Well it’s finally time to cross this series off the list. As a big fan of the show when I was a kid, it was a must that I obtain the complete series box set that includes all nine seasons as well as their two feature length films: Fight the Future and I Want to Believe. I just wish Netflix didn’t kick me in the ass by posting the complete series online only a few months later - I feel like a failure. Whatever. Lets begin.
The search begins...
As with the premiere of most television shows, the first season is often the poorest (with the exception to perhaps Lost - I don’t watch much else). It usually seems as though the show is a bit stage fright, still looking for their niche. To some extent, X-Files does have this problem - especially with the action sequences. Stock footage, blatant cut-aways, cheesy acting. If there’s ever a moment something exciting’s happening (like a car chase, for instance) chances are you’ll be grimacing at how terrible a job those scenes are put together. In one specific scene, a fighter pilot spots a U.F.O. in the sky that flies away out of sight. To make it zoom off screen, I swear it looks as though they just super imposed a picture, then failed to map it outside the aircraft so when it’s flying around it looks as though it’s within the plane’s cockpit. It’s just that awkward phase in the early 90’s where computers were just beginning to be utilized regularly in films, but were still ineffective at their work.
That aside, I must say the show is still quite good. For those unaware of the X-Files, it’s a television drama about two FBI agents (Fox Mulder and Dana Scully) who are assigned to the X-Files - the seemingly bizarre cases the FBI couldn’t solve that usually have to do with aliens and whatnot. The creator of the series, Chris Carter, has pointed in the extras as saying that when they first started filming the show, they had no idea at the time if there was going to be multiple seasons, so Carter refrained from embellishing upon too many long-term story arcs (something that will be established in great amount within the coming seasons). However, some important information is introduced like Mulder’s obsession about finding the truth behind his daughter’s disappearance as a child (Mulder swears he witnessed her being abducted by aliens - hence his strong belief in extra-terrestrials). The Lone Gunmen, three conspiracy nerds Mulder likes to turn to for help, are brought on for one episode. (I think these guys eventually got their own spin-off series that Fox quickly canned.) There’s also one episode that shows the Cigarette-Smoking Man - a character that will be utilized much more as the series progresses - in the background listening to Mulder and Scully being debriefed . The only strange part of the series is this guy named Deep Throat. Supposedly a figurehead apart of the “government within the government,” he quietly begins tipping Mulder off to information regarding alien lifeforms on Earth. I might not be remembering this right, but I think his character inexplicably vanishes after the first season - much like Chuck Cunningham in Happy Days.
I was surprise how many episodes I remember first watching after all these years since first airing in 1993. My favorites have to be the two-parter: Squeeze and Tooms. Focused on a man named Eugene Tooms who’s some sort of monster that can stretch himself out like Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four, he slithers around his victims air ducts so he can jump out and eat their livers. Supposedly hundreds of years old, this creature - masquerading as a man - is on the path to eat his last few livers before going into hibernation for another 30 years before he kills again. This episode scared the crap out of me as a kid. For months I was afraid to sit on the toilette in fear of some elongated hand jumping out and snatching my bum. Then it slowly drifted to being afraid of spiders on the toilet (Arachnophobia) then a C-4 bomb under the lid (Lethal Weapon II)... yeah, I’ve got a thing with toilets.
Anyways, this first season sets the bar pretty high for what the show must accomplish. With Mulder’s belief and Scully’s “by-the-book” methods, the two take flight solve the mysteries behind the government’s cover-ups. The season ends with one important discovery: The government is in possession of an extra-terrestrial virus that they’ve attempted to clone human-alien hybrids from. SPOILER ALERT!
Oh, did I say that too late... My bad.
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