To appreciate The X-Files as an intelligent, well-informed person requires a strong sense of irony and an equally-strong capacity for willing suspension of disbelief, because in the X-Files universe nearly every myth, folk belief, superstition, pseudoscientific premise, conspiracy theory, and science-fiction plot has at least a basis in fact. While in real life Agent Dana Scully would be the sane, grounded one, and her partner, Agent Fox Mulder, would be a paranoid, unhinged crackpot (read the first half of this review, if you haven’t yet), in the topsy-turvy, looking-glass world inhabited by these characters, their viewpoints are much more equally balanced. Mulder’s willingness to believe in anything and everything doesn’t always prove useful, and indeed the writers often have fun with it, especially in later seasons. But when balanced by Scully’s scientific skepticism, the two can often uncover the solution to the mysteries they probe (unless, of course, the writers have decided that they can’t). In most cases, this is typical of shows in which the heroes go up against supernatural or sci-fi menaces; after all, neither Kolchak: The Night Stalker nor Buffy the Vampire Slayer would’ve been nearly as interesting had every threat been revealed as a fraud, a la Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? But by adding many of the 20th century’s most popular conspiracy theories into the mixture, the show begins to bear a much closer resemblance to the Illuminatus! trilogy than to any of its other inspirations.
This is not a criticism, though in its first two seasons, written and broadcast toward the end of the Satanic Panic, dangerous nonsense like recovered memories and Satanic ritual sex abuse are treated seriously at a time when those beliefs were not only not considered total hokum by the Establishment, but were actually being used by cops and prosecutors to destroy lives. I found those episodes difficult to enjoy, though by the third season the Satanic Panic was being treated far more dismissively, and Scully even has a few speeches about it being an evidence-free crock of shit (unfortunately, actress Gillian Anderson lacks her character’s disciplined skepticism). And while some of the other conspiracy theories the show used as plot devices may have adherents who make trouble for others, they were usually treated in such an over-the-top fashion (eg, the Smoking Man being the true assassin of JFK, RFK, and MLK) they couldn’t be taken seriously by any audience member who wasn’t already entirely convinced of their veracity.
As is so often the case, the show took a few seasons to really hit its stride; while I found the first season and most of the second entertaining enough, It wasn’t until the third season that I found the majority of episodes truly engaging and entertaining. The show’s creator originally intended to produce only five seasons and then transition to a series of movies, but only the first one was made because the still-adolescent Fox network had no intention of retiring its most highly-rated show just yet, and so wrangled the creators into four more seasons. The sixth was still quite good; one excellent two-parter was obviously adapted from the script for the never-made second movie, and there were a number of the same type of experimental episodes which were becoming fashionable in other imaginative shows of the time (including Deep Space Nine, Stargate SG-1, and the aforementioned Buffy). But by the seventh the show was noticeably aging, and the eighth and ninth seasons largely seemed to be looking for a reason to still exist; I know that two more seasons were produced in the Teens, but frankly they just looked embarrassing, and neither Grace nor I was interested.
All in all, I found the show a worthwhile use of my relaxation time, but I don’t think it’s likely that I’ll ever re-watch it. And if I had tried to watch on a weekly broadcast TV schedule rather than a DVD set of known length I could watch on my own schedule, I suspect I would’ve lost interest long before it was over, unless I was watching with a loved one who was more excited about it than I was.
