-5: the real x-days; just plain old nostalgic stories and memories!!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not as good as 3 or 4
Review: Season 5 is good. Not as good as the first 4 seasons, but good. After this season is where the show starts to slip...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Halfway through the show, The X-Files reaches its peak
Review: Season 5 of The X-Files is definitely the best season from the show's nine-year run, in my opinion. Season 5 is where the mythology arc of the show really takes over, resulting in a superb season finale before finally leading to box-office glory in the summer of 1998 with The X-Files Movie: Fight The Future. Season 5 was actually filmed after the movie, despite the movie coming out after Season 5! This brilliant season of The X-Files contains a mere 20 episodes - the movie was Chris Carter's excuse as the concluding "episode/s" to the season. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully respectively are surprisingly not at their best, acting-wise in Season 5.

As previously stated, Season 5 is where the mythology arc of the show really takes over. These conspiracy episodes are the best from any season in The X-Files, and made Season 5 more epic than any other. Season 5 begins with the great episode Unusual Suspects. In a flash back scene from 1989, the Lone Gunmen meet for the first time and join forces with Mulder to stop a covert government experiment that may be targeted at the American public, after been contacted by a distraught woman. We finally catch up with what happened at the end of Season 4 in the first two-parter of Season 5; Redux/Redux II. Mulder was presumed dead at the end of the previous season, yet the agents play the game better and are one step ahead of everyone else - I won't spoil it for you, but it's truly an amazing two-parter, definitely one of the best in the show's history. The next two-parter we receive from Season 5 is Christmas Carol/Emily. In the former, a mysterious phone call leads Scully to investigate a woman's suicide and a young girl who may be the daughter of her deceased sister, Melissa. In the latter, Scully attempts to adopt three year old Emily Sim, only to discover that the girl has developed a disturbing illness that may be the by-product of a sinister conspiracy. The next in a long list of Season 5 two-parters is Patient X/The Red And The Black. In the former - after a group of alien abductees are burned alive by faceless assailants - Mulder and Scully uncover proof that the event is linked to alien colonisation. In the latter, the agents discover more evidence of the planned alien colonisation of Earth and set out to preserve what may be humanity's last remaining link to freedom. Since the beginning of Season 5, Mulder's opinions on what he believes have been severely challenged. We see an extremely sceptical Mulder in this two-parter, not willing to believe anything without proof. The fans aren't used to this, so it's just as glad he reverts to his normal self soon. The Season 5 finale - The End - is another absolutely stunning episode in which Mulder and Scully discover a 12-year-old clairvoyant whose life may be in danger due to his gifted ability to solve all the unexplained phenomena in the X-Files. The Ciagrette-Smoking Man really gets involved in this finale, arriving back with full force - intent on complicating things more than they could be and, of course, covering up the truth.

The stand-alone episodes of Season 5 are amongst the best the show has ever produced. While containing some superb ones such as Kitsunegari, Schizogeny, Kill Switch, Mind's Eye, All Souls, The Pine Bluff Variant and Folie A Deux, it also contains one atrocious one - Travelers. This is just a rubbish episode, which I turned off between the first viewing. One of the best episodes of Season 5 is Detour. In the episode, Mulder and Scully are stalked by an ancient legion of lethal beings while out in the woods investigating a boy's claims that he was attacked by an invisible creature. The striking and rich greens of the trees in the forest make this one of the most memorable episodes in X-Files history. The Post Modern Prometheus is a special episode, filmed entirely in black and white. While investigating the appearance of a freakish creature in a rural town, the agents uncover a dangerous genetic experiment that has spun wildly out of control. The comedy scenes (Mulder and Scully suddenly appearing from behind a door-frame to quiz a suspect is hilarious) make for a much-loved episode. Chinga (called Bunghoney from a few sources for some strange reason) is another one of the season's highlights. Rumours of witchcraft and sorcery surrounding a bizarre murder lead Scully to a little girl and a cursed doll that may be hiding a murderous secret. The episode was co-written by horror story legend Stephen King and contains some truly scary moments - such as the supermarket one...and watch out for the "I want more cherries!" scene! Bad Blood has to be the funniest episode of The X-Files you will ever see. While exploring the deaths of cattle killed by a series of blood extractions, the agents uncover a cult of vampires residing in a small Texas town. Both Mulder and Scully offer their sides of the story on what happened in flashback scenes. At one point, the agents become so annoyed with each other that when Scully explains what location they were at (with that trademark writing appearing at the bottom of the screen), Mulder cuts in and believes Scully to have got the location wrong! The writing at the bottom of the screen then changes to what Mulder believes it to be! Very funny stuff!

