|
|
The Series:
I remember the first time I sat down to watch an early episode of "The X-Files". It was one of those moments where you watch something that seems a little rough around the edges, but that there was an enormous amount of potential lurking underneath. Following agents Fox Mulder(David Duchovny) and Dana Scully(Gillian Anderson), we have gone along for the ride as the two have tracked down monsters, aliens and possessed humans among others. And the end of every week, the goal still lurked in the distance; the truth was still "out there."
The first season was a rather basic presentation, but the elements began to come together, with a sharper look and more effects as the season progressed. Duchovny and Anderson have reportedly stated that they really aren't that friendly outside of the production, but you wouldn't know it from watching them. Even from early on, and I think especially in the feature film, there is not only a fun back-and-forth in their conversations, but there's also a very honest care and emotion that the two seem to have for each other. Of course, the possible "romance" between the two has been teased many times, but it really isn't what the relationship between these two people is about. Although Scully originally was skeptical of Mulder's beliefs, she begins to trust his work. The two find safety in one another in a world where they are essentially on their own.
Many have said that the series has gone on too long, and I have to say, I actually partially agree with them. In the past season or two, I honestly have watched the series less and less. But, when it was at its best, I think the X-Files provided classic television; endless supense and tension packed into a 60 minute show that felt more like a film. I think that there are 2 main reasons why fans have followed this show as long as they have: you have an extremely talented cast with Anderson, Duchovny, William B. Davis as the Cigarette Smoking Man (one of the best TV villians ever) and Mitch Pileggi as Assistant Director Walter Skinner. Of course, there are a number of great supporting players, such as the Lone Gunmen. The other reason is that the show has balanced the thread of Mulder's search for the truth through numerous other episodes that played their own specific tale.
The 24 episodes included here do have their occasional slow moments, but there are episodes and specific sequences included that are some of the show's best. Carter was looking to give audiences a scare with this series, but I think he's succeeded at even more than that; it deals with the desire to explain the unexplained, the truth of the unknown, and trust, among other things. Fans have been asking for "The X-Files" on DVD for quite some time, and the truth just may lie in this box set. If not, these 7 DVDs provide the origin of one of the best recent shows on television.
Included in this set are:
Disc One: "Pilot", "Deep Throat", "Squeeze" and "Conduit". Disc Two: "The Jersey Devil", "Shadows", "Ghost in the Machine" and "Ice". Disc Three: "Space", "Fallen Angel", "Eve" and "Fire". Disc Four: "Beyond the Sea", "Gender Bender", "Lazarus" and "Young At Heart". Disc Five: "E.B.E.", "Miracle Man", "Shapes" and "Darkness Falls". Disc Six: "Tooms", "Born Again", "Roland" and "The Erlenmeyer Flask".
The DVD
First Impressions:: Well, first impressions are not what you always expect. The 7 DVD set comes in a rather small looking box, but once you remove the pack inside, the set opens nicely. If you are familiar with the "Walking With Dinosaurs" set that Fox produced recently, this set is packaged in a similar way, folding outwards to reveal all 7 DVDs. Artwork on the case is very nicely done. I will be honest and say that I would have enjoyed to have all of the titles packaged in separate cases, but I suppose the positives are that the entire box takes up about as much shelf space as 3 DVDs. Care is simply needed though in putting the pack back in the slip, which could become damaged after a lot of use.
VIDEO: I was really impressed with the overall quality of the series and how it was presented for this DVD edition. Images are crisp and detailed, coming through with fine clarity. Occasionally now and then, there are some scenes that look a tad bit soft, but overall, sharpness was certainly adequate. Colors are deep and nicely saturated, although never coming across as being too vibrant or bold. As viewers of the show know, the series is frequently a dark-looking one, but images remain strong and with good detail.
Occasionally, there is a little bit of grain and shimmering, but neither one of these problems are to the level of being distracting. The overall presentation is very good, and actually, the look of the show seems to get stronger as the season goes on.
SOUND: This early season of the show does not provide a very agressive presentation in terms of audio, but I was suprised and pleased by just how good it did sound. It's a very deep, full-bodied sound that captures details nicely, and presents both the music and dialogue effectively and clearly.
MENUS:: Fox has thankfully put together cool menus for the series, with a clip similar to the show's opening appearing first, then the main menus with the show's theme playing in the background. The main menu offers a selection of the 4 shows included on that disc, and once the viewer selects which show they want to watch, the submenus offer scene selection and extras to choose from dealing with that particular episode.
