SQUEE!FEST: Five Reasons Season Six Is Awesome.

[amalnahurriyeh]

As much as I know that there are better seasons of The X-Files (*cough cough season four*), season six is one of my favorites. It's not about quality, always; it's about awesome. Below the cut are five reasons with I love season six.

(screencaps from fredfarm.)



1. Season six doesn't take itself too seriously.

This is the season with:

Bermuda Triangle Time-Travel
A High School Reunion Romance
Deadly Mushrooms That Get You High
Body Swapping
Baseball Playing Aliens
Scully Getting High And Flirting With Everybody

It's funny. It knows it's funny. And that's how I like my X-Files.

2. Mulder and Scully are both absurdly, otherworldly hot in season six.



Trufax: I can actually feel my Kinsey Score decreasing every time I watch The Unnatural.



And then it goes right back up again.


3. Season six has some of the best one shot characters.

Morris Fletcher.



Maurice and Lyda.



Patrick Crump.



Holman and Sheila.



Pam.



Season six is the sweet spot for guest stars: after they moved to LA, meaning they could get names I'd they wanted, but before the stunt casting of season 7.

4. Season Six has the best bad guys on the show.

That would be Diana Fowley and Jeffery Spender. Now, don't get me wrong--my heart belongs to CSM. But Diana and Jeffery collectively embody so much of what is compelling about the mytharc. The thing about them is that it's never clear in their actions what is personal jealousy, what is professional territoriality, and what is nefariousness. Why did Diana come back from Europe? Why does she want back on the X Files? Is she arriving as the agent of the Consortium, trying to get her old job back--or just restaking a claim on her ex-boyfriend? What's the line for Jeffery Spender between seeking the professional approval he thinks he deserves, and the fatherly approval he craves? Even when Diana is revealed as the season's big bad in Two Fathers--and what a good reveal it is--we still don't know why. And when Jeffery Spender takes a bullet to the face for the cause, we aren't sure if he's doing it for his own sense of honor and morality, or for his brother's. (And when Diana does the same half a season later, you have the same questions.)

The thing that makes the Consortium so damn evil is the personalness of the violations it visits upon you. For Mulder, it's an attack on his family; for Scully, it's repeated violation of her bodily integrity. When scully Says all she has left is personal interest, she's not just talking about herself; all there is in taking down the Consortium is personal interests, personal vengeances. CSM is too distant to be a real embodiment of the sort of close range evil that epitomizes these conspiracies. But Diana and Jeffery are right there, the footsoldiers of the bad guys, literally sitting at Mulder's desk and undoing the work Mulder and Scully have been doing all along.


5. Season six is absurdly shippy. Like, it's actually absurd.

I do not gaze at Agent Scully, he says, lying like a lying thing.







Agent Scully is already in love...with these new shoes! Yes, that's what he must have meant, Mulder! And now, I must flee the vicinity for no apparent reason.



Is catfight!Scully going to have to put on her claws? Because I am more than able to, Mulder.





Even more than the fact that the moral of the season is that Mulder and Scully really should be doing it if they aren't already, there's the fact of the rhythm they're in together. Although they're consistently at odds in the mytharc episodes, during the rest of the season they're working together like a well-oiled machine, even when they're on shit duty or separated. They're in sync, fully, for the first time in the series, and that's when the magic happens. The handhold at the end of Field Trip says it all--even without looking, they know where they are.





IN CONCLUSION: SEASON SIX IS AMAZING, AND EVERYONE SHOULD LOVE IT.

Comments

[heartequals]

MUST WATCH SEASON SIX IMMEDIATELY GAH.

The Unnatural is one of my favorite episodes of the entire series and part of what I love about it is the incredible relationship portrayal between Mulder and Scully. It's so normal, so friendly, so. . .laskfjsahdj SHUT UP MULDER SHE'S PLAYING BASEBALL etc etc

I do not gaze at Agent Scully, he says, lying like a lying thing.

IS THIS FROM A STORY THAT CAN BE READ ON THE INTERNETS

[amalnahurriyeh]

The Unnatural is such an amazing episode. And so impressive that it's DD's first script. Um and also seems like it was written to seduce nice liberal girls. Which I am pretty sure it would be successful at doing.


IS THIS FROM A STORY THAT CAN BE READ ON THE INTERNETS

LOL, no, but I believe it is the gist of like every Rain King fic ever written.

[yvi]

Season 6 has Drive! And Monday! And TwoFathers/One Son! And Diana!

[amalnahurriyeh]

I actually recently tried to watch TF/OS, and realized I couldn't because I wanted to reach through the goddamn screen and punch Mulder in the mouth every other scene. He's just being a brat for the whole thing. And it's not like I don't normally have a lot of compassion for his brattiness! But it was just too much. It's a really good pair of episodes when I'm not feeling punchy, though.

Monday is...it's really an amazing episode. It's just so structurally tight, and manages to do a lot with a very small set of gestures. And I haven't rewatched Drive in a while...must dig it out. (I wonder, is it an episode that suffers at all in cross-cultural translation? Something about Crump's paranoia strikes me as very American, and I wonder if it's at all off-putting to someone not from here.)

[yvi]

I want to punch Mulder a lot anyway, so there's no change there. I am... not the biggest Mulder fan :)

I wonder, is it an episode that suffers at all in cross-cultural translation? Something about Crump's paranoia strikes me as very American, and I wonder if it's at all off-putting to someone not from here.

Well, it's not a problem for me, at least. But that type of paranoia is a bit American, I think.

[littlegreen42]

Although they're consistently at odds in the mytharc episodes, during the rest of the season they're working together like a well-oiled machine, even when they're on shit duty or separated.

I wonder why that is. It's almost like the mytharc episodes and the MOTW episodes were operating in two different universes.

But anyway, YAY SEASON SIX! I don't watch it enough because I'm an early season snob, but in a way that's a good thing because it keeps it fresh for me.

[amalnahurriyeh]

I wonder why that is.

BECAUSE THE WRITERS OF THE X-FILES HAVE NO GRASP OF WHAT CHARACTERIZATION CONTINUITY MEANS.

Sorry to get shouty, but this drives me insane. It seems like they're trying to build up some sort of deep tension in the mytharc episodes--especially around Diana--but then TOTALLY IGNORING IT! during the other episodes. Like, if Diana's a problem, and Scully not toeing the agree-with-Mulder-about-everything line during The Beginning is a problem, then they're still going to be pissed at each other two weeks later, you know?

Oh well. There are some things I don't expect from XF. Followthrough is one of them.

[ml_griffonnage]

"The handhold at the end of Field Trip says it all--even without looking, they know where they are."

Oh yeah. I know that S6 comes in for a lot of criticism, but I love it. So many good eps. Thanks for the reminders!