The X-Files - The Complete Sixth Season (Slim Set)

After the 5th season, the show moved from Vancouver, Canada to Los Angeles, effectively making their production easier. As such, you get a bit more ambitious episodes and some literal series classics as well as not really duds, just disappointing ones. The sets were originally on abnormally expensive sets and now the prices have been chopped in half considerably, making this a good buy for X-Files' fans.

The Beginning: The season premiere has another alien introduced in the film on the loose and someone from Mulder's past returns. 9/10
Drive: A pretty good episode as Mulder as to pull a "Speed" with a hostage who has to keep driving. 8/10
Triangle: A great episode has Mulder time travelling to be onboard the Queen Anne. Not only a great episode but a production tour-de-force as well. 9.5/10
Dreamland I: Mulder and special guest-star Michael McKean pulls a body swap in a very humourous episode. 8/10
Dreamland II: The conclusion that is just as funny as the first part. 8/10
How the Ghosts Stole Christmas: Mulder and Scully explore a haunted house. Great for the first half than it kind of loses steam. 7/10
Terms of Endearment: Ash himself Bruce Campbell gives a great episode in a so-so episode about demon babies. 7.5/10
The Rain King: Another so-so episode about a man who can seemingly control the weather. 6.5/10

S.R 819: Skinner gets infected by an old enemy. The episode is good but it doesn't have that lasting appeal to make it great. 7.5/10
Tithonus: A great episode where Scully finds a man who takes photographs of people who are just about to die. 8/10
Two Fathers: Part I finds Cassandra Spender returning and the implications that entails. Both parts are series classics. 9/10
One Son: The conclusion includes a pretty surprising end for the bad guys and a nice resolution to some of the mythology. 9/10
Aqua Mala: A decent episode where the agents get harassed by a sea creature during a hurricane. 7.5/10
Monday: A great episode where Mulder experiences a massive case of deja vu. 8.5/10
Arcadia: An absolutely great episode and funny as well. Mulder and Scully pose as a married couple in an Americana-like neighbourhood with a nasty creature around. 9/10
Alpha: For some reason, episodes centered around dogs, even nasty killer dogs don't work. (See: Smallville's cute Krypto episode too). 6.5/10

Milagro: A sharply-written but uninteresting episode centering around a writer who has a talent for really bringing his stories to life. Great performance by John Hawkes though. 7/10
Trevor: A man who can walk through walls is after something and he leaves his victims looking pretty nasty. It's alright. 7/10
The Unnatural: Quite funny episode centering around a black baseball player in Roswell.
Three of a Kind: A decent Lone Gunmen episode that's saved by Gillian Anderson's hilarious performance as a tipsy Scully. 7.5/10
Field Trip : I mean this: this is an X-Files classic with Mulder and Scully investigating skeletal remains that turns out to be pretty interesting. 9.5/10
Biogenesis: Artifacts which contain Biblical verses are found in Africa, which have an unusual effect on Mulder. 8/10

As you can see, there's some hits and misses throughout the season. While the season isn't a terrible season by any means, some of the episodes feel like they're missing that extra something to make it exceptional. Even season 3 standalones like War of the Coprophages or Pusher were great episodes that fit in with the rest of the season. Here it's as if some episodes are just slightly underwritten, excluding the aforementioned great ones.

And there is some great ones, one mention is of course Field Trip. One thing I love at the end is how Mulder actually solves it with the usual Scully rational scientific approach while Scully actually figures it out through thoughts, feelings and what she knows about people which is usually a Mulder thing. Is it beyond Clyde Brockman, Memento Mori, or One Breath? Possibly but it's certainly in the same level.

It's a hit or miss season but through it all it's a fairly solid season with very little outright stinkers and some geniune series classics. While it is best to start right from the beginning, it's still a great season overall.

Overall better then season 5 but still too many "monster of the week" episodes.

Classics: "Two Fathers" & "One Son"

Strong: "The Beginning", "S.R. 819" and "Bio Genesis"

Weak: "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas", The Rain King",

Just a technical note for those considering purchasing this reduced price set: the reissued X-Files Complete Season Six set INCLUDES NEARLY ALL THE EXTRAS FOUND IN THE MORE EXPENSIVE SET.

I'm as surprised as anyone, so I wanted to post a review making sure others knew as well. The previous reduced-price Complete Season sets did NOT include all the extras (documentaries, TV promos, special effects shots w/commentary) though they DO contain what I consider to be the most important extras, the deleted scenes and episode commentaries.

