Customer Reviews

The X-Files: The Complete Fifth Season

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Intricacies, subtleties, nuances and BLAM straight in your face, long awaited revelations are what Season Five is all about! All of it leading up to "Fight the Future" which was filmed prior to filming this entire season that leads up to the movie! Simply stated, Chris Carter and his entire staff are geniuses.

Redux - {mythology} - Last seasons "Gethsemane" ended with Fox Mulder appearing to be dead from a self inflicted shotgun blast. Mulder is able to obtain an ID that allows him access to a DOD complex where the CSM allows him to escape with the cure for Scully's cancer.

Redux II - {mythology} - This is the outstanding conclusion to the mini trilogy. The CSM offers Mulder all the answers. Scully's cancer is finally in remission thanks to the device that Mulder found. Mulder weeds out the FBI mole, who is shortly thereafter assassinated. The big news, the CSM is shot in his own apartment, yet no body is found. With episodes like these first two, season five continues to prove what an excellent experience The X-Files is.

Unusual Suspects - {mythology} - A beautifully well scripted episode detailing the events in 1989 that brought the "Lone Gunmen" together. This episode also includes a surprise appearance by "X" as well. Surprisingly enough, the events of this episode are what put Mulder and the Lone Gunmen on the quest that they are all on.

Detour - Another well written episode where Scully and Mulder are stuck having to go to team building retreat with a married pair of agents. Fortunately for Mulder's sanity, they have to stop along the way because of a police road block. They find out that people were coming up missing in the woods in a strange way. This episode has some very touching scenes belying the relationship that is building between Mulder and Scully.

The Post-Modern Prometheus - This episode is an absolutely wonderful, campy black & white episode where The X-Files once again proves that they can lighten up and have a little fun. Jerry Springer stars as himself in the background as Mulder and Scully find themselves in a town full of die hard Springer fans and a monster in "The Mutato."

Christmas Carol & Emily - {mythology} - Simply stated, these are two of the finest, touching and most heartfelt episodes of not only the season but the entire series! Scully is on Christmas vacation with her family in California and receives what seems to be a phone call from her sister, who was killed in an earlier season. This phone call leads to the discovery of a little girl that Dana believes to be the daughter of her sister! "Emily" brings Mulder into the picture and the real "mythology" aspects of these two spectacular episodes kicks in! These two episodes alone make the entire season!

Kitsunegari - Déjà vu', Robert Modell from the third season episode "Pusher" is back. He's survived the bullet that Mulder put in his head and he's back to "pushing" people into what he wants them to do. This episode is one of the most intriguing of the season.

Schizogeny - This is a particularly intriguing episode about child abuse and the way one woman dealt with her abuse.

Chinga - Written by Stephen King and Chris Carter. This episode certainly qualifies as one of the best of the season and the entire nine year run as producer Chris Carter welcomes the "King of Horror" in Stephen King as a co-writer. This episode has everything that one can expect from King, suspense and horror in full measure. This is certainly a classic X-Files episode that is not to be missed.

Kill Switch - This is a superb episode in both its setup and execution as The X-Files explores Artificial Intelligence in the best way that only they can. This is a perfect "Lone Gunmen" style episode.

Bad Blood - This is another outstandingly funny, yet scary episode that the producers have proven their superiority at. Mulder and Scully find themselves in Texas looking for a vampire and ultimately find much more than they bargained for. The banter between them just keeps getting better and better.

Patient X & The Red and the Black - {mythology} - Two outstanding episodes that serve extremely well to further the mythology of "The X-Files." Mulder's lost faith is quite prominent as Scully gains faith in the possibility of aliens. Some of the "facts" that die hard fans have been waiting several years for are beginning to slip from Chris Carter finally. This is also the episode that introduces Agent Spinder, CSM's son.

Travelers - {part mythology} Travelers is a brilliant prequel episode that first takes us back to 1990, before Mulder's taking the X-Files, then takes us to a case going back to 50's and his father working for the State Department.

Mind's Eye - A beautifully well written episode that is both touching and heartwarming. It is about a woman, blind from birth who has been accused of a brutal murder.

