The return of “The X-Files” to TV screens after a 14-year absence caused justified excitement and anxiety. It was a very important, unifying performance The Twilight Zone-style fantasy with humor, drama and emotion. The X-Files took its topic seriously and was taken seriously by viewers. Together with Buffy the Vampire Slayerwhich aired around the identical time, may be seen as a precursor to such titles True Blood, Heroes, Game of Thrones or the renewed Doctor Who. The X-Files was a template for shows that took traditionally wild or bizarre narrative threads and approached them with an honesty more often present in “quality” television series.
In The X-Files, in fact, we got the monster of the week and the overarching alien invasion story, season after season. However, it was the connection between Agents Mulder and Scully, played by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, that was undoubtedly the central plot of the series. The issue was whether this relationship should remain platonic or develop romantically great argument amongst fans.
Such a commitment illustrates the show's strong investment in human drama inside a fantasy setting, and it's no surprise that the favored fantasy TV titles which have since followed deal with families and friendships as much as vampires, superheroes, dragons or monsters . It's equally unsurprising that Mulder and Scully needs to be a significant focus of media attention for the series' revival, given the deep affection that has encouraged viewers to attach with the characters over time.
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The series' large fan base has given it “cult” television status. Interestingly, it was already called that when it was broadcast, and never in a nostalgic or ironic way. The sense of belonging the show engendered was strong within the Nineties; it was not unusual to see the slogans “The Truth Is Out There” on teenagers' T-shirts, interspersed with Nirvana album covers or Tarantino movie posters. The X-Files thus coincided with a period by which television began to realize a standing near film and music.
These T-shirts show how the X-Files were seen as a salable item, and themed merchandise comparable to mugs, toys, posters and books also began appearing in increasing numbers. It then became a part of a growing box TV trend. Entire seasons of The X-Files could possibly be purchased in VHS boxed sets and displayed as a group on owners' bookshelves. This was a change from the Eighties, when a keenness for VHS tapes designed to mimic the spines of books on shelves overshadowed the “guilty pleasure” of video watching.
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The T-shirt's slogan, “The Truth Is Out There,” obviously refers back to the X-Files' consistent emphasis on government conspiracy and the concept of a world hidden from us by invisible hands. With the return of The X-Files, it's clear that these ideas haven't gone away. But they’ve modified.
In the post-9/11 and post-Iraq war era of television, we’re conversant in government and terrorist shows like Homeland and 24. Compared to those titles, The X-Files' paranoia about an extraterrestrial invasion could seem period-specific, even quaint. The X-Files allegorized the fear of otherness in the identical way that Nineteen Fifties sci-fi movies allegorized Cold War anxieties, but now that shows usually visualize immediate real-world threats and anxieties on screen, perhaps you’ll need to search out a strategy to adapt your topics to make them relevant again.
“The X-Files” re-enters the tv world it helped define and shape, but the bottom has inevitably modified. Since The X-Files first aired, television has turn out to be rather more ambitious and assured. After all, it was 12 years ago Lost immersed viewers in a surprisingly myriad grand conspiracy spanning six seasons.
We live in a time where seemingly nothing can simply end (or a minimum of nothing that would bring potential profit). Perhaps “The X-Files” faces the identical challenge as one other recent revival, “Star Wars”: offering fans enough familiarity to remain true to the unique, but additionally providing enough of what’s different to stay relevant in a modified world. We will soon discover if he’ll have the ability to match his previous success. The truth will come out and everybody will see it.
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