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Television
The X-Files - The Complete Sixth Season

The X-Files - The Complete Sixth Season

List Price: $99.98
Your Price: $79.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The last perfect season.
Review: This season was excellent. But it also marked the end of The X-Files "perfect season" streak. Seasons 7 and 9 were really good, but not perfect like the previous six.

In this season, we start pretty much where the movie left off. And we also have a conclusion to the syndicate, and dive deeper into the conspiracy of Mulder's sister. We also find out more about the alien rebels. Lastly, we end the season with a great cliffhanger that takes the season in a new direction, dealing with an interesting (although highly implausible) take on the genesis of life on this planet.

Great season, great DVD.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: New environment, but still spooky
Review: This season, filming was moved from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Los Angeles, California. The show is less murky, but still ominous. The best episode this season is the two-parter, "Two Fathers" and "One Son."

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: New environment, but still spooky
Review: This season, filming was moved from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Los Angeles, California. The show is less murky, but still ominous. The best episode this season is the two-parter, "Two Fathers" and "One Son."

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Even better than season five...
Review: Up until a few months ago, I never watched a single episode of the X-Files. However, now that the DVD sets have been reduced in price, I had the opportunity to start watching the show. Right off the bat, I was hooked immediately and with each passing season the show became established in my eyes as one of the best and most addictive sci-fi shows ever created. After seeing the first five seasons, I didn't think that season five could be topped, because it did not have one bad episode. I was also somewhat skeptical about season six, because of how many fans that said the show went downhill after the show left Vancouver to be shot in Los Angeles. I just finished with the sixth season, and it feels like the move to L.A. was a blessing in disguise. The sixth season is without a doubt the best season I have seen so far.

The thing that suprised me the most about season six, was the fact that there were only three mythology episodes in "Two Fathers", "One Son", and "Biogenesis". Season six was the first season to be built almost solely upon stand alone episodes. However, the three episodes did such a wonderful job with the mythology of the show, that three episodes was all that season six needed. In fact, a season that was mainly comprised of stand alone episodes was definately a nice change of pace. Season six is filled with some of the best episodes of the entire show like "Triangle", "Dreamland" pts 1&2, "Monday" and "The Unnatural". Other episodes worth mentioning are "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas" in which two ghosts try and convince Mulder and Scully to kill each other, "Arcadia" in which Mulder and Scully pose as a newly married couple, and "Drive" in which Mulder is trapped in a car with a man who forces Mulder to drive at high speeds to suppress a fatal ear condition.

Overall, season six of the X-Files managed to be even better than the fifth season and is now my favorite season. With top notch mythology episodes and fantastic stand alone episodes, this DVD set would be worth owning just for the season itself. However, the extras are also great as well. You get two featurettes, deleted scenes, commentary on "Triangle" and "Milagro", and more.

A solid 5 stars...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Best of the Best
Review: Well, I may not be considered a true X-Files fan because I am only now getting into the series. I have not had the good fortune of watching the series in order. I started watching it in reruns mid-season 5 on FX. I followed it through to the end of season 8, and their replay of season 1. I am now playing catch up, having seen all of season 3 and half of 9. In one way it's been brutal, but at the same time I am so thankful for having X-Files now, since there is nothing worthwhile on TV currently. With that said, season 6 has been my favorite season of what I have seen. I have more episodes on tape from that season than any other. I am a HUGE fan of Vince Gilligan, who has written most of my favorite episodes. I am a fan of the more humorous episodes, "Bad Blood", "Jose Chung's From Outer Space", and "Small Potatoes" being my all time favorite episodes. I really enjoyed the stand-alone episodes in season 6. "How The Ghosts Stole Christmas" was my favorite of the year, but "Triangle", "Monday" (The late Carrie Hamilton was awesome!!), "Milagro", "Field Trip", and "Tithonous" were also favorites of mine. The other highlight of season 6 for me was "Dreamland I & II". I thoroughly enjoyed those episodes. The mythology episodes have been harder for me, since I am watching out of sequence. I believe now that I need to watch "One Son" and "Two Fathers" again. I remember not being too impressed with those episodes, but at that point I had not seen enough of the mythology episodes. In fact, it was the mythology episodes that kept me from jumping into X-Files sooner. I was worried that I would be lost. Speaking of lost, although I enjoyed "Biogenesis" and the following "Sixth Extinction I & II" of season 7, I would love for someone to explain to me what exactly was removed from Mulder, and put into CSM. That has been the one thing that I have not been able to process. I have watched it many times, but my little brain has yet to figure that one out. Still, I am so thankful for the series now. I would have nothing to watch. I must also say that it has raised my expectations for the upcoming Taken. I do believe that X-Files has raised the bar for all science fiction and television for that matter. It makes it hard to digest the ill-conceived poorly produced crap that television throws our way these days. Back to the point, I have seen many box sets of TV shows hitting the market lately, and X-Files is the only one I have been tempted to spend the money on. It is actually one of the few shows not only worth your time, but your money as well.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The X-Files Cult Classic
Review: What can you say about The X-Files??A cult classic that will live on!!This to me was an awesome season a must for any collector!!Gillian Anderson as an actress is the bomb!! Triangle,Milagro and of course Biogenesis,to name a few.If your not a fan you will be!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Truth Is Over There
Review: When I first watched the X-Files' Sixth Season episodes on their original air dates, I had developed a love hate relationship with the show. A fellow fan and friend of mine used to call me up at the very end of each episode to commiserate and watch the coming attractions together. We'd usually say, "Well, that one really blew!" and "Why don't they just hang it all up." We joked that every episode should start with the Fonz from Happy Days jumping a shark tank.

