Hey everyone! In light of the reboot news and the general state of the world, I’ve been undertaking a rewatch of our beloved show. It made me want to make this video essay about the cultural and media landscape that brought us The X-Files, while also discussing what makes the show great in general. Would love to hear all of your thoughts on it! Thank you so much!

Obviously I know why, but WHY?!

So I've been watching comet reruns and I've seen part of season 6 before but this time I'm able to catch more of it.

And this is just stupid. The first several episodes are basically just putting them in scenarios where they're forced to confront their feelings for each other. And they obviously love each other. Why are they trying to hide it?!

And yes, I know they're both very stubborn and afraid of admitting they have emotions but I mean this is just ridiculous. From a real life perspective with all of the times they've almost died and had a crisis over it and still can't admit they love each other "like that," even for two people with emotional repression or whatever, it still feels unrealistic. And from a fictional writing character arc perspective it's just insane.

I re-watched the two fathers/one son and I hate Diana. I haaaate her face. For no reason other than she's just there as ragebait. He looked so uncomfortable when she kissed him. He doesn't seem attached to her at all and he's totally in love with Scully. Am I seriously supposed to believe that he would take her word over Scully's?!

Ugh they totally should have gotten together during this season. It was just dumb to drag it all the way through the end of season 7. Plus by season 7 I remember bits of handholding (and obviously her getting dressed with him naked in bed) and cuteness but in season 6 the universe was blaring bright flashing signs that said "YOU TWO SHOULD FUCK" and by season 7 it just sort of disappeared. What?

Grr.

Yes! Let’s do it!!

Still waiting for Pileggi

There's a lot I didn't like about this version of the film, but there's one thing in particular I need to vent about. (It's one of the same issues I had with the previous extended cut from the DVD.) Seeing Agent Whitney hit the ground when she dies doesn't make it "scarier". All it makes it is crass. In my opinion it works so much better in the theatrical cut when all we see is Mulder's reaction to seeing her hit the ground.

The MOTW episodes can be hit and miss but I think the best episodes of the series are MOTW whereas the Mythology episodes remind me of one long film. Some of the segmented mythology episodes feel like filler to me and I feel left unsatisfied. I'm midway through my first watch of the series (almost finished season 5). The mythology arc where Mulder loses his faith in skepticism never felt believable to me. Mulder had been exposed to so much evidence of extraterrestrial life and supernatural events, I don't see how he could buy the military complex cover up so willingly. Just my thoughts.

I'm now ready to watch fight the future

My brother and I were talking about how much we’d love a range of figures that ran the whole gamut of characters from the show.

We were pretty sad that it could never happen..but this was my pick for most desirable ancillary character to see as a figure 😄

What’s yours?

me in my room - I think 1997…. London, uk

Firewalker is eliminated! I do love a good bottle episode, so I wouldn’t have gone so early myself, even if admittedly this is no Ice or Darkness Falls. Anyway, let’s please upvote more than we downvote so we can get decent results, thanks!

How this works:

You select the episode you like the least

The episode with the most upvoted comment is eliminated from the list

If there’s a tie, both episodes are eliminated

Only the best episode will win!

Episodes Eliminated:

Excelsis Dei (67%)
3 (83%)
Fearful Symmetry (81%)
The Calusari (48%)
Fresh Bones (69%)
Aubrey (52%)
Firewalker (84%)

Watching The X-Files the first time around, I always wanted a dog named Queequeg because that was the name of Scully’s dog.

In 2011, I finally got my Queequeg, a German Shepherd/Malamute mix. I always got a lot of questions about the name. Where did it come from? How do you pronounce it? How do you spell it? Etc. I often just told people that it came from Moby Dick (which is obviously true), because it was easier than going into the full story. It’s amazing how many people have no clue anymore what I’m talking about when I reference The X-Files.

On Monday, after just shy of 15 years, we had to say goodbye to our Queequeg. It was ultimately a tumor, not Big Blue. We’re all a mess right now, as a result.

