I'll keep this simple...

Netflix has all seasons of X-Files available for streaming, and I'm thinking of watching it starting from season 1. My question: when do I jump ship? I seem to recall even die-hard fans thinking the show took a sharp downward turn after so many seasons. So, which seasons are must-see?

Hmm, and while I'm at it, same question in regards to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (?)

Thanks in advance...

I was a big X-Files fan. I never really thought that season long quality was bad, but there are some some stinker episodes. In the later years, there were some comedy episodes that were pretty awful. The only problem with bailing is the over arching story from beginning to end.

IMO, if you are jumping in, stay in for the whole thing.

Everyone is different, so there are a couple points when people say to jump ship:

- after the Fight the Future movie (between s.5 and s.6)
- after Mulder solves his sisters disappearance (s.7, e.11 "Closure")
- after Duchovney leaves (s.8)
- watch it to the end!

Jump ship once you start disliking the episodes.

Yep. Ditto for BtVS....

Personally, I thought seasons 1-5 were the best. When the show moved production to Los Angeles in season 6, I thought it lost something. Not to say it was just the change of scenery but the episodes weren't as good and the main story arch started to take a nose dive, imo. Duchovny left the show after season 7 and that's when Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish joined the cast. While there are a few good episodes during those latter seasons, I don't think its enough to justify watching all of them just to see those few. This is just my opinion, though.

I would jump after Duchovny leaves... however if you get to that point and you are digging it, then keep watching.. if not stop watching

I'd quit after seven. It just got terrible after that. I had a group of friends that all used to watch new episodes together and I remember during 8 & 9, every week it'd be like, "Well, maybe next week's won't be as bad."

Why the hell would you jump ship because of someone elses opinion!?

Watch the show and jump when you feel it's no good anymore.

I watched the X-Files to the end and the same with Buffy. It is up to you when you jump, infact I am starting to watch Buffy and Angel again. Just have fun.

Agree with Gunde. I don't get all the hate for seasons 8 and 9. I'm a diehard X-Files fan and I loved those seasons as well...would it have been better if Mulder and Scully had been the leads in those two seasons instead of Doggett and Reyes? Absolutely, but I thought the two new agents held their own.

I love the show but after the movie it went down pretty fast after they pretty much revealed everything. There's some quality episodes here and there after season 5, "Dreamland" comes to mind, but nothing like it was before that. If you really dig the show you'll watch them all.

I would say a good place to stop (If you are not going to watch the whole thing), is when production moved to Vancouver, I believe that was the end of season 5.

I felt season 8 was better than season 7..will agree with most though that season 9 was just a mess.

I understand your response. But at the same time, sometimes it's best to weigh opinions instead of wasting your time, or watching bad episodes that might taint your overall impression of the show. I wish someone had warned me to stop watching "Heroes" after the first season; or to never watch an episode of "Joey" and just believe he never left NY

. Plus, what if the show has a slump, I jump ship, and it turns out it would've gotten better had I plugged along? Most of the responses have confirmed my suspicion, which is that the best eps came before Duchovney left.

Seasons 1 through 5 are great!

The movie comes next and it is also really good!

Seasons 6 and 7 are decent watches, with some EXCELLENT episodes and some stinkers.

With Season 8, watch the first two episodes, then skip to the last 7 or 8 episodes (start with "This Is Not Happening"). The show ends perfectly during the Season 8 finale.

Skip Season 9. The mood is right with the episodes, but its not the same without Mulder. That and the series finale was terrible, nothing but a stupid clip show.

Watch the second movie after you finish Season 8, it's a nice little epilogue to the whole story.

Well, I'm probably one of the biggest XF geeks on this board. Early in the show's run (Season 1), I wrote to Gillian and she and I wrote back and forth for a year and half. Considering how busy she was, I ended up with 6 letters and 2 postcards which I still have in my geeky X-Files scrapbook that I treasure. I went to the conventions, collected trading cards, and, at one point, met other couples who watched the show (who had been total strangers) and we'd all get together and watch that week's episode. That last for about one season too. The X-Files led me to my very first time using the internet to post messages and read things other people wrote, like a very early version of dvdtalk at something like alt.xfiles or something like that. I have piles of magazines and tv guides with David and/or Gillian on the cover and I have no plan to EVER throw the stuff out. So, I'd be the guy who'd defend the show until the very end, right? No, the last two seasons were pretty bad, the last season was dreadful, and the finale was one of the worst finales of any show. It made Seinfeld's finale look like a masterpiece.

