Oh yes, it was an awesome and very ambitious show. I mean, to this day there's never been a one-hour show that used so many special effects and had so many action scenes. And the slowly developing intimacy and passion between Scully and Mulder tied everything together. I hardly ever watch anything more than once, but I own the entire X-Files oeuvre, including both movies.

I liked X-files for the opposing "monster of the week" stories, I just never really got into the whole "invasion" story.

I'm the same way, agentcorvid.

Yeah, the mythology got so confusing, confused and contradictory it became laughable to me. Of course, I watched it on DVD, so I didn't have to wait years between connected episodes, and I think that made the contradictions more obvious.

That said, there were still plenty of really good moments, even in the mythology episodes.

I was into the alien invasion arc up to the point where... wait, that's a spoiler. Anyway, it lost me, but the Mulder/Scully relationship remained one of the best on TV. I also loved the Lone Gunmen more than most and was severely disappointed in the direction their short-lived series went (but I own the Entire Series DVD). Chris Carter also ruined Millennium by re-routing the story arc twice in three years; I don't know how much of all that was his idea or the influence of the Scifi-hating Fox Network, but it should've been a big fat red flag to other producers: DON'T TAKE YOUR GENRE SHOWS THERE.

The mythology and the show in general was great for the first few seasons but went downhill rapidly. The last couple of seasons pissed me off so much that despite loving the show at one point, I never have bought even the first two seasons on DVD.

Sorry, yet another monster-of-the-week fan here. I liked the way it was a lot more uncertain. What would the monster be? Would it be one of the rare times when Scully was right and it was a hoax? What would happen to the monster?

It felt like you'd get a resolution, whereas every alien episode you knew it would end with Mulder knowing the aliens were there but not getting any firm evidence, as that would destroy the whole plot setup. It would only have been worth it if in the series finale Mulder had dragged an alien onto live CNN.

I'd still worry you'll miss some important stuff by skipping the monster of the week episodes. I only liked the aliens/conspiracy episodes, but watched them all when it was on tv. it was great for most of its run, but the last few years were crap.

The last few years weren't that bad. The problem with them, of course, was that Mulder wasn't in them, and the show just wasn't the same at all without the Mulder/Scully relationship. Also there wasn't much humour because with Mulder first abducted and then on the run the bereft Scully couldn't be seen to be having too good a time. However, the writing was about as good as ever, there were some very inventive plots, and there were some fun moments (I have fond memories of the time Scully did a cat autopsy on her kitchen table), and Gillian Anderson, Annabeth Gish and Robert Patrick gave it their all. The shows are pretty watchable until you compare them to the previous seasons, and then they seem soulless.