Shark Bytes

when the writers realized they had a hit on their hands they turned it from a creepy cult show with occasional UFO lore stories thrown in, to a cluttered soap opera like mess, it got so sloppy that they just forgot storylines or dropped them (Ship in the Sea) (Krycek Controlling Skinner With The Nanotechnology)i would have to say series 3 was the jumping point because thats when it went mainstream and sold out the hardcore fans.

When they went from self contained episodes to a running soap opera

Didn't jump with Duchovny's departure, Robert Patrick actually did a great job. The baby storyline was terrible, the death of TLG and CSM and Krychek and Duchovny's egotistical tired, phoned in performance in the few seasons before he left. Oh yeah, and the mysticism of almost a decade of built up episodes was sucked right out with "The Truth's" boring courtroom scenes.

This show started out great. Like someone said ... kind of Twilight Zone / Outer Limits like. But the shark was the "conspiracy." It dragged out waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long without any closure. I was a major fan for years until I learned that I didn't really care about the conspiracy. I didn't care if Mulder's sister was abducted by aliens. I didn't care if the government was hiding aliens. I lost interest when I figured it would take too dang long for it to unravel. When will TV producers/writers figure out that conspiracies that drag on for seasons just don't work? They just get stupid.

Season 4 is when the writing of jump the shark first appeared on the wall and each subsequent season the writing on the wal got larger and broader. This show was at it's best in seasons 1-3 when it was still in it's Twilight Zone/Outer Limits mode --often cribbing substantially from them. Once the comedic episodes start coming along fast and furious, well that was it.

One thing that I have found watching series on DVD over a short period of time is that the beginning of the decline is far more obivious then when they were originally broadcasted over the period of years. It is interesting that with most TV shows the declines all seem to happend in the around the 4th season mark.

the show had 3 separate jumps. first is the 2 'full disclosure' episodes (two fathers, one son) which threw away the whole mytharc without solving it at all. the second is more standard. season 7. it's simply bad. they quickly went from season six classics like Triangle to fake magicians and snake handling priests. S7 had a few highlights though, 'All Things' is quite beautiful, giliian anderson is quite a talented lady. but the new storyline seems pretty standard/bland. then the third and most important jumps of course duchovnys exit. this is a dead horse im beating but id rather be accurate than different. also season 8 doesnt feel the same, even when mulder returns half way through, it lost the classic feel. although 'Existence' is the best season finale of the series. season 9 is terrible and i cant bear to write much about it. but 'The Truth' has a cool episode title and a great final scene with perfect dialogue

"the movie" and "moved from b.c. to l.a." happened at the same time, how would it be two different jumps?

> electricity man (played by jack black)

That's wrong.
The electricity man was played by a young Giovanni Ribisi. Jack Black was playing his best friend.

Having recently purchased the deluxe box set, I was happy to watch episode after episode without once seeing the show jump the shark ... until the end of Season 7, and then there are 3 episodes in a row that are really, hum, how shall I say, lame?!
The Agent Doggett episodes are good -- lots of classic X Files -- but they just don't hold the same interest. Although it's hysterical when Robert Patrick decides to push the NY accent after 7 or 8 episodes into the season!

The standalones quickly got repetitve.
Nearly everyone of them is a man who has special powers that kill people. THATS IT.

e.g.
msn who can stand in your blindspot
man made of cancer
metal bones man (who broke the car)
electricity man (played by jack black)
man whose shadow kills you
fire man
and MANY MANY more

Mulder always guessed what was killing people as if he was a psychic.

After all the weird stuff Scully had seen she was always playing the skeptic role.
The skeptic role was handed over to skinner after scully had seen some weird stuff which was a good move.

The main-story episodes always amounted to nothing, another exercise in stretching the show to last as long as possible.

A great premise for a show with some good episodes but it needed some more original ideas for episode plots like Star Trek had.

[quote]Did anyone else notice that Scully turned from a pudgy and plain woman into a sculptured beauty?Was she just growing out of her babyfat or did she have work done?[/quote]


Gillian Anderson was pregnant in seasons 1 and 2, that's where the abduction storyline came from, giving her time off to have the baby. And that's why they tended to put her in unflattering trenchcoats in late season 1 and early season 2

The JTS of the x files was slow and PAINFUL it started out so great: season 1 and 2 were classic, in season 3 however something was missing, 4 was kept afloat by scully's cancer storyline then BAM season 5 appears suddenly there is two alien races running about - honestly it was like friggin doctor who, the movie was good but then season 6 began and the comedic episodes were the first nail in the coffin, season 7 gave us the pathetic and deeply unsatisfying climax to the samantha story arc, the trend continued in the last two seasons as Carter and co systematically destroyed the show (Killing off characters needlessly) (Dogget, Reyes) (Scully having baby)(Scully giving up her baby) The final episode of the show was dire, making little sense and alienating the show's hardcore fans by being a clip show (how original) I want to believe that the last four seasons never existed.

X-Files jumped the shark after season 5. In the first season there were the writing team of Glen Morgan and James Wong (who would go on to do Space: Above and Beyond) and a writer named Howard Gordon that paired up with various others including Chris Carter. This gave the show it's solid foundation.
In season two Glen's brother Darrin played the "Flukeman" in the second episode and shortly after was recruited as a writer. Darrin would go on to write some of the X-Files top favourite fan episodes like "Blood," "Humbug," and "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose."
At the end of season five all four of these writers bailed, and the show shifted production from dark Vancouver to bright and sunny LA. This is where the show "jumped the shark."
Howard Gordon went on to do the brilliant but short lived "Strangeworld," and is now a head writer and producer for the series "24."

X Files is one of my favorite shows of all time. I watched it from the first episode until its overdue demise, and now I have all the seasons on DVD and watch the first 7 seasons often. I do think the show jumped around season 7, and much of season 8 and pretty much all of season 9 are a hot mess. I think the decline in script quality, "supersoldiers" plot, and Mulder leaving have been covered in great detail, so I will leave those topics alone.

However, I will bring up something I noticed as I've been watching the last few seasons recently--the gross factor was definitely kicked up a few notches. Of course, the show always had its disgusting moments, but in seasons 8 and 9 (9 especially), the violence often seems gratuitous, and dare I say it, just plain icky as opposed to appropriately creepy. I would guess this was firstly a result of the poor scripts and secondly a possible attempt at shock value for ratings grabs--but I thought I would throw it out there as an interesting fact.

I don't think it did. I take jumping the shark to mean a show has past its peak and has become unrecognizable. It might have had some twists fans may or may not have liked, but it kept a pretty solid fanbase and stuck to its constants until the end. I find the worst episode to be better than practically everything else currently on TV.