The X-Files: Season 1 - Chris Carter

Revisiting things from your childhood is always a dicey proposition. For every Transformers: The Movie that holds up extremely well, there are dozens of shows like Are You Afraid of the Dark that makes you think 'why the hell did I ever like that? This is terrible!' Although The X-Files is not a kids show like those examples, it was something that was important to me growing up as a child. The first season came out in 1993, when I was only 10, and hooked me right away. I would sit in my bed under the covers with the lights off on Friday nights and wait for the creepy (at the time) theme song to play. I didn't know anyone else who liked it, so The X-Files was 'my' TV show. It would also routinely freak me out and leave me terrified in my bed, having trouble falling asleep.

I had watched the first five seasons, and movie that came out the following summer, and I stopped there. I can't really remember why I stopped watching, but after talking to other X-Files fans and reading reviews on the internet, it seems I got fed up with the show at the same point as most people. As the show kept going, the mythology it was creating, and relying on, became more and more complicated and the whole show started to sag under the weight of keeping up. After realizing that the movie didn't answer the questions that I wanted it to answer, and realizing that the creators were going to drag it out as long as possible, I gave up on the show. Not having cable as a child I never really watched that much TV. I would watch some shows with my sister (ie Friends) and then really would have 1 show for myself. After I gave up on the X-Files I moved over to Buffy in the 2nd season and my new allegiance was sworn. Although Buffy was probably my favorite show growing up (even though I also gave up on that after the 5th season) The X-Files was my first TV love.

Going back and watching the first season, I can see why Little Louis loved this show so much. It doesn't feel as creepy as it once did, but most of the stories are at least very interesting, and a little creepy. Because I only watched this when it was on I barely remembered any of the episodes. I had a general knowledge of some of the mythology episodes, and pretty much remembered the entire pilot, but watching all of the monster of the week (MOTW) episodes it felt like I was watching them for the first time. This might have been because I saw the alien/mythology episodes more often on reruns, or because they interested me more, but it was nice to not know what was going to happen in most of the stories.

If you're not familiar with the structure of The X-Files it alternated between overarching mythology episodes, which had to do with the existence of aliens and the governments inevitable cover-up, and standalone MOTW episodes which had to do with varying paranormal incidents. Although the show might be best known for the mythology and alien plots, there are only 5 of these in the first season and thus the show has to stand on the MOTW episodes. It's a good thing then that most of these are of pretty high quality.

Some of the Season 1 highlights include 'Ice', 'Eve', and the character Tooms. 'Ice' is an homage to John Carpenters 'The Thing' and involves Mulder and Scully going up to a drilling station in Alaska to investigate the suspicious deaths of the drillers. They are joined by an all-star supporting cast that includes George Mason from '24', Kenny Bania from 'Seinfeld', and Felicity Huffman. As in 'The Thing' they get trapped due to weather, and there is an alien species that infects and controls the investigators. It's a nice commentary on human violence and distrust and as in all episodes Mulder and Scully make it out alive (their partners are not so lucky). 'Eve' is a creepy story concerning genetic modification experiments, and uses a classic horror move of creepy murderous children. The two episodes that concern Tooms are also knockouts. Tooms is a creepy mutated human that eats livers and squeezes through small spaces. Mulder and Scully end up putting him away early on in the season, but as his parole comes up later on Mulder's off the wall explanation of how he committed the murders falls apart and causes Tooms to be released. This is a common theme of The X-Files. Mulder and Sully come across some crystal clear evidence, only to lose said evidence (they even learned to stop carrying cameras seeing that they were always confiscated) or to be disregarded when grilled by other authority figures.

The mythology episodes at this early part of the show are almost all fantastic. It is commonplace in the contemporary TV landscape to have season or series long storylines, but this was not the case in the mid 90s. The reason people kept coming back to The X-Files (especially in the early goings) was to find out about the possible alien invasion and Mulders battle with the very government that he was working for. As stated previously, these storylines went awry later on but in the early episodes the drive the underlying purpose of the show.

Many people complain that the new series Fringe is just an X-Files rip-off. It may be true that they obviously have a lot in common, but I think this is a ridiculous claim. How many cop, lawyer, and doctor shows are there? Just because the series involves a team associated with the FBI investigating unexplained phenomenon doesn't mean they're the same. First of all, the X-Files is more interested in investigating paranormal activities and myths found in urban legends and ghost stories than is Fringe. Fringe takes a much more scientific approach, and tries to explain every 'unexplainable' event with our current scientific knowledge. The X-Files is much more likely to leave an event unexplained, and with a 'wasn't that creepy!' kind of ending, whereas Fringe leaves nothing unexplained. This is to say nothing of the characters involved or the overarching plots, which are very much different.

I loved re-watching the first season of The X-Files. Not only did it remind me of storylines in which I was previously very invested, it introduced characters that would become more important as the series went on (The Lone Gunmen, Skinner, The Cigarette Smoking Man, and Deep Throat). It also reminded me of what was really the driving force behind the series, the interaction between Mulder and Scully. Although sometimes their interaction becomes a little standard (Scully: ' Mulder there has to be a rational explanation for all this.' Mulder: 'Scully after all you've seen why can't you just believe!') watching them work together become close is at the base of this show. Although there were a few number of misses on the MOTW episodes, the episodes in general were very good to great. The first season The X-Files is still better than almost any show currently airing on television.