The X-Files as police procedural

[odessie]

[Written for xf_is_love month.]

I've been having some thoughts recently about X-Files as police procedural (and how everything went wrong because of it) and since i completely failed to finish my intended vid for posting today, I thought I'd share some of these thoughts instead.

Comments

[snarkybando]

This is really fascinating! My first thought, while reading this was, to look at some of the X FIles' spiritual successors -- specifically, Agents of SHIELD, Fringe, and Person of Interest (which you mentioned, and the show runners themselves has specifically mentioned as a huge influence -- they even gave one of the characters their own Lone Gunmen

[odessie]

Glad you found it interesting! And thanks for providing more recent examples (I'm ashamed to say I haven't seen any of them except for the odd episode of SHIELD) - always fascinating to look at the different ways shows handle these things.

I think the 'knowing where you're going' part is so key, and I guess that's part of where the problem comes from. If you're starting a show in that whodunit format where every episode is totally self-contained, you don't have to know where you're going, or even be going anywhere at all, until the show develops and suddenly you DO have to. Some shows handle that transition better than others... :p

[azarsuerte]

Interesting analysis, and I think you're right on the money! I'm actually one of those people who LOVED S8 (S9 less so) but that was because I fell in love with the new characters. In terms of format (and strength of writing/concept), I personally feel like the show started losing ground rapidly right after the first movie and the move to LA. I've been known to say that even if it meant I had to give up Doggett (which, NOOOOOOOOOOOO!), I would still rather have seen the show end with S5 and the feature film. Honestly, I don't even feel S5 is as strong as what came before, but S6-7 was so ridiculous (IMO) that I was already on the way out--I actually stopped watching halfway through S7--and it was literally only falling in love with Robert Patrick's portrayal of Doggett (and feeling like we finally got some fresh stories as a result) that brought me back

[odessie]

Oh, Doggett. <3 I LOVED Doggett, I just loathe S8 as a whole because the whole thing was so terribly handled imo. Generally I agree with you about stopping at S5 and the movie - S6 & S7 were mostly a mess, though I actually felt S4 & S5 were also pretty weak mytharc wise but there's some great standalones - but there's enough episodes I love in there to get me through. As fabulous as Robert Patrick is, for me personally I don't think there's a single episode in S8 strong enough for me to overlook the big picture problems and just enjoy it for what it is.

Bizarrely, I actually much preferred S9 when it felt like they did put a bit more effort into properly rebooting the show and starting afresh, but I know that makes me a bit of a freak in X-Files fan circles!