The Files of X

Do you watch shows like Bones, Fringe, and of course, are you enjoying for years the many various Crime Scene Investigation or 'CSI' television series until you were blue in the face with criminal forensics?

Well, now that many of these shows or their spin-offs have come and gone, maybe it's time to go back to the one that started it all, to really appreciate it.

What's that famous old saying?  'You've tried the rest, now try the best?'  Or is it more like, 'The original, and best'.

However you put it, we and many others personally feel that some of the best writing ever for dramas that dealt with crimes and the paranormal came out of a little known show that showed up on TV screens in 1993.  It was called, of course, 'The X-Files', a show created and written by Chris Carter, but Chris also had a pool of other excellent staff and guest writers that contributed and wrote many of the series' episodes as well.

Going back and watching the show now, it is truly remarkable to reflect upon the actual structure of the show.  Using a method that was hardly (if ever) used before, the X-Files episodes consisted of:

1) A main thread of what we call a series sub-theme that would re-occur and pick up and continue where it had left off a few episodes prior, and then in-between the sub-theme episodes would be:

2) Various other episodes that were written about and uniquely covered another popular and random sub-topic within the paranormal realms.  Of course, the main thread dealt with UFO's, aliens, and their clandestine plot to develop (along with shady government figures) a successful alien-human hybrid to employ as a slave race to accommodate their eventual colonizing and taking over of planet earth.  The random episodes would deal with things like astrology, Bigfoot, Moth-man, ghosts, matters of the occult, and so on.

Many dramas today use this method of recurring main thread or sub-theme intertwined with other random episodes, which is a testament to the ground-breaking show that was the X-Files.

The X-Files also seemed to have helped bolster the Sci-Fi resurgence that occurred in Hollywood during the mid to late nineties, and has continued to this day.

The show lasted for 9 seasons, now 11 if you count the recent 're-boot', and spawned 2 feature films that carried on the TV series' subject matter.

When you go back to re-visit the X-Files, we are sure that you will notice some things:

First of all, the show is still hell-a-scary!  Its trademark, what made it what it was, and why you will always have a post-viewing discussion with your pals, or 'water-cooler' talk.

Another thing would be all of the young actors or no-names that were in the show who are famous now.  Some of them are a little hard to spot, but you can always watch the credits at the end if you are in doubt.

Finally, you will start to realize that given the year the show came out, that there are so many shows you watch now that are dead copies of the X-Files, or are borrowing some of the story-lines or approach to the style of directing and acting.