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Review
Archives
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Today's
Date is:
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The X-Files:
The Complete Second Season
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Reviewed
by: |
Nancy
Lisak |
| Genre: |
Science
Fiction |
| Video: |
Full
Screen (Standard) 1.33:1 |
| Audio: |
English
(Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround |
| Language: |
English;
Selected scenes in Japanese, German, Spanish, and Italian |
| Subtitle: |
English
and Spanish |
| Length: |
Full
Second Season/24 epsoides/plusextra disc of special features/1150
minutes |
| Rating: |
NR |
| Release
Date: |
November
28, 2000 |
| Studio: |
20th
Century Fox |
| Commentary:
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None |
| Documentaries:
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The
Truth About Season Two(15 minutes) |
| Featurettes:
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None |
| Filmography/Biography:
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None |
|
Interviews: |
A
private conversation with Chris Carter talking about 12 of his
favorite episodes |
| Trailers/TV
Spots: |
Promotional
TV spots; 9 "Behind-the-Truth" spots from F/X |
| Alternate/Deleted
Scenes: |
Deleted
scenes from four episodes |
| Music
Video: |
None |
| Other:
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Special
effects clips from "End Game" and "Anasazi" |
| Cast
and Crew: |
David Duchovny,
Gillian Anderson, Mitch Pileggi, William B. Davis |
| Screenplay
by: |
Various |
| Produced
by: |
Various |
| Directed
By: |
Various |
| Music: |
Mark Snow |
| The
Review: |
The second
season opens with the X-files closed and Special Agents Fox
Mulder and Dana Scully on separate assignments: Mulder is screening
wire taps and Scully is teaching medical students. Mulder finds
it difficult to stick to his given assignment and goes to investigate
a case that he thinks is an X-file, and we are eventually introduced
to Mitch Pileggi and William B. Davis as series regulars Assistant
Director Walter Skinner and the Cigarette-Smoking Man. Through
the course of the second season, the X-files are re-opened (with
the help of AD Skinner), and Mulder and Scully are reunited
as partners. We also see the alien abduction of Scully during
Season 2 as a way for the writers to accommodate Anderson's
absence as the result of her real-life pregnancy. The sexual
tension between Mulder and Scully builds up over the course
of Season 2, and their attraction to one another and their reliance
on one another are played up as well. We also see the themes
of individual episodes expand more into general unexplained
phenomenon and not only on aliens and alien abductions. We also
discover through the collusion between AD Skinner and the Cigarette-Smoking
Man that Mulder's beliefs in government conspiracy are not completely
unfounded. Like Season 1, this is a great box set for fans of
the show, and again like Season 1, Fox could have gone a lot
further with extra features, although I have to admit that there
are a few more features in Season 2, and the documentary does
include brief discussions with Pileggi and Davis. The set is
seven discs-the first six containing four episodes each, with
episode #25 being included on disc seven with the special features.
Episodes included: Little Green Men, The Host, Blood, Sleepless,
Duane Berry, Ascension, 3, One Breath, Firewalker, Red Museum,
Excelsis Dei, Aubrey, Irresistible, Die Hand Die Verletzt, Fresh
Bones, Colony, End Game, Fearful Symmetry, Død Calm, Humbug,
The Calusari, F. Emasculata, Soft Light, Our Town, Anasazi.
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| Image
and Sound |
This series
was made for television so the color and sound were designed
with that in mind. The transfer to DVD gives you the crisp picture
of the medium, which considering the darkness of a lot of the
scenes (because of the nature of the series) is a definite plus.
Some of the darkest scenes may appear a bit grainy, but it's
not a distraction at all. |
| The
Extras |
(This section
of this review is very similar to that of "The X-Files: The
Complete First Season" because they mirrored those include on
the Season 1 discs, and they were nearly as ineffective.) The
extras in this box set are lacking, but not as much as Season
1. The 15-minute "The Truth About Season Two" features Chris
Carter and some of the other people on the production staff,
as well as discussions with new series regulars Mitch Pileggi
and William B. Davis. They provide a few interesting snippets,
but again, the documentary as a whole would have been vastly
improved by interviews with Duchovny and Anderson. The private
conversations with Chris Carter are the closest we get to a
commentary, but they are very limited in what they offer. He
only talks about 12 episodes, and the information he does provide
is a general overview at best. The deleted scenes are difficult
to access from the discs containing the actual episodes, just
as they were in Season 1. From the menu, you have to "activate"
the special features option, and then you have to watch for
a white "X" to appear in the lower right corner of the screen
to show them. If you're watching the episode, they're easy to
miss, and in the case of the special effects clips, they actually
show the scene without the special effects in place. (All of
these scenes are also available on the extra disc of special
features.) The scenes included in alternate languages are a
complete waste unless you want to watch them as part of a drunken
party. The translations don't cover entire episodes, so really
there's no point in including them. The inclusion of the TV
commercials is unnecessary. One would think you'd want to watch
the entire series after spending the money on it. Is anyone
really going to go back and watch all the 10- and 20-second
TV commercials when most people avoid TV commercials when they
watch in real time? And the FX "Behind the Truth" spots are
cute, but don't provide enough real information to be worthwhile.
Being a science-fiction series, "The X-Files" is riddled with
special effects that could have been discussed and explained.
This would have been an incredible addition to the set, and
Fox made a huge mistake in not including some sort of featurette
or documentary dedicated to the special effects of the show.
The new game included on the special features disc is also mirrored
off of the Season 1 features and is just as equal a waste of
time. |
| Commentary |
The closest
thing we get to a commentary is the private conversation with
series creator Chris Carter. It would have been better to include
these snippets on the discs with each episode, and it would
have been nice to have information on all of the episodes as
opposed to only half of them. |
| Final
Words: |
Diehard
fans of the current "The X-Files" will want to purchase this
set if they're interested in seeing early episodes or if they're
like me and think it would be cool to have the complete series.
Not really a must-buy for anyone with just a cursory interest. |
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