The X-Files: Seasons 1-11 Review

Plot: Created by Chris Carter, this startling and occasionally gory scifi/horror/mystery show follows FBI special agents as they investigate unexplained, mind-bending cases known as “X-Files.” Though the government is convinced that the outlandish reports are false, conspiracy theorist Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and realist Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), for most of the series, stop at nothing to prove that “the truth is out there.”

Review: Season 1 introduces the duo as they are nowhere near prepared for the various close encounters and questionable secrecy surrounding them. Season 2 has the X-Files program get shut down and Mulder and Scully are separated. Scully finds herself teaching classes at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, while Mulder is assigned to surveillance duty. Season 3 and 4 showcase various new recurring baddies, some of whom are merely the face of a greater evil that awaits them. Season 5 and 6 (which had the feature film, Fight the Future, be an filler add-on story) show Scully and Mulder trying to thwart the dangerous, growing in power entity called The Syndicate while having new yet questionable agents join their investigating team. Season 7 deals with the destruction of the Syndicate, Mulder’s abduction and many more supernatural discoveries.

The early ‘90s were redefining network TV all of a sudden. Every crime show was trying to be the next Homicide, NYPD Blue or Law & Order; Twin Peaks had just premiered and created a similar cult legion of followers with WTF-level plot twists; and here and there, we were seeing various SciFi-Fantasy shows attempting to duplicate the success of Babylon 5 and the seemingly immortal Star Trek franchise. X-Files itself slowly grew its own huge audience due to several factors: many late ‘80s/early ‘90s films had already experimented with various premises where an unlikely authority figure-turned-buddy duo had to deal with aliens and other supernatural encounters in exciting and terrifying situations. Audiences had already dug regular buddy films like Lethal Weapon as well as the cult film The Hidden so this show inevitably had some of the same tropes, only now adding a romantic “will they or won’t they?” tension for the chemistry when the plot wasn’t focusing on the newest discovery of the week.

Seasons 8 and 9 focus on various life, death and belief recurring instances as well as having Scully rely on help from agents Doggett (Robert Patrick) and Reyes (Annabeth Gish) for help in tracking down missing Mulder. This is where the show truly divided its audience with one of its lead stars no longer being in every episode, it had tough shoes to fill. Everyone has nitpicks bit honestly much like how fans look at it nowadays, I do find the new agents fascinating without feeling like a cheap replacement. Much like first seven seasons, there’s plenty of episodes that haven’t dated as well or that were better on paper than on actual film. But there’s also plenty of other deadly villains and dramatic turns for Scully to make it stand well on its own two feet.

Seasons 10 and 11 take place 14 years later after the last season and showcase that Cigarette Man has another doomsday prophecy in store all while the duo learns that they might have a long-lost son! I’ve mainly seen four different types of reactions to these final two seasons: utter disappointment (somewhat on par with the second film, I Want to Believe), entertaining, watchable but a shadow of its former self or just plain meh. I personally think that these last two years were just a mixture of making a dark revision for today’s moody blockbuster crowd while also being straightforward fan-service. Regardless, this is honestly the last we’ll ever see of this franchise once and for all (unless some evil bastard remakes it) as after it became apparent that Anderson and the writers were not getting along on this final go-around. You can’t please everyone but I’m glad they tried one final revisit attempt, added some more campy humor and unpredictable plot twists, while also mixing in stock footage laden flashbacks to both catch up newcomers as well as introduce new shocking reveals. The show, like any other, was never critical proof but it is always being rediscovered/rewatched each generation so I would argue that the overall entertainment values, style and overall legacy greatly exceed any endless flaws in execution the show has had.

The whole show has been captivating enough all these years that it’s no wonder that it spawned two movies, two videogames, a failed spin-off, created various careers and was syndicated endlessly on TNT, SciFi Channel and BBC America! Regardless of which favorite or least liked seasons you consider, just about anyone is going to get something out of thus puzzle-piece.