... whether you actually do or not. On paper, it doesn't sound like much. Two FBI agents are teamed up - a believer in UFO's since as a child he witnessed the abduction of his sister by aliens - Fox Mulder - and Dana Scully, an M.D. and a skeptic about paranormal activity. I watched from the very first episode and there is just something magical about the chemistry of the entire thing. Scully is ordered into the assignment, and everybody believes Fox Mulder saw something awful happen to his sister, but they think his mind created the alien abduction scenario to help him cope with the shock. And so for seven years they encounter things for which maybe a logical explanation can be found, maybe not.
I really loved X-Files, but I think I liked their individual episodes more than their story arcs, which, actually, were quite confusing. Was smoking man Mulder's biological father? Was Mulder's sister really kidnapped by aliens and gone for good or did she come back as some kind of cloned pseudo daughter for Smoking Man? Was Scully's baby just a case of "the doctors were wrong you can get pregnant"? Was he a product of an alien experiment she does not remember? I dunno. But the fact is people all over the Internet will tell you they do know that this or that was true when largely all we have are insinuations in the show itself, never explicit facts. Maybe this was done on purpose, and sometimes it made the show confusing but it always kept an air of mystery going on that was thoroughly compelling.
As for the idea that Smoking Man - one of the true villains in the series and brilliantly and subtly played by William B. Davis - was at the center of every assassination of the 1960's - I always found that a bit Forrest Gumpish for me, but an interesting idea. (He wanted to be the one to kill Martin Luther King because he respected him so much???? What the...) My two most favorite episodes of the entire series were "Home" and "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" - neither of which did anything to advance a story arc but were great examples of just how good X-Files could be when everything came together to tell an interesting story in 50 minutes or so. If you watch "Home" from the beginning of season four I'll just tell you that you'll never be able to listen to "Wonderful Wonderful" sung by Johnny Mathis in quite the same way again. It will be like listening to "Layla" after you've seen Goodfellas.
The thing the show did best? Showing a growing loving relationship between Mulder and Scully that maybe got physical and sexual and maybe did not. The point is they wisely never had a TADA! moment of consummation, the kind that killed "Moonlighting" and killed "Cheers" twice in the 80s by killing the sexual tension.
The thing they did worst? Probably soldiering on for two seasons without David Duchovny for large chunks of those two seasons. Was it better than anything else on TV today - certainly. But even two characters that were well written and well characterized - Doggett and Reyes - could not replace Mulder. That is the only reason I did not rate this series as ten stars.
Watch it from beginning to end - even the last two seasons - I think you'll find it time well spent.
I really loved X-Files, but I think I liked their individual episodes more than their story arcs, which, actually, were quite confusing. Was smoking man Mulder's biological father? Was Mulder's sister really kidnapped by aliens and gone for good or did she come back as some kind of cloned pseudo daughter for Smoking Man? Was Scully's baby just a case of "the doctors were wrong you can get pregnant"? Was he a product of an alien experiment she does not remember? I dunno. But the fact is people all over the Internet will tell you they do know that this or that was true when largely all we have are insinuations in the show itself, never explicit facts. Maybe this was done on purpose, and sometimes it made the show confusing but it always kept an air of mystery going on that was thoroughly compelling.
As for the idea that Smoking Man - one of the true villains in the series and brilliantly and subtly played by William B. Davis - was at the center of every assassination of the 1960's - I always found that a bit Forrest Gumpish for me, but an interesting idea. (He wanted to be the one to kill Martin Luther King because he respected him so much???? What the...) My two most favorite episodes of the entire series were "Home" and "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" - neither of which did anything to advance a story arc but were great examples of just how good X-Files could be when everything came together to tell an interesting story in 50 minutes or so. If you watch "Home" from the beginning of season four I'll just tell you that you'll never be able to listen to "Wonderful Wonderful" sung by Johnny Mathis in quite the same way again. It will be like listening to "Layla" after you've seen Goodfellas.
The thing the show did best? Showing a growing loving relationship between Mulder and Scully that maybe got physical and sexual and maybe did not. The point is they wisely never had a TADA! moment of consummation, the kind that killed "Moonlighting" and killed "Cheers" twice in the 80s by killing the sexual tension.
The thing they did worst? Probably soldiering on for two seasons without David Duchovny for large chunks of those two seasons. Was it better than anything else on TV today - certainly. But even two characters that were well written and well characterized - Doggett and Reyes - could not replace Mulder. That is the only reason I did not rate this series as ten stars.
Watch it from beginning to end - even the last two seasons - I think you'll find it time well spent.