GoKawiilDriving in a Buick Century through a rural town in middle America, pulling a Motorola brick cellphone from their suit jackets; Mulder and Scully have pulled me into their world, and I think I want to be there, even with the supernatural baggage.
I have had a vague cultural awareness of The X-Files since childhood. It was a show before my time, but one with enough staying power in the cultural zeitgeist, and my mum’s taste in television, that I knew of its popularity. I can’t pinpoint why, but I felt an urge to finally watch it this year, maybe as a show to fill the Doctor Who-shaped void in my nerd heart as of late. Needless to say it’s been a ride.
It took only three episodes for my brain to rewire, and I just got it. The stories are interesting, a series ‘mythology’ is developing, the cinematography is gorgeous, all tied together with incredible casting. Oops, I might have a new obsession for the first time in years. At the time of writing this, I have just started season 4, and I’m all in. I know that later seasons (and movies) are controversial and probably don’t hold a candle to the golden age of the show that I am currently experiencing for the first time, but I don’t care. I’m a whovian - do you really think I could ever possibly complain about The X-Files with the current state of humiliation that Doctor Who is in? I will make fair observations as I go, but I think I can handle just about any disappointment imaginable. Except Scully and Mulder never getting together. Come on, that’s gonna happen right? This much tension can’t last forever. Seeing them briefly hold hands makes me feel like a Victorian man seeing a woman’s ankle.
One aspect of the show keeps returning to my mind when I discuss what feels so good about it, and that’s simply the environment it was created in, and portrays. A time that was not necessarily less complicated for those living in it, but a time less sloppy, less needlessly busy. A bygone era is put to screen, with big mobile phones that you need to pull an antenna out of in order to use, chunky keyboards wired into bulbous PCs, giant spinning tape recorders, and rectangular cars. The transition from analog to digital is so stylishly shown, really giving an appreciation and a sense of cool to technologies we would consider comically outdated today. I don’t know about you, reader, but as long as everyone else was in the same boat (forgive my fear of missing out), I’d happily go back to having a phone that is just a simple telephone! I say this as a child raised in the iPhone era, well adapted to a frankly concerning amount of screen time. I want to twiddle the dials on a car radio, craft a mixtape for my Walkman, and not have any excuse for my phone call anxiety.
The vision of sleek FBI communications tech - a brick with an antenna
Technology went from functional in the 90s, to fun in the 2000s, and is now - somehow - neither. In the X-Files, each object does one thing, and does it well, without needless interconnectivity and unknowable algorithms. Technology means tools, not a whole new facet of life. There is a clarity to this era of tech that I appreciate, as well as a sense that every use of a machine is deliberate. There is friction in everything Mulder and Scully use. You have to go somewhere to use a computer, you have to make some level of effort to use a phone. Many technologies are still in the stages of being less practical than traditional alternatives, and so act as a useful last resort rather than the default. For example, it is much easier for our FBI agents to exchange documents in-person than copy and send over early email, and certainly more practical to fax them. Nothing is instant, many things are physical, and because of that, everything feels a bit more real. Chances for Mulder and Scully to effectively flirt on the job would surely be drastically reduced if they were just texting each other, as opposed to their constant phone calls and arriving at each other’s homes unannounced.
The X-Files not only shows technological differences to current times, but also cultural. Contrasts between the UK and US aside, the communities being shown are so much stronger, and actually connected. People talked to each other instead of having AirPods in and the world behind computer screens. People knew their neighbours, and real communities were built. We will ignore the many cases of cult behaviour these communities engage in across the series… at least they were tight-knit? It now seems that real community is hard to find. Connection is constant, but rarely feels supportive or tangible.
The early nineties silhouette is very much on show through Scully’s wardrobe and hair in the early seasons. Also note a prime example of Mulder’s patterned ties.
We can’t ignore the fashion and styling. You can definitely tell it’s the nineties, but quite honestly, it’s not nearly as dated as I thought it would be. Perhaps that is the current cultural nostalgia for the 80s and the new millennium talking, but the hair and makeup just looks great. It is dangerous for me and my long locks that Scully is making short hair so appealing to me, though I could never pull it off to the same level of chic. On the opposite side of chic is the interior design of the homes put to screen. Ugh. Some of the wallpaper is egregious - I’m not upset that this style has been left behind.
Perhaps the kind of clothing that an FBI agent wears can truly never go out of style, normally being some variety of suit, but these agents are truly dressed for magazine covers while hunting down aliens. Well, maybe aside from Mulder’s extensive collection of (incredibly dated) patterned ties, as endearing as I may find them. The suits, particularly Scully’s, definitely show their age in their fit and style, but that takes nothing away from them in my eyes. When they are paired with long coats, I am in my element. David Tennant’s costuming for the Tenth Doctor may have some part to play in my love for long coats flailing in the wind when the wearer is chasing monsters. I just can’t deny I get a smile on my face when Mulder’s coat flares up like a cape when he picks up the pace, particularly on the rare occasions where his coat has a red lining (I’m obliged to note that it’s very Twelfth Doctor).
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