All Souls - This is another breathtaking episode where The X-Files explores Scully's faith in God.

The Pine Bluff Variant - Agent Mulder finds himself undercover and in the midst of one of the very government conspiracies that he seeks to expose, but finds the truth too shocking to reveal.

Folie a deux - This episode contains the best one liner to date in the series. Mulder is sent to Chicago to discover who is threatening an office with terrorism and finds that he is seeing the same thing that the "madman" was seeing.

The End - {mythology} Another outstanding season finale that leads up to the movie. CSM is back and in full force and doing his thing. This is the episode that introduces Gibson, the child who, born with alien DNA is capable of reading minds. CSM succeeds in having The X-Files closed.

Extra Features - Just as it was with the first four seasons, the special features disk for season five is outstanding. This one finally includes some blooper scenes.

This was the last season filmed in Vancouver, Canada, and perhaps for that reason some storylines are set in Canada's white north. And for that reason this season marks the end of the X-Files as it had been, but I don't want to spoil things but giving it away. The motion picture hit theatres the summer after this season, and so in making it the producers, writers, cast and crew were faced with a unique obstacle in knowing what would happen following the Season Five storyline even as they set down to work out the early episodes of the season. But they were aided by guest writers, including Stephen King -- who contributed to the episode "Chinga", about a demonic doll -- and Cyber punk author William Gibson. The series grew even more movie-like in style, and the last few episodes of this season managed to conquer new ground in action-adventure/thriller concepts for the show. This set includes commentary on "The Pine Bluff Variant", which Warner Brothers warns you once putting the disk in does not reflect the views of Warner Brother or its parent. Therefore you know without my saying that writer John Shiban's commentary gets a little more frank on some issues that you might expect, and it's a nice addition to the season's most thrilling episode (and one of the series' few not to feature any paranormal activity.) This one's a little shorter, with twenty episodes instead of twenty-four, but it's still a great season and a tad slyer than Season Four.

Up until recently, I never watched a single episode of the X-Files. Now that the DVD sets have been reduced in price, I had the opportunity to start watching the show. After watching the first four seasons on DVD I have become a huge fan, and in my opinion The X-Files is one of the most addictive and well done science fiction shows ever created. However, the only five star season that was great from start to finish, was the third season. Going into season five, I never expected to see a season of The X-Files that could manage to overcome season three in terms of storytelling and episode quality. I was wrong. The fifth season was absolutely amazing. I enjoyed every single episode, and I doubt that any season for the rest of the show will be able to top it.

The thing that I probably enjoyed the most about season five, is that Mulder and Scully switch roles. Based on what he learns at the end of season four, Mulder turns somewhat skeptical and comes to think that everything he believed in was a lie, while Scully starts to become more of a believer based on things she discovers about her abduction. The fifth season offers so many wonderful episodes, it is hard to choose a favorite. The first two episodes "Redux" and "Redux II" offer a wonderful conclusion to the season four cliffhanger. One of my favorite episodes "Unusual Suspects" goes into how the Lone Gunmen came to be. "The Post-Modern Prometheus" is loosely based on the Frankenstien monster, and is shot in black and white. This was definately one of the best episodes I have seen so far. Everything from the writing and cinematography, to the music used was fantastic. "Bad Blood" is the funniest and most entertaining episode of The X-Files that I have ever seen, and will probably go down as being my favorite episode of the entire show. "The End" is the best season finale of the show that I have seen so far, and is definately on my top ten list for best episodes.

Overall, the fifth season of The X-Files is the best season I have seen so far. While there were only 20 episodes, each one managed to be fantastic. The fifth season would be worth owning for the episodes alone. However, the DVD package is great. This was the first DVD set to offer the episodes in widescreen! The extras are very good as well. My favorite feature was the 45 minute "Inside the X-Files" featurette. It was very in-depth and featured tons of great information. You also get deleted scenes with commentary from series creator Chris Carter, commentary on the episodes "The Post-Modern Prometheus" and "The Pine Bluff Variant" from the writer of those particular episodes, and more.

