7 ms·

30 years of The X-Files

110 points by saltysalt 3y ago

mickeyp 3y ago
Feels like it was yesterday it came out. It's hard to convey to people who didn't watch it growing up just how special it was. It landed on TV right as the collective zeitgeist around the governments around the world getting up to shady things ("Echelon's trunk trawler") and the perpetually amusing mythology and conspiracy theories around aliens, ufos, DNA and parascience. Few had BBS/internet/WWW access, so it was much harder to stamp out a lot of the low-level conspiracies that used to float around back then. That helped keep the spirit of X-files alive, somehow. Hm, it's hard to describe. It's weirdly of its time, and yet it holds up so well -- or at least until it goes off the rails in the later seasons. Still, fantastic cast; great writing, all around; and surprisingly, the special effects and costumes hold up really well, too. The first 4-5 seasons are electrifyingly good because they filmed it in Canada, so it retains this dark, brooding boreal feeling to it. The amount of gossip around school and between friends whenever a new mythology episode landed was especially fun.
- neom 3y ago
  It was also around the time star trek was really finding it's stride so between x files and ST, space related/adventure content on TV was really really good. This is what getting old feels like huh? Heh.
  - southwesterly 3y ago
    Don’t forget Twin Peaks. Another 90s classic mystery show.
    - saltcured 3y ago
      To me, only real similarity between The X-Files and Twin Peaks was the PNW environments and certain moments of surreality and smirking, almost breaking the third wall. Somehow, I barely even remember that they were both FBI agents as main characters. As far as the conspiracy and end-times-horror zeitgeist, I think Millenium with Lance Henriksen had a lot more overlap with The X-Files. Also, David Lynch almost makes his own genre.
      - ascagnel_ 3y ago
        > As far as the conspiracy and end-times-horror zeitgeist, I think Millenium with Lance Henriksen had a lot more overlap with The X-Files. Millennium is more than overlap -- it's an extension of The X-Files: same series creator (Chris Carter), same group of writers (Glen Morgan, James Wong, Frank Spotnitz, Vince Gilligan, among others), same shooting locations (PNW), same writer deconstructing the show from within (Darin Morgan, Glen Morgan's brother, who also appeared in TXF in the Flukeman suit). Millennium even got a stealth finale/reverse spin-off that explicitly links the two together -- S07E04 of The X-Files ("Millennium") has Lance Henriksen's Frank Black teaming up with Mulder & Scully.
  - syntheweave 3y ago
    There was a whole run of decent sci-fi TV back then: Quantum Leap, Sliders, Babylon 5 all aired in that period. Some of them I watched as a kid, others I didn't, but I see all of them referenced occasionally. Then the late 90's hit and the zeitgeist changed. Time marches on.
- Chabsff 3y ago
  It's hard to believe nowadays that conspiracy theories used to be a fun thing to engage with leisurely.
  - rob74 3y ago
    Yeah, back in the nineties, as a teenager, I would consider it harmless entertainment. While watching the new seasons or revisiting the old episodes, knowing that there are people who actually believe even crazier things gives me a very uneasy feeling...
    - Chabsff 3y ago
      It's not so much that there are people who genuinely believe that stuff, there have always been some of those. The issue is that they have managed to reach a critical mass where they can exert some real and harmful social and political influence.
      - parineum 3y ago
        I'd argue that the cause of that is that they've been proven right very publicly because the ability to actually cover things up has been degraded. I think that gives people the "tip of the iceberg" mentality.
      - tonyedgecombe 3y ago
        The real issues is they get to talk to each other now. Years ago the nut job in my village was pretty harmless because everybody knew him for what he was. Now he can talk to thousands or millions of people just like himself.
      - southernplaces7 3y ago
        Yes, how terrible that large numbers of people can not only believe "harmful" things but also freely share their ideas with others. It behooves society to stop both of these things from being too easy, no? What's more harmful? That basic freedom to believe whatever you please and share it with like-minded people without imposing on others against their will, or having legal authority to impose against such voluntary sharing for supposedly lofty ideals of fighting harmful thinking? (However you want to define harmful)
- grahamlee 3y ago
