So starts the decline of the great X-Files, around a half point from previous seasons in my ratings.
A very messy season. Some of the weakest mythology episodes of the series.
With David Duchovny leaving the show, Chris Carter tries to wrap up The X-Files in Season 7. After recovering from contact with an alien object Mulder rejoins Scully and investigates the Millennium cult (with the help of Frank Black), the death of a magician following an impossible magic trick, a new interactive first person shooter video game that’s killing it’s players, and run into a genie who puts an ironic twist on wishes. Additionally, Mulder finally finds the answers to what happened to his sister, Scully goes on a secret mission with the Cigarette-Smoking Man, and the Cigarette-Smoking Man tries to reconstitute the Syndicate. The show even does a cross-over episode with the Fox hit reality series Cops (“X-Cops”). Gillian Anderson writes and directors her first episode (“All Things”) and Duchovny also writes and directs an episode (“Hollywood A.D.”). Unfortunately Season 7 doesn’t provide any good answers to the series mysteries; the alien craft stuff in “The Sixth Extinction” is all nonsensical gobbledygook, and “Closure” completely rewrites the Samantha Fox mythology. On the other hand, the show manages to feature a number of interesting guest stars, including Mark Pellegrino, Lance Henriksen, Constance Zimmer, Tobin Bell, Garry Shandling, and Tea Leoni. Season 7 brings an end to another chapter of The X-File, yet opens show up to new possibilities.
Not as bad as I expected based on the reviews I read but it is noticeable that Mulder was not always available at the set.
However, I think the casting of Robert Patrick as agent Doggett was a very smart move: that way Scully "had" to take over Mulder's part as the open-minded agent while Doggett could replace Scully's more suspicious part for the last few episodes of season 7!
Unfortunately, the Myth-Arc episodes of this season are rather weak!
Shout by whitsbrainVIP 6BlockedParent2021-03-04T01:51:09Z— updated 2021-11-06T14:58:37Z
I'm not a fan of the way that Trakt.tv names its 1-10 numbered rankings. So, here's my own means of ranking seasons and episodes:
1-2 Poor, 3-4 Fair, 5-6 Good, 7-8 Very Good, 9-10 Excellent
My Season 7 average episode rating: 5.3
My favorite episodes of this season are:
"Je Souhaite" (Writer: Vince Gilligan) - Monster-of-the-Week episode
"X-Cops" (Writer: Vince Gilligan) - Monster-of-the-Week episode
"The Amazing Maleeni" (Writer: Vince Gilligan, John Shiban, Frank Spotnitz) - Monster-of-the-Week episode
My 3 least liked episodes of the season are:
"Fight Club" (Writer: Chris Carter) - Monster-of-the-Week episode
"All Things" (Writer: Gillian Anderson) - Monster-of-the-Week episode
"Signs and Wonders" (Writer: Jeffrey Bell) - Monster-of-the-Week episode
In my opinion, this was the worst season of the X-Files to date. The Monster-of-the-Week episodes were mostly, well...weak. And the mythology remains indecisive. In fact, the season finale ("Requiem") takes us back to the very first episode. It feels like an attempt to resuscitate the series.