Rating: 
Summary: A tremendously underrated and neglected season
Review: 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Rating: 
Summary: Big changes in the series
Review: After 7 seasons of great stand alone episodes and and overly complicated mythology (which was pretty much wrapped up at the end of season 7) and David Duchovny minimizing his role, the series had to change - before it got too boring even for the die hard fans. The introduction of agent John Doggett (Robert Patrick) and agent Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish) was supposed to be the series' 'new blood'. Has it worked? Yes and no. Unfortunately, it's mostly no.The introduction of Agent Doggett was an attempt for a refreshing and grounding look at the whole alien conspiracy which got out of hand of reason in the past 2 - 3 seasons by having a fresh skeptic doubt the whole alien scheme to rule the Earth, etc. But it wasn't convincing. As for the stand alone episodes - nothing much was new, and a lot of the material felt recycled. Since Mulder wasn't around much, and Scully wasn't around a lot more than he was, their interaction was sorely missed. My advice: rent before buying.
Rating:
Summary: Agent Doggett was best thing to happen to X-Files for years
Review: All those people slagging this show off because of Duchovny's absence - they're the ones who killed this show.
The X-Files died because of it's tedious ongoing Mulder story that became so tiresome and boring - the "dedicated fans" just couldn't and (as it turned out) wouldn't accept anything different when that particular story arc reached its' inevitable (and tedious) end. Along comes Robert Patrick as Agent Doggett in season 8 and straight away he brings something fresh to the show. The series goes back to it's roots to being more about mystery like it's early Outer Limits-style days.
When X-Files focused on the Mulder alien story and the Mulder-Scully relationship all the time prior to season 8, that is when I stopped being a fan. I got sick of Duchovny's Mulder character as the alien story became so overblown - it just seemed that the show was just totally obsessed with the alien thing and no room for anything different. People are also claiming/complaining that Doggett doesn't have much chemistry with Scully. Well, duh(!), they barely know each other! And does everyone have to have some sort of love-hate thing going on anyway? This is just proof that too many so-called fans of the show weren't really interested in the reason of the show's existence (ie. unexplained mysteries) and just got hooked on the whole Mulder-Scully relationship thing way too much. In my opinion, I think Doggett and Scully had a great professional relationship which was also realistic. I agree with those that say that the Mulder-Scully storyline was too convuluted - I hated it and wished they hadn't done it or at least kept it in the background. The popularity of David Duchovny and, especially, Gillian Anderson, was good for a while but it ended up turning the X-Files into some kind of weird soap opera with everyone hooked on the idea of "will they or won't they". Chris Carter came up with some brilliant ideas for the final two X-Files seasons and its a great pity that the idea of Doggett & Reyes taking over from Mulder & Scully never really took off because the show had become great again when they entered the scene. The show became a lot darker and edgy again like its' earlier days. If it was up to me I'd bring the show back with Doggett & Reyes and scrap the whole Mulder & Scully thing once and for all. Don't get me wrong - I loved Mulder & Scully through & through - but there's no denying that the emphasis on their relationship and the whole alien abduction thing was taken too far (and this is coming from an alien/ufo nut!)... And, anyway, before Doggett came along, Skinner was my favourite character.
