Home :: DVD :: Horror :: Television  

Classic Horror & Monsters
Cult Classics
Frighteningly Funny
General
Series & Sequels
Slasher Flicks
Teen Terror
Television

Things That Go Bump
The X-Files - The Complete Seventh Season

The X-Files - The Complete Seventh Season

List Price: $99.98
Your Price: $74.99
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 5 >>

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Different And Superb Season Of This Sci-Fi Phenomenon!
Review: With the phenomenal success of Season Six of The X-Files, the new fans who were with the show since viewing the theatrical release of the movie in the summer of 1998 and old fans alike awaited the Seventh Season with bated breath. The Seventh Season was a time of re-invention for The X-Files. Many long-running story arcs and well-known characters made an exit, and new themes were explored. Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny also wrote and directed episodes which uncovered more of Scully and Mulder's past histories and, in the process, revealed new depths of characterization.

However, the biggest question concerning closure was whether the show's Seventh Season would be its last. With inflating egos and movie roles flooding in, many of the show's cast (inparticular David Duchovny) became increasingly dissatisfied with their roles in the sci-fi phenomenon. This could be disguised early on through moody character personalities, but towards the end it was inevitable that the show was running out of steam.

At the end of the Sixth Season, Mulder lay in a neurological unit after his brain was infected by powerful rubbings from the shell of a space craft that had emerged from the sea of Africa's Ivory Coast in the gripping finale "Biogenesis." The Seventh Season opened with the two-parter "The Sixth Extinction" and "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati" in which this plot line was put to rest after the subject proved too powerful for even Scully to decipher. These are the first two mythology episodes of the season, which are followed by the superb "Sein Und Seit." A little girl goes missing in this episode which leads Mulder and Scully on a case to find her that relates back to Samantha, Mulder's missing sister. The proceeding episode "Closure" is more of a mythology episode where Mulder finally meets his sister. The crew knew Duchovny was leaving at the end of the season, so they decided to wrap it all up in a moment that fans had been waiting seven years for.

"En Ami" is a mythology episode totally written and directed by William B. David, the Cigarette Smoking Man himself! In this episode he offers Scully a cure for cancer, but is it all a con? "All Things" was the first episode that Gillian Anderson wrote and directed herself. It's a slow-moving episode and very powerful in that it reveals a lot about Scully's past, and the idea that she might have an affair with a married man who is now sick in hospital. Her search for the truth is incredibly spiritual. The final episode of the season "Requiem" is one of the greatest episodes of the show's entire run. This proves that the truth really is out there as Mulder is abducted and Scully reveals her pregnancy in one of the most gripping episodes in all television history. This was the episode that made the show legendary in my opinion. Absolutely superb.

The stand-alone episode of Season Seven aren't as good as previous seasons with some tankers like "Signs & Wonders" and "First Person Shooter," but there are still some superb highlights. "Rush," "The Goldberg Variation," "The Amazing Maleeni," "Theef," "Chimera," "Fight Club" and "Je Souhaite" are all brilliant but the true highlights come with episode such as "Hungry." In this superb episode we meet a young and seemingly harmless boy, who isn't quite all he seems. To cure his hunger cravings he turns into an alien type hybrid, yet you can't help but feel sympathy for him as the episode is written from his perspective. "Millennium" features Mulder and Scully's first proper on-screen kiss as 1999 draws to a close. This is worth the price of the season alone and the superb zombie-style episode adds to this. "Orison" is just superb classic X-Files in which Donnie Pfaster escapes from jail after his five-year lock in. The hair/fingernails/death fetishist first appeared in Season 2's "Irresistible" and took Scully hostage in one of the most horrifying episodes of the show, and in this episode he's back to exact his revenge. Superb action and acting from Gillian Anderson inparticular.

"X-Cops" is one of the boldest episodes of the show ever. Obviously influenced by The Blair Witch Project, the episode is filmed documentary style in the night as the agents try to uncover clues about what is attacking a rough neighborhood. "Brand X" is a superb episode with an original plotline about cigarettes and the effects it has on people, while "Hollywood A.D." is definitely a season highlight. Written and directed by David Duchovny, it sees a man trying to make Mulder and Scully's exploits into an on-screen blockbuster of comedy, romance and action. Tea Leoni (Duchovny's wife) is the woman playing Scully, and the scene where Scully's teaching her how to run in her shoes is one of the most hilarious moments of the entire show!