EXTRAS:
Booklet: There is a small booklet included that goes through a listing of each show, who wrote it and when it first aired. The booklet also includes an introduction to the series.
Pilot: "International Clips": Clips of the show in Japanese, German, Spanish and Italian; "Deleted Scenes"; the option to show 2 deleted scenes from the pilot that featured Scully's boyfriend - they were deleted from the final edition(deleted scenes also on disc 7).
International Scenes: A number of episodes offer a clip of the episode in multiple languages.
Fallen Angel: For this episode, viewers have the option of watching a clip of a scene before special effects were added in post-production(also on disc 7).
Television Spots: Now this is cool! On the 7th DVD, we get to see all 47 TV Spots from the first season, with the 60 second spot announcing the pilot episode and the 10/20 second spots for all of the other episodes. The menus for this section are very easily navigated and it's really fun to be able to see the ads for every show of the season.
Chris Carter talks about Season One episodes(disc 7): When Carter provided a commentary for the "X-Files" movie, I was impressed with the organization and analysis of the world of the series, taking apart the mythology of the series. In this series of interviews, Carter talks about the origins and creative inspiration behind the show, and a solid amount of other tidbits about the series.
Of course, there is discussion from Carter about casting both Duchovny and Anderson, who was right for the part, but wasn't the right look that the network was looking for. Each section of these interviews play out like fairly short featurettes, where Carter talks about specifically what advances were made at this point in the first season, and also, the ideas behind the particular tale that was told. And, as with the entire series, how that episode fits into the greater whole.
The interviews are about these episodes: "Pilot", "Deep Throat", "Squeeze", "Conduit", "Ice", "Fallen Angel", "Eve", "Beyond The Sea", "E.B.E.", "Darkness Falls", "Tooms", "The Erlenmeyer Flask". There is also the option to "play all", back-to-back.
Behind-The-Truth Segments: There are a number of short segments in this section where many people from the series talks about the subject at hand. These subjects include: Fox Mulder, Deep Throat, Squeeze and Tooms, Theme, Toby Lindala, Lone Gunmen, Ice, Beyond The Sea, Prop Truck, Dana Scully, Mulder's Office and The Erlenmeyer Flask.
The Truth Behind Season One: Interviews with Carter as well as a number of other crew members, who talk about their history with the show, and also the secrets behind the series. Composer Mark Snow provides a lot of informative information, especially how he discovered the show's theme. Carter repeats a little bit of the information he went over in the show interviews, but also expands upon a lot of his analysis of the show's mythology. What's great on this featurette though, is the opportunity to hear from the rest of the crew, such as the visual FX supervisor. This section lasts about 12 minutes or so.
DVD-Rom:: Web links(7th DVD)
Final Thoughts: As with any effort this major, I have a lot of thoughts on the results of Fox's work. The audio and video quality presented on these episodes is extremely pleasing, with no major complaints. The X-tras are a fairly nice batch, but the main body of extras are all packed into the 7th DVD. A few additional little extras would have been nice; a commentary for the pilot at least from creator Chris Carter would have been appreciated - to hear him look back on the show's origin probably would have been a very interesting listen. I'm pleased with the additional content included, but I think there could have been more content made specifically for this box set.
The general presentation is mixed, but positive: the menus are nicely done and creative, but I can see where the case might begin to become a bit annoying after a while; it would have been nice to have the ability to pull out a specific DVD from the series to watch rather than having to unfold the entire set to get a disc.
Overall though, I think that X-Files fans have certainly been waiting intensely for the opportunity to own at least the entire first season of the show on DVD, and Fox has provided that well. $149.99 retail price may be a little bit steep, but with the ability to find this box on the internet for as much as $40-50 less than retail price, I think at that level, it's definitely worth a look - and for die-hard fans of the series, it's a must-own.
Film Grade
The Series A
DVD Grades
Video 90/A- = (360/400 possible points)
Audio: 87/B = (348/400 possible points)
Extras: 85/B = (255/300 possible points)
Menus: 85/B (170/200 possible points)
Value: 84/B = (252/300 possible points)
TOTAL: 1385/1600
DVD GRADE:B/87%
SERIES GRADE: A
DVD GRADE: B
|
