X-Files

Trust no one… The truth is out there…

This is one of the first series I ever watched as a kid. It has everything it needs to attract people of all ages. You can watch it whether you believe in aliens and paranormal activity or not, because the show provides a range of diverse opinions and explanations regarding exactly these issues. For this reason, during the show’s most prominent years, many people found themselves exchanging views and assumptions in forums and chat rooms about what really happened in each of the episodes…

The X-Files is an American science-fiction series that ran from 1993 until 2002, completing nine circles worldwide and gathering an impressive fan-base. The show’s creator, Chris Carter, originally wanted to deal with alien abductions and UFO appearances. Gradually the complexity of the script, the broad themes and mythological references led the story far beyond any original projections. This was a series that was talking about aliens and unexplained phenomena. Can you imagine how the world’s greatest UFO geeks felt when it first appeared?

In the summer of 1998, the movie The X-Files: Fight the Future was released. It was essentially a two-hour episode taken between the fifth and sixth cycle which could be seen autonomously as well. Ten years later, in 2008, the second movie based on the series was released, titled The X-Files: I Want to Believe. This film, a police thriller, was more focused on the relationship between the two main characters, Scully and Mulder.

These characters are two FBI agents: Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) an Oxford graduate and conspiracy theorist, obsessed with the paranormal and his more rational colleague, Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), a skeptic with a strong academic background. While struggling to find the truth about alien creatures, monsters and other mysteries, hidden forces impede their efforts.

From the third cycle, the plot had become more complicated and inaccurate, thus losing its interest and originality, though gradually providing viewers with some answers to questions posed in previous seasons. In the eighth cycle agent Mulder disappears mysteriously and his position is taken by agent John Doggett (Robert Patrick). Eventually, David Duchovny returns for the final episodes of the eighth season.

The success of the show always depended on the chemistry and the tension between the two heroes — a platonic relationship that later develops into a romantic one. Furthermore, the excellent photography and the dark, mysterious and moody atmosphere in combination with the mind-bending plots that always leaves you with an ambiguous sense of incompleteness make the show highly addictive to viewers worldwide.

Some other reasons that make the X-Files such a success include the fact that the characters are seen searching for a scientific base in bizarre situations, the independent episodes, and of course the anti-government themes about conspiracy theories that many Americans tend to get a little touchy about.

The X-Files will forever be remembered as a true hit TV show and as one of the most defining shows of the ’90s.