Xfiles and Buffy both had that pattern. Overarching plot episodes. And then creature features. Hush comes to mind. As does Liver Boy.
Good examples/points.
A bit of humour saves a lot of screenplay issues tho.Yeah a lot of these shows started out with a monster-of-the-week format before focussing more on longer arcs over time. It makes sense to keep audiences invested, since otherwise things become predictable and low stakes. The detours from that kinda take the role of filler episodes.
Tension release. To do otherwise would be like a chase scene that lasts 2 hours.
Yeah I realize it came across as critical unintentionally. The side plot episodes aren’t bad, they provide balance.
Rewatching the whole series, and experienced this whiplash in Season 7.
Mulder has just received closure on his life-long hunt for his sister. An emotional episode about loss and faith.
Play next episode: What if Mulder and Scully were on COPS? ‘Bad Boys, Bad Boys, Whatcha gonna do?…”
I’ve never seen The X-Files because I was a child in the 90s and the theme song sends me into a full blown psychosis, but that sounds a lot like the Star Trek formula.
I feel like Supernatural did the best job of walking the line between the over arching plot episodes and monster of the week. Even tying them together. As opposed to the cancer man showing up in a silent cut shot as an episode ends.
Sometimes even worse, the next episode has the same but even more messed up issue than literally the previous episode had, but the character forgot between episodes how unbelievably triggering that is for them so it was ok.
Also how sometimes the x subjects are just misunderstood (chars won’t take a clear shot) & then other times they cut them in half with a sliding door.
Lots of just random normalised brutality too, like how police beats up & then shoots in the back some guy over a traffic violation.
Both agents also use more jargon for “stat” than all the combined technobabble of Star Trek. Everything has to be now, damn it! (lots of fake suspension that isn’t tied in with the actual screenplay)
They also use top of the line Apple laptops & have unsupervised travel budget.
Well, it is the FBI…
My favorite thing about the X-Files was the spin-off called Millennium, whose second season was some of the best TV I have ever watched. It even did crossovers with The X-Files, like “Jose Chung’s Doomsday Defense”, a blistering satire of Scientology.