But now, a few years later, watching all the episodes in Season 6 within a few days like one long strange 22 hour movie, I'm starting to like this collection of short spooky tales and tight little supernatural crime dramas. I guess I'm just accepting them for what they are and looking at the quality of the photography, the acting, the gruesomeness of some of the crimes and the clevereness of some of the episodes.

The show's production unit had moved from Canada to Los Angeles shortly after filming the X-Files feature film "Fight the Future" and rumor has it that it was to accomodate David Duchovny who wanted to be close to home and his family. You can tell that the show had moved to LA. There is a different lighting at work. Harsh back lights, burning sun light, more realistic desert landscapes with the sloping shadows of sundown(look at the barren terrain in "Drive" and compare that to the handpainted rocky cliffs of "Anzani" where Chris Carter literally painted the rocks red to make it look like New Mexico). The show never looked the same again. The cinematography changed forever. As well as the directing. For some reason, the X-Files last few seasons mastered the art of intense close-up and people's silhouettes in half-shadow with streaming sunlight and lots of reflection off wood panelling. I don't quite know how I feel about this new cinematographic technique, but I also noticed it's used on a variety of LA based tv shows.

For the record, the show picks up where the feature film leaves off and makes a clean transition from one to the other. It gives some reasonable explanation why Scully is still a skeptic after being kidnapped to a mothership and infected with an alien virus (she doesn't remember!), but it doesn't explain why Scully is still a skeptic after witnessing men who could walk through solid walls ("Trevor"), an antideluvian sea monster ("Aqua Mala"), her own death ("The Ghosts Who Stole Christmas"), a man who can change the weather ("The Rain King"), scientific proff of an alien/human hybrid ("Two Fathers", "One Son") and eventually, in one of the chilling moments of the season she even uncovers a real flying saucer. I mean, after experiencing of all this, not to mention the various aliens, monsters and mutants that she's seen with her own eyes in previous seasons, it's a miracle that Dana Scully hasn't gone insane and unbelievable that she still remains a science-based skeptic. One would think that by this time, she'd be building a Big Foot altar and calling Mulder a skeptic by comparison.

The season makes some attempt to blow the lid off the main story arch, the conspiracy involving the Cigarette Smoking Man and his bosses in New York. The two episodes that expose the conspiracy do indeed wrap up a lot of plot threads (largely by doing a massacre of a lot of main characters all at once -- don't want to spoil too much here), and we do learn the Smoking Man's real identity, not to mention his wife and son. But in typical X-files fashion, Smokey's "real" name, as Scully points out, is still an alias. It just happend to be the alias that he used on his marriage license.

The best episodes here are the monster of the week ones. And although it includes some of the deadest episodes seen to date (including "The Rain King" and "Terms of Endearment" (which completely wastes the talents of Evil Dead's Bruce Campbell)), we do have a few episodes that rip off famous movies but succeed despite their lack of orginality. These include "Drive" which adds a very strange twist to the movie Speed, and "Triangle" which employs Hitchockian techniques to tell a story of time travel in the Devil's Triangle. These and "Monday" which rips off the German masterpiece "Run Lola Run" but, like "Drive", gains a unique identity apart from it's source, are worth the price of admission, so to speak. There is also "Field Trip", a post-modern mind-bender that stands alone as the best episode of the season. The finale, "Biogenesis", is an attempt to create a new story arch and turn Scully into the Tomb Raider's Chick (check her out in her khaki shorts, busty white tank top and weilding her jungle machete!).

The seventh season, from what I remember, really really blew. And was the ultimate shark jumping of the entire run of the show. But this season did indeed have more hidden gems in it that I remembered.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Quite Possibly the strongest Season!
Review: While I won't review each episode, I will say that Season 6 really took "The X-Files" and put in on its head. They changed the way they told stories, but without changing the show. They tweaked the formula, and it worked very well. Some of the strongest stories were told this season.

