MovieChat Forums > The X Files (1993) Discussion > Chris Carter was NEVER going to give us ...

Chris Carter was NEVER going to give us closure.

posted 5 years ago by Snoopy828 (496)
44 replies | jump to latest

It just really sucks to say the least. One of my all time favorite shows. This guy had sooooooo many chances to end this baby, and end it with dignity. Instead he seemed more content just spinning the wheels.

The show had it's finale in 2002. He botched that, as he did with the entirety of Season 9 turning the episode into a silly clip show. OK. Fine it happens. Whatever.

He gets another chance in 2008 with the second movie. Now he only got to make that film because of the writers strike. First thing they announce is that it's NOT going to be about the 2012 invasion, but instead it'll be a monster of the week. OK. Fine but then at least make it a good monster of the week. Again fail.

Next we get the revival series. On a whim. Like an idiot I'm thinking ok here's his third and probably last chance to do this right. But once again NOT gonna happen. It occurred to me during the first revival season, and then all throughout the second revival season that this guy never had any intention of ever giving us closure. This guy only wanted to keep the party going for as long as possible.

Carter is like the guy at the party who stays until 6 in the morning. Everyone is gone, everyone has either passed out or went home, and this guy is roaming around like a drunken imbecile oblivious to the fact that it's OVER. I mean it's common knowledge that Vince Gilligan of breaking bad worked on the X files, and him and Carter are good friends. You'd think he'd take a look at his buddy, and his BB success and say to himself "oh man Vince did it right." "You know audience members want a definitive ending, they want you to end when the show is on top. Well it's too late for that, but maybe I can give them closure once and for all." No but I won't, I'll just drag this thing out for as long as humanly possible until the most die hard of X Files fans hate me for ruining this once great series." To say I'm frustrated with this man would be a massive understatement.

[–] ebhaynz (3528) 5 years ago

Carter is just taking a ride on the money train. Not many great ideas after season 5.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Chris Carter never had a game plan. He created the X Files based on a whim to cash in on the JFK/Area 54 craze and didn't expect the show to last more than a season. Then the show caught on, became huge, and he was caught with his pants down needing to flesh out a conspiracy (which he also created on a whim) that he never had the intention of seeing through. He then strung viewers all along with this promise that there was going to be this mind-blowing, brilliant conspiracy in the end.

I thought it was pretty obvious to fans on the show's first run that this is what happened, but they never gave up. I did. I knew by the Doggett years that it was all horse crap, which is why I didn't bother with the movie or the reboot. I wouldn't call Carter a hack, but just a guy who caught lightning in a bottle and is holding onto the bottle long after the lightning faded out and the bottle turned yellow with age.

[–] ebhaynz (3528) 5 years ago

I gotta admit he caught several lightning strikes in a bottle with the show, not just the ideas/writing/production but how about great casting for the Mulder and Scully characters? and then more great casting for the Cigarette smoking man and Skinner and so many of the iconic characters like Tooms, Clyde Bruckman, and Duane Barry?
I've always heard Chris Carter worked really hard to get Fox to greenlight the show, he may have hit lightnings in a bottle but I think he put a whole lot of thought and hard work into making the show a huge success.

[–] SammiWin (1112) 5 years ago

What exactly do you want though? A complete nail in the coffin ending with Mulder and Scully dying? Or the aliens being defeated/or fully taking over? Endings are really hard, if that's what you are referring to as closure.

I don't think Carter even knows what/where he was going with it... How "Season 10" ended was like, wow, we are really going to go there but, when the next "Season" came around it was all erased, like none of that even happened. So, who knows what is going on in that dudes head. If he could give us a full on mythology movie, that would great, but I don't see that happening to everyone's liking. You cant redo Fight the Future. I'd love to see more X Files, but I don't want another "Heroes Reborn"

[–] avortac4 (3458) 2 years ago

I would want it to be like 'Yes, Minister', but about the governmental cover-ups and reverse engineering and all that has to do with the UFO phenomenon. No black goo, no monsters of the week, not necessarily even cancer man.

Just governmental officials trying to expose and cover-up the stuff, just the way the Minister is trying to do the right thing and Sir Humphrey is deflating all his attempts and ideas in a clever way that rings very true to how things probably are (though they're a hundred times more sinister and powerful in real life).

If they could've done this show the way 'Yes, Minister' is done, it'd be less about the 'story' and more about 'how the government operates', except it would be about this specific topic of secrecy, cover-ups, shadow government, the people with REAL power and their own, sinister motives, and so on.

It wouldn't be a superficial story about characters, one of which is always going missing or whatnot, or about some other macguffin, like a tape.

With clever enough writing, the same kind of 'fictional, but very close to how the truth actually is'-style of thought-provocative, understanding-expanding stuff could be done with this show as was done with 'Yes, Minister' - it was a comedy, but with extremely well-written, very 'true-to-life' situations and revelations about how things are done, that might have leaked more information than the powerful governments would have liked for people to ever know.

Why, oh, why couldn't this show be like THAT? Then we wouldn't have to worry about 'cliffhangers' or 'closures', as real life doesn't have those.. just tell us the truth and show us how the masses are duped about these topics, and you'll have the perfect show.

[–] WhoToTrust (975) 2 years ago

Ever watched The 11th Green? It's available on Amazon and includes some of the various storyline characteristics you've mentioned.

[–] TheArgentinian (6440) 5 years ago

As long as the series is profitable, you'll never get closure

[–] janelsenor (2042) 5 years ago

You're right. This is why Gillian Anderson got fed up and quit. I don't blame her.

[–] howgamer (3647) 5 years ago

I agree with you for the most part. I would have liked some closure, but he is just cashing in and has no idea how to end it. I was OK with the 2008 film being a monster of the week; it's just that the film was so bland and poorly executed.

As for the revival series, I thought season 10 had some really good episodes and the finale was great. Maybe I was overly excited that the X-Files were back and I thought OK we are going to get an ending, this is fantastic. Overall I enjoyed season 10. Then season 11 happened and I knew we had been conned as everything was just NOPE it's all just a vision! Honestly I only made it through a few episodes of that season before I had enough. I kind of wish the revival season never existed and we just had the open-ended conclusion from 2002.

[–] BillySlater (4097) 5 years ago

I thought 10 was very mediocre, the only shining light was the were-monster episode but that is pretty meaningless because the comedy episodes are supposed to be few and far between and they were generally pretty good anyway but the tone of the show had just changed too much not to mention the mythology and new characters were trash. Not to mention Scully´s constant whispering . I would also really love to know who thought it was a good idea to have Mulder being offered a blow-job by a gay man in an X-files episode.

[–] BillySlater (4097) 4 years ago

I don´t think the revival was ever about closure, it was pretty clear from the outset, he just wanted to keep the show going and going. Carter was always about dragging the show out for as long as possible. He really should have ended it after season 7 after the Samantha story-line had wrapped up.

[–] R_Kane (15828) 4 years ago

So, it seems that we can conclude that, despite how many fans this thing had, it was ultimately all sound and fury, and only that.