Best show on network TV at the time (and possibly since then). I look forward to seeing how Hulu is going to ruin its remake.
The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced
91–100 of 232 posts
Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced
#92The 90s were incredible. The Matrix had it right when it mentioned in 1999 "peak of human civilization". * Music was incredible * Movies were amazing, enough to go to the theater 12 times a year at least * Homelessness was pretty much non-existent * People were friendly and had time for strangers * Employment was 10x better than today, and not by today's way of counting (which don't count group x y and z) * Jobs actu…
Homelessness was a giant issue in 1991, there were pop songs about it: Gypsy Woman (La da dee la da da) by Crystal Waters, and Walking Down Madison by Kirsty MacColl. We don't seem to have pop stars singing about issues any more. Unsure whether that's a plus or minus.
In the US, homelessness per capita peaked in the 90s. It remained relatively high afterwards compared to the pre 1980 numbers, and has recently spiked higher in the wake of 2020 and following, but in the 1990s there were a lot of homeless people in the US.
Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced
#93The 90s were incredible. The Matrix had it right when it mentioned in 1999 "peak of human civilization". * Music was incredible * Movies were amazing, enough to go to the theater 12 times a year at least * Homelessness was pretty much non-existent * People were friendly and had time for strangers * Employment was 10x better than today, and not by today's way of counting (which don't count group x y and z) * Jobs actu…
> * Employment was 10x better than today, and not by today's way of counting (which don't count group x y and z) I'm pretty sure we count unemployment the same way. Those groups are just larger now because of age, education and economic malaise.
There were a lot of millennials at the time. Still are, it's just that they're pushing 40 instead of 14.
Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced
#94Oh well I guess I'm going to have to rewatch X-files now.
Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced
#95Cigarette Smoking Man! I was a kid when I first watched the show, and he seemed so mysterious and fascinating to me from the moment he appeared.
Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced
#96The 90s were incredible. The Matrix had it right when it mentioned in 1999 "peak of human civilization". * Music was incredible * Movies were amazing, enough to go to the theater 12 times a year at least * Homelessness was pretty much non-existent * People were friendly and had time for strangers * Employment was 10x better than today, and not by today's way of counting (which don't count group x y and z) * Jobs actu…
> The 90s were incredible I was born in 1974 and I remember being vaguely annoyed in my 20's at how the 90's "ruined" the 80's - I remember things being way better in the 80's and society starting to go downhill around 1991. I will say, though, the poster's lament that he's nostalgic for a time he never knew is one I've heard a _lot_. My kids watch "Stranger Things" and ask if it was really like that when I was a kid…
> the poster's lament that he's nostalgic for a time he never knew is one I've heard a _lot_
For sure; the 2011 film Midnight in Paris is a great comedic exploration of this feeling as its central theme. (well, if you can set aside any well-justified reservations about writer/director Woody Allen.)
Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced
#97I think it's pretty funny to call out the clothing as stylish. As far as I remember, Mulder's suit was meant to look like the cheap and ill-fitting suit that a low-level, young government employee would buy for a dress code and because he didn't want to think about clothing. And so much of the environment was slightly strange to US viewers, I think, because it was mostly filmed in the Pacific Northwest and Vancouver,…
I agree with most of that, but disagree about the "road warrior" bit. Laptops and cell phones and email existed, but not pervasively when the show started in 1993. It was around 1998 or '99 when work issued me my first cell phone that didn't require me be careful how I used the minutes. A powerful laptop of the time had a 250MB hard drive, a 486, and 2 hours claimed battery life (but in reality the battery was more like a UPS so you could carry it between power outlets). Pagers were common but coverage sucked outside metro areas. Email was uncommon. Email that worked between organizations was science fiction for most people.
On a personal level, when X-Files first aired, I navigated around with a Thomas Guide, and you were out of luck if you got to a friend's house and they weren't home. My dad had a car-mounted cell phone and warned me not to touch it at risk of my life and bank account. No one I knew could afford a laptop. I dialed into a lot of local BBSes with my Amiga but only knew of the Internet from magazine articles and hadn't actually seen it in person. FidoNet was the closest I got to wide-area email.
No, I'd contend that X-Files was reasonably accurate for the time.
Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced
#98Recommend "Halt and Catch Fire" series, if you haven't already seen it.
Its set slightly earlier in the PC rush.
The magic of that era, I think was that there was this new explosion of technology and a smart teen could figure out how things worked and tinker.
It coincided with a relatively low level of economic inequality, meaning garage bands and garage startups were doable, imo.
Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced
#99The X-Files was the right show at the right time; a "bubble" of the '90s, if you will. The internet and mobile technology was nascent. The world was getting bigger, but was still quite "small". I definitely feel quite privileged to have lived through this time, and enjoy all things '90s quite a bit. Any, and I mean any, attempt to remake this show is doomed to failure, and I wish they would just stop. Now, if you wil…
I wrote an essay for a private journal last year about how the X-Files mainstreamed anti-scientific and anti-government conspiracy thinking and thereby led to the downfall of American democracy in the 21st century. It valorized the fringe, presaged "do your own research" and consistently told us that the skeptic is always wrong, the believer is always vindicated.
It wasn't a bubble of the 90's, it was a prescient blueprint for the 2020s.
Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced
#100My wife and I rewatched X-Files start to finish a couple years ago. It still holds up. The monster-of-the-week where Mulder sings the "Shaft" theme song is still hilarious.
But in retrospect, I wish we hadn't all collectively decided to winkingly go along with conspiracy theories. While crackpots will always exist, I think a lot of people took this and other shows too literally. Yes, conspiracies exist. But no, most of the time, the guy at the metal desk in the grey government office is just doing what his job description says he's suppose to be doing.
I don't know that X-Files directly led to idiocy like antivaxxers and climate change denial and election truthers. I do think it gave a lot of people social cover to start exploring those dumb ideas, and no one took them seriously until it was too late.