The DVD quality is solid, and the extras don't disappoint. If you're fan, of course you're going to buy this set. If you're a casual viewer, you won't be disappointed. This might be the last season worth watching as a whole.

Worth giving a spin...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The greatest TV show ever just got better - and on DVD!
Review: With the success of The X-Files theatrical release, new fans, along with fans who had been with the show since the beginning, eagerly awaited the premiere of the sixth season of "The X-Files." With the new season also came a new shooting location as the show moved from rainy and picturesque Vancouver, Canada to sunny and modern Los Angeles, California. Fans who feared the new location would clash with the show's trademark atmosphere of mystery and suspense, aided greatly by the often and damp and cloudy weather conditions present in Vancouver, need not have worried. They soon discovered the supernatural is just as spine-tingling in the full light of day as it is on a dark and rainy night.

With Season 6 of The X-Files, FBI Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) return from Antarctica to find their story of the deadly virus, alien spaceship, and subsequent escape disbelieved and their positions in the X-Files taken over by Jeffrey Spender (Chris Owens) and Diana Fowley (Mimi Rogers). Although forced to work apart, the agents continue to secretly information that passes through the X-Files office or comes to them clandestinely.

With Season 6 of The X-Files there aren't many mythology episodes. Once they come along though, they are true treats for fans. The first mythology episode is called "The Beginning," and is also the first episode of the season. The episode pulled in more than 20 million viewers when it premiered on the FOX Network on November 8th 1998 - amazingly, this isn't the top-rated episodes of the show's entire run, proving its phenomenal popularity. In the episode the X-Files is re-opened, but not with Mulder and Scully. Mid-season we see the amazing two-parter "Two Fathers/One Son." These two episodes reveal almost everything that has happened over the past five years on the show. Die-hard fans will love it. No disappointment at all.

The season ends with the fantastic episode "Biogenesis," in which Mulder and Scully are affected in different ways by a rubbing taken from an apparent spacecraft that has emerged through the sea on South Africa's Ivory Coast. Said to be the word of God, Scully embarks on one of her most dangerous and challenging cases to date - all while trying to look after a deranged Mulder.

Season 6 does not feature the best mythology episodes of the show's entire run, but what it does feature (and what makes it one of the best seasons) is some absolutely amazing stand-alone episodes. I am now choosing to mention only the cream of the crop, but these that I list below are all pretty amazing in themselves. The season contains the episodes "Dreamland/Dreamland II," "Terms Of Endearment," "The Rain King," "S.R. 819," "Tithonus," "Arcadia," "The Unnatural," "Three Of A Kind" and "Field Trip." The only real boring episodes of the season are "Alpha" and "Trevor."

In "Drive," Mulder is taken hostage in a car and forced to drive across America by an aggressive man who believes his head will explode if the car slows down - just like his wife. Meanwhile, Scully tries to determine what is causing this strange event. "Triangle" is perhaps the best comedy episode of the show's entire run. Filmed in four separate takes, the episode sees Mulder accidentally travel back to 1939 and get trapped on a W.W.II ship after he enters the Bermuda Triangle. Split-screens and a Scully/Skinner kiss is enough to make this a fantastic episode! In "How The Ghosts Stole Christmas," Mulder and Scully find themselves trapped inside a haunted house on Christmas Eve, where an old married couple play cruel tricks on them! It sounds wacky, and it is - but in a brilliant way.

"Agua Mala" is a fantastic stand-alone episode where Mulder and Scully take a trip to Florida and are caught up in a hurricane. They must deal with a deadly sea creature that is killing off a number of hotel residents. "Monday" is an episode that will blow your mind with its detail. A Monday morning repeats itself over and over, which always ends in Mulder being shot and Scully being blown up in a bank. Mulder must remember all this before it happens - weird and fantastic. "Milagro" is a brilliant episode where a man writes horrific stories that come true - all involving the removal of a human heart. His fascination and attraction to Scully gets her into dangerous circumstances.

I don't usually mention the Special Features on The X-Files or Buffy Box Sets, as I feel it is irrelevant to the things I focus on writing about - the actual episodes. However, with the Season 6 of The X-Files, I have to make an exception! Let me first say that the artwork is awesome; a superb gold and black cover slips over the box contained within, which opens up a number of times to display all six discs. The images are wonderful, and quotes from certain decorate the design. There are too many special features contained to mention, but I'll just say that you'll be very happy with them!

OVERALL GRADE: 10/10

I purchased this box set on DVD without seeing any of the episodes on TV beforehand, so I was taking a bit of a risk. I know now, however, that it was a risk worth taking as I absolutely adore Season 6 of The X-Files. Season 2 has always been my favourite season of the show, but Season 6 nearly changed all that! Not quite though. All in all, this DVD collection is definitely - like so many others have said - a must have.


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