The X-Files: The show may be Science Fiction, but it's viewer appeal is very Real. Here's why...
The X-Files is a regular pop-culture phenomenon, right up there with the "Star Wars" films, "Gone With The Wind," fuzzy dice on the rear view mirrors of classic cars, Bruce Springsteen and MacDonald's fries. It has become a fixture of the cultural landscape, and it's characters and jargon have been ingrained in the minds of fans and casual television-watchers alike. Even those uninterested in sci-fi generally can be drawn to this particular show, for the X-files is not just science fiction: Its saga contains the elements of mystery, suspense, drama, police shows, medical series... you name it, it has a role in the greatest television show of all time. X-files episodes as early as 1995 were being broadcast all over the globe, in innumerable languages to many countries besides the United States of America. Actor William B. Davis, who portrayed the sinister C.G.B. Spender (also known as "Cancer Man" or the "Cigarette Smoking Man" for his always having a smoke handy) recalls a trip in an elevator where a woman said: "My God, you look just like that scary man from the X-Files!" The recognition of the characters, even among those who are not die-hard fanatics like myself, never ceases to amaze some people. It does not amaze me, however.
Why, then, has a show based around two agents investigating odd happenings created such a trend, and gone from a little known program watched by a few "odd-balls" to a current, "in" show that is definitely considered cool as the cryo-chamber they used to kidnap Scully in the feature film?
It isn't hard to see why. Aside from tapping into aspects of non-sci-fi programs, such as drama, police work, etc., The X-Files also has a winning team in its actors, writers and characters. The lead roles, agents Mulder and Scully, have an interaction, and a friendship (though it's also gone beyond that by now) that keeps the show real, often injecting needed humor or dead-pan remarks during the most creepy cases... and the cases can get creepy. In an early episode called "Squeeze," the agents tackled a series of murders they discovered was committed by a genetic mutant who ate livers and lived underground, and also didn't age... he had been alive half a century or more and looked in his twenties. In "our Town," a later episode, the agents discover an entire town is hiding a shocking secret: ritual cannibalism... And then there are the conspiracy episodes which put the spotlight on aliens and a secret plot by a Syndicate of dark-suited humans to assist in the extermination of the human race to save their own skins... These episodes, usually leading off and ending each season, helped direct the series and point the way. The stand-alone episodes with the focus on serial killers or monsters, however, do provide a much needed counterpoint, as did some interesting character studies midway through the series, in which FBI agent Dana Scully got to reveal some more of her emotional side (though personally I wasn't a fan of it, I think it could've been handled a bit differently...).
Then, in the last year or so, we saw the rise of the humor episodes, shows that made the viewer smile or laugh, with humorous exchanges between Scully and Mulder and amusing plots. These stand-alone episodes, such as "Bad Blood," which has Mulder and a reluctant Scully chasing a false-fang-wearing vampire, or "Dreamland", a two-parter in which Mulder switches bodies with an Area 51 gov't suit after a UFO test flight doesn't go too well, are seen as a low point by some fans. I, however, find many of them to be good stories that show a lighter side to The X-Files.
But ultimately, the reason the show is a success is because it taps into very reasonable and earthly beliefs in television viewers. Television viewers, like many people, have their share of healthy distrust for government, especially in today's United States where a President can get away with perjury, or Congress can waste billions of dollars, or Communist Chinese spies can steal all our nuclear secrets with the blessing of some in our government; we live in a world where political figures are asking for more and more new powers to ban privately owned guns, impose crippling restrictions on industry in the name of unproven "environmentalist" theory, and sundry other items. Just recently it was made an issue on Congress whether the police should be given the power to search homes without notification or warrants... the new law, hopefully, will not pass. But such things incite well-deserved suspicion of government entities.
This suspicion of authority is something viewers tap into as the show itself has... In this respect many can identify with the theme of the show, if not the content, for the theme is one that could not be farther removed from fiction: There is a real truth to current events and the nature of the universe, and it can be at least partially understood, but only if one refuses to be blinded by others. In this respect X-Files creator Chris Carter was right on target: The Truth is Out there. and hopefully, after they are done watching the latest episode of the X-Files, people will be inspired to do a little thinking of their own rather than just be spoon-fed convincingly worded "facts" by the evening newscasts and political spindoctors. Wouldn't that be something....? Better living through Science Fiction. Rational thought stimulated by a show about alien conspiracies? Hey, Stranger things have happened. Ask Mulder or Scully.
-- Elvis
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