The X-Files (Season 1)

The X-Files is a wild and crazy series full of government conspiracies, bizarre monsters, and sweeping changes in genre. Not all of it works, but the stuff that does ranks among the best episodes of television. Its first season is a bit small in scale compared to the rest of the series, but I think that works for its benefit.

The X-Files can be divided into two different types of episodes: The Myth Arc (which progress the overall plot and deal with conspiracy) and the Monster Of The Week (which are mostly episodic and focus more on standard horror or comedy over paranoia). Each seasonal review of this show will have sections on both of these elements of the series.

Myth Arc: Out of all the seasons, I think Season 1 might have the best Myth Arc overall as it doesn't get too complicated. The show starts with Dana Scully joining the government's X-Files division, where Fox Mulder tries to prove aliens exist. Scully was assigned due to her skepticism which means she could poke the holes in Fox's theories and discredit his research. However, the two of them slowly begin to learn that the government really might be covering up alien life. What makes this first season so fantastic is the fact that we don't know if alien life truly exists yet. The only evidence we have are a few odd happenings and the claims of Mulder's enigmatic informant. However, throughout the season, the government (known as the Syndicate) starts to become more aggressive with the X-Files, culminating in the fantastic finale where Scully finds an honest-to-god alien fetus, Deep Throat is downright killed by the Syndicate, and the X-Files is shut down. The tension slowly building up throughout this season's myth arc episodes is just fantastic, and the show never gets too convoluted since many of the plot threads tied together in the final episode. Keep in mind, this is the last time an X-Files season will be this neat and tidy.

Monster Of The Week: Eventually, the Monster Of The Week episodes would end up becoming the standout of the X-Files due to their experimental nature along with the willingness to let the writers express themselves. On their own, they feel like an anthology series featuring the same main duo, with each episode being different in tone and even genre at times. Season 1 doesn't quite have that feeling yet (though many of its best episodes are written by the powerhouse duo of Glen Morgan & James Wong). Rather, this season's standalones are mostly fairly decent, with a few low points like the hilariously bad Space and the poorly-aged Gender Bender. Some of the best MoTW episodes can feel like full-on movies, but a lot of them this season just feel like standard episodes of television. It doesn't help that the effects this season haven't quite aged the best, particularly in episodes like Space and Darkness Falls. However, there are plenty of episodes that I thought were pretty excellent as well. Tooms was the first standalone villain of the series, and he absolutely stood out as one of the most terrifying as well in his two appearances. Ice and Beyond The Sea are also excellent, the former for being insanely tense and the latter for being rather emotional.

Between the strong myth arc and some solid standalones, this first season does have quite a few highlights:

Squeeze: This was the first Monster Of The Week the show has ever done, and it's still an absolute classic. Tooms is a terrifying villain thanks to Doug Hutchinson's great performance, and the sheer concept of a serial killer who can contort himself to get anywhere is just so creepy. While the intriguing nature of the show's pilot sold a lot of people on the X-Files, Squeeze showed just how scary the show could get.

Ice: I haven't seen The Thing, but Ice does an amazing job of showing me why so many people love it. It's an incredibly tense bottle episode about Mulder, Scully, and a team of scientists trapped in an isolated arctic lab with a murderous parasite. Ice does a great job of establishing the cast and slowly building up tension as everyone starts to accuse each other, leaving me on the edge of my seat throughout. It's a fantastic psychological thriller (a well-liked genre of mine), and one of my favorite episodes in the series. 

Beyond The Sea: Dana Scully is one of my favorite TV characters and that's all because of Gillian Anderson's outstanding performance. Even when the writing doesn't give Scully the love she deserves, Anderson always does. Thankfully, the show's first Scully-centric episode is excellent. It's an emotional episode about Scully dealing with the grief of her father's death, which intersects with the psychic monster of the week in great ways. I like the reversal of Mulder and Scully's usual beliefs, and Boggs is another great and charismatic villain.

Tooms: Tooms is back and creepier than ever! While seeing the titular villain again was already great, this episode really takes things up a notch, ending on one of the most harrowing sequences in the series (Tooms's cocoon and death were so gross). There's also a bit of myth arc in this episode too, as Skinner makes his first appearance, and the enigmatic Cigarette Smoking Man makes a brief appearance.

The Erlenmeyer Flask: As mentioned above, this finale is fantastic. It's easily my favorite X-Files ending due to how much it changes the series. Deep Throat is dead and the X-Files is shut down, but Scully and Mulder actually saw genuine evidence, it's not just something they can just walk away from! It's a tense, action-packed, shocking, and climactic ending to the season that also doesn't feel like Part 1 of a two-part episode like the later finales do.

Overall, Season 1 is a really solid start to the X-Files. Not all of its standalones were the best, but it had a great overarching storyline, some great monsters, and a myth arc that wasn't incredibly difficult to follow.

3/5 Stars