  The change in that zeitgeist is also one of the things the creators "credit" with its decline, though Duchovny getting into a lawsuit with Fox and checking out certainly didn't help. After the 9/11 attacks public interest in not trusting the government sharply declined. The pilot episode of the Lone Gunmen spin-off, released earlier in 2001, featured a plot where "terrorists" had flown a passenger liner into the WTC but it was really a government inside job to gain support for a new war. That show didn't get renewed.
  - mickeyp 3y ago
    I mean, speaking of conspiracies, I've watched the spin-off show and it's... not that good. Turns out, you need good writing and Mulder/Scully to keep those three interesting. It most assuredly got cancelled because it wasn't that good :-)
    - hnbad 3y ago
      I'd say X-Files largely survived because of the dynamic of the characters. A lot of the episodes were not very good except for the interplay between the two. But in the absence of good writing you definitely needed Mulder and Scully and the spin-off didn't have them.
      - the_doctah 3y ago
        The Smoking Man and AD Skinner were good characters too.
  - keepamovin 3y ago
    The pilot episode of the Lone Gunmen spin-off, released earlier in 2001, featured a plot where "terrorists" had flown a passenger liner into the WTC but it was really a government inside job to gain support for a new war. That show didn't get renewed. That’s incredibly prescient! What the hell?
    - bryanrasmussen 3y ago
- telesilla 3y ago
  I lived in a large shared house during the early seasons and every single one of us ran to the TV together when it was on, from young politicians, hair dressers, DJs, developers .. We all loved it.
- mytailorisrich 3y ago
  Many series were filmed in Canada at the time (still now?), I think it was around Vancouver. Humid forests everwhere... But they are indeed great for X-files. Anyway, I think the earlier seasons were better in that they were more varied before the show really became all about aliens conspiracies with the odd non-alien episode here and there.
  - j_not_j 3y ago
    I remember watching the filming of an episode at the Steveston docks while having dinner at a nearby restaurant. Can't find the episode name but it was a rainy rainy night (what else). I think the set was the interior of a small fishing boat. X-Files filming happened all over Vancouver for years. People didn't pay excessive amount of attention to the actors and guest stars when they were at hotels, restaurants etc. Unlike some cities.
- causi 3y ago
  I wish I had grown up with it. I recently started trying to watch it for the first time and it's, well, difficult. Things seem to drag a lot and Mulder and Scully seem to really not think about the implications of a lot of the details they're exposed to.
  - unethical_ban 3y ago
    If you look up an X-Files episode guide, you should find something that helps you get through the muck. I found it on red several years ago and I have it on my share drive but it's offline at the moment. It ranked each episode as part of the story arc, generic monster of the week episode (MotW), or "not story arc but particularly good". I use that to get through five seasons of X-Files and really enjoyed it. I did the same thing with deep space nine.
- 7thaccount 3y ago
  I was a kid when it came out and watched part of an episode when I was home alone and was so scared lol. I'm a big scifi nerd, but didn't get a chance to start watching until I was an adult. It's such a great show and a lot of fun. It's also held up much better to time than most in that genre.
pelagicAustral 3y ago
I left my damn season 1 DVD's at my ex's place...
- csw-001 3y ago
  Maybe a good reason to give it another try?
  - pelagicAustral 3y ago
    I don't think so... Plus, she probably bin them already...
- dml2135 3y ago
  Sounds like an excuse to rewatch it in HD :)
  - madars 3y ago
    BluRay versions are beautiful. Producers had the foresight to film it in Super 35, even though their TV broadcasts didn't support none of widescreen/high res at the time. Early seasons have a slight crop so real fans will have both versions :) https://old.reddit.com/r/XFiles/comments/43a6wq/a_guide_to_the_hd_restoration_of_the_xfiles/ https://old.reddit.com/r/XFiles/comments/43a6wq/a_guide_to_t...
msk-lywenn 3y ago
Watching all the "mythology arc" X-Files episodes in a row and skipping all of the "monster of the week" episode makes it look like a modern TV show. Very enjoyable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythology_of_The_X-Files https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythology_of_The_X-Files
- rob74 3y ago
