Though it’s all but forgotten now, I still love the X-Files. The show had a profound effect on American mythology. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the X-Files was not only the show to define American mythology, but it was also the quintessential show of the 90’s.
European monsters are sort of the standard creatures we think of when we use the word “mythology.” Vampires, werewolves, etc. may appear in American cinema, but they belong to a distinct European lineage. While the standard European monsters may have had their appearances on X-Files from time to time, the show really shined when it focused on America’s own monsters: grey aliens.
The struggle between the greys, the changeling aliens, and the humans was never made absolutely clear (we know it had to do with colonization and alien/human hybrids, but the specifics were never detailed and they also changed from season to season if one were to map it all out), but it didn’t matter. At its core, X-Files features a distinctly American problem; the search for truth.
Truth is everywhere in the series. “I want to believe” and “The truth is out there” being the modus operandi of the series, what it really tells us is that we as Americans struggle with our identity. We want something more to be out there and we want to understand. Fox Mulder’s search for aliens is such a powerful metaphor because we have to consider the implications of uncovering such a conspiracy. If aliens do exist, then what does it mean for God? If the government has been hiding their existence, what does that tell us about the governing body? What does that say for our country?
It would be easy to call the show an exploration into nihilism when we think about how powerless Mulder and Scully are to stop the larger threats of government conspiracy, but the show always presents hope as being the ultimate prize. We hope that Mulder will find his sister, we hope that Scully will get over her cancer, and we hope that they will just KISS ONCE!
It’s unfortunate that The X-Files isn’t as culturally relevant as it once was. In its heyday, it seemed as if everyone wanted to talk aliens. I can still remember Fox airing some “footage” of an alien autopsy (this footage was later shown on an episode of X-Files, so it could have been a tie-in show that I was too young to understand as being just to boost their ratings). As much as I love Fringe, it doesn’t have the same heart as the X-Files but it does deal with the sci-fi elements in a better way.
Perhaps the key difference between X-Files and Fringe is that the former looked at paranormal situations through the eyes of normal people while the latter has accepted fringe science as being a possibility. The plausible deniability of X-Files seems to characterize not just the show, but the American spirit; no matter how much proof is out there, we are more than willing to deny whatever conflicts with our own beliefs.
Anyway, while most of the alien episodes were among the best of the series, they couldn’t have every episode be about the struggle against the greys (well, they couldn’t back then, but television today is so much different than television in the 90’s – Lost changed all of that), so X-Files featured many episodes where Mulder and Scully faced a “monster of the week.”
I’ve gotten into arguments with Ross Payton before about the concept of “monster of the week” because I prefer a continuous story, but that’s because I watch a lot of TV on DVD and the start/stop nature of “monster of the week” episodes is lost on me because I watch many episodes in a row. X-Files had some really great episodes that dealt with nearly every sort of monster one could name and some of these episodes were absolute garbage.
I was on twitter the other day and my friend Michael mentioned that season 7’s “Hollywood A.D.” was the worst episode of the entire series. While it was certainly an awful episode, I found it to be one of the better ones of season 7 (which is indicative of how AWFUL season 7 really is along with my proclamation after every episode, “So THAT’S why David Duchovny left the show after this season”). Sam and I got to talking about the “worst” episode of the seven seasons we’ve watched so far and each new bad episode brought along a flood of more bad episodes. For my money though, the worst episode of them all has to be season 1’s “Fire.”
Plot – “Mulder and Scully join forces with an inspector from Scotland Yard when a man with pyrokinetic powers stalks members of the British aristocracy.” What more needs to be said? The show was supposed to be an exploration into American mythology, and instead, we are given an episode that features a fire-starting British punk.
The inspector from Scotland Yard is played by Amanda Pays (best known as Dr. McGee in The Flash TV show and also, Corbin Bernsen’s wife) and she apparently was once romantically involved with Mulder at one point in her career. As soon as they see each other, they instantly fall in love once more and Scully turns a little jealous.
This forced back story for Mulder is far less interesting than any other story they had given him previously or since. In fact, it almost contradicts what they had established about him as a character before that considering he was nick-named “Spooky” and most people didn’t want to have anything to do with him.
Perhaps the most insulting moment came when it was established that Mulder was deathly afraid of fire. That’s right. The hero of the show is afraid of fire and the audience is “treated” to scenes where Mulder can’t get up due to his crippling fear of flames.
