Buy This DVD Box Set Now By Clicking On The Icon Below!
Episodes
Disc 1: “Within”, “Without”, “Patience”, “Roadrunners”
Episodes
Disc 2: “Invocation”, “Redrum”, “Via Negativa”, “Surekill”
Episodes
Disc 3: “Savage”, “Badlaa”, “The Gift”, “Medusa”
Episodes
Disc 4: “Per Manum”, “This Is Not Happening”, “Deadalive”, “Three
Words”
Episodes
Disc 5: “Empedocles”, “Vienen”, “Alone”, “Essence”
Episode Disc 6: “Existence”
Stars:
David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Mitch Pileggi, Tom Braidwood, Dean Haglund,
Bruce Harwood, Robert Patrick, and Anabeth Gish
Guest
Stars: Brian Thompson, Nicholas Lea, James Pickens, Jeff Golka, Joe Morton,
Anne-Marie Johnson, Keith Szarabajka, Ken Jenkins, Judd Trichter, Judson Scott,
and Jolie Jenkins
Writers:
Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan, David Amann, Steven Maeda, Daniel Arkin, Frank
Spotnitz, Greg Walker, Jeffrey Bell, John Shiban, Kim Manners, and Rod Hardy
Directors:
Kim Manners, Chris Carter, Rod Hardy, Richard Compton, Peter Markle, Tony
Wharmby, Terrence O’Hara, and Barry K. Thomas
Executive
Producer: Chris Carter
Feature
length: 984 minutes
Extras:
Select Episode Commentaries, All New
Documentary: The Truth About Season Eight, Deleted Scenes, Special Effects
Sequences, Character Profiles On Alex Krycek, Gibson Praise, and John Doggett,
TV Spots, Existence DVD-ROM Game
Languages:
English, French, and Spanish Language Dolby Surround Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Six-Disc Digipack Gatefold Within A Glossy Sleeve
Chapter
Stops: 15 Per Episode
Sound:
Dolby Surround Sound
Year
of Television Broadcast: 2000-2001/DVD Release: 2003
Home
Video Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
When
we last left Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson), Mulder had
been abducted by the alien bounty hunter and despite claims that she could not
ever conceive a child; Scully confides in Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) that she is
pregnant. Season eight of “The X-Files” begins with the search for Mulder
with the arrival of no nonsense FBI investigator John Doggett (Robert Patrick),
who is assigned to the X-Files because he is a skeptic, much like Scully once
was. With their roles reversed, we follow Doggett and Scully on various
adventures involving the macabre, occult, and simply unexplainable as new
alliances are formed, betrayals are revealed and game is reset in new and
unexpected ways.
With
Duchovny appearing in only six episodes for the eighth season before all but
disappearing through to the ninth season series finale, the producers and
writers had to come up with new characters that could possibly reinvigorate the
series and spin it in a new direction without betraying the core characters of
Mulder and Scully that fans had grown attached to for seven seasons before.
Bringing Robert Patrick onboard proved to be good move, but after seven years of
investing time and emotions in the main characters, it was difficult for any
actor to enter the series as a new male lead and not experience a certain amount
of resentment from the show’s fans. However Robert Patrick did a great job to
a point that when viewers finally got to see Duchovny and Patrick appear in
scenes together, it was a real treat. Unfortunately I think the fact that the
show had gotten too convoluted for it’s own good coupled with the all too
brief appearance of Duchovny in season eight only made his absence in season
nine more of a reminder to fans of how much better the show once was. Anabeth
Gish’s character just never developed enough for me in the show to really
become invested in what happens to her character. I did not want to see her get
hurt or anything, but I also feel that I never got to know this person. Well
with the ninth and final season of “The X-Files” arriving on DVD in the
Spring of 2004, I’ll save my discussion of the relationship between
Patrick’s and Gish’s characters until then.
Season
eight introduced the whole “Super Soldier” alien replacements that felt too
much like “The Terminator” for me especially with Robert Patrick appearing
in the series to remind me of his role in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.”
However there were a few surprises and overall while not as engaging or unique
as the earlier seasons of “The X-Files,” the eighth season does benefit
greatly on DVD because one can watch the shows through and follow the arcs with
more ease instead of waiting weeks between episodes and so on.
This
should be no surprise to “X-Files” fans when I note that as far as picture
quality goes, season eight is by far the best looking of the season box sets to
be released yet. There are no anomalies or grain to speak of. The picture
quality is dark, but still smooth with a feature film like production value that
always made “The X-Files” stand out when it was still airing first run
episodes on Fox. All 21 season eight episodes are presented in their anamorphic
widescreen (1.78:1) aspect ratio with a clear and effective English Dolby
Surround Soundtrack. A French and a Spanish Language Dolby Surround Soundtrack
are also provided for each episode along with English Captions and Closed
Captions for the hearing impaired and Spanish Language Subtitles encoded onto
the discs as options.
Screen
specific episode length audio commentaries for “8X21” and “Existence”
are provided by Director Kim Manners, who is very open in even pointing out
continuity errors in the episodes. Frank Spotnitz also provides a commentary
track for the episode “Alone” In addition there are seven deleted scenes
with optional commentary that can either be viewed in the episodes themselves
through manual branching or individually or as a reel on the sixth disc for the
episodes “Surekill”, “Badlaa”, “Per Manum”, “Empedocles”, and
“Existence.” One minute German, Japanese, and Italian foreign language clips
are also presented for the episodes “Within”, “Via Negativa”, “The
Gift”, “Three Words”, “Essence”, and “Existence.”
A
new thirty-minute documentary entitled “The Truth About Season Eight” is
included, but there is not much interesting insider information revealed here
that one probably has already not been made aware of through magazines,
conventions, and the Internet. Three featurettes focusing on the characters of
“Gibson Praise,” “John Doggett,” and “Alex Krycek” are provided here
from overseas compilations of episodes on home video. There are also seven
special effects demonstrations with commentary by Mat Beck and Paul Rabwin. Two
short TV spots are provided for all 21 episodes too. PC users with Windows 95
and a DVD-ROM player will also have access to a new game entitled
“Existence,” which requires good knowledge of “X-Files” trivia to
complete as one performs an autopsy on an alien abductee, who also happens to be
a “Super Soldier.” The difficulty levels grow higher as the game requires
the player to follow the alien to his ship and ultimately the game sets up the
player for next year’s DVD release of season nine. The menus feature an
animated opening followed by standard interactive still frame menus have been
the case with other season releases and all are easy to navigate.
If
you have been collecting the series sets on DVD this long, then there’s no
reason to stop when after this set there is only one more to get before one can
own the entire series on DVD. “The X-Files: The Complete Eighth Season On DVD
Collector’s Edition” box set will debut at retailers on and offline on
Tuesday, November 4, 2003 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
Buy This DVD Box Set Now By Clicking On The Icon Below!