  YMMV, but I enjoyed the "monster of the week" episodes more - the best were the ones where the show didn't take itself too seriously, and sure enough, three of my favourites are also in the list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcadia_(The_X-Files) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcadia_(The_X-Files), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Blood_(The_X-Files) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Blood_(The_X-Files) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Bruckman%27s_Final_Repose https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Bruckman%27s_Final_Repos....
  - xoxxala 3y ago
    Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose is a sublime episode. One of my favorites as well.
    - bhk 3y ago
      Yes. And Jose Chung's From Outer Space was brilliantly original, tightly constructed, and hilarious at times.
      - the_doctah 3y ago
        Anything written by Darin Morgan. The recent revival had another one written by him, "Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster", it's amazing.
        ascagnel_ 3y ago
        Two, actually; he also wrote "The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat" in the eleventh season (second revival season). D. Morgan also wrote "Jose Chung's Final Repose" in Millennium, to cap off Charles Nelson Reilly's character.
fouc 3y ago
Holy smokes, I missed the news that there was a reprisal of X-files from 2016-2018.
- miohtama 3y ago
  Obligatory “you did not miss a lot” reply
- TuringNYC 3y ago
  Skip it and you'll be happier. They should have kept it ended on a high note.
  - tobr 3y ago
    “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” was funny though.
    - grahamlee 3y ago
      “Rm9sbG93ZXJz” almost precisely presaged the entire plot of all of the Black Mirror episodes combined, and was great fun (particularly the near-total lack of dialog). I thought the “My Struggle” bookends in Season 10 were quite good, but then Season 11 retconned the whole plot away.
    - ascagnel_ 3y ago
      Both of the Darin Morgan-penned episodes were good (The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat, despite some on-the-nose politics, excellently recontextualizes a show about about conspiracies in the age of social media; namely that "the truth" doesn't matter at all).
  - dml2135 3y ago
    I dunno man while the revival was not great I feel like the X-Files might be only second to Game of Thrones on my list of shows that did not end on high notes. It went about 3-4 seasons too long.
  - jollyllama 3y ago
xoxxala 3y ago
We had a viewing party for the premiere. To be honest, we were more looking forward to Bruce Campbell’s “Adventures of Brisco County, Jr”, which premiered just before the “X-Files” (and is now sadly forgotten). The “X-Files” hooked us right from the start. The only show that even came close to that first episode was “Lost” many years later. Most first season episodes were strong, with some downright classics, and the show was captivating from the beginning. Helps that the two leads were well cast and the writing was way better than the typical genre series. (Two of the X-Files writers went off to showrun the criminally underrated “Space: Above and Beyond”, too. Without the success of X-Files, we wouldn’t have gotten that.)
- saltysalt 3y ago
  "Space: Above and Beyond" is awesome! I'd also like to mentioned "Millennium" as being underrated.
  - gramie 3y ago
    Season 2 of Millennium ranks up there with my favourite television ever. Season 1 was mostly "Serial killer of the week" episodes, and Season 3 was clearly the studio trying to make TV as they understood it, and ruining everything. Season 2, though, was quirky, dark, passionate, eerie, theological, and funny.
- throwaway-2356 3y ago
  I've always thought of "Fringe" as a spiritual successor of X-Files. It's one of my all time favorite shows.
  - southwesterly 3y ago
    Adored Fringe and yes, am sure there were X files references in the show. There were certainly Twin Peaks references in it.
- D13Fd 3y ago
  > Bruce Campbell’s “Adventures of Brisco County, Jr”, which premiered just before the “X-Files” (and is now sadly forgotten). Not forgotten by me. Some of my favorite childhood memories are ordering pizza and watching Brisco County, Jr. and X-Files on Friday nights for the season Brisco ran. I was always disappointed that Brisco County, Jr. didn't get a second season. But it did get kind of weird when it veered off of old west stuff and into aliens/supernatural stuff.
ck2 3y ago
There was a modern series that had a X-Files vibe to it for me called "Debris" Sadly it was on NBC so it was doomed to be cancelled
TuringNYC 3y ago
I grew up watching the X-Files and it was magical. A decade later, it was also fun to later follow along with the show with Kumail Nanjiani's The X-Files Files podcast (https://open.spotify.com/show/6QqxMrErkQpEfq67zXL6Gr https://open.spotify.com/show/6QqxMrErkQpEfq67zXL6Gr) which with a brand new medium for the show (the show was of course pre-podcast, pre-reddit)
