I only caught a bit of The X-Files when it originally aired, usually when my brother-in-law was over, as he loved the series. Recently, though:
- One of my neighbors was raving about his re-watch of the show
- I became impressed with Vince Gilligan’s work on Pluribus
- I read about the upcoming sequel on Hulu
- Hulu, home of the original series, offered me a free month subscription.
So I used my free month to watch the top 10 episodes of The X-Files, adding five episodes I felt were important to the overall arc of those top episodes.
| Title | Rank | Rating | Season | Episode | Writer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pilot | #63 | 8.2 | 1 | 1 | Chris Carter |
| E.B.E. | #44 | 8.4 | 1 | 17 | Glen Morgan, et al. |
| The Erlenmeyer Flask | #9 | 8.9 | 1 | 24 | Chris Carter |
| Anasazi | #3 | 9.1 | 2 | 25 | Chris Carter, David Duchovny |
| The Blessing Way | #27 | 8.6 | 3 | 1 | Chris Carter |
| Paper Clip | #5 | 9.0 | 3 | 2 | Chris Carter |
| Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose | #2 | 9.2 | 3 | 4 | Darin Morgan |
| Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man | #4 | 9.0 | 4 | 7 | Glen Morgan |
| Small Potatoes | #8 | 8.9 | 4 | 20 | Vince Gilligan |
| Gethsemane | #25 | 8.6 | 4 | 24 | Chris Carter, et al. |
| Redux | #26 | 8.6 | 5 | 1 | Chris Carter |
| Redux II | #6 | 9.0 | 5 | 2 | Chris Carter |
| Bad Blood | #1 | 9.2 | 5 | 12 | Vince Gilligan |
| Dreamland | #7 | 8.9 | 6 | 4 | Vince Gilligan |
| Dreamland II | #10 | 8.8 | 6 | 5 | Vince Gilligan |
Weirdly, over the course of the month, the final episode of the original run, “The Truth, Part 2,” jumped from #54 to #1 on IMDB. So I watched “The Truth, Part 1” and “The Truth, Part 2,” which are clearly aimed at devotees of the series, with so many callbacks and references that I was often lost. I toyed with expanding the list to include all the episodes referenced in the finale, but I didn’t think the payoff was worth it. Then, as I finalized the article, the finale reverted back to #54. I advise skipping the final two parter.
Highlights
Wow, the episode “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” (#2) is amazing. Peter Boyle is a fantastic guest star, in fact winning an Emmy for this performance; Darin Morgan won an Emmy for writing this episode. The episode completely stands alone; if you’re going to watch only one episode, make it this one.
If you’re only going to watch three, then I’d add “Bad Blood” (#1) and “Small Potatoes” (#8), both of which stand on their own.
Lowlights
I was disappointed with the writing of Albert Hosteen, a Navajo character in “Anasazi” and other episodes, who was caricatured as a Magical Native American. The episode was set in New Mexico in the story, but filmed in a quarry in Vancouver where they’d painted the rocks red. They then panned out to show Sedona as “New Mexico”:
The truth is out there.
Photo credit: Fox promotional image.
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