Rating:
Summary: Making the best of a bad situation
Review: Before the first episode of Season 8 appeared, I was one of the people who wasn't going to watch the show without David Duchovny. Heck, by that time I wasn't watching it *with* him--I thought Season 7 was terrible and had given up on the show long before the season finale. But magazine articles about the changes planned for Season 8 persuaded me to give Doggett one episode to win me over--he had me by the end of his first scene. In my personal opinion, Duchovny's decision to leave saved the season and I laud him for having the guts to do so despite criticism. It forced the writers and producers to try something dramatically new--a new main character--with a concept that was increasingly tired. And Doggett was a perfect addition to the show: his old-fashioned sense of chivalry and "I'll believe it when I see it" attitude were not only intriguing, but made him suitably distinct from both Mulder and Scully as characters. Not to mention Robert Patrick got a real chance to show off his acting range in this role so different from the one that made him famous. Mulder's absence also freed Scully from feeling that she *had* to cling to her skepticism in order to ground him, and let her finally grow into the belief she should have had years ago. One of the weaknesses of the series to that point was that lack of natural character growth--Mulder and Scully were pretty much the same people in Season 7 as they were in Season 1. Drawbacks include the season-long pregnancy arc, which not only strained credibility (Mulder supposed disappeared in May yet Scully gave birth the following May and didn't show until well into the sixth or seventh month of that thirteen-month pregnancy? No wonder she thought the kid must be an alien.) but felt pretty much like a cheap ratings stunt to keep the attention of viewers who were daunted by Duchovny's absence and the resulting absence of the "MSR." This was confirmed for me by the fact that they used another lame plot device to get rid of the kid the following season so he wouldn't hamper his parents' future adventuring ability. *sigh* Was Season 8 comparable with the series at its peak? No. And it wasn't enough to really *save* the show, as shown by its deterioration again in Season 9 despite Robert, Annabeth and the producers' best efforts--perhaps if Doggett and Reyes had been introduced in Season 6 instead? But it was remarkable because it gave new life to a show that was years overdue for cancellation. If I had to rank the seasons in order of quality, it would be 4, 5, 3, 2, 8, 1, 6, 9, 7. The best episodes of the season, IMO (in no particular order), are "Via Negativa," "Three Words," "DeadAlive," "Within"/"Without," "Medusa," "Alone," and "Vienen." A few, like "Surekill" and "Salvage" (except for a cute T2 in-joke or two) were just plain bad, but the rest were on the better side of the median, even if not the best of the series.
Rating: 
Summary: Mulder Abducted! Scully Pregnant! Doggett Introduced!
Review: Don't get me wrong i LOVE The X Files, but the departure of David Duchovny left a deeper scar than the people at Ten Thirteen wanted to admit. Yes, Robert Patrick's character is an extremely intelligent addition to the series' universe... What the heck! Even Monica Reyes was a great character, but to introduce them on the eighth season was a bold move. Maybe the series should have ended on the seventh year. Maybe it should have ended on this one... Maybe... There's nothing to regret now. The series actually ended about a year ago, and here we are hoping for the DVD sets to be released so we can have the complete 9 years the program lasted on its TV run. Gillian Anderson carried the weight of the whole show in her shoulders, for the first time. And a lot of fans complain about the series turning into a Soap Opera, because of the amount of chapters in wich Scully cries; starting this season. Maybe this fans are, most of them, men. Don't get me wrong... i'm a guy too, but you have to understand all the events that happen to the Dana character during the short course of a year. She learns she's pregnant, even though she's been told before, she can never conceive... and she's lost the love of her life. I would cry too. The show returns to the kind of episodes that were a predominance on the first season, in wich comedic episodes weren't still being produced. The creators were trying to give some heavy profile to the Doggett character, so they couldn't give him a comedic episode... even the circumstances in wich this season was developed, didn't allow it. The situations inside the series' psychology didn't help either. The primary objective of our characters was to protect The X Files, find Mulder and get Scully's pregnancy to a good term. The episodes in this season range from extremely good to extremely mediocre. Let's analyze them one by one in short phrases: Within / Without: Being the first 2 episodes in the season, it was obvious they were going to be mithology ones... A mithology that started deepening from here. Patience: Doggett's first X File. The first