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c0brac0bra 3y ago
I rewatched a good chunk of season one recently and was amazed at how well the show holds up. Even the more technical episodes are fairly easy to swallow this many decades later.
adamrezich 3y ago
with the exception of a few duds ("Space", "Fearful Symmetry"...), the first three or four seasons absolutely hold up as extremely compelling entertainment. I haven't seen all of the later seasons but "X-COPS" (the COPS crossover/deconstruction) is one of my all-time favorites—still fun to watch on Halloween.
diimdeep 3y ago
Fringe [1] was a good run, but X-Files is one of the kind. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fringe_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fringe_(TV_series)
btreesOfSpring 3y ago
In Search of...[0] was the introductory conspiracy show for baby boomers. The X Files was GenX's turn at the Art Bell wheel[1]. Stranger Things[2] is built on these foundations for the younger generation sprinkled generously with nostalgia of those eras of conspiracy television. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of..._(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of..._(TV_series) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Bell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Bell [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_Things https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_Things
mavhc 3y ago
X-Files is terrible, the overarching plot had no end, and it made believing in conspiracy theories mainstream. You want to know why half the planet have gone insane? X Files.
- parineum 3y ago
  > You want to know why half the planet have gone insane? X Files. Not the fact that the conspiracies around high profile pedophile rings (Epstein) and ubiquitous governments monitoring (NSA/Prism) were proven true?
  - jakubmazanec 3y ago
    But for how long and how many people kept those conspiracies you mention secret? Not for long or not that many; secrets simply cannot be kept, someone talks: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0147905 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...
    - parineum 3y ago
      Why is that relevant? Previous conspiracies over high power pedophiles and mass surveillance turning out to be true lead people to question which other "conspiracy theories" are true and are just about to be proven true. The group of people that dismissed those theories in the past lost their credibility and conspiracy theorist who gained credibility filled the gap.
      - jakubmazanec 3y ago
        It is relevant because it clearly makes some conspiracies unrealistic. Just because some conspiracies were proven true (NSA) doesn't mean others must be true too, or that some people suddenly gain credibility for their conspiracies.
        parineum 3y ago
hank808 3y ago
If they ever have another season or another movie, they MUST finally either start the alien invasion or debunk the whole notion of one. One way or another, they have to finish what they started.
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qingcharles 3y ago
Small anecdote: I worked for a startup around the time of the millennium and we had >1m registered users. All passwords stored in plaintext, of course. One day I decided to run a SQL query to see what the most common passwords were. #1 was "trustno1" And to confirm my hunch, I guess, I just found this Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/XFiles/comments/pnzc02/is_fox_mulder_to_blame_for_the_trustno1_password/ https://www.reddit.com/r/XFiles/comments/pnzc02/is_fox_mulde...
TMWNN 3y ago
I've heard that Gillian Anderson has met numerous women who studied science and medicine because of Scully. Relevant: * TIL that James Doohan (Scotty on 'Star Trek') received an honorary doctorate from the Milwaukee School of Engineering. The university gave him the degree after half of its students said in a survey that his character had inspired them to choose engineering as a career. <https://np.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/6onyh6/til_that_james_doohan_scotty_on_star_trek/ https://np.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/6onyh6/til_th...> * TIL that Leonard Nimoy met many fans who became scientists because of Spock's example, and talked to the 'Star Trek' actor as if he were a fellow researcher. Nimoy always nodded and told them, "Well, it certainly looks like you’re headed in the right direction." <https://np.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/6o8egb/til_that_leonard_nimoy_met_many_fans_who_became/ https://np.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/6o8egb/til_th...>