A solid 5 stars...

This season marks the last season that was shot in Vancouver. After that, they moved to L.A. Amidst all of that, as well as writting an entire season to lead up to the movie, this season proved to be really great.

[Spoilers]

As usual, the conspiracy deepens with the season premier, and we get a cure for Scully's cancer, an answer to Mulder's supposed death, and a new monkey wrench thrown into the Syndicate's plans: Mulder and Scully discover a boy that can read minds, which in turn could expose the syndicate.

[End Spoilers]

This season had great stand alone episodes as well as mythology episodes. It proved that The X-Files still had a lot going for it.

This season ended with a pretty good season finale, but wasn't as good as Season 4's. However, this didn't matter, because the REAL season finale was the movie "The X-Files: Fight the Future" that was released a few weeks later in theaters.

Overall, a great season and a great setup for the movie and future seasons.

Great season, great DVD.

For the first five seasons of the show, they filmed in Vancouver. After that, they moved to LA. Even through all that, the show remains incredibly well done.

In this season, we have a cure for Scully's cancer, we find out what really happened in the Season Four finale episode, and we learn just how deep the conspiracy goes. We also learn more about what happened when Scully was abducted in "Christmas Carol/Emily," and more in "Patient X/The Red and the Black." The latter two-parter also expands more into what the aliens are really up to.

The season ends with a decent finale, although not as good as last season's. But that's ok, because a month later we got the movie!

Great season, great DVD.

I loved this fifth season, i enjoyined David Duchoviny in this season.But i like it the extras of the DVD like the spots of tv.
This fifth season is very very elementar, new aswers to Mulder and Scully but so many questions Mulder have to think.
My favorite epsiodes of the fifth season is "Bad Blood"(If you not watched, you are going to understand why this episode is great) and the appearence of Luke Wilson in his memorable moment in this season.
This DVD is out, you need to buy and this DVD wil be a addition to your collection

This was the show's highest-rated season, and for good reason. It provides a great lead-up to The X Files movie, "Fight the Future." The best episode is the two-parter, "Patient X" and "The Red and the Black."

The mid-point of the X-Files series; the fifth season gave more insight and teasers to the vast alien conspiracy story arc that was finally beginning to take the forefront of the show (the results of which were good and bad) and introduced new characters (Agent Spender, the seemingly clairvoyant child Gibson Praise, Mulder's old flame Agent Diana Fowley played by Mimi Rogers) that would go on to play major parts in the rest of the series, while giving more insight to current supporting characters like the Lone Gunmen, Alex Krycek, and the Cancer Man. Many revelations are abound throughout this season, including what role Mulder's father played in the beginning of the conspiracy, and it is hinted at that maybe Mulder is meant for far much more. Also, to many fans' delight, we see the growth of Mulder and Scully's relationship as tender, yearning glances between them are abound. Standout episodes include the Stephen King penned "Chinga", "Unusual Suspects" which flashes back to Mulder's first metting with the Lone Gunmen, "Post-Modern Prometheus", the amusing "Travelers", "Patient X", and the absolutely hilarious (and justifiably a fan favorite) "Bad Blood" which guest stars Luke Wilson, and shows how Mulder and Scully see each other while recalling a case where they were investigating vampirism. Plenty of loose ends are purposely left for the X-Files movie which premiered the following summer, but in the end this is probably one of the last best seasons of the series, and the last season of the show to be filmed in Canada before the series moved to Hollywood.

I am a big fan of the series and now own 3 DVD packs. However I was wondering why these DVD's are so expensive on amazon.com. On amazon UK the same DVD pack only cost 80 US dollars. Maybe a tip for others!

..... I'm a fan of the series and i think this is the best season.Most of the episodes are fantastic like the 2 parts of Emily,the incredible Chinga{writen by Stephen KING},Detour,PATIENT X and THE RED AND THE BLACK{The best episodes in this season}and of course the END a fantastic finale.Dont miss this incredible box set with many extras like the truth about season 5 and many others.This season is a must for every X-filer.