How to introduce The X-Files to my mom?

Cafe Society
1

So my mom wants to start watching The X-Files. She’s not into any kind of Sci-Fi or fantasy or whatever normally, so I don’t know that it will work anyway, but I’d like to try since DH and I love it (and our daughter’s middle name is Gillian!).

What episodes do you think are a good intro to the series, especially for someone who doesn’t normally watch or read anything in this genre?

We watched Arcadia, which she liked, and are now watching The Ghosts Who Stole Christmas (same season so I have that DVD at her house still). I love so many episdoes, but it’s harder to think about it for someone new to the series.

Thanks!

2

Just be sure to tell her not to watch it just before bedtime, since Duchovny’s monotone will surely lull her right to sleep before the episode ends.

3

Maybe the b&w homage to Mask? Or the freakshow episode? Both more charming than they are scary. Really, anything but one of the boring conspiracy episodes.

4

My two favorites are the one where Scully’s ex-partner is possessed by a killer and kidnaps her, and the one where the genie in the rug at the U-Store-It keeps granting wishes which have unintended consequences. Don’t know the episode names, though. Sorry.

The very first episode would be a good introduction to the whole series, though. Really set the tone.

5

Maybe watch the X-Files movie. I knew very little of Xfiles at the time and just really didn’t like the couple of episodes I did see. After the movie I had to start watching the series just to find out what the backstory was. The movie wasn’t that hard to follow if you weren’t a fan.

6

Naw, the movie sucks. I would definitely not show that to someone early in their X-Files indoctrination. Its implication that Uncle Sam was behind the Oklahoma City bombing was also abhorrent.

7

You don’t think she would enjoy just starting at the beginning?

If you’re interested in showing her the funny episodes first, here’s a recent thread that tries to list them.

And the conspiracy episodes were my favorites, the first time through. It’s only on re-watching that I got annoyed with them.

8

Can’t go wrong with Bad Blood, I think. Or Home.

9

Just don’t forget to tell her there were only 4 seasons.

10

Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose

11

Jose Chung’s “From Outer Space” - Funny, works fine as a standalone, but covers some of the alien backstory in a really humorous way.

12

Of course, these were written by the same person…

I don’t know about watching these two first. Once you do, everything else is pretty much down hill.

13

“Mom, these are The X-Files.”

“X-Files, this is my mom.”
Edit: Oh, and if you want to start her off with funny episodes, my unofficial list is in this thread.

14

These favorites are Lazarus, from season one, and Je Souhaite, from season seven. Both very good.

It would be easier to recommend episodes if we knew what the OP’s mother liked about Arcadia. There aren’t any other eps with Mulder and Scully undercover, so I hope it isn’t that.

Was it the “respectable” suburban setting? Try the small-town-gone-bad episodes like Home, or Die Hand die Verletzt (brilliant teaser, if not a great episode), or Red Museum, or even Wetwired or War of the Coprophages. Or Small Potatoes.

The apparently mystical monster? Lots of eps have those, starting arguably with The Jersey Devil and continuing after Duchovny left the show, if you want to go that far. Shapes, Je Souhaite, Teso dos Bichos and Fresh Bones come to mind. Kaddish, in which a “monster” is summoned to punish wrongdoers, is an interesting contrast to Arcadia, in which a monster is summoned to punish “wrongdoers”.

Absent specific preferences, a newcomer can certainly do worse than start from the beginning and go on until whenever it stops being good for you. Those who stop after four seasons, as Alessan seems to suggest, will miss Bad Blood (season five), which no one should do.

15

Oh, come on, Bad Blood and Post-Modern Prometheus were fabulous! :wink: (My personal cut-off is seven seasons…)

My recommendations would be Humbug from season 4, Post-Modern Prometheus from season 5, and Home–all episodes at the top of the X-Files’s game.

16

Show her the final episode. It’s a clip show that exists merely so that the writers can explain to themselves what happened the previous 9 seasons. :rolleyes:

17

That’s a good point. OTOH, if she doesn’t like those, she definitely won’t like anything else.