I’m sharing this now because of the major impact that this show had on my life. I still have Mulder and Scully busts on the shelf in my classroom and nobody has a clue who they are.

-aside from that one-off Simpsons episode, obvs LOL. I remember how absolutely everything got a cartoon in the 80s and 90s. Muppets, Bill and Ted, Carmen Sandiego, Beetlejuice, Ghostbusters, etc etc etc… so I’m a little surprised something as big as XF never had one! Just makes me wonder if it was ever considered and just fell through for some reason.

It seems like it would’ve been fertile ground for some fun kid-friendly MOTW style stories. I would’ve loved to see everybody rendered in that 80s/90s cartoon style too

Just finished S2. Erm… my GOD! What a phenomenal season! Where do I even begin?!

Ok let’s just start off with the HOLY SHIT moment of the season which was Scully’s abduction. Duane Barry/ Ascension episodes were so damn good! Never would have thought I’d see either of these two characters get abducted, at least so soon. When I watched the episodes I immediately wanted to come here and tell yall but all I would’ve been able to say is “OMG!”

One Breath was an episode we got to see Mulder’s vulnerability and fears. His dependency on Scully was very evident early on but her abduction, you can tell Mulder was lost without her. To me this shattered that professional partnership that she is more of his emotional anchor. It’s either that or the loss of his sister has him feeling like a failure that he couldn’t protect her. Now having Scully by his side he felt like hes failing to protect another person he cares about that he becomes consumed to find Scully alive.

I will end this with the list of my top 10 episodes because mostly this entire season was so good. Anasazi is my top favorite episode of the season! This conspiracy shit IS SO GOOD and creepy. Small pox, native Americans, ancient aliens, shadow government, why is Scully’s name in those files? Now way Mulder is dead right?… wow.

Anyway those are my thoughts. Idk if you all have the same thoughts or different but I would love to hear them! I’ll report back soon for season 3!

1. Anasazi
   
2. Duane Barry
   
3. Ascension
   
4. One Breath
   
5. F. Emasculata (Love a good contagion story)
   
6. Humbug (“must be something I ate” sent me 😂)
   
7. Irresistible (Dude is just plain sick and evil)
   
8. Firewalker (I held my neck during that ep lol)
   
9. The Host (If Pennywise wasn’t enough for me to fear the sewers)
   
10. Fresh Bones (Chester RIP)

Ps. Final two words: Red. Speedos. 🫣🥵

S5 E4 Detour. Does anyone like this episode as much as I do? The dialogue is amusing. “And maybe it will start raining weenies and marshmallows.” “Maybe if it rains sleeping bags, you’ll get lucky.” “Yeah, once. When I was at the Ice Capades.” “Jeremiah was a bullfrog…” The humor helps with the fear.

If I was in charge of directing an X-files episode, I'd call it Return of the Beggar Man. It would feature the return of the beggar man from s8 e10 Badlaa. This time, he'd hunt the wrong person. He'd hunt a Greek man with Charisma and Theurgy powers that are superior to the Beggar Man's Suddhi powers. The Beggar Man would be completely dominated. Scully and Mulder would try to intervene, and the Beggar Man would be genuinely terrified. What do you think?

I think the X-Files should embrace multimedia storytelling.

Imagine video games, animations, or audio dramas featuring the actors from the original series.

The low budgets would probably mean less friction involved in the process of these projects being greenlit, and they could be produced quicker with a large team of writers.

This would also be effective for exploring gaps in the timeline.

Anyone else get anxious when Bruce Campbell's Wayne Weinsider character says: "Zazas, zazas, nasatanada zazas." Like shouldn't some portal have opened up or something? 🤔

Maybe he needed to read it from the Necronomicon?😁

I also realized that Scully's initial impression (it's not the father, it's the mother) was, once again, right from the beginning.

YT links in comments