Customer Reviews
Deceptive and misleading train wreck with little Scully and practically zero Mulder 
2008-09-08
The X-Files Collection is a worthy hobby and next to Star Trek is certainly one of largest of the television series DVD collections, running an extra two seasons longer than the maximum seven season Star Trek series. Although The X-Files is not the longest running television media franchise, it can boast being one of the longest running SF series airing for nine seasons between 1993 and 2002. At around 1100 minutes per box, you are looking at approx. 9 boxes with 165 hours of viewing. That is nearly 1 full week of non-stop X-Files. Very few DVD series can come even remotely close to that. Get going collecting right now and you could build up the series collection in no time. By the end you will have a television paranormal anthology that defines the word awe. This is the kind of item that requires 1 hour a day of your time over the course of a year. The X-Files creator Chris Carter nails a powerful television series premise, setting up a fringe paranormal bureau of investigation that is at odds with its own department, the government, the military and just about everyone else, with the immortal tagline "The truth is out there". Fox "Spooky" Mulder (David Duchovny) is the workaholic basement-dwelling good-looking nerd with a heart of gold and a mind for the criminal macabre, all things supernatural and who runs the X-Files department. He is teamed with Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), the rational doctor turned FBI agent who is asked to write reports on the X-Files cases by her cynical boss. Most episodes play along with the theme of Mulder witnessing a paranormal event while Dana gradually arrives on the scene only after it is over, missing it all, or discovering something odd at best. This kind of regular plot occurrence bonds the characters and is what makes The X-Files so enjoyable. There are some improvements since the Season III DVD case with a seventh bonus disc now inside a cardboard holder and not just sitting in a slot in a piece of card that falls out easily like in Season I and II, bouncing around the box. Season V actually has the bonus disc in with actual holder itself. Not all boxes have this bonus seventh disc item. It depends on the edition. The more important six discs with episodes are firmly in place in a plastic flip case inside a thick season box that slides into a wider cardboard presentation holder for the shelf and looks quite good. Although the inside is slightly flimsy, these DVDs are presented on the cheap and so economically The X-Files seasons are sound value for money but the presentation is nothing to brag about and when we get around to seeing what is on the discs we will not be so blown away either. There are 4 episodes per disc, and 6 episode discs in total, making an average of 25 episodes for most seasons. Some seasons have more or less than this figure. Some discs have a few deleted scenes... and that is about it. On the episode discs there are no commentaries and not much in the way of bonus material except for some international clips with Mulder and Scully speaking in Japanese for a scene. They could have at least provided us with the X-Files remastered in 5:1 Dolby Digital but have instead just presented the series as it was aired in 2:1 surround. Again, everything here is on the cheap. The transfer quality however is very good for most of it. This season is in Widescreen 1.78:1
X-Files: Season 9 is a problem. The way to solve this problem is easy. Stop with Season 7. If you enjoy watching good TV seasons then stop at 7. If you are an X Files fan and want to complete things then fine but you know what is happening and if not here goes. Duchovny has left the show but appears for only a few episodes between Seasons 8 and 9 and when he does turn up it's not worth it. Now we know that Dogget is the Mulder replacement, but what Season 8 didn't tell you was that Reyes was the Scully replacement. So Season 9 is mostly Dogget and Reyes investigating something. The stories are all mostly terrible and a chore to sit through. It is like the writers and producers have lost all heart. In fact X Files Season 8 should never have been called the X Files. A better title for this would be Dogget and Reyes Season 2.
The show develops the new introductory credit sequence. There are a few versions, one containing Mulder leading and one without Mulder with Scully leading. Some have Skinner, others don't. It is mostly Scully, Dogget and Reyes but looks can be deceiving... and they are because Scully is in like 5% of the show if she is in the credits.