110 points by saltysalt 3y ago

Feels like it was yesterday it came out. It's hard to convey to people who didn't watch it growing up just how special it was. It landed on TV right as the collective zeitgeist around the governments around the world getting up to shady things ("Echelon's trunk trawler") and the perpetually amusing mythology and conspiracy theories around aliens, ufos, DNA and parascience. Few had BBS/internet/WWW access, so it was much harder to stamp out a lot of the low-level conspiracies that used to float around back then. That helped keep the spirit of X-files alive, somehow. Hm, it's hard to describe. It's weirdly of its time, and yet it holds up so well -- or at least until it goes off the rails in the later seasons. Still, fantastic cast; great writing, all around; and surprisingly, the special effects and costumes hold up really well, too. The first 4-5 seasons are electrifyingly good because they filmed it in Canada, so it retains this dark, brooding boreal feeling to it. The amount of gossip around school and between friends whenever a new mythology episode landed was especially fun.

neom 3y ago
It was also around the time star trek was really finding it's stride so between x files and ST, space related/adventure content on TV was really really good. This is what getting old feels like huh? Heh.
- southwesterly 3y ago
  Don’t forget Twin Peaks. Another 90s classic mystery show.
  - saltcured 3y ago
    To me, only real similarity between The X-Files and Twin Peaks was the PNW environments and certain moments of surreality and smirking, almost breaking the third wall. Somehow, I barely even remember that they were both FBI agents as main characters. As far as the conspiracy and end-times-horror zeitgeist, I think Millenium with Lance Henriksen had a lot more overlap with The X-Files. Also, David Lynch almost makes his own genre.
    - ascagnel_ 3y ago
      > As far as the conspiracy and end-times-horror zeitgeist, I think Millenium with Lance Henriksen had a lot more overlap with The X-Files. Millennium is more than overlap -- it's an extension of The X-Files: same series creator (Chris Carter), same group of writers (Glen Morgan, James Wong, Frank Spotnitz, Vince Gilligan, among others), same shooting locations (PNW), same writer deconstructing the show from within (Darin Morgan, Glen Morgan's brother, who also appeared in TXF in the Flukeman suit). Millennium even got a stealth finale/reverse spin-off that explicitly links the two together -- S07E04 of The X-Files ("Millennium") has Lance Henriksen's Frank Black teaming up with Mulder & Scully.
- syntheweave 3y ago
  There was a whole run of decent sci-fi TV back then: Quantum Leap, Sliders, Babylon 5 all aired in that period. Some of them I watched as a kid, others I didn't, but I see all of them referenced occasionally. Then the late 90's hit and the zeitgeist changed. Time marches on.
Chabsff 3y ago
It's hard to believe nowadays that conspiracy theories used to be a fun thing to engage with leisurely.
- rob74 3y ago
  Yeah, back in the nineties, as a teenager, I would consider it harmless entertainment. While watching the new seasons or revisiting the old episodes, knowing that there are people who actually believe even crazier things gives me a very uneasy feeling...
  - Chabsff 3y ago
    It's not so much that there are people who genuinely believe that stuff, there have always been some of those. The issue is that they have managed to reach a critical mass where they can exert some real and harmful social and political influence.
    - parineum 3y ago
      I'd argue that the cause of that is that they've been proven right very publicly because the ability to actually cover things up has been degraded. I think that gives people the "tip of the iceberg" mentality.
    - tonyedgecombe 3y ago
      The real issues is they get to talk to each other now. Years ago the nut job in my village was pretty harmless because everybody knew him for what he was. Now he can talk to thousands or millions of people just like himself.
    - southernplaces7 3y ago
      Yes, how terrible that large numbers of people can not only believe "harmful" things but also freely share their ideas with others. It behooves society to stop both of these things from being too easy, no? What's more harmful? That basic freedom to believe whatever you please and share it with like-minded people without imposing on others against their will, or having legal authority to impose against such voluntary sharing for supposedly lofty ideals of fighting harmful thinking? (However you want to define harmful)