independent (or MOTW) episode. A lot of fans hated it. I didn't think it was THAT bad (at least not as FIGHT CLUB, written too by Chris Carter). Scully being a beleiver excited me beyond the realm of science. Doggett being an sceptic without reasons (differing from Scully's usual scepticism, supported by science)allowed the series to change in many ways. Roadrunners: Vince Gilligan. Small town. Dark secret. And a Slug!!! One of the seasons' best! Invocation: David Amann still amazes with this haunting tale!!! Redrum: A Strange but rather effective episode. It's an X File even though Doggett and Scully don't even know they're involved in it. Joe Morton (T2) reunites with Robert Patrick. Via Negativa (Wich translates from the spanish language as: "Negative Way"): Ties with Badlaa as the strangest episode this season. Surekill / Salvage: Worst episodes of the season.The only good joke is the self referential joke to T2. Badlaa: Ties with Via Negativa as the strangest episode this season. The Gift: Mulder has being keeping a secret to Scully. Found out what it is. Medusa: A virus has been set free on the Boston Subway System. Per Manum: Is Mulder the father of Scully's baby? Is Scully's baby an alien? This Is Not Happenning / Dead Alive / Three Words: The three part arc that involves Mulder's return. The introduction of the Reyes character. Empedocles: Reyes and Mulder try to solve the case of Doggett's son kidnapping and consequent murder. Vienen (Wich translates from the spanish language as: "They're Coming"): Mulder and Doggett together. Two worlds collide!!! Alone: Mulder and Scully's last X File together, ever in the series!!! Essence / Existence: For the first time a season finale is handled with a two parter!!! Mulder, Skinner, Doggett, Reyes and (Are you ready for this?) Krycek, protect Scully from Billy Miles and his legion of Super Soldiers. One of them DIES!!! With this season handling a lot of mithology episodes to give a complete psychological profile to the Doggett character, this season cannot be considered the best nor the worse. Just an attempt from the creators to show they can still do good things lacking the original elements that made them famous. Long Live Scully!!!
Long Live Mulder!!!
Long Live The X Files!!! Enrique Aguilar.
A Mexican Phile.
Rating:
Summary: Exit Mulder, Stage Left - Enter John Doggett
Review: Finally, cry-baby Fox Mulder takes an extended leave-of-abscence aboard the mother-wheel! (Too bad it wasn't a permanent one!)
Enter, John Doggett...
I was impressed with Robert Patrick's portrayal of this character. Chris Carter (shows creator), made an excellent choice in casting this well-seasoned, veteran actor for this role. Right from the get-go Robert immersed himself in the role, making his character portrayal quite convincing.
Indeed, Duchovany's exit and Patrick's entrance were a refreshing breath of fresh air to a show that had seen it's better days. I firmly believe that Chris Carter got a severe case of writer's block t'wards the end of Season 6, that, unfortunately, never recovered from. It seemed that from Season 7 onward, the whole underlying theme of the alien invasion took on, a sort of, "new age", "pseudo-spiritual" theme. What was the deal with the spacecraft with text engraved on it's surface, ranging from scientific formulae to biblical references? How about Mulder's ghostly "reunion" with his sister in the after-life? That was a big let-down for fans who expected a more "down-to-earth" explanation for her disappearence.
O.K., that being said...
Season 8 got off to a good start. I especially enjoyed the opening, 2-part episode, "Within / Without". My favorite part is when the alien bounty-hunter morphs into Scully's likeness and a chase ensues. I also enjoyed the initial tension between Scully and Doggett. (Glass of water, anyone?)
I also enjoyed the inroduction of Anabeth Gish in the episode, "This Is Not Happening". Her somewhat quirky character was another welcome addition to the show.
We also learn, in that same episode, why Agent Doggett feels Scully's loss so deeply and why he is so passionate about finding Mulder, alive.
While the storylines in Season 8 were strong and episodes fairly enjoyable, Chris Carter definitely went wrong with the whole pregnancy thing and the search for Mulder. They should have just made a clean break and went foward with the show, minus Duchovany. Of course, either way, most die-hard Fox Mulder fans would have balked, because their heads were buried too far in the sand to have noticed what a great change this was. I personally had grown tired of childlike Mulder, waving his gun around and screaming "The sky is falling!" to anyone who would listen to him.
While this review is about Season 8, I must make a brief comment about the last episode in Season 9, that ended the series....
Chris Carter, WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU SMOKING?? I mean, the last episode of Cheers was better than this!!
After nine years, this was about the most anti-climatic ending I have ever witnessed. The fans deserved better than this, man!
And, the dumbest line of all?....
