Why I love the X-files

I work part-time, usually mornings and all I want to do when I get home is get my lunch and sit and relax with some telly. Anyone else who watches daytime TV will be well aware that there is NOTHING to watch in the afternoon. To be fair there are good shows on (Everybody loves Raymond, Frasier, Scrubs) but they are reruns that have been on a million times before. They're shown so much that they just aren't entertaining any more. But there is one show that I would never get bored of. Oh yes, The X-files. It's on two channels, two different seasons and I've been following both zealously. I've recently ordered the first series on dvd to feed my renewed The X-files addiction.
Here are some reasons why, to me, The X-files is one of the best shows ever.

Reason #1: Amazing, thrilling and intriguing story lines
17 years ago The X-files was first aired, and even though I was too young to have become a fan of it at the time, the one episode I saw then is one of my favourite series episodes ever! Episode 8 of season 1 "Ice". I saw it at a time when I didn't even know what the X-files was and always thought it was a TV movie I'd seen as a child. I didn't see it again until 5 years later and it was still as awesome.
 It's a tense thriller about a group isolated and trapped, while someone of them is killing them off one by one and they don't know who. They only know that the killer has been infected by a parasitic worm and spend their time trying to find out who has it and how to kill it. This episode is a perfect example of the genius of the series. Unfortunately, this genius didn't last all the way through to the last series and the latest movie was a complete disaster that should never have happened.
Nevertheless, The X-files has some of the most amazing episodes ever to be aired and story lines that have been emulated in other programs but not executed as successfully. There's the switched bodies episode, the psychic killer episode, invisible killer, supernatural cults etc and then there are the episodes that can never be copied.

Some of my fave episodes:

• Ice (1-08) a great chilling thriller equal to a TV movie.

• Shadows (1-06) a spooky ghost story, one of the first episodes I ever saw and still consider one of the best. I was in my Robotech phase at the time and always thought the woman in this looked like Minmei.

• Eve (1-11) a creepy episode about identical girls who live miles apart with different families. Mulder and Scully get called in when both their fathers are killed in the same weird way. Their looks aren't the only thing they have in common. A great performance by the two girls and Harriet Harris (who is also wickedly funny as Bebe in Frasier)

• Humbug (2-20) a horror episode set in a circus town with some really freaky characters and an even freakier monster. Gillian Anderson eats something very odd at the end.

• Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose (3-04) this one is about a serial killer who kills psychics. Mulder and Scully get help from a real psychic to find him. The real psychic is played by the late Peter Boyle who won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his role.

• War of the Coprophages  (3-12) If you are scared of cockroaches don't watch this. Or actually, do watch this for the thrill :-p. It's one of the funny X-files and will always be in my memory as "the one where Scully gets jealous".

• Jose Chung's From Outer Space (3-20) The men in black episode! Very funny episode about an author writing about an abduction after hearing the story from all eye witnesses. 

Incidentally, pretty much all of these are stand-alone episodes and can be enjoyed by fans and non-fans alike.
The X-files is one of the few shows I've ever seen that can switch back and forth between comic episodes like Jose Chung's From Outer Space and deadly serious ones like Shadows and still work.

Reason # 2: Classic, believable, interesting characters
The reason The X-files is so excellent isn't just the thrilling story lines but the complete believability of the characters, their charisma and the chemistry between them. The the two main characters are so different with Scully being the scientific sceptic and Mulder being the open-minded believer. The relationship between them, the friendship, develops so well that you just can't imagine them with anyone else.
How many times have we seen a male and female character put together in an X-file type show where they just don't go together at all. Where the attempt to copy the whole idea of two agents solving supernatural cases fails miserably or does ok but still seems a bit cartoony e.g. Warehouse 13 and Haven.
You can pick Mulder and Scully out of a crowd. I don't think I'd recognise the main characters of Haven the next time they come in anything. As for Warehouse 13, the main characters are such cartoon characters, it makes the whole show seem like it's aimed at children. Maybe it is...

Reason # 3: Scully's outfits
I don't know about you, but I have seen soooooo many shows where the crime busting female wears high heels even though she knows half her time will be spent running after people. Or a law enforcement character will be dressed like she's going to a cocktail party or wearing full make-up and have perfect hair in situations where she wouldn't have had a chance or be bothered to tart herself up. I love that Gillian Anderson as Scully was always dressed professionally and according to the storyline. By not constantly being reminded that she's a glamorous actress it was much easier to believe Gillian Anderson was actually Scully, an FBI agent. A perfect example is Darkness Falls. The agents are trapped in the forest and there isn't a hairbrush or stick of lipstick in sight. Because Dana Scully isn't just a beautiful woman, she's a professional FBI agent doing her job the best she can just like any other agent. She's not there to look pretty and be rescued, she's there to kick ass :-p.