OVERALL GRADE: 10/10

The Special Features of this Seventh Season are equally brilliant as those on offer with the Sixth Season. We get an all new documentary, "The Truth About Season Seven," deleted scenes from no less than seven of the best episodes, special effect sequences from ten episodes, character profiles on A.D. Skinner and Samantha Mulder and a mammoth 43 promotional television spots. All in all, Season Seven was a superb season of The X-Files in my opinion. Not many people like it because it's different, but hey, different is good. I wouldn't say it was the show's best season - far from it, but it's still great television viewing. Essential for true X-Philes, not so much for the casual viewer.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: The worst season of xfiles but still great
Review: I was amazed to see in the first few episodes that the season had still a lot to give. However, as the episodes progressed it became clearly that xfiles had reached to its end and from that point on there was something missing. There are 5 or 6 episodes that are very good indeed but again it is a dissapointment to see so many mediocre or even bad episodes when there where none such in the previous seasons.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great!
Review: I must say.. season 7 is one of my favorite seasons. You'll love this season if you enjoyed some of the most humerous X-Files episodes. I am in love with the episodes X-Cops and Hollywood AD.
One thing i have to say is I also got a GREAT deal on my my set. (Though I AM an Amazon lover!) I got it at Media Play for $99.99. That is the best price I've gotten any of my X-Files seasons.
All in all, I must say season 7 is GREAT! It also includes the episode Closure.. a must have episode for any Mulder fan.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Worst season of the series
Review: This is by far, the worst season of all the series. It starts with a great double episode "The sixth extinction" which is the best triple myth-arc episode ever released. Connected to the season 6 Finale:"Biogenesis" it introducesanew concept on man's evolutionary process.Mulder is locked up in a hospital experiencing an immense abnormal brain activity caused by exposure to an artifact that a african university professor finds in the coasts of the african continent. Scully goes there to investigate another piece of artifact only to discover a spaceship halfsurfaced on the sea shore that is covered by symbols that seem to belong to a Navajo alphabet. while scully works hard on deciphering the meaning of the message on the ship, Mulder(who beleives that the message come from aliens-and that human kind was born elsewhere in the universe, but put on earth by the same aliens) tries to fight his ailment. A lot of shocking discoveries are revealed in the beginning of this season. But Chris Carter decided to discontinue this part of the Mythology and carry on with some episodes that destroyed the whole cycle.David Duchovny seems totally bored in this season and it looks like he was really trying to get out of the x-files. Gillian on the other hand acts very well, and with great passion. Some of my favorite episodes, except the one analyzed above were:
"Rush"-Typical teenage scary movie type of storyline.
"Orizon"-The psychotic fetiscist from season 2 returns again for Scully.
"First person shooter"-Great episode with guest star:Super beautiful, sexy,magnificent:KRISTA ALLEN.
"Hollywood ID"-One of the funniest episodes of the season(hollywwod producer makes a movie about mulder and scully) and last but not least--Requiem: Mulder is abducted by aliens(this is where he leaves the show),while investigating the abduction of the same kids from Oregon, he and agent scully investigated in the 1st episode of the show.This is one fascinating episode. "Closure"-The solution of Samantha's case is a big disappointment which ruins the whole season.After all these years of looking for his sister, mulder finds out that good spirit transformed her body into pure essence:starlight to protect her from further alien experiments. Romantic and touching at some parts, but very disappointing.Millennium was a very bad episode.Chris carter could have come up with a better storyline than just the 4 horsemen of the apokalypse. The only highlight is Mulder kissing Scully in the mouth at the end of the episode.The rest of the standalone ones are junk. Anyway, if you have the other dvds, buy this 1 too. The few good episodes are worth buying the whole season for...

