The X Files: Revisting An Old Friend

September 10th, 2013 will mark the 20 year anniversary of The X Files airing for the first time. I was a big fan of the show when it is was still on television and to celebrate the momentous anniversary I've been re-watching the series. It might be the nostalgia of going back or the red headed beauty that is Gillian Anderson but I have fallen back in love with this series. I never really stopped loving The X Files but I definitely moved on after the show finished in 2002. I'd watch an episode if I stumbled across it but that was it. But when I realized the 20th anniversary was approaching and a comic book version of Season 10 was coming out I decided it was time to revisit my first TV girlfriend (Xena was my 2nd).

Here's what I love most about the show:
















1. Gillian Anderson 

A 24 year old no name actress was cast in the role of Special Agent Dana Scully by show creator Chris Carter but the Fox executives wanted a "bombshell" for the role. Carter insisted that Gillian Anderson was the perfect choice for the part and the rest is history. Not only did she become a brainy bombshell (by season 4 they got Scully's wardrobe and hair right) but her skills as an actor show through all the dark and moody lighting. The part of Scully could have easily become Mulder's side kick but she was his partner, walking along side him in all his adventures, not behind him. Gillian plays her role perfectly. Smart, tough and skeptical (most of the time), depending on what the circumstances calls for or what her partner needs her to be.

2. The Chemistry

The on screen chemistry between Mulder and Scully is quite possibly the greatest in television history! This is a very lofty and biased statement but I don't care. The looks between Mulder and Scully in their most desperate moments are electric. And even though their most loving and intimate moments together usually ended in a hug or a hand squeeze or sometimes a kiss on the cheek (ooooh!) you knew they loved each other and they trusted no one but one another. What makes this all the more remarkable is that it is no secret that there was tension between the two actors behind the scenes throughout the run of the show. They openly discuss this tension. In an interview for the 2008 movie I Want To Believe, Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny both discuss the fact that even though they would go for weeks at a time without speaking to one another off camera, the on screen chemistry was never affected.

3. The Humor

The X Files could be funny. Thanks to great writing and great actors, the show was always able to pull it off. There is humor sprinkled through almost every episode, even the most dark and conspiracy-thick ones but then there were the comedies. A handful of episodes are funny, through and through. I think the show was at its funniest when it was making fun of itself. Hollywood A.D, Jose Chung's from Outer Space and Bad Blood come to mind as some of the best examples. Or when someone trades bodies with or impersonates Mulder and inevitably hits on Scully like in Dreamland and Small Potatoes. The funny episodes were a much needed break from the drama and creepiness that the show is best known for. It was a chance for the audience, and no doubt the cast and crew, to laugh a little between attacks from alien bounty hunters and disease spreading bees. 

4. The Sexual Tension

The sexual tension proved to be too strong for even Chris Carter to control and eventually Mulder and Scully hook up. Of course we aren't sure when or how exactly, that would have been too easy. They have a kid together and eventually thanks to I Want To Believe we see them living together. During the recent 20th Anniversary panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Gillian Anderson seems to remember a Mulder and Scully sex scene being shot but never used. But keeping these two characters apart would be cruel and frankly unbelievable. Chris Carter was adamant about Mulder and Scully not getting together. During the Hero Complex Film Festival Panel earlier this year Chris Carter said he was never tempted to get them together sooner but it seems like he had no problem teasing the fans with almost kisses, alternate universe (or was it a dream?) kisses and lots and lots of sexual tension. Buckets of it. 

5.  The Paranormal

The X Files was a show about the paranormal before the paranormal was everywhere. I'm not saying that The X Files was the first show about the paranormal. Chris Carter himself grew up watching shows like The Twilight Zone and Kolchak: The Night Stalker, both prime-time shows dealing with the paranormal decades before The X Files hit the air. But TXF was at the front of the paranormal wave of shows that is still crashing into our living-rooms. TXF had vampires, werewolves, witches and demons four years before Buffy The Vampire Slayer started airing in 1997. Prime-time dramas like Fringe, Lost, Supernatural (to name a few) and any number of paranormal themed reality shows have The X Files to thank for their success. Whether it was a monster of the week episode or one that was part of the alien conspiracy "mytharc", The X Files made the paranormal cool and sexy.