"You came to see the wiseman, but you look like you've seen a ghost." - Cigarette Smoking Man
So, there you have it. I'm hopelessly divided in my review for Season 8. It's great in some ways and falls short in others. But, I'm still giving it 5 stars for Robert Patrick's valiant effort in replacing the shows former star and for the solid storylines. (He must have felt like Peter Davison, when he took on the role of The Doctor after Tom Baker's tenure. <Doctor Who>)
But, anywho, (pun intended)... Buy the Season 8 boxed set. You probably won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent season!
Review: I agree 100% with outerheaven23. Season 8 is a very misunderstood season, and resultantly the John Doggett and Monica Reyes characters have been misunderstood. I have to say I am a big X-files fan! Man I got T-shirts, and have tape recorded many episodes, including many from seasons 8 and 9. I love the 9th season, just as much as I love the 1st season and the entire show in general! The Lone Gunman, Alex Krychek, The Alien Bounty Hunter, Gibson Praise and many more characters return for the last two seasons. I do not understand why people are so dissatisfied with the last two seasons. Perhaps they too misunderstand them! Unfortunately since I have tape recorded many of the X-files episodes, I do not have a fancy episode guide list, so I cannot name my favorite episodes, of seasons 8 & 9. But believe me; most of them are quite good! John
Rating:
Summary: One of the Stronger Seasons
Review: I almost didn't buy this set because I was afraid of ruining my opinion of the show with a bad season. Many shows get stale and formulaic as they age. Happily, this is not the case with "The X Files." The season's story lines of the search for Mulder and the pregnancy of Scully were very well done. Robert Patrick as Special Agent Doggett is absolutely great. I was led to believe that Mulder wouldn't be in the season very much, but he is in better than half of the episodes, and whether there or not, he is felt. Even so, Doggett is a strong agent and he and Scully work well together. The production values, writing, and acting are all top notch, just as they have been with every other season. I especially enjoyed the alien conspiracy story line since, in the past, I felt it got a bit too convoluted and forced certain rather wide leaps of faith. It was very well done in this season. The stand alone episodes were all freaky/scary/interesting, just as they always have been. My one complaint of the season is Annabeth Gish as Special Agent Reyes. Gish isn't comfortable or believable as an FBI agent. Her supposedly endearing quirks to make her likeable fall flat. I hope she gets better, but I wouldn't mind an alien getting ahold of her. Despite Gish, no fan should miss this season.
Rating:
Summary: Good season, poor extras on DVD
Review: I am a fan that likes all nine seasons of the X-Files. I also like the introduction of Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish into the X-Files, although their working relationship wasn't much of a story line until the ninth season. What deeply disappoints me with this DVD set is the very weak commentary track by director Kim Manners on the season finale, "Existence". He sounds like he just woke up or was on an all-night bender. For every 10 seconds he speaks, there are 50 seconds of silence. There is one comment he makes, however, that sums up the problem with season eight. "I really miss the Syndicate". The new consipiracy of the alien replacements for humans (remember that 1950's movie about the pea pods that have an alien that takes you over when you sleep? - same concept) is nowhere near as exciting as the Syndicate. There are some great episodes here, though. The first two - "within" and "without" show Gillian Anderson as a matured actress that can carry a show. Mulder is sooo close, Scully can feel him, but not see him. When Mulder returns and dies then rises from the dead with the help of Scully in "This is not happening" and "Deadalive", it almost felt like the earlier X-Files episodes. Finish it off with the birth of William in Essence and Existence and you have all the episodes you need. The rest are not up to par. Another DVD extra letdown is an uninterested Chris Carter in a not very truthful or revealing "Truth about season Eight". I'm not upset that I bought this DVD set, but I think that Kim Manners and Chris Carter should refund me $10 for their uninspired effort. I can only hope they do better when season 9 comes out. Oh, I almost forgot - Mark Snow's "Scully's song" is haunting and beautiful - some of his best work.
Rating:
Summary: x-files season 8
Review: i have every season on dvd. this was my favorite season. i watched it in three sittings. the plot on mulder is excellent.robert patrick is very good in the acting field.best season i say.
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