The X-Files is an American science fiction drama television series created by Chris Carter. The original television series aired from September 10th 1993 to May 19th 2002 on Fox. During its original run, the program spanned nine seasons, with 202 episodes. A short tenth season consisting of six episodes ran from January to February 2016. Following the ratings success of this revival, The X-Files returned for an eleventh season of ten episodes, which ran from January to March 2018. In addition to the television series, two feature films have been released: The 1998 film The X-Files and the stand-alone film The X-Files: I Want to Believe, released in 2008, six years after the original television run ended.
The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), who investigate the eponymous “X-Files”: marginalized, unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. Mulder is a skilled criminal profiler, an ardent supernaturalist, and a conspiracy theorist who believes in the existence of the paranormal, whereas Scully is a medical doctor and skeptic who has been assigned to scientifically analyze Mulder’s case files. Early in the series, both agents apparently become pawns in a much larger conflict and so come to trust only each other and a few select people. The agents discover what appears to be a governmental agenda to hide positive proof of the existence of extraterrestrial life. Mulder and Scully’s shared adventures initially lead them to develop a close platonic bond, which by series’ end develops into a complex romantic relationship. Roughly one third of the series’ episodes follow a complicated mythopoeia-driven story arc about a planned alien invasion, whereas the other two-thirds may be described as “monster of the week” episodes that focus on a singular villain, mutant, or monster.
The X-Files was inspired by earlier television series featuring elements of suspense, horror, and speculative science fiction, including The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Tales from the Darkside, Twin Peaks, and especially Kolchak: The Night Stalker. When creating the main characters, Carter sought to reverse gender stereotypes by making Mulder a believer and Scully a skeptic. The first seven seasons featured Duchovny and Anderson relatively equally. In the eighth and ninth seasons, Anderson took precedence while Duchovny appeared intermittently. New main characters were introduced: FBI Special Agents John Doggett (Robert Patrick) and Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish), among others. Mulder and Scully’s immediate superior, Assistant Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), began to appear regularly. The first five seasons of The X-Files were filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, before production eventually moved to Los Angeles, apparently to accommodate Duchovny’s schedule. However, the series later returned to Vancouver with the filming of The X-Files: I Want to Believe as well as the tenth and eleventh seasons.
The X-Files was a hit for the Fox network and received largely positive reviews, although its long-term story arc was criticized near the conclusion. Initially considered a cult series, it turned into a pop culture touchstone that tapped into public mistrust of governments and large institutions and embraced conspiracy theories and spirituality. Both the series itself and lead actors Duchovny and Anderson received multiple awards and nominations, and by its conclusion the show was the longest-running science fiction series in U.S. television history. The series also spawned a franchise that includes Millennium and The Lone Gunmen spin-offs, two theatrical films, and accompanying merchandise.
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Had an awful day. Symptoms were really bad. Most of the people i reached out to for comfort didn’t respond. No one proactively contacted me.
Is this normal? I have a severe chronic illness, a severe mental illness. Is it normal to just not have friends who care enough to even call you when you ask for some kind of comfort? I’m 40, unemployed, single, all because of this disease. Idk wth i’m going to do for another 20-30 years of this.
I wonder what my life would be like if i hadn’t spent the past 20ish years in a ruthlessly cold and anti-social culture. How would things have gone if i lived somewhere where people were friendly and involved in each others lives? I think about all the nights where i was suffering so much, screaming for help via every messenger app and text message, and getting back a total wall of silence. Thinking it was something wrong with me year after year because i moved their when i was young and had no idea a culture like that could exist. I finally got out, escaped, but now i’m old and sick and in a strange place starting with nothing.
That sounds horrible comrade, I’m sorry that your support network is failing you in days like this, it’s definitely not normal and you deserve much better. I’m probably not the best person for this with my own mental health struggles and social anxiety but I’m here if you need someone to talk to.
Mental health puts us in a position where we need help, and we will help each other, but we often lack the resources to do so for reasons beyond out control. It is, one could say, structurally much more difficult for schizophrenics to organize and advocate for themselves than it is for other groups.
Yeah it’s an uphill battle up a vertical slope. The sometimes crippling symptoms themselves are already making it difficult to perform basic human things properly let alone organize, and when you factor in society treating your existence as a nuisance because your ability to produce value for capitalists is impaired it just gets worse and worse. I realize how lucky and privileged I am to be functional enough to hold a job and afford mental health services, yet I still wake up in a state of existential dread on a regular basis. It’s terrifying to think how much worse it can get, we all deserve better than being stuck alienated in a nightmare world.
I don’t know what to say other than solidarity and if you ever feel like playing some v*deogames I’m down
I’m sorry to hear that friend, it can really suck when the people closest to you are too caught up in their own problems to even lend an ear. If you ever need to talk please reach out any time