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Amazon.co.uk Review
In Season 4 of The X-Files, Scully is a bit upset by her on-off terminal cancer and Mulder is supposed to shoot himself in the season finale (did anyone believe that?), but in episode after episode the characters still plod dutifully around atrocity sites tossing off wry witticisms in that bland investigative demeanour out of fashion among TV cops since Dragnet. Perhaps the best achievement of this season is "Home", the most unpleasant horror story ever presented on prime-time US TV. It's not a comfortable show--confronted with this ghastly parade of incest, inbreeding, infanticide and mutilation, you'd think M & S would drop the jokes for once--but shows a willingness to expand the envelope. By contrast, ventures into golem, reincarnation, witchcraft and Invisible Man territory throw up run-of-the-mill body counts, spotlighting another recurrent problem. For heroes, M & S rarely do anything positive: they work out what is happening after all the killer's intended victims have been snuffed ("Kaddish"), let the monster get away ("Sanguinarium") and cause tragedies ("The Field Where I Died"). No wonder they're stuck in the FBI basement where they can do the least damage.
The series has settled enough to play variations on earlier hits: following the liver vampire, we have a melanin vampire ("Teliko") and a cancer vampire ("Leonard Betts"), and return engagements for the oily contact lens aliens and the weasely ex-Agent Krycek ("Tunguska"/"Terma"). Occasional detours into send-up or post-modernism are indulged, yielding both the season's best episode ("Small Potatoes") and its most disappointing ("Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man"). "Small Potatoes", with the mimic mutant who tries out Mulder's life and realises what a loser he is (how many other pin-up series heroes get answerphone messages from their favourite phone-sex lines?), works as a genuine sci-fi mystery--for once featuring a mutant who doesn't have to kill people to live--and as character insight. --Kim Newman
Special Features
English
Region 2
Region 2
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Generally a very strong, mature season, a close second to Season three. The mythology storyline mostly takes a welcome break from the confusing colonisation / cloning story and takes a backseat to the stand-alone episodes. Fortunately these are mostly excellent with some great thrillers, monsters and a "back to basics" UFO story in "Tempus Fugit" / "Max". Production values and effects are excellent, and all episodes are well-crafted without being too slick. Arguably the highlight of the season is the revelation of Scully's cancer and Gillian Anderson's touching performances bring a lot of emotional depth to this storyline. Some lighter episodes are more than welcome in what is generally quite a serious and solemn season, but none are as good as Darin Morgan's genius work on season three.
Best episodes:
Gethsemane
Home
Tunguska
Memento Mori
Small Potatoes
Avoid:
El Mundo Gira
Synchrony
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This is my favourite year of The X-Files. The average episodes are great, and the best are simply outstanding. There is serious drama, particularly for Scully's character. Episodes like Home and Sanguinarium are particularly creepy, whilst others develop the Smoking Man's character, or the possibilities surrounding Samantha Mulder's disappearance.
This season won several Emmy awards, and deservedly so. Although it remained a great show, I don't believe it was ever again quite so consistently good as this season.
Favourites:
Memento Mori, Paper Hearts, Never Again, Demons, Home, Tunguska/Terma, Tempus Fugit/Max
Episodes I remember not liking, but enjoyed this time round:
Never Again, Kaddish
Weak points:
El Mundo Gira - goatsuckers, indeed.
This season won several Emmy awards, and deservedly so. Although it remained a great show, I don't believe it was ever again quite so consistently good as this season.
Favourites:
Memento Mori, Paper Hearts, Never Again, Demons, Home, Tunguska/Terma, Tempus Fugit/Max
Episodes I remember not liking, but enjoyed this time round:
Never Again, Kaddish
Weak points:
El Mundo Gira - goatsuckers, indeed.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Sorry, but Bad Blood isn't in this boxset (that was a season 5 ep). Season 4 however is probably the best season of XF in my opinion. There is a wonderful mix of brilliant stand-alone eos, and all the mythology eps are totally brilliant. It's a shame really that in season 5 the mythology had been reduced to annoying 'talking-head' shows (not to mention the introduction of such blase characters as Agents Spender & Fowley, and Cassandra Spender).
Season 4 is TXF at its best. These 24 episodes are without a doubt amoung the best the show has ever produced. And the best amoung these 24? Tempus Fugeit, Max, Tunguska, Terma, Gethsemane, Home, The Field Where I Died, Elegy and (damn, can't remember the name) - the one with a spooky photographer. Buy this now. The best all-round season!!!
Season 4 is TXF at its best. These 24 episodes are without a doubt amoung the best the show has ever produced. And the best amoung these 24? Tempus Fugeit, Max, Tunguska, Terma, Gethsemane, Home, The Field Where I Died, Elegy and (damn, can't remember the name) - the one with a spooky photographer. Buy this now. The best all-round season!!!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Four years in and still going strong
The quest continues.
I've been tracking my way through my X-Files DVDs again, years later, which is the only reason I'm offering a casual recommendation now for any... Read more
I've been tracking my way through my X-Files DVDs again, years later, which is the only reason I'm offering a casual recommendation now for any... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Philoctetes
Fantastic
One of the best seasons of the X-Files there is. Memento mori, home, herrenvolk, Gehtesemane just to name a few, loads of greats.
Published 13 months ago by Chris Burdett
The X Files: Season 4
Bought this for my son who is really into X Files. He loved it and looks forward to completing the full series.
Published 14 months ago by kaydee
More high quality X Files
The TV phenomenom that was the X Files continued in rude health into a 4th series in 1996/1997. The standard of output remained high and themes this time around included psychic... Read more
Published 14 months ago by LXIX
Fantastic
Season 4 just catches up season 3. A great series, probably the best so far, delving deeper into the mysteries of the main storyline, bringing your old favourites more into the... Read more
Published 16 months ago by James Brown
The X Files at its BEST...by far my favourite season of its entire run
after three genuinly fantastic seasons its here where the show reaches its peak,and is genuinly fantastic all the way through with hardly any missable episodes. Read more
Published on 31 July 2008 by S. J. Pinder
x files series four
Not a bad season only a couple of duds in my opinion the main one being HOME. Sorry diehards but this was so poor it was the only time i considered skipping the whole episode( i... Read more
Published on 18 July 2008 by R. R. Doherty
Best yet
Watching the DVDs through from season one, this is the best of the first four. Doesn't suffer with the poor attempts at comedy episodes that plagued season 3. Read more
Published on 6 Sep 2007 by A Jeremiah
x-files
x-files season 4 has to be the best season of x-files i have ever seen bear in mind i have seen 5,6,7,8 or 9 yet but of the 4 seasons i have seen this is the best of all.
Published on 5 April 2006
Another X-Cellent Year
Season 4 is kind of a season of two-halves, the mythology is fantasticthroughout while the stand-alones, when their good they are at a higherquality the most other seasons but... Read more
Published on 20 April 2004 by Philip Hyland
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