But like others have mentioned, I still can't imagine not going along with the show and seeing how it ends. It might take you longer to get through the last two seasons, but if you get that far, and you probably would, you're probably going to watch just to see what happens. It's like reading a really long book with a few bad chapters, you're still going to want to know the whole story imo.

That's how I'd approach Buffy too. Yes, some of it was bad, but I'm still glad that I saw the entire story. And despite the problems with a few seasons, the X-Files and Buffy remain tied as my favorite television programs.

In my personal opinion, "The X-Files" lost it's greatness somewhere in the beginning of season 7, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the show got bad. A lot of people will comment about how shitty the series became, but that was only in relation to the amazingness of the first 6 seasons, and when compared with other television at the time is still some of the best your going to see.

As for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" - you should never jump ship. It is an amazing series, and like all TV shows does have it's ups and downs, but it's a very fun rewarding journey if you make it the entire way. The sixth season is generally recognized by fans as the worst in the series, but I've spoken to many people who when they give the season a second chance realize all the things that they were overlooking and begin to appreciate the season for what it was meant to be. Season 7 starts out a little slow, but once things get in motion it's actually a pretty crazy ride to finale.

Nitpicky, but Gish wasn't a regular until season 9. I think she might have been in 1-2 episodes in season 8.

Robert Patrick and subsequently, Doggett was awesome. Gish was the weak link. I think s.9 suffered because of both her, and trying to shoehorn Scully into plots or episodes she didn't belong. They should have just run with it in another direction instead of forcing Mulder and Scully into the show those last two seasons. The fans that were left I think were open to the show going anywhere, but constantly reminding us every other week, by inserting Mulder or Scully, just was a constant reminder of years gone by.

Jump ship when you want to stop watching it. You'll know when.

You're exactly right. Most of us really just wanted them to go on, but with Patrick and Gish and take the show in a totally different direction. Almost like a spin-off, but without changing the name.

They needed to end the Mulder and Scully storyline in a satisfying way and one in which they could come back again in future films. Of course they did come back in the very average 2nd XF movie, which made me really convinced Chris Carter got lucky to have some great collaborators for many years, but wasn't particularly good at handling the show alone or with the newer people that came in. If that 2nd film had even been a modest hit like the first one, I'm sure we'd have another film to look forward to, but now there's almost no chance of it happening. What a shame. I, for one, think the first film doesn't get the credit it deserves. It's quite good imo.

Gish gets a bad rap (and maybe you're right) but I still think her and Patrick had good chemistry, so had it just been the two of them moving forward, I think it would have been fine maybe for 5 more years, who knows?

Seasons one through five (and the first movie) are must-see.

Season six... they sort of start to take the show in a different direction with a big twist that never really paid off.

Season seven is a mess. As far as I can tell, David Duchovney's contract was up and they weren't sure if he would back for an eighth season, so they had this season in kind of a holding pattern, with a lot one-off and humor episodes, while introducing a couple of left-field plot devices they could use to write Mulder out of the show. Also, the reveal of what happened to Mulder's sister is a big WTF moment.

Season eight was marginally better than season seven if you're looking at the quality of the episodes, but it doesn't resolve anything from the first seven years.

Season nine is where it really goes off of the rails. They were explicitly (and clumsily) pulling the show into new directions -- mostly with a new conspiracy -- without ever resolving the first big conspiracy. The final episode tries to pull everything together, but it's ultimately unsatisfying and leaves the mythology wide open for a movie that will probably never happen.

As for Buffy, go ahead and watch the whole thing, though season six and seven are rather clunky.

when mulder leaves it definitely goes downhill but it's worth sticking with it to the end. IIRC it still has some good moments with the new agents

I would say don't jump ship on either of them. The X-Files was good till the end. Yes, the show lost something when Mulder left, but Robert Patrick was very good and the episodes were still strong.

Buffy is just so good, all the way to the finish. I will say, though, if you really want to do it right- find out when Angel began (think around Buffy season 4) and start alternating the episodes (I think on a given week, Buffy aired first). You will have fun watching the way the shows carefully crossed over onto each other, delicately skipping around the fact that they were on different networks. Angel was just as good as Buffy (though very different and a little harder to get into, it pays off), and the experience of both is enriched by watching them the way they aired.

This. There's was like one, maybe two decent episodes after the production move.