The Season Six set, however, DOES contain all of these things, and you can find them on the sixth disc, after "Field Trip" and "Biogenesis." (Contents: "The Truth About Season Six" documentary, a collection of all the deleted scenes from the season w/commentary, 13 FX shots w/commentary, a character profile of CSM/C.G.B. Spender, a collection of FOX promos - very nice to have, these - and a DVD-ROM game.) I suspect it's because that disc only contains two actual episodes - there was enough room to put them all on without requiring an extra disc. Given that this is the case, there's absolutely no reason whatsoever to waste money on the more expensive version. In fact, from an economic standpoint I kind of wonder WHY they put them here...strange business decision, though lord knows I'm not complaining. Perhaps the more expensive set has an extra DVD not included here, but all the extras you might want are found on this cheaper edition.

Season Six was the last of the great X-Files seasons. Though it's weaker than the Fifth Season (I personally feel the show never recovered from its move to Los Angeles), and isn't a patch on the incredible Second and Third seasons (which remain the show's peak in my opinion), it's still well worth owning.

It has an odd character, though: the writers made a bold decision, in "Two Fathers"/"One Son," to wind up the main conspiracy arc that had been driving the show since the "The Erlenmeyer Flask," and as a result the season is light on "mythology" episodes (only five, one of which, "S.R. 819," is a standalone episode that always seemed peripheral to the main arc) and dangerously overloaded with comic ones. A full third of season is played either completely or mostly for laughs. Some of the comic episodes are worthy classics, like "Triangle" (the gimmickiness of which is saved by clever scripting, witty banter, and an irresistible World War II backdrop) and "The Unnatural," David Duchovny's warm, glowingly sincere tribute to America's Pastime. Others, however, are a bit twee: "Dreamland" attempts to extend its comic premise over two full hours and stretches itself thin in doing so, while "Arcadia" is essentially stunt casting (look, it's Mulder and Scully undercover as a married yuppie couple!) saved only by the interplay between Duchovny and Anderson. Worst of all, some of the lighthearted episodes fall completely flat, like the excruciating "How The Ghosts Stole Christmas" (a cutesy mess that seems strikingly off-key for an X-File) and the dismally unfunny "Rain King." Moreover, the fact that almost all of these episodes were broadcast back-to-back-to-back on consecutive weeks made it seem that The X-Files was devolving into a parody of itself.

However, the season was almost fully redeemed by several truly memorable "one-off" episodes. "Drive" is a tense, logical throwback to an earlier style of X-Files writing (most tonally reminiscent of time-is-running-out episodes like "Darkness Falls" and "F. Emasculata"). "Tithonus" manages the neat trick of being both frightening and moving as a meditation on the nature of death. "Agua Mala" is a good old-fashioned gross-'em-out monster episode. Even better, "Trevor" summons the spirit of classic standalone installments from the earlier seasons, giving us a memorable villain with a neat paranormal power who acts like a credible human being.

And I really can't offer enough praise for the incredible "Field Trip," one of the most inventively premised, tightly scripted, and psychologically penetrating episodes in the show's history. It's inarguably the high point of the season, working both on its surface as an imaginative and faultlessly executed story, and on a deeper level as the finest-ever exploration of Mulder and Scully's partnership dynamic. Ultimately, this episode isn't about what Mulder and Scully discover on their 'field trip,' it's about what they believe about each other, the faith they repose in each other, and the way in which they subconsciously rely upon each other to balance out and redeem their respective weaknesses. (The wordless image that concludes the episode touchingly captures all of this.) After six seasons and what was beginning to seem like sharply diminishing returns, "Field Trip" is a minor miracle, an hour that captures everything fans loved about the show: compelling sci-fi premises buttressed by the poignant, layered relationship between the two leads. It stands alongside "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose," "Beyond The Sea," "Pusher," and "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'" as one of the five greatest non-mythology episodes of the entire series.

Your opinions may differ, though; with a show as consistently innovative and well-acted as The X-Files there's a lot of room for argument on these things. I just want to make sure Amazon customers realize that they're getting full value on the money for this set, and that it's unique among the first six reduced-price seasonal sets in giving you that value.

This is a new version that just recently got released. These new boxsets don't have any of the special features that were included with the original version of the DVD boxsets; these new DVD sets only have the episodes.

The 6th year of THE X FILES ( 22 episodes airing in 1998-99 ) was the first and most consistently enjoyable of the four seasons filmed in Los Angeles. A palpable exuberance is on display throughout, which no doubt can be attributed to the excitement the cast and crew felt in working on the series in a new location. Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny give performances that are firm evidence of their commitment and in another move highlighting the change of venue, a number of familiar Hollywood character actors are featured. Far from being a gimmick, the casting is quite adept, the right people being chosen for the right roles ( just as it had been with the talented "unknowns" in Vancouver ). And, as in previous years, the considerable creative abilities of the directors ( especially Rob Bowman and the stalwart Kim Manners ) continued to be marshaled in service of Chris Carter's overarching aesthetic vision.