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE!
Review: By far the worst season of the X-Files. Yes it was the last full season with Duchovny, but with his embarassing writing directing skills of "Hollywood AD" second worst episode only to the "Genie" episode, I thank God aliens abducted him. I mean, how many times now has Scully or Mulder died or almost died? In first episode he is mad as a hatter and by the second he's "all well" again. At least when Scully had cancer, it followed it through. This season boasted some of the most unwatchable episodes ever imagined with no continuity. Yes X-cops was amusing, and I own seasons 1-6 but when this came around I couldn't wait to get rid of it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The last full season with Mulder
Review: Mulder became a part-time character after this season, making this one all the more valuable. The best episode is the two-parter, "The Sixth Extinction" and "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati." [amor fati is latin for "love of fate."]

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great season
Review: Season 7 was one of the best, season 8 is the best, according to me anyway! Check that out too because it comes out nov. 11 - 03...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The worst season of the series, but still a great show
Review: Season 7 was the beginning of a transitional period for The X-Files; the lead stars (especially David Duchovny) were growing disatisfied with their roles, and it would only be a matter of time before big changes would occur. The opening season premiere two-parter "The Sixth Extinction" and "Amor Fati" appears to try to expand the mythology of the series, but, and this is a stretch, comes off as quite unbelieveable. The season finale "Requiem" is like this as well, leaving incomprohensable loose ends and a cliffhanger that left viewer's mouths open. The one shot episodes are the true highlights of Season 7, including "Hungry" (guest starring Final Destination's Chad E. Donnella as a brain eating mutant), "Millennium" which is an off shoot of creator Chris Carter's other ill-fated Fox show and guest stars Lance Henriksen reprising his role as Frank Black (and we get to see Mulder and Scully have a New Year's kiss), "X-Cops" which finds Mulder and Scully in a Cops-esque episode, and "Theef" which guest stars a revenge driven Billy Drago. Season 7 is undoubtadly the worst season of the series (I can't stand the "Hollywood AD" episode), but during the time this season aired, it was still the best series on TV. All this would pave way for Season 8, where the truly big changes in the show began to take shape.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The REAL end of the series...
Review: I'm not going to get into a full episode by episode review of this season, nor do I have any intention of arguing passionately against those who moan to the heavens about the weaknesses of season seven.

Instead, I'm just going to say that unlike other seasons, where the bad episodes made me cringe for hours afterward ("The Field Where I Died," or SEASONS 8 AND 9 anyone?) nothing in this season offended me to elicit more than a shrug and a "There's always next week." That reaction was limited to two or three episodes, which isn't bad in my book.

And when they were good--they were GOOD. Sure, the mythology stopped making sense back in season 6's "The Beginning," but the standalone episodes more than picked up the slack for me. Two standouts for me were The Goldberg Variation and Je Souhaite (arguably the season's storytelling high point and the way I like to "end" the series for myself--Mulder and Scully, hanging out on the couch...), which had an entertaining air of mystery and lightness that seems to only have been replicated by the new USA network series "Monk." And for those who didn't think the Mulder/Scully tension could be carried on any further without the television exploding, this season finally provides closure and consummation for the two. And honestly, if you cut off the ridiculous notion of Mulder getting abducted by aliens at the end of "Requiem," that episode would have served as a perfect end for the series--having come full circle from "The Pilot," and allowing the characters to move on. It was a beautiful episode, and it was the last time the show ever aired something breathtaking.

As far as I'm concerned, nothing on television will ever approach the quality of storytelling, acting, and cinematography of seasons 1-7 of the X-Files. It's too bad Fox dragged the series out into a sick, sad twisted spinoff of itself in its last two seasons. Thankfully, season 7 wrapped up the edges neatly enough that any fan of the real X-Files could, in order to appreciate the greatness that the show was, let it be the end of the series and the stories of Mulder and Scully. And that alone--a decent, legitimate end for the characters and their quests and desires--makes season seven a 10 on my list.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The X-Files Season 7 - A season of closure!
Review: After watching the special features I found it hard to believe that the shows creator, Chris Carter wasn't sure whether or not there would be an eighth season. This lead Chris Carter and gang to come to some conclusions and closure of certain plot lines within the series. Chief among those is Mulder's quest to find his sister is finally brought to closure after six and half seasons of innuendo and unanswered questions leading to additional questions.

