I was obsessed with The X-Files in the 90s. Loved it. And then as the seasons went along and the mythology got more convoluted and mixed up and doubled back on itself and there was Krycek and the big alien bounty hunter and the black goo and the cigarette smoking man was someone's father and he hated the Buffalo Bills for some reason and it just got to be too much and I realized there was no way (NO WAY) they were going to be able to tie this all together. And then I stopped obsessing about the mythology and just enjoyed it for what it was - until Doggett and Reyes showed up (or in my mind Coy and Vance Duke).
It was a good lesson for when "Lost" came around. A lesson I completely did not learn.
Hybrid MotW and longer arcs are clearly the ideal form of television and I hope we go back there. X-Files was great but it will be hard to top the best seasons of Buffy and Angel in this regard.
I loved the bonus chapter from Welcome to The O.C.! So funny/sad about the unheralded voice actors. Really looking forward to the whole book. I’m curious whether your rewatch changed your perspective on the show at all, from a critical standpoint? For instance, did Season 3 / Marissa get any better for you (or worse, somehow)? Or is your overall assessment largely the same as it was when it aired? (I read your blog then too!) Thank you!
The 90s were a weird time for conspiracies about the government, from real-life events like Ruby Ridge and the Branch Davidians to entertainment like JFK and all the oddball radio shows that existed back then (remember the craze with chupacabras?). I've always wondered how much the mythology of the X-Files and its fasciation with a small pox vaccine being used as part of an elaborate, bizarre, utterly nonsensical government conspiracy laid the groundwork for anti-vaccine conspiracies of the past 20+ years. I wouldn't suggest its the X-Files' fault, but it was in the zeitgeist along with everything else and leaned heavily on that storyline. I loved the show but the mythology storylines were a great example of writers making up complex back story as they went along and eventually writing themselves into all sorts of stupid corners.
The problem with a potboiler like "X-Files" is that if they ever "solved" the conspiracy, the show would be over. So they had to keep "revealing" another piece of the conspiracy in those ultra-dramatic mythology episodes and season finales - but the "reveal" always turned out that there was yet ANOTHER layer to the conspiracy, and so on ad infinitum.
Thanks for your appreciation post about The X-Files, Alan. It’s my all-time favorite show.
(‘93 was a great year for tv drama debuts - Homicide: Life on the Street, Deep Space Nine, Babylon 5, & NYPD Blue)
The one thing about the first movie and S5 is that the studio/network (which was all FOX) wouldn’t let Carter conclude the series and transition the franchise to become movies-only due to the high ratings. If the show had existed in a different ecosystem, I think FOX would’ve listened to him (ala the endgame agreement for LOST).
About "The Morning Show": it's terrible and I watch every episode. That makes no sense but "look, it's Jennifer Aniston! It's Jon Hamm! It's the guy from 'The League'"! It thinks it's important but it's a mess. In the latest episode something new happens and I thought, "what crap is this?" Yet, somehow, I'll keep watching. (And it might have the worst opening credit sequence of any show at the moment.)
I have been working through the X Files with a plan to stop after the movie (at least for a while) and am currently in early/mid season 5. I’ve been feeling exhausted by the mythology stuff for a season and a half now, muddling through it to reach the good stuff of the MOTW eps. “Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man” was an exception. But now I’m at the point where Scully had a surprise daughter and what even...
One episode I’ll highlight as loving while the general reaction seems to be mixed: “The Field Where I Died”. A kitschy story with the characters having been connected in past lives, sure, but the acting is good (and I’m someone who thinks Duchovny is mediocre on the show) and the direction by Rob Bowman is superb. Up next for me: Chinga, the haunted doll, scripted by the King of Horror himself!
The only episode of the X-Files I've seen is Drive, probably at your recommendation because of the Cranston-Gilligan connection. Agreed that I needed no context to enjoy that episode on its own. So I can see why the Monster of the Week episodes remain the most popular ones.
Also, complete tangent, but speaking of you writing books. Do you and Matt have any plans to update TV (The Book)? I was skimming it last weekend and realized how many all-timers you had to relegate to the "in progress" section (Game of Thrones, Bojack, Better Call Saul, Leftovers, Americans etc...). Granted some of that might be recency bias, but I'd be really curious see where a second edition would rank them.
Wow I would not have been happy in the Spook episode had been Atlanta’s last one. Some of the one-offs are brilliant but that wasn’t one of my faves. The last few eps were some of the best of all - the Alfred cabin ep, the Earn and Van camping ep, and the final Darius ep.