So Agent Dogget (Robert Patrick) replaces Mulder. Special Agent Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish) practically replaces Scully. Assistant Director Walter S. Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) leaves his lead role from Season 8 and virtually vanishes from this Season. `The Lone Gumen' John Fitzgerald Byers (Bruce Harwood), Melvin Frohike (Tom Braidwood) and Richard 'Ringo' Langly (Dean Haglund) are back for one or two episodes. FBI Deputy Director Alvin Kersh (James Pickens Jr.) isn't really heard of. Knowle Rohrer (Adam Baldwin) has a episode or two but make no mistake about it, this is all Dogget and Reyes.
Season 9 of the X-Files is mostly about - water, satanic murders, skinning, serial killers, flies, Mexico, looking for Mulder, more serial killers, crashed saucers, kid's imaginations, near death experiences, numerology, the Lone Gunmen, profiling, disfigurement, psychokinesis and finally... the truth .
It's bad. I cannot see how anyone who has sat through the amazing stories that were Seasons 1 to 7 could like, let alone recommend, it. What is there good to say about it? Duchovny was the X Files. They don't even try to tie loose ends up. Even the double episode `The truth' doesn't reveal anything you haven't already heard before and ends in a cliff-hanger that has never been answered and probably never will. The producers are trying to sell us a different show under the banner of the X Files and didn't even have the courtesy to give us a decent Mulder/Scully ending. To top it off the episodes are a slog to get through and lots of them will insult your intelligence. This isn't just a bad season of the X Files... this is a catastrophe that many wish they never sat through, including me. It may well be the worst TV season for any series that I own. I think anyone who throws out boxes 8 and 9 from their X Files collection is rightly justified in doing so.
Seeing the 9th season through the lens of time 
2008-09-07
I have finally compiled the entire nine seasons of X-Files on DVD, a goal I have had for some time, mainly in the interest of completeness. I was pleased and surprised when viewing seasons 8 and 9 this year to be impressed by the excellent casting of Robert Patrick (John Doggett) and Annabeth Gish (Monica Reyes) and riveted by the increasing intensity of the storyline.
When I watched the original shows on TV, like most people, I was still focused on "Mulder's not here, and the show is not as good." Now, years later, instead of Mulder's absence being a negative, it is a strong tension-builder that drives the intensity of the remaining actors, especially the underrated Robert Patrick.
I plan to re-watch season 9 soon! I highly recommend it.
X-Files 9th Season 2008-09-06
This last season was very emotional, and I'm so glad I finally got it. Excellent DVD, X-Files rocks!
It's Really Not That Bad 
2008-08-21
I don't think this last season is as bad as fans have said. Some good stories are still told. While Robert Patrick who has been accused of single handily killing the X-Files is fine as Agent Doggett. How is that he gets the blame from the fans any way. Isn't it more of David Duchovny's fault if anything ? I mean, he made some small appearances in the 8th season but here he only makes one in the Series finale. He made a big deal over money issues, when is he on the street begging for money with his wife Téa Leoni ? No. Duchovny as a regular would have made it a more solid last season. If not as a regular, he could have at least made more than just one appearance this season. Trying to throw answers together for us in one episode with him in the end just wasn't enough.
Anyone who took Duchovny's place had a big task ahead of them and Patrick does as well as he could have. While Annabeth Gish wasn't as bad of an addition to the cast as his partner Monica Reyes as fans have tried to say. They both do fine work. It's the writing I think that was the problem. I mean although Gish isn't bad, she wasn't needed. Especially since they have feelings for each other and can't be together because of certain reasons. That's all familiar territory. It doesn't help that Reyes has the same hair cut as Scully even if she has a different hair color. After fans being used to just Mulder and Scully working together on the X-Files. I could see how it could be a little hard for fans to get used to having another male and female team working together on it.
This season still had more life to it than the recent movie though. It's dark but it at least has the humor we came to love as well. That's no where to be seen in the movie. Patrick does better work this season than I think he did in season 8 as well. The two episodes that he really stands out in is one where he loses his memory in Mexico and another where he finally may have found who killed his son. In some episodes it's not Patrick's fault if he has too many scenes where he's complaining to Skinner or Scully about being out of the loop.
