I watched X-Files first time when it began airing regular episodes here in 1999. I followed it devoutly. It had a dark , serious sometimes sinister tone with lots of mystery and open endings. The main characters , Mulder and Scully , opposites working on unresolved paranormal cases were written as loners , dedicated professionals and trusted partners/friends for each other. The conspiracy mythology started great and went on OK for first four or five seasons with different elements adding on top of each other. The X-Files movie in 1998 was cherry on the top for that subject. Standalone episodes were impressive too. Episodes like "Jersey Devil" or "Home" scared the hell out of me and were just made fine. They usually kept a door open for different possibilities even at the end of episodes which I liked. Grittiness , scare and mystery factors with lots of creativity kept this show alive....
....until Season 6 I guess. That's when things began to go downhill. Season 7 was worse. A very unnecessary campiness and cheese factor was added to show , became a more dominant factor and it lowered previous quality. There were still some good stand alone episodes here and there but alien conspiracy arc became more and more complicated plus illogical , ignoring previous continuity. Story elements didn't make sense in larger picture. ( ultra powerful syndicate was wiped out all too easily at one stroke , Mulder came out as CSM's son , Mulder's father/mother plus ex-girlfriend was involved in conspiracy , Scully got pregnant , Mulder's sister became "starlight" , Krychek played double so many times and cheated death it became really silly. M/S became romantically involved and remained partners etc ) On top of that an unnecessary comedy and lightness element became more and more apparent even in stand alone episodes and it became very tedious. I mean this show was close to being a classic like Twin Peaks , Twilight Zone or Outer Limits but it became more like a stupid teenage fun romp like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Stargate. When the series began to have fun with itself with episodes like "X-Cops" or "Hollywood AD" it sunk completely. During its last two seasons producers tried to save it by injecting new characters , plot elements and new layers to conspiracy. The new characters were OK. For example John Doggett played by Robert Patrick was a very well written and developed character. One exception aside all episodes around him brought back some of the serious air X-Files used to have. Unfortunetely the series was going all too long. Creativity was mostly gone. The conspiracy plot became more and more unbelievable and full of nonsense and became so complicated it was clear CC and his team hadn't planned ahead. The finale didn't bring any resolutions or clear answers either. It just confirmed what we knew all along with a date and showed some old faces , that's it.
In my opinion Season 1-5 are golden years of X-Files. They are full of suspense, thrill and intrigue. After that it becomes more and more an action/comedy show and begins to repeat itself ( it can not be avoided after all it went on for nine seasons )
....until Season 6 I guess. That's when things began to go downhill. Season 7 was worse. A very unnecessary campiness and cheese factor was added to show , became a more dominant factor and it lowered previous quality. There were still some good stand alone episodes here and there but alien conspiracy arc became more and more complicated plus illogical , ignoring previous continuity. Story elements didn't make sense in larger picture. ( ultra powerful syndicate was wiped out all too easily at one stroke , Mulder came out as CSM's son , Mulder's father/mother plus ex-girlfriend was involved in conspiracy , Scully got pregnant , Mulder's sister became "starlight" , Krychek played double so many times and cheated death it became really silly. M/S became romantically involved and remained partners etc ) On top of that an unnecessary comedy and lightness element became more and more apparent even in stand alone episodes and it became very tedious. I mean this show was close to being a classic like Twin Peaks , Twilight Zone or Outer Limits but it became more like a stupid teenage fun romp like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Stargate. When the series began to have fun with itself with episodes like "X-Cops" or "Hollywood AD" it sunk completely. During its last two seasons producers tried to save it by injecting new characters , plot elements and new layers to conspiracy. The new characters were OK. For example John Doggett played by Robert Patrick was a very well written and developed character. One exception aside all episodes around him brought back some of the serious air X-Files used to have. Unfortunetely the series was going all too long. Creativity was mostly gone. The conspiracy plot became more and more unbelievable and full of nonsense and became so complicated it was clear CC and his team hadn't planned ahead. The finale didn't bring any resolutions or clear answers either. It just confirmed what we knew all along with a date and showed some old faces , that's it.
In my opinion Season 1-5 are golden years of X-Files. They are full of suspense, thrill and intrigue. After that it becomes more and more an action/comedy show and begins to repeat itself ( it can not be avoided after all it went on for nine seasons )