Opening the X-Files: A Critical History of the Original Series

More than 20 years after it was first broadcast, The X-Files still holds the public imagination. Over nine seasons and two feature films, agents Mulder and Scully pursued monsters, aliens, mutants and shadowy conspirators across the American landscape. Running for more than 200 episodes, the series transformed television, crafting a postmodern mythology that spoke to the anxieties and uncertainties of the end of the 20th century and touched upon key themes like identity, faith, trust and authority. Covering the entire series from its debut through the second feature film, this book examines how creator Chris Carter and his team of writers—among them Homeland’s Howard Gordon and Breaking Bad’s Vince Gilligan—turned a scrappy cult favorite on Fox (then America’s “fourth network”) into a global phenomenon that has influenced series like Lost and Westworld. Why did the show come to an end when it did? The truth is in here.