Jumping the shark needs to be something truly insane and out of character. Since the X-Files features many shades of mutant and monster, it's jump the shark would need to be big. Really big.
I remember when Amanda and I started dating and she introduced me to Gilmore Girls. A solid show that features a quintessential of "jumping the shark." We never got to see the final season on TV, because we did not have cable that year and Ithaca is infamous for it's lack of over the air broadcasts. I once got a Christian gospel channel and the FOX affiliate out of Syracuse with a massive English Lop style bunny ear antennae.
When we received the final season of DVD, we eagerly awaited for a resolution. Then there was that episode where a pickle train derails outside of Stars Hollow and makes the whole town stink of dill!
Oy! My sides! The hilarity just writes itself with that concept. Stop it Palladinos! You're killing me!
I mean, Stars Hollow, CT could not really exist to begin with, but do trains full of pickles criss cross our nation? Do they say "Pickles" on the side of the box cars? Are the box cars shaped like pickles, like in the Richard Scary books! Wouldn't the state or NTSB be involved in the gerkin disposal. Not the usual army of volunteers from Stars Hollow. The town could raise an army to rival Hannibal's elephants. And the quips they would deliver! OY!
That was crazy and we both just watched the rest to see what happened. Oh, and when did Rory become a stary-eyed hopeless romantic. Wasn't she going to change the world? Thankfully, Lorelai totally ends up with Luke, which is how it should be! WOOOOO!
OK, let's get back to X-Files. That is why I gave you that little picture of John Dogget and Monica Reyes. It is X-Files week. A Gilmore Girls week would probably result in me getting my ass kicked.
Duchovny's departure was a loss. Initially, I was left reeling. Where would X-Files go without Mulder? Isn't he the entire reason that unit got off the ground, albeit still in the basement offices of the FBI. I pretty much freaked out!
I now realize that losing Mulder did some good for the series. In a show where the agents are shot at, attacked by monsters, and killer viruses, it would make sense that a main character either dies or decides to retire. Mulder does neither, but within the show's organic potential, his exit is understandable. It would have been weirder if one of the characters from Friends got their head decapitated by driving a convertible under a truck trailer. The kids from Central Perk do not routinely engage in death defying so such a trick would be a true jump the shark.
In the wake of Duchovny's departure and Anderson's mostly behind the scene roles in the final seasons, we got new X-Files agents. I think that time has justified Agent John Doggett and Agent Monica Reyes. When they first appeared, there was this universal feeling of betrayal that the writers incorporated into the show. Upon first meeting Doggett, Scully is distrustful of the man supposedly sent to find Mulder and throws water in his face. I am not a mean ahead of my time, but I always liked Doggett and Reyes.
First off, Robert Patrick is a woefully undervalued actor. His role as the T-1000 brought him to national attention, but it limits the roles he is assigned. I would not cast Patrick to play the dad on 7th Heaven, but he excels in the Doggett role. He is just a good cop put into an insane unit. And with a mind better suited at finding murderers and kidnappers, he is supposed to track down batmen and guys made out of metal. He showed a sense of wonder when first encountering paranormal phenomenon (Even though he kept it inside) and stood in stark contract to Mulder. I love Mulder, but he always seemed to know what was the monster or anomaly. His sense of amazement came from "I told you so and here is proof." Doggett's comes from "HOLY SHIT. That guy's arm just melted off his body!" We got to spend a few seasons with Doggett and he has a nice enough repertoire to get a handle on his character.
Annabeth Gish, who plays Monica Reyes, had even less time to develop her character. You could feel that in her episodes where she sometimes came off a New Age Flower Girl with a gun and other times felt like something akin to Law and Order: SVU's Detective Olivia Benson. Oh, and she was half-Mexican too. With another season or two the writers could have could have sharpened her character into the "Mulder-lite" she was supposed to represent. She brought this wonderful sincerity and energy to the duo. If Mulder was smug, Scully was stubborn, and Dogget gruff, then Reyes was just wonder. She was everyone's inner fan, that little voice that kept saying, "Isn't this stuff cool!?" One-time X-Files Agent Leyla Harrison is supposed to be our onscreen X-Files fanatic (And she does this wonderfully), but Reyes represents that curiosity the convinced so many people back in 1993 to stay in on a Friday night.
Doggett and Reyes could have carried the show beyond the ninth season. If the FBI really did have a X-Files unit then you would most likely see something like Doggett and Reyes. Again, I want Mulder and Scully to come to my wedding, but the team up is a bit implausible. Scully is the young and bright doctor that gave up medicine to become a talented FBI agent. Oh, and she is hot! Mulder is another young agent who could have caught the Green River Killer if allowed, but gave up that gift to become an encyclopedia of paranormal knowledge. Oh, and he is hot too!
Doggett and Reyes were also supposed to share a muted romance. I admit it would be a bit lazy to have these two agents fall in love as well (Is there something about those basement offices that make people fall in love? The gypsum board? The decaying celluloid of Mulder's dirty movies?), but it would have been nice to see. They could have approached it from a different angle then the Scully and Mulder romance. If Doggett and Reyes knew that their relationship would get them in the same situation as Mulder and Scully, then they could have taken it slow and nuanced.
It has been about six years since The X-Files left the air. This is all water under the bridge, but in light of the movie coming out tomorrow, you cannot help to ask...What if we were still tuning in?
Peace!
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