grahamlee 3y ago
The change in that zeitgeist is also one of the things the creators "credit" with its decline, though Duchovny getting into a lawsuit with Fox and checking out certainly didn't help. After the 9/11 attacks public interest in not trusting the government sharply declined. The pilot episode of the Lone Gunmen spin-off, released earlier in 2001, featured a plot where "terrorists" had flown a passenger liner into the WTC but it was really a government inside job to gain support for a new war. That show didn't get renewed.
- mickeyp 3y ago
  I mean, speaking of conspiracies, I've watched the spin-off show and it's... not that good. Turns out, you need good writing and Mulder/Scully to keep those three interesting. It most assuredly got cancelled because it wasn't that good :-)
  - hnbad 3y ago
    I'd say X-Files largely survived because of the dynamic of the characters. A lot of the episodes were not very good except for the interplay between the two. But in the absence of good writing you definitely needed Mulder and Scully and the spin-off didn't have them.
    - the_doctah 3y ago
      The Smoking Man and AD Skinner were good characters too.
- keepamovin 3y ago
  The pilot episode of the Lone Gunmen spin-off, released earlier in 2001, featured a plot where "terrorists" had flown a passenger liner into the WTC but it was really a government inside job to gain support for a new war. That show didn't get renewed. That’s incredibly prescient! What the hell?
  - bryanrasmussen 3y ago
telesilla 3y ago
I lived in a large shared house during the early seasons and every single one of us ran to the TV together when it was on, from young politicians, hair dressers, DJs, developers .. We all loved it.
mytailorisrich 3y ago
Many series were filmed in Canada at the time (still now?), I think it was around Vancouver. Humid forests everwhere... But they are indeed great for X-files. Anyway, I think the earlier seasons were better in that they were more varied before the show really became all about aliens conspiracies with the odd non-alien episode here and there.
- j_not_j 3y ago
  I remember watching the filming of an episode at the Steveston docks while having dinner at a nearby restaurant. Can't find the episode name but it was a rainy rainy night (what else). I think the set was the interior of a small fishing boat. X-Files filming happened all over Vancouver for years. People didn't pay excessive amount of attention to the actors and guest stars when they were at hotels, restaurants etc. Unlike some cities.
causi 3y ago
I wish I had grown up with it. I recently started trying to watch it for the first time and it's, well, difficult. Things seem to drag a lot and Mulder and Scully seem to really not think about the implications of a lot of the details they're exposed to.
- unethical_ban 3y ago
  If you look up an X-Files episode guide, you should find something that helps you get through the muck. I found it on red several years ago and I have it on my share drive but it's offline at the moment. It ranked each episode as part of the story arc, generic monster of the week episode (MotW), or "not story arc but particularly good". I use that to get through five seasons of X-Files and really enjoyed it. I did the same thing with deep space nine.
7thaccount 3y ago
I was a kid when it came out and watched part of an episode when I was home alone and was so scared lol. I'm a big scifi nerd, but didn't get a chance to start watching until I was an adult. It's such a great show and a lot of fun. It's also held up much better to time than most in that genre.

pelagicAustral 3y ago

I left my damn season 1 DVD's at my ex's place...

csw-001 3y ago
Maybe a good reason to give it another try?
- pelagicAustral 3y ago
  I don't think so... Plus, she probably bin them already...
dml2135 3y ago
Sounds like an excuse to rewatch it in HD :)
- madars 3y ago
  BluRay versions are beautiful. Producers had the foresight to film it in Super 35, even though their TV broadcasts didn't support none of widescreen/high res at the time. Early seasons have a slight crop so real fans will have both versions :) https://old.reddit.com/r/XFiles/comments/43a6wq/a_guide_to_the_hd_restoration_of_the_xfiles/ https://old.reddit.com/r/XFiles/comments/43a6wq/a_guide_to_t...

