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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
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English
Region 2
Region 2
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another outstanding season - The show at it's peak!,
By A Customer
This review is from: The X Files: Season 4 [DVD] [1994] (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: Avoid:
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Firing on all cylinders,
By BobOxford (UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The X Files: Season 4 [DVD] [1994] (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.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The last season in which all the mythology eps were good,
By A Customer
This review is from: X Files Season 4 Box Set [DVD] [1994] (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!!!
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