Season 3 Recap

Here's my first official X-Files blog post after trying out livejournal and Facebook Notes. I did watch "Talitha Cumi" this past spring, though I didn't review it at the time. I'm planning to rewatch that along with "Herrenvolk" so I can get the full effect of the story. In the meantime, here's what I thought of the amazing Third Season, but first!

With grading episodes, I've tried out giving them a letter grade as if I was making a report card for the season, then switched to a number score out of 10. I think I'm going back to a 5 star/letter grading scale similar to movies that way I can stay consistent. It seems like everything stays in the 7 to 9 range with few episodes falling below that. For now I'll post the original score, then the new 5 star grade in parenthesis.

"The Blessing Way"- 7 (3.5)
"Paper Clip"-9 (4.5)
"D.P.O."- 7 (3.5)
"Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose"- 10 (5)
"The List"- 7 (3.5)
"2Shy"- 7 (3.5)
"The Walk"- 7 (3.5)
"Oubliette"- 7 (3.5)
"Nisei"- 7 (3.5)
"731"- 8 (4)
"Revelations"- 7 (3.5)
"War of the Coprophages"- 9 (4.5)
"Syzygy"- 8 (4)
"Grotesque"- 9 (4.5)
"Piper Maru"- 8 (4)
"Apocrypha"- 8 (4)
"Pusher"- 9 (4.5)
"Teso Dos Bichos"- 6 (3)
"Hell Money"- 6 (3)
"Jose Chung's From Outer Space"- 10 (5)
"Avatar"- 7 (3.5)
"Quagmire"- 7 (3.5)
"Wetwired"- 9 (4.5)

Wow! Looking at all of those rankings at once, this really was an amazing season of The X-Files. Everything finally came together behind the scenes to create a great balance of mythology episodes and standalones. Season Two is, well maybe was my favorite, since its hard to really compare the two. Season Two's peaks are higher but Three is much more consistent, which makes it a close call. Now I know the general opinion is the "Hell Money" and "Teso Dos Bischos" are two that stick out like a sore thumb and hurt the season but I don't think they do. "Teso" might have a poor straight to video horror movie plot but the special effect work and creepy visuals (like the rattling toliets) elevated it. The same goes for "Hell Money", which was saved by the Chinese version of The Smoking Man.

My favorites for this year were "Jose Chung's From Outer Space", "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose", I was really suprised by "Wetwired" (which unfortunately might be the last of this kind of episode), "War of the Coprohages", and "Paper Clip." Though it is difficult to pick "Paper Clip" as this season's best myth episode since all of 3 of the conclusions were loaded with moments like Scully confronting Luis Cardinal, Mulder's train ride with X coming to the rescue, and Krycek being locked away in the missile silo.

I can't wait for Season 4, which I begin tomorrow with "Herrenvolk." There are so many episodes I haven't seen from this season like "Memento Mori", Krycek & Mulder in that Russian two-parter, "Paper Hearts", and "Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man." STAY TUNED!