So, here is a character that is willing to take on the entire U.S. Government and the conspiracies that they are hiding, but an open match makes him pee himself? Not the most compelling hero of all time. Perhaps that’s why his fear of fire was immediately forgotten after this episode.
For its forced backstory, and its lack of any real American connection, I believe this episode to be one of the worst of the series. Maybe not THE worst though, I suppose. After all, maybe I should give it a little slack because the first season of any show feels like they are trying to find their footing.
So, what do you think? What is the worst episode of the series? What is the best episode? Tell me in the comments!
I thought Fire was pretty bad. I’m rewatching the entire series right now so it’s all a bit more fresh than it was back in the day. In truth, I didn’t catch as much of it as I would have liked when it was on tv. I’m currently about halfway through season three. I thought the carnie-folk episode was pretty bad.
I think the best episodes between season one and three were the episodes that focused on the tentpole plot, which is Mulder’s search for his sister with the revolving cast of mysterious faces like the Smoking Man, The Lone Gunmen, and Agent Skinner’s deceptions. That’s where all of the intrigue comes from that really makes the series for me. I liked Anasazi (finale of season 2) and the premiere of season 2: Little Green Men a LOT. Other good ones were Squeeze, the Erlenmeyer Flask, DPO (Jack Black and Giovanni Ribisi!) and The Walk. A couple of these last few aren’t a part of the tentpole plot but are pretty good.
I personally thought the carnie episode was okay. Not great, but not bad. There were at least a few humorous parts.
Season 3 is pretty great. The best episode of the entire series is “Confessions of a Cigarette-Smoking Man” and it might be in season 3, but I think it might be season 4. Also, the origin of the Lone Gunmen is a perfect episode as well.
That was a truly atrocious episode…as a matter of fact, I had forgotten all about it until I read this…thanks for that!
Fire was the first episode i saw, and i sort of hold a special place in my heart for it, plus i just love the ending of it. The make up was great, at least i thought so at the time. Plus Mark Sheppard is amazing!
One of my least favorite episodes is the Jersey Devil episode.
On a different note, i never saw the show being a study of American mythology. Mostly because i never considered aliens to be the type to single out one area of the entire world. Mainly because anything alien related I could never consider mythological, because it’s all based on science. Whereas the more supernatural stuff like seen in American Gothic and Supernatural i could much more easily classify under the mythological term.
Joe – I had never really considered aliens as mythology before until I read Morrison’s Invisibles. Even thought they have science elements, we have to consider what the implications of that science has for our mythology. We are people who constantly ask questions and aliens can be viewed as the answers to those questions. Think of everything wrapped up in aliens coming to Earth:
they come down from the sky usually in a bright light display
they have science and technology much like Prometheus giving us fire
they represent the unknown but the potential for answers.
If this isn’t mythology, then I’m not sure what is.
Well, clearly I’ve never thought about it that way, so bully to you sir.
What I would love to see is alien designs that actually look….alien. As in so far from what we perceive to be humanoid. But the problem with that is it’s just hard to conceive of something like that, the closest i ever saw was some art inspired by lovecraft, and i won’t lie it startled me at first glance.
The worst were probably all the Robert Patrick episodes, because without Mulder there’s not much to care about.
Hard to remember, because I haven’t seen them recently, but my favorites that come to mind were the Eugene Toombs stretchy liver-eating guy ones, the inbred hillbilly freaks, the guy who could regrow his head/body, the genie one with Will Sasso, and any of the Vince Gilligan-scripted ones, like the guy calling himself Luke Skywalker who got women to bear babies with tails. Also liked any where Mulder beat the snot out of Crichek for being a weasel.
Recently watched the Duchovny movie “The Joneses,” which was much better than its reviews. Oddly enough, it was much like the X-Files episode where Mulder and Scully pose as a married couple living in a perfect suburbia setting. I barely remember the episode, but I enjoyed the movie.
The monster of the weeks are my favorite episodes. I never watched the show when it was new on TV, though my fiance did. I caught old reruns or occationally videos and found my favorites that way.
My personal favorite is the COPS styled episode with them chasing the monster around the city.
Lost changed nothing. It was an intriguing concept whose creators didn’t seem to believe would get picked up into a series. As evident in the quick tailspin the show took after the first twoish seasons. Tailspin… that was a show that both defined and changed America. I doubt we’d see so many pilot bears today if not for that landmark show.