Before my obsession… undying love for… passing and professional interest in House, MD, I had a similar... er... fondness for the FOX television series The X-Files. Perhaps it’s a once a decade phenomenon for me. I’m not a big fan of series television and am not the sort to get hooked on one unless something about it grabs onto me viscerally — and then I’m in serious trouble.
Such was the case with X-Files. A blend of edgy political conspiracy, science fiction, and the paranormal, it featured an alienated, brilliant, and tormented hero (Fox Mulder) and his skeptical, intelligent (though not quite as brilliant) female partner Dana Scully. The series criss-crossed and blended genres, moving gracefully from “noir” to comedy to drama, seldom losing its focus (at least in its first six seasons) on excellent writing, compelling stories, and complex characterization.
I was a true “X-Phile,” complete with my very own review and fanfiction website, participating in Usenet groups (remember those?) with names like “atxfa” (alt.tv.x-files.analysis) and “atxc” (alt.tv.x-files.creative, the fanfiction list). Ten years ago, on the heels of the series’ fifth season, series creator Chris Carter waved his magic wand and created the feature length X-Files: Fight the Future, which carried Mulder and Scully from the halls of the FBI to caverns beneath Antarctica; from a Texas terrorist attack to a near kiss in Mulder’s hallway. I recall watching that film, sitting embarrassingly alone (after making my husband see it with me twice) in matinees all through the summer of 1998. I must have seen it ten times. And although my interest in the X-Files has waned considerably over the years, I still find myself removing my smudged and worn out DVD of the 1998 movie from its battered box and being transported by it, even now. I guess I’m still an “X-Phile” at heart.
And now here we are, six years after the series’ final episode, awaiting the sequel, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, hitting theaters later this month. In anticipation of the upcoming movie series creator/producer/writer Chris Carter and producer/writer Frank Spotnitz have culled together X-Files Revelations: The Essential Guide to the X-Files Movie. Intended to reacquaint old fans and entice new ones, the two-disc DVD collection includes eight “critical episodes,” essential to fully appreciating the movie.
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Article comments
1 - Andre
"Clyde Bruckman" is from Season 3, not 2 -- which I'm sure was an honest mistake. As a big-time fan who saw the movie countless times, I will not hold it against you. ;)