The "mythology" episodes had to take a somewhat different direction during the seventh season due to the syndicate being decimated in the sixth season, leaving only the CSM, Krycek, Diana Fowley and Marita Covarrubias and they seemed to be looking for a new direction during their episodes. The seventh season principally consists of going back to the thrilling standing alone episodes that did one of two things, provide a good scare with astonishing imagery not normally seen on television or they combined that with some brilliant humor.

The mythology episodes:

The Sixth Extinction & The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati - Continuing on from the outstanding sixth season cliffhanger, Biogenesis, these two episodes usher in the seventh season brilliantly. Fox is bed stricken, infected with an alien virus that has his mind working triple time; Scully is in Africa trying to come up with clues as to how to save her partner and AD Skinner is doing his best to help both Mulder and Scully while dealing with Agent Diana Fowley and Krycek. These two episodes also contain some of the best imagery of the entire series.

Sein Und Zeit - This exceptional and extremely emotional episode is part mythology as it leads into the follow on episode, Closure. In this episode, a young girl goes missing in the middle of the night, just after her father has a terrible image of her and a note is inexplicably left behind by the mother.

Closure - This is the episode the fans have been waiting for almost seven years to see as we're finally and with no small modicum of heart wrenching emotion lead to the end of Fox Mulder's quest to find his sister. In no small measure, this episode was done quite magnificently and accolades are due for director Kim Manners.

En Ami - The CSM is back and he claims to Scully that he's dying and he entreats her to help him. This episode is remarkably well written and played out on screen as we're able to see the CSM and his continued ability to confuse through obfuscation. Of special note is that this one was written by the CSM himself, William B. Davis.

Chimera - I categorize this brilliant episode as part of the mythology because it gives us a look into Scully's past and her present persona in comparison to that past. While it is a hard pill to swallow, believing that "by the book" Scully would have an affair with a married man while she was in medical school, it does show that she can be "human" as well and fall into that trap. Of special interest is the fact that Gillian Anderson, wrote, directed and starred primarily in this great episode.

Requiem - This exceptional season seven cliffhanger stands out as giving Mulder proof that the truth is out there, as you will see when you watch this episode. The one true sad thing about this episode is that it marks the end of the last full season in which David Duchovny/Fox Mulder works on the series full time!

A brief synopsis of some of the better stand alone episode:

Hungry - This particularly fascinating episode is about a young man who isn't quite a young "man" and he has some dietary needs that are quite hard on those around him. What I also found to be appealing about this episode is that it's told almost completely from the "monsters" point of view which brings one to empathize with him.

Millennium - In a manner of homage to the Millennium series, Lance Henriksen is brought on the X-Files in the same character that he played on that series, Frank Black. Now Mulder and Scully must deal with the Millennium group as the time is at hand. The long awaited first on screen kiss between Mulder and Scully is done skillfully.

Orison - This exceptional episode brings Mulder and most predominantly Scully back into the world of Donnie Pfaster who was first seen in season two's "Irresistible" where he nearly killed her. He's escaped from prison and they're destined to meet again.

The Amazing Maleeni - The X-Files explores the world of magic and this episode scores big in the humor area while telling a good X-File.

Hollywood A.D. As comedic episodes go, this is one the series finest and it tells a good X-File at the same time. Of note is that David Duchovny gets to work briefly in this episode with his wife, the ever gorgeous Tea Leoni'.

Je Souhaite - This is a marvelous comedic X-File as well as we're taken to Missouri and we meet a not so bright young man who opens up an abandoned storage area only to find a "Jinniyah" in a rug who grants him three wishes. The scenes with Scully in this episode are priceless as we get to see her smile a little more.

Special Features of note:

The one true disappointment about this boxed set is that the special features appear to be somewhat limited in contrast to past boxed sets. {ssintrepid}

- "The Truth About Season Seven"
- 10 deleted scenes
- 13 special effects sequences
- 44 promotional television spots

Episode list:

The Sixth Extinction {mythology}
The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati {mythology}
Hungry
Millennium
Rush
The Goldberg Variation
Orison
The Amazing Maleeni
Signs & Wonders
Sein Und Zeit {mythology}
Closure {mythology}
X-Cops
First Person Shooter
Theef
En Ami {mythology}
Chimera
all things {mythology}
Brand X
Hollywood A.D.
Fight Club
Je Souhaite
Requiem {mythology}


<< 1 2 3 4 5 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates