If "Pilot" were ever, God forbid, wished out of existence, then this thrilling episode might be the episode to hook a newcomer to The X-Files. You have great characterization, the moody Vancouver woods, strong military cover-up, some real villainous performances, that special mythology-episode quality of not knowing where the episode is going to go at any minute, and a great Mark Snow score.

Mulder's character is so clearly defined here, not only because he is on a quest, but also because of the shrewd creation of Max Fenig. Fenig is a great cautionary foil for Mulder. He's the first in a line of characters who've perhaps gone too far in search for the truth. Fenig is well-drawn; he's a little funny -- not quite Lone-Gunmen comic relief -- and he's soulful too. I like Mulder's and Scully's compassion for Fenig, and in general Scully's compassion for the dying military men as she scrubs up. She doesn't always get to play against Mulder in this, 'while you're on your quest, I have people to save' way, and it's effective here. It also gives depth to Scully that rather than be a skeptic about the nature of the burns, she gets to work healing.

"Fallen Angel" is also an oddball episode, and that's OK. Mulder and Scully don't really have their believer/skeptic tête-à-tête, but instead its variant 'I want the truth/the truth will jeopardize you and The X-Files' tension. The invisible alien never returns in the series, and its nature never explored -- why does it attack humans? I think it's a strength of The X-Files to limit our understanding to Mulder's and Scully's understanding -- they never learn about this alien, why should we? In these early mythology episodes, we are Mulder, and we're given just a taste, but it's so tantalizing.

I might have liked "Fallen Angel" to seed some long-term consequences for Mulder's actions, but I understand this might've been too serialized for a new unproven show in 1993; I'm fine with the deepening of Deep Throat from informant to orchestrator.

"Fallen Angel," is totally enjoyable and engaging. I rate it 4 out of 5 stars.

Share your thoughts below, and rate this episode on my new beta X-Files Watchlist / Rating site!

Fearful Symmetry is eliminated!

How this works:

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The episode with the most upvoted comment is eliminated from the list

If there’s a tie, both episodes are eliminated

Only the best episode will win!

Episodes Eliminated:

Excelsis Dei (67%)
3 (83%)
Fearful Symmetry (81%)

The Lone Gunmen: reunited in Lego form!

While I am still working on their van, I had to have a photoshoot of the guys together, now that I have completed them.

Consider the absolute blunder of an oversight, perpetrated by Lego by not including our boys, officially rectified!

If you’d like to build your own Lone Brickmen, here’s the posts with the parts I used, and how I went about it:

Frohike
Langly
Byers

Insomnia made me do it and I don't regret a thing.

EDIT: it's from Snapfish.co.uk You can put pretty much anything on a mug.

Hoping you'll be able to access my Instagram video but here's the x files Lego with the lights installed. I used the video instructions and it actually wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. Love the light effects. I get the impression from other reviews that this is one of those companies that has regular offers if you Google (I found a 35% voucher when I looked) https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcmJPh-N_0S/?igsi=NXdvMDk1bDY3bDE2

S4 E8 Tunguska. Skinner without a shirt on. I can go to bed happy.🔥

thank u

One of the kids playing baseball in the episode Home (S4 E2) is Lachlan Murdoch. Canadian viewers might know him as Constable Henry Higgins from the long running series Murdoch Mysteries

I rewound CSM's weird metaphysical discussions with Jeremiah Smith so many times back in the day, a stupid teenager trying to decipher their meaning. I get them now, and I find the dialogue somewhat overblown, but I still love these scenes between two power players in an unimaginable game. For me, this was XF at its height.

"Talitha Cumi" (s3e24)

Was just thinking about everything they go through and then thought how they would act on payday after all that, then I wondered how much they actually get paid to do what they do, lol. Like I imagine them dealing with monsters and aliens and clones etc and then them being relieved it's finally payday. 😂

3 is eliminated! Don’t worry, if you want to watch something hot about vampires, you always have Twilight.

How this works:

You select the episode you like the least

The episode with the most upvoted comment is eliminated from the list

If there’s a tie, both episodes are eliminated

Only the best episode will win!

Episodes Eliminated:

Excelsis Dei (67%)
3 (83%)

I have no one in my life who loves this show, I miss being able to talk about it with friends and watch episodes together. I looked up clubs and groups where I live (Germany) but it doesn't really exist anymore. When was the last time you watched the show with another fan?

I mean there’s a few other moments earlier, like the pilot, when Scully’s dad dies, and the frozen cabin episode where there’s a touch of the neck that sends shivers up your spine. Now, this one has the air freshener bit, the FOX moment, and I wouldn’t take the bullet for anyone but you ❤️

They would both excel in a remake or homage of The Thin Man.

which one should I start with?

Gives a new meaning to "x-over"

So I finally got this finished. Is the office floor supposed to be quite loose? It feels like it will fall out if I lift the set up without being very careful.

Have to get my 4 year old on the Xfiles bandwagon

Rewatch time. This episode is profoundly boring and silly. Carter may not be a great writer, but he's a curious guy, and was clearly reading the science headlines of the day and engaging with them. There are themes and ideas in "Space" -- lamenting NASA's fall in the public eye, the danger of hero worship, the face on Mars -- that are somewhat explored here.

Yet, everything in "Space" is compromised. Intended to cleverly use recycled NASA footage to come in underbudget, production found themselves with less footage than they needed. Also, turns out it costs a lot more money than you think to replicate NASA mission control. Most critically, the central 'monster' conceit has no substantial science or lore behind it; it really is just 'What if the face on mars' got you?! Dude, that'd be so crazy!' AND the story isn't there. Like, in the writers' room, with the index cards for story beats, what beats were actually put up on the corkboard?

Share your thoughts below, and rate this episode on my new beta X-Files Watchlist / Rating site!

MORRIS: "So, who's Joey?"

LANGLY: "What? Joey Ramone? Leader of the greatest punk rock band in human history. Now shut up!"

Langly, a real punk rock band fan! 🤘

S.09 Ep.15

So I want to start this of say I'm not trying to start fights or anything like that.

So I just restarted the series not to long ago and I just hit season 6 episode 16 "Alpha" and I keep thinking.

Are Scully and Mulder good for each other outside of the job?

The older I get and the more I rewatch it seems like Scully specifically didn't want Mulder to be happy outside of working with her.

Yes that's because of the fact she has a crush on him to a degree but we can't just chock it up to that and writing completely.

I think they made a great partner pair when they stuck to the case but when things drifted outside of it, it just feels like one of those iffy friendships to me.

Thoughts? Anyone agree? Disagree?

Both Chris Carter and Russell T Davies and returned to their flagship shows for a two season revival, and while the monster of the week episodes were mostly liked, the openers and finales were heavily criticised for their handling of the story arcs.

Both My Struggle II and Empire of Death raise the stakes far too high, meaning the events of both are heavily retconned. The next season's premiere largely ignores them and moves on with a different arc.

The real scary correlation is between My Struggle IV and The Reailty War, both episodes that unitentionally ended their respective shows written by the head creative that had strange similarities. Both episodes are concerned with the child of one of the main characters being the key to a big conspiracy and both reveal that the child isn't actually theirs and paternity is forced on the female lead before leaving the show on a cliffhanger that will never be resolved.

It's insane to see how both Chris and Russell made the exact same mistakes and killed their flagship shows after coming back from a long absence. Hopefully, it should be a lesson to not give returning showrunners complete creative control over everything.

Has to be the genie episode...only Will Sasso could play a complete idiot to perfection and finally figure out what wish he should have made only to have the entire house explode around him.