msk-lywenn 3y ago

Watching all the "mythology arc" X-Files episodes in a row and skipping all of the "monster of the week" episode makes it look like a modern TV show. Very enjoyable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythology_of_The_X-Files https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythology_of_The_X-Files

rob74 3y ago
YMMV, but I enjoyed the "monster of the week" episodes more - the best were the ones where the show didn't take itself too seriously, and sure enough, three of my favourites are also in the list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcadia_(The_X-Files) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcadia_(The_X-Files), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Blood_(The_X-Files) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Blood_(The_X-Files) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Bruckman%27s_Final_Repose https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Bruckman%27s_Final_Repos....
- xoxxala 3y ago
  Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose is a sublime episode. One of my favorites as well.
  - bhk 3y ago
    Yes. And Jose Chung's From Outer Space was brilliantly original, tightly constructed, and hilarious at times.
    - the_doctah 3y ago
      Anything written by Darin Morgan. The recent revival had another one written by him, "Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster", it's amazing.
      - ascagnel_ 3y ago
        Two, actually; he also wrote "The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat" in the eleventh season (second revival season). D. Morgan also wrote "Jose Chung's Final Repose" in Millennium, to cap off Charles Nelson Reilly's character.

fouc 3y ago

Holy smokes, I missed the news that there was a reprisal of X-files from 2016-2018.

miohtama 3y ago
Obligatory “you did not miss a lot” reply
TuringNYC 3y ago
Skip it and you'll be happier. They should have kept it ended on a high note.
- tobr 3y ago
  “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” was funny though.
  - grahamlee 3y ago
    “Rm9sbG93ZXJz” almost precisely presaged the entire plot of all of the Black Mirror episodes combined, and was great fun (particularly the near-total lack of dialog). I thought the “My Struggle” bookends in Season 10 were quite good, but then Season 11 retconned the whole plot away.
  - ascagnel_ 3y ago
    Both of the Darin Morgan-penned episodes were good (The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat, despite some on-the-nose politics, excellently recontextualizes a show about about conspiracies in the age of social media; namely that "the truth" doesn't matter at all).
- dml2135 3y ago
  I dunno man while the revival was not great I feel like the X-Files might be only second to Game of Thrones on my list of shows that did not end on high notes. It went about 3-4 seasons too long.
- jollyllama 3y ago

xoxxala 3y ago

We had a viewing party for the premiere. To be honest, we were more looking forward to Bruce Campbell’s “Adventures of Brisco County, Jr”, which premiered just before the “X-Files” (and is now sadly forgotten). The “X-Files” hooked us right from the start. The only show that even came close to that first episode was “Lost” many years later. Most first season episodes were strong, with some downright classics, and the show was captivating from the beginning. Helps that the two leads were well cast and the writing was way better than the typical genre series. (Two of the X-Files writers went off to showrun the criminally underrated “Space: Above and Beyond”, too. Without the success of X-Files, we wouldn’t have gotten that.)

saltysalt 3y ago
"Space: Above and Beyond" is awesome! I'd also like to mentioned "Millennium" as being underrated.
- gramie 3y ago
  Season 2 of Millennium ranks up there with my favourite television ever. Season 1 was mostly "Serial killer of the week" episodes, and Season 3 was clearly the studio trying to make TV as they understood it, and ruining everything. Season 2, though, was quirky, dark, passionate, eerie, theological, and funny.
throwaway-2356 3y ago
I've always thought of "Fringe" as a spiritual successor of X-Files. It's one of my all time favorite shows.
- southwesterly 3y ago
  Adored Fringe and yes, am sure there were X files references in the show. There were certainly Twin Peaks references in it.
D13Fd 3y ago
> Bruce Campbell’s “Adventures of Brisco County, Jr”, which premiered just before the “X-Files” (and is now sadly forgotten). Not forgotten by me. Some of my favorite childhood memories are ordering pizza and watching Brisco County, Jr. and X-Files on Friday nights for the season Brisco ran. I was always disappointed that Brisco County, Jr. didn't get a second season. But it did get kind of weird when it veered off of old west stuff and into aliens/supernatural stuff.

ck2 3y ago

There was a modern series that had a X-Files vibe to it for me called "Debris" Sadly it was on NBC so it was doomed to be cancelled

