|
|
|
The X-Files Season Three | ||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
ook beyond the conundrum of molting aliens and the other frustrations of this year’s season of The X-Files. Rewind, if you will, to the third season of X-Files--which is the season of the long-running Fox paranormal drama by which all others have been, and will continue to be, measured. After an initial year of finding itself, and another of establishing itself, the third season of X-Files perhaps best highlights the delicate balance of great storytelling and superb acting that caught the imagination of millions of viewers.
If season two was spent establishing the mytharc and alien conspiracy storylines that would become the hallmark of the show, season three was the season that best took the ball and ran with it, helping the show hit a smooth and unrivaled stride. In some ways, this was the final season that the series remained pure and true to itself; after this year, the show’s popularity was surging, a feature film was planned, and the series became more self-aware and contrived because of those developments.
Scary yet artful, suspenseful yet darkly humorous, season three keeps viewers on edge, from the two-part season opener, "The Blessing Way" and "Paper Clip"--in which Mulder’s ditched Scully again to pursue the truth, and is presumed dead in the process--to the cliffhanger season finale, "Talitha Cumi"--which delves deeper into the alien mystery.
Along with those two stories, this is the season that gave us the penultimate conspiracy installments, the mid-year "Nisei" and "731"--both of which set the stage for Scully’s cancer arc in season four and widened the conspiracy’s net--and "Piper Maru" and "Apocrypha," the events of which resonated in the series’ eighth season.
And in between the mytharcs came a host of seminal episodes. Writer Darin Morgan established himself as a favorite scribe with his classic black humor in "Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose" and the telling parody "Jose Chung’s From Outer Space." Vince Gilligan, meanwhile, established his gift for telling character-centric stories with "Pusher."
Three is the Magic Number
Fox has been generous with its DVD bonus content on previous X-Files DVD releases, and The X-Files’ third-season DVD boxed set is no exception. The fold-out boxed set is fashioned in the same manner as seasons one and two, with seven discs, containing all 24 episodes plus deleted scenes and other video commentaries not available with the video releases of select episodes from the season.
While the set is generally well executed, we did encounter some glitches--some of which have been seen in previous sets, too. Again, our review copy of the DVD set showed no image artifacting on a TV; however, the discs showed some noticeable artifacting when played using a software-based DVD decoder on a PC.
Once again, the DVD interface surprisingly has its rough navigational spots--although some minor annoyances from previous sets have been fixed. In some instances, you can now opt to skip the intro montage to each disc--a welcome addition since the intro quickly becomes tiring with repetition. But we experienced multiple crashes of the PC-friendly software DVD player while using the DVD in our 1GHz desktop PC; using the DVD player included with our computer yielded no difficulties.
The branched scene insertions are now more elegantly inserted, although we occasionally saw a blip when transitioning between the regular content and the added content. And you still can't adjust the playback speed within these scenes with ease.
Deleted scenes are always key to the selection of goodies on a DVD, and this season set has its fair share. There are six deleted scenes in all, including a terrifically-acted sequence among Scully, her mother and her sister that was cut from "The Blessing Way." Other scenes are from "Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose," "The List," "Revelations" and "Avatar." Scenes are accessible via disc seven, or in-line with each individual episode (simply click on the X in the lower right-hand corner). When viewing disc seven, you can turn on the commentary by series creator Chris Carter, who narrates exactly why these scenes didn’t make the final cut.
The seventh disc of this set also features 46 promotional television spots, a documentary about season three, interviews with Carter about 12 episodes, seven special-effects segments and 17 "FX: Behind the Truth" segments about specific episodes and characters. There is a DVD-ROM game, as in the first sets; however, we were unable to get it to work on our PC system.
Together with the first season of The X-Files, this boxed set is required viewing for any X-Files fan, in spite of the DVD’s rough edges when used on a PC (we had no problems in our DVD player). And for those who’ve forgotten why they once loved The X-Files after this season, the season-three DVD gift pack will help remind viewers of why they got hooked in the first place. -- Melissa
Also in this issue: Letters from Orion
|
         |
|
| Home |
Copyright © 1998-2006, Science Fiction Weekly (TM). All rights reserved. Reproduction in any medium strictly prohibited. Maintained by scifiweekly@scifi.com. |
