Earlier this week, Prairie and I finally finished an ongoing project of the past few years and made it to the end of the seventh season of West Wing. It was such a good show, and it’s really a bummer that there’s no more on the way.
We’re almost done with Season Five of X-Files, after which we’ll be getting the movie and then exiting gracefully. I’ve had too many people I trust iffy on the quality of the post-film X-Files, so that seems to be a good place to leave off.
From here on out, we have various incarnations of Star Trek as a backup when we don’t have anything else in progress (currently somewhere in Season Four of TNG, I think, with DS9 after that already in the home collection), more Simpsons whenever a new season gets released, and we’ve dropped Season Two of Lost in the Netflix queue (as we gave up trying to keep up with their erratic schedule midway through last season and are now way behind).
For a guy who doesn’t much like TV, I’m sure enjoying some of the shows. Quite a bit after the fact, but it’s so much nicer this way!
Have to agree with you, Mike. I’ve worked my way through several series this way that I never caught, or caught very minimally, while they aired: the entire Joss Whedonverse, Smallville, Oz, The Sopranos, and, most recently, Scrubs.
I think the X-Files just got caught up with itself, and dragging it out so long that they never even knew where they were going… and I lost interest. It’s still a decent show, I just think they failed to deliver on the “overall plot/arc” of the show.
I love LOST, but after seeing Season 2 and so far in Season 3… I fear the same thing. It’s not that the episodes suck or anything, I enjoy it… I just feel they honestly don’t know where they are going.
NONONONONO! Don’t give up on The X-Files after the movie. The series certainly started going downhill, but the following seasons also included some of the greatest individual episodes.
You had Victoria Jackson as the girlfriend of a guy who claimed he could control the weather. Mulder and Scully go undercover as the most awkward married couple in a deadly gated community (some of their best interaction). Bruce “Don’t Call Me Ash” Campbell guests as a demon looking for love. A great appearance by the Lone Gunmen makes you wonder how they botched that spinoff. And, of course, “Triangle” – probably the most creative episode they ever did with the best cinematography you’ll ever see in a TV show.
And I didn’t even mention Duchovny switching bodies with Lenny for a hysterical two-parter. And that’s all just in season 6!
Seriously, the core episodes that followed the conspiracy plotline could really drag after the movie, but there were so many good episodes you’d be better off getting it from Netflix and just skipping certain ones.