OVERALL GRADE: 10/10

Season 5 of The X-Files is one of the best seasons of any TV show I have ever seen - only Seasons 3 and 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer tops it! The season contains many different characters such as Cigarette-Smoking Man, Alex Krycek, the Lone Gunmen, Maria Covarrubias, Diana Fowley and The Bounty Hunter which only add to the season's quality. Be a part of The X-Files legend and own Season 5 on DVD today!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Climax Of Perfection!
Review: Season 5, besides being my personal favorite, is without a doubt the show's most excitingly creative season.
In this PERFECT season, packed with a lot of mythology episodes, exxxtreme sci-fi/horror masterpieces and a couple of hilarious comedy episodes, the cast simply proved they can do the impossible in every genre. Gillian Anderson, now slowly leaning away from her usual sceptisism and plowing in confusion between her rigid science and the traumatizing consequences of her abduction takes on Mulder, who spends the first 15 episodes of the show under the belief that the truth he seeked had been nothing but a lie. The tension in this season, the character development and the remarkable acting and directing is simply without a doubt a real example of pure creation. If you don't own the fifth season of the x-files, you dont have the show!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Twilight Time
Review: Season five marked several highlights in the production of The X-Files. It was the show's last season in Vancouver before moving to Hollywood, and because The X-Files movie was shot in a few months right before, season five was the shortest to date, totaling 20 episodes compared to the average 24. With the movie set to take place AFTER season five, Chris Carter and crew had to, for the first time in the show's history, pre-plan the mythology arc, and structure it to lead into the summer release of the film. This made for some challenges, most notably in the characterizations of Mulder and Scully, who reversed roles after the events in the Gethsemane-Redux trilogy. Mulder becomes a disillusioned skeptic. He's shown that his obsessive quest for the truth about aliens was merely the impetus for a hoax he unwittingly perpetuated for a shadow government. Scully, meanwhile, becomes more of a believer after inexplicably defying the odds against surviving her cancer.

This dynamic is best explored in "All Souls." Mulder tries to persuade Scully into thinking that the mysterious deaths of quadruplet sisters are nothing more than the work of a religious psychopath. However, Scully has trouble reconciling the conflict between her scientific knowledge and rejuvenated religious beliefs. Though somewhat similar in structure to season one's "Beyond the Sea," "All Souls" is a deeper character piece seldom seen in seasons past.

Overall, the standalone stories in season five are less fantastic than in previous seasons (but no less entertaining). There's fewer flukemen and Mexican goatsuckers, and more of reality-based material (terrorists in the taut "The Pine Bluff Variant," artificial intelligence in the hip, cyberpunk "Kill Switch," mass hysteria in the off-beat "The Post-Modern Prometheus").

The X-Files mythology, on the other hand, gets even more convoluted with the introduction of the faceless rebels, the Spenders, Agent Fowley and Gibson Praise. Fans were curious to see how the movie might resolve or expand upon the new conflicts beset by these characters, only to be disappointed that they weren't even featured, or at least mentioned, in the film at all.

The X-Files hit its peak by season five, reaching a mainstream audience and losing its cult status. With the movie, the creators tried to maintain the show's integrity for longtime, hardcore fans without alienating the new ones. Unfortunately, this politican approach followed into subsequent seasons, marking the beginning of the end.

TECHNICAL:

I want to clarify the popular misconception that The X-Files--The Complete Fifth Season isn't truly widescreen. I just compared the DVD's with the original broadcast episodes I recorded on VHS, and I found that the DVD's are in fact, widescreen. The picture is constrained from top to bottom (not cropped), noticeably diminishing the onscreen text but not so much the actual photography; the lateral field of vision is greater, showing the viewer more from left to right.

That said, I appreciate Fox and 1013's decision to release this set in widescreen format, serving to accentuate the cinematic aesthetic of the show. Chris Carter & Co. always treated each episode of The X-Files as a 44-minute featurette, and with Season 5 in widescreen on DVD, fans can experience that theatrical quality in full effect. If only seasons 1 through 4 were shot in widescreen....

One glaring flaw of this set that hardcore X-Philes should be aware of, though, is the omission of alternate taglines for certain episodes. In the main titles for "Redux," the tagline reads the usual "The Truth is Out There" instead of the alternate "All Lies Lead to the Truth." The same goes for the finale, "The End," where the tagline should read "The End." This may be something that the casual viewer could care less about, but for true, nitpicky fans like myself, this oversight needs to be rectified, if not for season 5, then at least in the future DVD releases of seasons 6 through 9.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best.
Review: Season five of The X-Files really shows what this series can deliver. The conspiracy has never been at its best, and the stand-alone episodes are fantastic. This season really goes to show why this series has become such a phenomenon. After five years it still remains exciting and new. So many of the episodes are now classics, it's unbelievable looking back. Major revelations this season are the discovery of Scully as a mother, the cure for her cancer, and the start of a rebellion against colonization. This season introduces Agent Spender, CSM's son, and many other characters that will stay with the show until the end. Everything in this season is done so well, TV just can't get any better. Highlights include "Redux", "Redux II", "The Post-Modern Prometheus", "Christmas Carol", "Bad Blood", "Patient X", "The Red and the Black", "Folie a Deux", and "The End." Watching this, it's no wonder this show was such a hit.


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