#sobbing listening to walking in memphis rn

[backintimeforstuff]

A Love Letter to the Greatest Love Story Ever Told ~ September 10th, 2023

I’ve thought about writing something vaguely soppy about the X-Files for the longest time now. It’s been stewing in my head for months. But I’ve probably been subconsciously thinking about it for years. 

I am so glad this show existed. 

For everything it did, everything it said, all the crazy, unhinged things it came up with in the name of the truth is out there. As Dana Scully once said: I wouldn’t change a day. I want to remember how it all was. I think what it comes down to is: This show has never made me anything but extraordinarily happy. I have loved every single second of it. I think I always will. I first saw it when I was eight-years-old. It's one of those stories that never leaves you. No matter where I’m at in my life, irrespective of what I’m doing, or how many other interests I have, I will always find myself returning… here. To the basement office underneath the J. Edgar Hoover Building. To the blinding lights and the Government conspiracies. To you’re my one in five billion and Joy to the World.

For all its talk about starlight, and faith to keep looking, this completely nonsensical, sometimes actually terrible, sci-fi show about UFOs actually held so much more meaning than you could ever expect of it. With a little help from David Duchovny, I'll just say this. Sometimes these things are over-plasticised and simplified. But this was never like that. This show would’ve been completely forgiven if it talked about nothing but little green men for one or two seasons before calling it a day, but instead, it looked up into the stars after nearly a decade, and said: maybe there’s hope. And I hope they know how important that is. 

Something that’s particularly bittersweet now is one of Doggett’s lines in Sunshine Days. 

“Why are people still watching a 30-year-old TV show?” 

And Scully immediately replies: “Because they were the perfect family.” 

Because it means the world. Because wonders never cease. Because I am always happy to find a reason.

 Not that I never needed one. 

Another of my favourite lines in the same episode is: 

The X-Files will go on forever. 

And maybe it will. In the heads of cultists and conspiracy theorists, in the hearts of TV nerds who never really had other friends. To the people who saw this entirely unhinged show about aliens and found something more than they were ever expecting to. One thing that’s always stood out to me is… how incredibly human it is. How incredibly profound it is. Not only is it a love story, but it’s a love story in every possible regard. Not to take the words out of the mouth of a nameless reviewer, but, it had everything. A love for life. A love for truth. A love for one another. 

And how on earth do you write a love letter to the greatest love story ever told? The truth is, I don’t think you can. You just have to go back to the beginning again. To Bellefleur, Oregon. To standing out in the mud and the rain. To the motel fires and Billy Miles. To sorry, nobody down here but the FBI’s most unwanted. To September 10th, 1993. 

Y'know what? I just might.

Happy 30th, old friend. ✨❤️👽