The X-Files/YMMV

Trope Namer for:

• The Chris Carter Effect

Tropes used in The X-Files/YMMV include:

• Archive Panic: With nine seasons of twenty-odd episodes each, it takes a long time to get through the series if you're starting from the very beginning.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Well, the good guys don't, anyway. Sure, at the end of the finale CSM and Rohrer are both dead and Mulder has escaped. However, many of the conspirators are still alive, our heroes have been forced into a life on the run, they have just discovered the date of a planned alien invasion and are no closer to stopping the alien takeover than they were at the beginning of the pilot.
  • Hell, Mulder spends a good chunk of the final scene going on about how in his pursuit to reveal the truth he's failed remarkably in every regard other than making Scully a believer too, which is really the only thing that keeps the series from veering into Downer Ending territory.
    • At least they're together at the end.
  • Also, with the Myth Arc receiving no screen time in the second movie and the likelihood of Carter's planned third film featuring the alien invasion being on hold indefinitely, it's unlikely the score will change anytime soon.
• Better on DVD: Averted for several years. This was one of the first television shows to be sold on DVD, and so distributors didn't know what the price points should be. For many years the DVD seasons were priced over $100 each.
  • Played straight recently. Now a season is about $15, if you know where to go. (Others keep it priced at $40 a season.)
  • It actually is Better on DVD if you want to avoid Continuity Lock Out in terms of the Mytharc -- especially because of all the double and triple episodes, some of which were even spread over two seasons.
• Broken Base: It's...complicated.
• Complete Monster
• Creator's Pet: Doggett's detractors accuse him of being one of these -- the writers seemed determined to have him save the day as often as possible when he first appeared, even if it required making Scully uncharacteristically weak or stupid.
• Crosses the Line Twice: In "Teliko", the MOTW feeds on pituitary hormones that stimulate production of the pigment melanin -- the one that gives us our skin color. As a result, his preferred victims are people of African descent. As if that weren't enough, Mulder's remark upon seeing one victim's body was:

"I'm sure there's a Michael Jackson joke in there somewhere."

• • Also a Did Not Do the Research, as pituitary melanocyte-stimulating hormone is not responsible for the baseline skin tones of humans. He'd have been better off attacking Caucasians with obvious suntans, or people with Addison's disease.
• Crowning Moment of Funny: Mulder singing Shaft. Enough said.
• Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: The end of The Post-Modern Prometheus comes to mind.
• Dry Docking: Why do you think people were so happy that Mulder and Scully held out for so long?
• Ensemble Darkhorse:
  • A meta-example among the cast and crew: Darin Morgan, who played the fluke man in "The Host," went on to write some of the smartest and funniest episodes of the series, gaining a personal fanbase over the course of the series and playing a more recognizably human Monster of the Week in "Small Potatoes."
  • Skinner is a great example of this played straight. For some people, him just showing up in the second movie was the best thing about it.
  • The Lone Gunmen, as well.
• Fanon Discontinuity: One of the reasons for the whole Broken Base mess alluded to above. People differ on where they put the cutoff, but if you want a calm friendly discussion about the show it's safest to avoid bringing up seasons 8 and 9.
• Funny Aneurysm Moment: "Deep Throat" has a mention of Desert Storm part 2. Ten years later, guess what happened.
• Ho Yay:
  • Mulder and Krycek. Foe Yay after Krycek is revealed to be a double agent.
  • Mulder and Skinner.
  • Mulder in general is...very comfortable with his masculinity. In the season 2 episode "Humbug":

Mr. Nutt: Just because I'm not of so-called average height does not mean I must receive my thrills vicariously. Not all women are attracted to overly tall, lanky men such as yourself. You'd be surprised how many women find my size intriguingly alluring.
Mulder: You'd be surprised how many men do as well.

• • If you're in a Les Yay mood, the two girls in Syzygy are...close.
• Nausea Fuel: "Home". Ew. Double Ew.
  • "Home" was in fact so disturbing that after it first aired, it was banned from network TV.
    • Then there's "Sanguinarium". Dear lord, it's ten times worse!!!
• Nightmare Fuel: Loads of it. Body Horror, Fridge Horror, Nightmare Face, you name it.
  • In "Die Hand Die Verletzt", a high school student is having hallucinations from something involving a cult or... something... and her biology exam requires her to dissect a fetal pig, which comes to life in her mind as she cuts it open. It Got Worse: The teacher casually tells the students "Bonus points for dissecting the heart."
• Paranoia Fuel: The whole. Goddamn. Show.
• Recycled Script: Season 1's "Ice" is about a parasitic alien that caused its victims to turn psychopathic and eventually die in an isolated Antarctic reserve. Season 2 has the similar "Firewalker". It's pretty easy to guess the difference.
  • In fact, doesn't the synopsis to "Ice" sound familiar? (Word of God states it was on purpose, though; they wanted to make an homage to Carpenter's movie.)
• Replacement Scrappy: Both Doggett and Reyes are seen this way by many fans. Doggett got less of it, mostly due to Robert Patrick's performance.
• Retroactive Recognition: Quite a few.
• The Scrappy:
  • Spender and Fowley, probably intentionally. Unintentionally, Doggett and especially Reyes were often seen this way.
  • Around season 8, David Duchovny's real-life actions -- an unfortunately well-publicized lawsuit against Fox over a salary dispute, and increasing derision of the show in interviews -- frustrated some fans enough to bleed over into dislike for Mulder as a character.
• Seasonal Rot: You'll rarely find someone who thinks the show's entire run was worth watching. Most place the rot creeping in around season 7 and in full force for the last two seasons; some argue a downhill trajectory was noticeable earlier, at the beginning of season 6; a few claim it started as early as season 3. (Oddly enough, however, most "worst episode" lists tend to draw heavily from the first two seasons.)
  • Here's a fan's take on it.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: Good God. In the show's heyday, whole websites and mailing lists were devoted to shipping wars. It might be, if not the Ur Example, at least the Trope Codifier.
• Special Effect Failure: Lots of 'em, especially in the first three seasons or so, when the show had little budget to speak of.
  • The swarm of bugs in "Darkness Falls". It's painfully obvious that the bugs are just random dots that move around. When the swarm "moves," it looks like the bugs are confined by a flat surface in the direction of motion.
  • The age-makeup in "Død Kalm". Especially if you compare it to the awesome make-up of victims of an unknown disease a few episodes later.
• Squick: Oh, my, where to start?
  • "Squeeze" is a pretty good place:

Scully: Oh my God, Mulder, it smells like... I think it's bile.
Mulder: Is there any way I can get it off my fingers quickly without betraying my cool exterior?

• • "F. Emasculata" is the squickiest squick that ever squicked. Two Words: Bursting pustules.
  • "Sanguinarium". It may as well be considered the A Serbian Film of the series. A woman vomiting up a bunch of bloody needles is one of the less disgusting things that happens.
• Stoic Woobie: Scully. The more upset she is, the more she'll insist that she's fine.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Ask ten different X Files fans and you're likely to get ten different answers about when, exactly, the show started to suck, but most will agree that Seasons 8 & 9, after Duchovny left, were awful.
  • Bits of 8 were better received than 9, due to the most obvious consequences of The Chris Carter Effect. The 'Scully's baby' plotline was loathed by many, but the Monster of the Week episodes tended to fare better in the ratings and reception.