TuringNYC 3y ago

I grew up watching the X-Files and it was magical. A decade later, it was also fun to later follow along with the show with Kumail Nanjiani's The X-Files Files podcast (https://open.spotify.com/show/6QqxMrErkQpEfq67zXL6Gr https://open.spotify.com/show/6QqxMrErkQpEfq67zXL6Gr) which with a brand new medium for the show (the show was of course pre-podcast, pre-reddit)

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c0brac0bra 3y ago

I rewatched a good chunk of season one recently and was amazed at how well the show holds up. Even the more technical episodes are fairly easy to swallow this many decades later.

adamrezich 3y ago

with the exception of a few duds ("Space", "Fearful Symmetry"...), the first three or four seasons absolutely hold up as extremely compelling entertainment. I haven't seen all of the later seasons but "X-COPS" (the COPS crossover/deconstruction) is one of my all-time favorites—still fun to watch on Halloween.

diimdeep 3y ago

Fringe [1] was a good run, but X-Files is one of the kind. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fringe_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fringe_(TV_series)

btreesOfSpring 3y ago

In Search of...[0] was the introductory conspiracy show for baby boomers. The X Files was GenX's turn at the Art Bell wheel[1]. Stranger Things[2] is built on these foundations for the younger generation sprinkled generously with nostalgia of those eras of conspiracy television. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of..._(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of..._(TV_series) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Bell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Bell [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_Things https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_Things

mavhc 3y ago

X-Files is terrible, the overarching plot had no end, and it made believing in conspiracy theories mainstream. You want to know why half the planet have gone insane? X Files.

parineum 3y ago
> You want to know why half the planet have gone insane? X Files. Not the fact that the conspiracies around high profile pedophile rings (Epstein) and ubiquitous governments monitoring (NSA/Prism) were proven true?
- jakubmazanec 3y ago
  But for how long and how many people kept those conspiracies you mention secret? Not for long or not that many; secrets simply cannot be kept, someone talks: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0147905 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...
  - parineum 3y ago
    Why is that relevant? Previous conspiracies over high power pedophiles and mass surveillance turning out to be true lead people to question which other "conspiracy theories" are true and are just about to be proven true. The group of people that dismissed those theories in the past lost their credibility and conspiracy theorist who gained credibility filled the gap.
    - jakubmazanec 3y ago
      It is relevant because it clearly makes some conspiracies unrealistic. Just because some conspiracies were proven true (NSA) doesn't mean others must be true too, or that some people suddenly gain credibility for their conspiracies.
      - parineum 3y ago

hank808 3y ago

If they ever have another season or another movie, they MUST finally either start the alien invasion or debunk the whole notion of one. One way or another, they have to finish what they started.

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qingcharles 3y ago

Small anecdote: I worked for a startup around the time of the millennium and we had >1m registered users. All passwords stored in plaintext, of course. One day I decided to run a SQL query to see what the most common passwords were. #1 was "trustno1" And to confirm my hunch, I guess, I just found this Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/XFiles/comments/pnzc02/is_fox_mulder_to_blame_for_the_trustno1_password/ https://www.reddit.com/r/XFiles/comments/pnzc02/is_fox_mulde...

TMWNN 3y ago

I've heard that Gillian Anderson has met numerous women who studied science and medicine because of Scully. Relevant: * TIL that James Doohan (Scotty on 'Star Trek') received an honorary doctorate from the Milwaukee School of Engineering. The university gave him the degree after half of its students said in a survey that his character had inspired them to choose engineering as a career. <https://np.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/6onyh6/til_that_james_doohan_scotty_on_star_trek/ https://np.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/6onyh6/til_th...> * TIL that Leonard Nimoy met many fans who became scientists because of Spock's example, and talked to the 'Star Trek' actor as if he were a fellow researcher. Nimoy always nodded and told them, "Well, it certainly looks like you’re headed in the right direction." <https://np.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/6o8egb/til_that_leonard_nimoy_met_many_fans_who_became/ https://np.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/6o8egb/til_th...>