The truth is 30 years old from being out there
I was obsessed with The X-Files in the 90s. Loved it. And then as the seasons went along and the mythology got more convoluted and mixed up and doubled back on itself and there was Krycek and the big alien bounty hunter and the black goo and the cigarette smoking man was someone's father and he hated the Buffalo Bills for some reason and it just got to be too much and I realized there was no way (NO WAY) they were going to be able to tie this all together. And then I stopped obsessing about the mythology and just enjoyed it for what it was - until Doggett and Reyes showed up (or in my mind Coy and Vance Duke).
It was a good lesson for when "Lost" came around. A lesson I completely did not learn.
Hybrid MotW and longer arcs are clearly the ideal form of television and I hope we go back there. X-Files was great but it will be hard to top the best seasons of Buffy and Angel in this regard.
I loved the bonus chapter from Welcome to The O.C.! So funny/sad about the unheralded voice actors. Really looking forward to the whole book. I’m curious whether your rewatch changed your perspective on the show at all, from a critical standpoint? For instance, did Season 3 / Marissa get any better for you (or worse, somehow)? Or is your overall assessment largely the same as it was when it aired? (I read your blog then too!) Thank you!
The 90s were a weird time for conspiracies about the government, from real-life events like Ruby Ridge and the Branch Davidians to entertainment like JFK and all the oddball radio shows that existed back then (remember the craze with chupacabras?). I've always wondered how much the mythology of the X-Files and its fasciation with a small pox vaccine being used as part of an elaborate, bizarre, utterly nonsensical government conspiracy laid the groundwork for anti-vaccine conspiracies of the past 20+ years. I wouldn't suggest its the X-Files' fault, but it was in the zeitgeist along with everything else and leaned heavily on that storyline. I loved the show but the mythology storylines were a great example of writers making up complex back story as they went along and eventually writing themselves into all sorts of stupid corners.
The problem with a potboiler like "X-Files" is that if they ever "solved" the conspiracy, the show would be over. So they had to keep "revealing" another piece of the conspiracy in those ultra-dramatic mythology episodes and season finales - but the "reveal" always turned out that there was yet ANOTHER layer to the conspiracy, and so on ad infinitum.
Thanks for your appreciation post about The X-Files, Alan. It’s my all-time favorite show.
(‘93 was a great year for tv drama debuts - Homicide: Life on the Street, Deep Space Nine, Babylon 5, & NYPD Blue)
The one thing about the first movie and S5 is that the studio/network (which was all FOX) wouldn’t let Carter conclude the series and transition the franchise to become movies-only due to the high ratings. If the show had existed in a different ecosystem, I think FOX would’ve listened to him (ala the endgame agreement for LOST).
About "The Morning Show": it's terrible and I watch every episode. That makes no sense but "look, it's Jennifer Aniston! It's Jon Hamm! It's the guy from 'The League'"! It thinks it's important but it's a mess. In the latest episode something new happens and I thought, "what crap is this?" Yet, somehow, I'll keep watching. (And it might have the worst opening credit sequence of any show at the moment.)
"I’m very proud of how it turned out, and pleased with how candid almost everyone was on almost every subject, and it turns out."
Now I want to know who wasn't candid and on what subjects!
What about this week's Ahsoka?!?! 🤯
I have been working through the X Files with a plan to stop after the movie (at least for a while) and am currently in early/mid season 5. I’ve been feeling exhausted by the mythology stuff for a season and a half now, muddling through it to reach the good stuff of the MOTW eps. “Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man” was an exception. But now I’m at the point where Scully had a surprise daughter and what even...
One episode I’ll highlight as loving while the general reaction seems to be mixed: “The Field Where I Died”. A kitschy story with the characters having been connected in past lives, sure, but the acting is good (and I’m someone who thinks Duchovny is mediocre on the show) and the direction by Rob Bowman is superb. Up next for me: Chinga, the haunted doll, scripted by the King of Horror himself!
The only episode of the X-Files I've seen is Drive, probably at your recommendation because of the Cranston-Gilligan connection. Agreed that I needed no context to enjoy that episode on its own. So I can see why the Monster of the Week episodes remain the most popular ones.
Also, complete tangent, but speaking of you writing books. Do you and Matt have any plans to update TV (The Book)? I was skimming it last weekend and realized how many all-timers you had to relegate to the "in progress" section (Game of Thrones, Bojack, Better Call Saul, Leftovers, Americans etc...). Granted some of that might be recency bias, but I'd be really curious see where a second edition would rank them.
Wow I would not have been happy in the Spook episode had been Atlanta’s last one. Some of the one-offs are brilliant but that wasn’t one of my faves. The last few eps were some of the best of all - the Alfred cabin ep, the Earn and Van camping ep, and the final Darius ep.