Case 07, File 05: Rush

AKA: Today's Tom Sawyer Gets High On You

The X-Files is not a show that usually felt the need to borrow from contemporary popular shows (okay, Twin Peaks, but that's the one exception). As popular as it was, The X-Files was and is a kind of weird show, with a weird tone and its own style. Adding in elements from popular other genres wouldn't suit it well, and The X-Files' style would suit those other shows even less. So despite the popularity of high school set shows in the 90s, even supernatural high school shows, The X-Files usually steered clear. Usually.

Case 07, File 04: Millennium

AKA: Yo, Excuse Me, Willennium

Despite being, rather self evidently, a big fan of The X-Files, I'd never really engaged with Chris Carter's other works. Maybe it was that I didn't really perceive him as the main force behind what I loved about The X-Files, maybe it was just sloth, but I just never watched most of the other stuff he worked on. This is a long form way of me saying, I've never watched Millennium and have no idea of its plot leading up to here.

Case 07, File 03: Hungry

AKA: The Adventures Of Sharkboy

By Season Seven, a show like The X-Files will have its formula down to a science, one which the audience can practically set their watch to. That's not necessarily a bad thing, the fun of a show like The X-Files is seeing what interesting or engaging stories they can tell within that framework. Still, it's occasionally nice to see them turn the entire premise, and normal way of telling an episode's story, on its head.

Case 07, File 02: The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati

AKA: Is That The Title? Cause It's Long

In addition to being a moment that's usually kind of transitory, the seventh season is when you have to start wondering what your endgame is, especially if you're a plot heavy show. What plot threads are still dangling, what character arcs and motivations would you like to resolve. How is your plot going to finally wind down, if it is going to wind down any time soon. What do your characters actually want? These are the sort of questions the series has to look into as it hits Season Seven.

Case 07, File 01: The Sixth Extinction

AKA: The Mulder School For Gifted Youngers

The seventh season of a show is almost always a transitory period. Many well known shows (Parks and Rec, 30 Rock) called it quits at the end of their seventh season. Other shows that continued on had major shifts happen at the end of their seventh seasons; Larry David left Seinfeld at the end of their seventh season, Steve Carell left The Office at the same time in their show. And hanging over The X-Files Season 7, like the Sword of Damocles is the fact of David Duchovny's exit at the end of the season.

Case 06, File 22: Biogenesis

AKA: No TV And No Beer Make Mulder Go Crazy

There inevitably comes a point in a plot heavy series where, no matter how much you try to trim the cast or simplify the concept, the weight of all the stuff that comes before it will overwhelm it and two things will happen: First is that the ongoing plot will become completely incoherent to newcomers and the second is that, in order to keep the ongoing plot going without resolving it (because resolving it would end the series) you have to begin to pull more and more outlandish stuff to keep it running. And I'm not going to say we've reached that point here. I probably will later in the review though, you should keep reading.

Case 06, File 21: Field Trip

AKA: I'm In The Goo!

"It was all just a dream" is a hard plot twist to pull off, and frankly most of the time, I think you shouldn't even try. Most of the time it tends to feel cheap, like an easy rug pull or just a way to keep its story from mattering in the long run, and even when you can pull it off, they tend to leave a bad taste in your mouth. Dream plots tend to work when them being dreams is an integral part of the plot, and when it's a way to explore a character's personality.