As with Season Five, the "stand alone" episodes shine ( only five episodes deal with the mythology ). Most of the scripts are of an inventive quality ( a number with comedic overtones ) and presented with the usual style and attention to detail that fans have come to expect of THE X FILES. One could be forgiven, however, for having a quibble with the original airing sequence in the first third of the season; far too many of the "light" scripts were shown consecutively, which lent an imbalance to a series that had previously distinguished itself with impeccable programming. In any case, Season 6 is the last in which "stand alone" episodes maintain a high level of consistency. The following year, many such scripts were noticeably derivative of earlier efforts and often failed to inspire a substantial emotional investment on the part of the actors ( especially so with regard to David Duchovny ).

Vince Gilligan continued his legacy as the most consistently creative writer on THE X FILES. As in Seasons 4 & 5, Gilligan contributed three solo efforts: "Drive", an exciting throwback to an earlier X FILES era ( wonderfully shot by Rob Bowman ). While "Trevor" is enjoyable, "Tithonus" is a masterpiece. Featuring dynamic performances by both Gillian Anderson and long time character actor Geoffrey Lewis, the episode ( inspired by a Greek myth ) is a bleak but ultimately redemptive musing on the "curse" of immortality.

Another dark script ( "Milagro" ) concentrates on an "underground" writer of Dostoevskian intensity who, in his obsession with Scully, shines with an intellectual brilliance and psychological insight that surpasses even Agent Mulder. "Milagro", in its spiritual magnitude, is one of the single finest episodes in X FILES history.

David Duchovny wrote and directed the superb "The Unnatural", a clever homage to America's favorite pastime that incorporates THE X FILES mythology in a humorous but respectful manner. The guest actor who plays the alien ballplayer is wonderful as is the well-known M. Emmett Walsh, serving double duty as actor and narrator.

Chris Carter weighs in as writer/director with the ambitious "Triangle", filmed ( using the unorthodox "single take" method ) aboard an actual ocean liner. A technical tour de force, "Triangle" is yet another pioneering X FILES episode that defies the usual constraints operating in television productions.

"Three of a Kind" follows the exploits of the Lone Gunmen "on assignment" in Las Vegas. While not as good as "Unusual Suspects", this episode features a hilarious performance by Gillian Anderson as a ditzy (!) Agent Scully, temporarily deprived of her faculties by a surreptitiously administered chemical substance.

There are several old-fashioned "monster of the week" scripts in Season Six. In "Agua Mala", Chris Carter favorite Darren McGavin makes a guest appearance as retired FBI Agent Arthur Dales. Set in hurricane-drenched Florida, this episode is a fun send-up of B movies in the "tentacled monster" genre. Similarly, "Arcadia" mixes scares with light-heartedness, as Agents Scully and Mulder pose as a married couple in a gated suburban community.

A few sour notes are sounded: "Rain Man" is a unique idea for an X FILES story but its satire falls flat. "Alpha" is disappointing as is "Terms of Endearment" to an extent. Fortunately, even these "lesser" episodes are not catastrophic in their failures, a fate that would regretfully befall a number of scripts in Season Seven. The main defects in Season Six are located in the mythology storyline, its longstanding arc having reached its high point in prior years ( THE X FILES movie functioning as a grandiose large screen addendum ).

The opening episode ( "The Beginning" ) starts out promisingly enough, with a solid script that combines elements from the previous years cliffhanger as well as the ( then ) recently released film. The root of the problem lies in the mid season two parter ( "Two Fathers" / "One Son" ); its "out in the open" explanations regarding the conspiracy are strained and self defeating. Despite a good performance by Chris Owens as Agent Jeffrey Spender, this hastily prepared conclusion to the shadowy "syndicate" suffers from a lack of balance, improper pace and even poor editing in spots ( the jarring cut in the "One Son" car chase scene is egregious and very uncharacteristic of THE X FILES). Yet, in spite of these flaws, something very crucial was achieved. In essence, Chris Carter decided to "amputate in order to save", a calculated gamble that reinvigorated the mythology by cutting away the detritus of the old plotline. As a consequence, a reconstituted myth arc sprang forth in the excellent 6th Season cliffhanger titled "Biogenesis", the seed from which new storylines would grow in the years to come. Carter's bold move was especially important when one considers that, with a few notable exceptions, the new mythology arc ( intertwined with the Mulder/Scully relationship ) would turn out to be the main attraction in the three remaining seasons of THE X FILES.