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| by Nadine Meeker with additional writing by Bridget Petrella | ||
| Fox Entertainment's ‘The X-Files Complete Set’— Chilling. | ||
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After reaching great success with their Buffy The Vampire Slayer set (and the Angel set), Fox Home Entertainment is following suite with another complete collection of one of their most popular sci-fi series: The X-Files. While seasons have been available individually for a while now, on November 6th fans will be able to pick up X-Files— The Complete Collector’s Edition which features all 198 episodes (9 seasons) of the television show as well as The X-Files: Fight The Future movie and a bonus disc filled with all sorts of new goodies. The X-Files is an American Peabody, Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning science fiction television series created by Chris Carter, which first aired on September 10th, 1993, and ended on May 19th, 2002. The show was one of the FOX network's first major hits, and its main characters and slogans (e.g., "The Truth Is Out There," "Trust No One," "I Want to Believe") became complete pop culture touchstones. The X-Files is often, and deservedly so, considered to be a defining series of the 1990s, coinciding with the era's widespread mistrust of governments, interest in conspiracy theories and spirituality, and the belief in the existence of extraterrestrial life. In the series, FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) are tasked with investigating the "X-Files": marginalized, unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. Mulder plays the role of the "believer", having faith in the existence of aliens and the paranormal, while Scully is a skeptic, initially assigned by her departmental superiors to debunk Mulder's unconventional work.
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Nadine Meeker, devout
generation X’er and confirmed campy TV addict, lives in Michigan with
her hubby of 17 years and their 14-year-old daughter. She left a career
in journalism when she knew more than her college instructor did but got
happily sucked back in by UPBEAT Entertainment News Syndicate.
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As
the show progressed, both agents were caught up in a much larger
conflict, termed "the mythology" or "mytharc" by the show's creators,
and developed a very close and ambiguous friendship which many saw more
as romantic than just platonic. The X-Files also featured stand-alone
episodes ranging in tone from horror to comedy, in which both Mulder and
Scully investigated uniquely bizarre cases without adding long-term
implications to the overall storyline. These so-called "monster of the
week" episodes made up the bulk of the series. The show's popularity
peaked in the mid-to-late 1990s, leading to a cultish yet popular
theatrical feature film release in 1998. In the last two seasons,
Anderson became the star as Duchovny appeared rarely, and new central
characters were introduced: FBI Agents John Doggett (Robert Patrick) and
Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish). At the time of its final episode, The
X-Files was the longest running sci-fi show ever on American television,
a title since lost to cable's Stargate SG-1. The show was declared by TV
Guide to be the second greatest cult television show of all time (Star
Trek, of course, being number one) and the 37th best television show of
all time.
In
2007, TIME Magazine included the show on its list of the "100 Best
TV Shows of All Time". The X-Files has since grown to become a worldwide
phenomenon, winning three Golden Globe Awards for Best Dramatic Series
and Golden Globe Awards for David Duchovny for Outstanding Performance
by an Actor in a Drama Series and to Gillian Anderson for Outstanding
Performance by an Actress in a Drama Series. The show has also garnered
numerous Emmy Awards including awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a
Drama Series for Anderson, Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series,
Outstanding Art Direction for a Series, Outstanding Makeup for a Drama
Series, Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing and Outstanding Sound
Editing for a Series. The X-Files has also received the prestigious
George Foster Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting. One of the
most talked about series on the Internet, The X-Files has an official
address on the World Wide Web located at
So
is the "truth" really really out there? And did "The X-Files" ever
completely reveal that truth? Well, I would have to say that the real
"gift" of this show was the fact that it NEVER "assumed" the audience
was unable to think and draw conclusions and theories far beyond the
writers' comprehension... and therein lies the pure "genius" of Chris
Carter. He really knew his audience. He understood that intelligent,
compelling stories could indeed exist amidst a sea of no-brainer,
mindless programming. Carter saw the truth which existed in the same
dark corridors that Rod Serling had successfully explored years before
with The Twilight Zone. Whether or not you believed that something was
"out there" didn't matter... it was merely a soft whisper of "doubt" and
"possibility" that inevitably became the show's premise for captivating
even the most defiant skeptics. Through its nine year run, the series
featured a host of guest stars including Tony Shalhoub, Jesse Ventura,
Alex Trebek, Lili Taylor, Michael McKean, Ed Asner, Lily Tomlin, Kathy
Griffin, Lucy Lawless and Richard Belzer, to name but a few. Now, both
fans and skeptics alike can relive FBI Agent Fox Mulder's (Duchovny)
desperate search for the truth after witnessing the alien abduction of
his sister when he was a young boy. Follow Agent Dana Scully (Anderson)
as she and Mulder encounter growing proof of the existence of
extraterrestrials and an undeniable government conspiracy to cover up
that truth. Then join Agent John Doggett (Robert Patrick) and Agent
Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish) as they too become believers while delving
deeper into the unsolved FBI cases that are known as The X-Files. UB
