Season one is what we call the 'Fluffy Chickens' phase. I think it's best if you come back to it after seeing Mulder and Scully live through the next seven years of getting progressively more cynical, and then come back to S1 and it's like sudden sunlight. S2 and S3 are quite good, and I personally think that's where the best-plotted of the mytharc/conspiracy stuff is, and some of the best character work, but they weren't standout and have a lot of bad filler eps. S4 and S5 are just pretty consistently good, with a lot of really excellent one-shot episodes, and some solid plot and character work on the ongoing stories.
The reason everyone is probably mentioning them, though, is that they also had the very slashiest episodes of all. The ones where Mulder and Krycek are handcuffed together, hike across Siberia, and end up in a gulag together? And the one where they kissed, and all that? S4 and S5.
S6 and S7 still have a lot of good one-shots - some of the very best one-shot episodes, that always get named on people's favorites lists, turn up then. But the movie was between S5 and S6, and they completely screwed over the conspiracy/plotline stuff in the movie, and it never came anywhere close to making sense, or even being particularly interesting, after that. Also, Krycek got a girlfriend and some really ham-handed characterization. But you can't miss the goofy and excellent one-shots in S6 and S7 that the others have mentioned on this thread.
After S7, Mulder's actor quit, and they took away Scully's characterization in favor of making her all of her plotlines be about her uterus. I actually like the new characters they brought on for S8 and S9, and some of what they did with the plot, and some of the one-shots, but you have to pretend it's a completely different show, which had a completely different Mulder and Scully in it.
It's as if in Stargate S9 and S10, instead of having Jack retire in glory, they had him run off and join the NID, and Teal'c was killed off in a stupid way, and Hammond was demoted, and Daniel went to Atlantis, and they knocked up Sam with Jack's baby, and made her stop kicking ass in favor of having her weep and worry. Oh, and the Goa'uld just sort of faded off the radar instead of actually being dealt with. Cam and Vala and Landry and the Orii storyline would have *still* been great fun, it would just be very, very hard for Stargate fans to see past all the fail enough to appreciate that.
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The reason everyone is probably mentioning them, though, is that they also had the very slashiest episodes of all. The ones where Mulder and Krycek are handcuffed together, hike across Siberia, and end up in a gulag together? And the one where they kissed, and all that? S4 and S5.
S6 and S7 still have a lot of good one-shots - some of the very best one-shot episodes, that always get named on people's favorites lists, turn up then. But the movie was between S5 and S6, and they completely screwed over the conspiracy/plotline stuff in the movie, and it never came anywhere close to making sense, or even being particularly interesting, after that. Also, Krycek got a girlfriend and some really ham-handed characterization. But you can't miss the goofy and excellent one-shots in S6 and S7 that the others have mentioned on this thread.
After S7, Mulder's actor quit, and they took away Scully's characterization in favor of making her all of her plotlines be about her uterus. I actually like the new characters they brought on for S8 and S9, and some of what they did with the plot, and some of the one-shots, but you have to pretend it's a completely different show, which had a completely different Mulder and Scully in it.
It's as if in Stargate S9 and S10, instead of having Jack retire in glory, they had him run off and join the NID, and Teal'c was killed off in a stupid way, and Hammond was demoted, and Daniel went to Atlantis, and they knocked up Sam with Jack's baby, and made her stop kicking ass in favor of having her weep and worry. Oh, and the Goa'uld just sort of faded off the radar instead of actually being dealt with. Cam and Vala and Landry and the Orii storyline would have *still* been great fun, it would just be very, very hard for Stargate fans to see past all the fail enough to appreciate that.