There's also strong appearances in this season by Terry O'Quinn "who makes his 3 appearance in the X-Files if you count the movie", Carey Elwes as the new assistant director and a former lover of Monica's, Adam Baldwin as a super soldier and Michael Emerson, "Ben in Lost". Emerson is in a silly episode where he's a lonely man who imagines the Brady Bunch to spend time with him. Despite being silly, it's an effective episode due to Emerson's performance. It also has a touching moment. Still, I'm not sure if it was a worthy last episode before the finale. Sadly, it is more memorable than it though.
MULDER! 2008-08-02
I AM A HUGE DAVID DUCHOVNY FAN! Gillian Andrson is also at her finest. The two of them work great together. Even though we don't see that much of Mulder the fact remains when he comes on the scene he makes his prescence known. You can feel the closeness between those two actors. I really enjoy it.
Ok Season 
2008-06-12
Now you can own the entire ninth season of THE X-FILES?. All 19 classic episodes (including the 2-hour series finale) are available for the first time in this exclusive 7-disc collector?s edition. From the revelation about Scully?s baby in ?Nothing Important Happened Today? and the mystery surrounding the murder of Agent Doggett?s son in ?Release? to Mulder?s final confrontation with those who would deny ?The Truth,? these Season Nine episodes are a must for every X-Files fan!
An Awkward Situation 2008-06-08
One of the big problems of popular TV shows is when they are going to end. Unless a show is like LOST, which had the clout to forecast and negotiate a set number of seasons, many shows either are pulled off the air too soon, or stick around for a bit too long. The X-Files definitely had a problem with the latter of those two options.
Though the Ninth Season of the X-Files provided more thrilling stand-alone episodes (show creator Chris Carter said he had many more years of stories he could tell), the show was put in a rather awkward situation for one reason: main cast members were moving on. With David Duchovny (Mulder) only making a single appearance (in the season finale) this season, and Gillian Anderson (Scully) saying that this would be her final season, the show was turned over to Robert Patrick (Doggett) and Annabeth Gish (Reyes) playing the lead characters.
Surprisingly, that major transition worked quite well, especially for the stand-alone episodes, as the Dogget-Reyes relationship is as interesting as the early Mulder-Scully pairing. However, the myth-arc episodes suffered tremendously. For years, the backbone of the X-Files had been Mulder's quest to find his sister, Mulder's unearthing of government conspiracies, and the Mulder-Scully relationship. With those first two qualifications being wrapped up in earlier seasons, the only remnant of the "original" X-Files was the Mulder-Scully relationship (with baby William as the conduit)...which was never meant to be at the forefront of the show in the first place. Sure, the super-soldier myth-arc was fascinating, but without Mulder's passion it really became an entirely different show.
To conclude, even in this Ninth Season (widely-regarded as the worst of the show's run), the X-Files continued to produce compelling television. Yet, due to casting changes beyond the control of the writers/producers, the entire premise of the show shifted from Mulder's quests to the ensemble cast of Scully, Doggett, and Reyes. While I would not, by any means, say that the show went into the tank, it did lose the "magic" (Mulder's passion, witty humor, etc.) that made the X-Files the best show on the air for many years.
So, as you settle in to watch this show's final run, try to enjoy the show for what it once once...a paranormal spookfest (before it evolved into a web of government conspiracies). Then, enjoy the season finale ("The Truth"), which does its best to try and explain what happened during the nine years of the show's extended run.
X-Files 2008-04-27
Easy to place the order, order was delivered very fast even though I used standard shipping. The price was fantastic.
review 2008-02-17
Product as described. it was shipped to a friend so I never saw it but they liked it.
eh...... 2008-02-10
I am a HUGE fan of the X-Files. However, Season 9 didn't necessarily entertain me. I miss Mulder. The interactions with the two new agents aren't engaging. I liked the increased presence of the Lone Gunmen in some episodes. Overall, I was disappointed in Season 9. It was obvious that everyone wanted to wind it up and close the series.
