The X-Files - The Complete Fifth Season
by Allen Coulter, Brett Dowler, Chris Carter, Cliff Bole, Daniel Sackheim
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DVD details
Actor: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Mitch Pileggi, Robert Patrick, Tom BraidwoodDirector: Allen Coulter, Brett Dowler, Chris Carter, Cliff Bole, Daniel Sackheim
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Box set, Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 904 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-05-14
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of The X-Files - The Complete Fifth Season
DVD Review: Weak mythology, but some good standalones in 5th Season
Summary: 4 Stars
By the end of the fourth season of THE X-FILES, Mulder had discovered that everything he had believed in about the existence of extra-terrestrials had been a big lie. Seemingly, he had killed himself as a result of this blinding revelation...but of course, who really believed that? So of course Mulder is back in Season 5 trying to dig deeper into the deep, dark secrets of aliens and our own government, and undergoing a radical ideological change in the process. By "Patient X"/"The Red and the Black", he has turned into a skeptic, even as a faceless alien rebel force had suddenly made its way onto our planet and caused mass murders. But as "The Red and the Black" closes, Mulder even starts to question his own skepticism. Boy, the lengths X-FILES creator Chris Carter will go to frustrate his audience.
The 5th Season of THE X-FILES---which lasted a mere 20 episodes, as the crew was working hard on the upcoming X-FILES movie---still finds the show in good form, but it is with the mythological developments of this season that I think the alien mythology of the show began its decline into muddle and, eventually, painful drawn-out death. In the first three seasons, THE X-FILES' grand conspiracy story deftly mixed our deepest paranoia with our love of the freaky to make it fun and exciting. But, with the blinding revelation of Season 4's concluding "Gethsemane" and the introduction of the faceless alien rebels in Season 5, I personally started to feel less intrigued than exasperated at its hard-to-swallow twists and turns. (Guess again if you think one of the main characters is really dead by the end of "Redux II"; notwithstanding Mulder's resurrection in Season 3's "The Blessing Way," it seems like all the wrong characters come back to life in this X-FILES universe.) In his quest to continually keep his audience on its toes, Chris Carter kept piling on the twists until, by Season 6 onward, there was nowhere left for the alien mytharcs to go but down...and down it went.
Still, "Redux"/"Redux II" was a fine opening two-parter, filled with the kind of convoluted plotting and strong emotions that made the opening diptych of Season 3 classic mythological X-FILES. (The tears Mulder sheds at Scully's hospital bedside in one scene in "Redux II" will break your heart.) Unfortunately, "Christmas Carol"/"Emily", in which Scully discovers she bore a daughter during her abduction experience, seems more emotionally brutal than gripping---poor Scully has already gone through a draining bout with cancer; now she has to go through another (futile) life-saving bout on account of a daughter she never knew she had? It's a little much, if you ask me. And the aforementioned "Patient X"/"The Red and the Black" just seemed lifeless, totally lacking in the kind of spark that infused, say, "Colony"/"Endgame" (still the most viscerally thrilling of X-FILES mytharcs). Finally, the season ends with "The End," which introduces another mythological chess piece: Gibson Praise (Jeff Gulka), the young mind-reading kid who may or may not be part-alien.
If the mythological developments of Season 5 sometimes fail to stimulate, there are still some excellent standalone episodes to keep your eyes open (which, arguably, were the only reasons left to watch the show in its later seasons). As with the previous season, the highlight of these standalones is another Vince Gilligan foray into hilarious self-parody and satire, "Bad Blood." The RASHOMON-like structure of the first half, especially, is a brilliant masterstroke, cleverly revealing the way both Mulder and Scully see each other. (The truth may be out there, but as Kurosawa masterfully demonstrated in his classic film, it is ultimately unknowable...except for the part about the buck teeth.) Other notables include:
Chris Carter's clever B&W comic-book "Post-Modern Prometheus," a modern-day retelling of Mary Shelley's classic FRANKENSTEIN tale, with John O'Hurley---commonly known as SEINFELD's J. Peterman---well cast as the (subtly) mad Dr. Pollidori.
The convoluted, jargon-filled, yet thrilling "Kill Switch," co-written by famed "cyberpunk" author William Gibson and directed by Rob Bowman, who has an unerring sense of the kinetic. Gibson and co-writer Tom Maddox create a dark, ugly, chilling tale about paranoia and live artificial intelligence.
"Mind's Eye" has a terrific performance from Lili Taylor as a blind woman whom Mulder believes is innocent of murder, regardless of all the evidence stacked against her. Taylor vividly creates a spunky, sometimes abrasive character who refuses to be pitied under any circumstances; it's a memorable, touching performance.
Religion-themed X-FILES episodes are usually stimulating, and "All Souls" is no exception, an episode which finds Scully still dealing with the emotional grief of having lost her daughter Emily. Perhaps actress Gillian Anderson's finest episode.
Rob Bowman returns to the directing helm with the exciting "Pine Bluff Variant," in which Mulder gets involved in a bioterrorist plot. As an action hero, David Duchovny has nothing on Bruce Willis, but the episode nevertheless is a lot of fun, provided you don't think too much about it afterward.
And "Folie a Deux" is a fine penultimate episode involving a telemarketing company who may or may not be under the control of a man-bug who sucks the life out of his victims. If you think Mulder went to the edge of madness in Season 3's underrated "Grotesque"...he goes even further in "Folie a Deux." Just look at the title.
Sure, the quality of the standalones may not be as consistent as they were in Season 3---don't even bother with the pointless "Kitsunegari" if you loved Season 3's "Pusher"---but, even in lesser episodes, there was always the rapport between David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, still managing to strike some sparks here and there to keep us intrigued in their characters' relationship.
All in all, the 5th Season of the X-FILES is not one of the show's best---it is done in by the rather lackluster mythology episodes. Still, there are some worthy episodes here that make it worthy of the X-FILES name.
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