For various reasons -- not the least being nostalgia born from all the gifsets on Tumblr lately, probably because of the recent 20th anniversary -- I decided to watch The X Files from the beginning. I didn't start watching regularly until maybe the 4th or 5th season, so I missed a lot of the early stuff as well as bits and pieces in the middle, and I don't really remember any of it that well, so it's almost like watching something new. I've watched through Season 1, Episode 4 now, and it's pretty fun, although clearly the actors and writers are still working things out. Mulder and Scully both look and seem soooo young. (Also, in the second episode, bb Seth Green! With long poofy hair! I laughed so hard.) I guess 20 years is a long time.

The big thing that's surprised me so far is how quickly they came out the gate with the main story arc. Of the first four episodes, three are related to aliens -- two abductions and one alien tech in the military. Cigarette-Smoking Man was in the second scene of the first episode, skulking around and being spooky and suspicious. For some reason, I had thought that the show started out with monster of the week type stuff and only got heavily into the aliens later.

I'm not sure I'll watch all the way to the end. I stopped watching regularly when David Duchovney and Gillian Anderson left, and never saw the finale at all. I might stick with it, or I might not. I know the arc was not really planned from the beginning and really fell apart at the end. But I might be curious enough to see how the entire show works as a single text -- even if it was Chris Carter creating by the seat of his pants. I have plenty of time to decide.

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