continued: Why Is The X-Files still so successful?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by traumcave on June 11, 2010 at 12:12pm

I guess this goes with # 19

28. It appeals to human nature.

___________________

Why have so many cultures embraced The X Files?
Frank Spotnitz (BBC interview) I think the same things scare people all around the world. They’re universal.
You know if you look at comparative mythology or comparative religion the same symbols come up. The same ideas. The same religious figures all over the world from tribes in remote islands in the South Pacific to the Americas and Europe and Asia.
You can find the same notion in culture after culture after culture. You know it’s kind of a heart-warming thing, ironically, that we’re all frightened by the same things. It just sort of reaffirms our common humanity.
I think the success of The X Files is another example of that.
__________________________
---> I think this is also what makes the phile community so open and endearing. This shared "common humanity" / "same fears, doubts, wishes..."

Attachments:

• CC XF same fears.mp3, 96 KB

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by traumcave on June 11, 2010 at 12:30pm

29. (goes with #24 and #3) That it appeals to people's curiosity. That, like Scully, for 45 minutes you can join Mulder and the paranormal
to explore "extreme possibilities" of "what if....."

There was a fine line. And the writers managed to make the "what if..." believable.
So viewers were inspired to look for the unusual / estreme possibilities in every day life. :)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by traumcave on June 11, 2010 at 2:16pm

30. Mulder's lifestyle. It loved/ love that a lot. This whole weird academic thing.
always working, weird/no sleep,empty fridge (except old orange juice),his couch, his office.j
http://biglightnetwork.ning.com/photo/albums/the-bachelor-files


31. HUMAN CREDENTIAL THEME (famous around the fandom)!! I think that the idea that Mulder is sort of the 'spooky' Agent who is a little out of it... he also very much alone with his quest in a way. His past on his shoulders. But Scully sees the good in him and thinks him worthy.
I think that theme is just very very powerful in a way.
People hope that they can find people like that. Who will take them as they are. challenge them, make them "a whole person" in a way / or maybe just less alone in a weird crazy world.
It has to do with forgiveness. It makes friendships last.That you can see past the negative/mistakes.
In IWTB this was playing into the problems of their relationship there. M: "It's what I do, it's everything I've known."
"Let it try."


David Duchovny: "It's like the one friend, I guess, that he has in the world. I mean, I heard a phrase once, somebody was talking about their wife. This was a person who was very inept socially, not the wife but the man. There were many things said about him that weren't kind, and he said, 'My wife, who is lovely and social and everything like that, is my human credential.' And, like, makes him a human being, because people think, well, if *she* can stand him, he must have some humanity within him and sometimes I think about Scully as Mulder's human credential. "

DD Human Credential Mulder Scully.mp3

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by traumcave on June 11, 2010 at 2:32pm

traumcave said:

I guess this goes with # 19

28. It appeals to human nature.

___________________

Why have so many cultures embraced The X Files?
Frank Spotnitz (BBC interview) I think the same things scare people all around the world. They’re universal.
You know it’s kind of a heart-warming thing, ironically, that we’re all frightened by the same things. It just sort of reaffirms our common humanity.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Joan Crow Cimyotte on June 11, 2010 at 2:45pm

Maybe because a lot of us believe. Even if Frank has never seen a UFO, Some of us have. I have.

traumcave said:

traumcave said:

I guess this goes with # 19

28. It appeals to human nature.

___________________

Why have so many cultures embraced The X Files?
Frank Spotnitz (BBC interview) I think the same things scare people all around the world. They’re universal.
You know it’s kind of a heart-warming thing, ironically, that we’re all frightened by the same things. It just sort of reaffirms our common humanity.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by traumcave on June 16, 2010 at 9:52am

33. I think XF appeals to people who search for meaning in life.
This works for people in secular societies and people who hold on to religious beliefs.

I get the feeling that other TV shows don't tackle those "greater questions" as often (if ever) as XF did.
It's more "what is her newest lover" "where does she meet her friends for coffee".
And with the myth-arc I wouldn't say that XF provided answers to those greater questions really. It worked more
on a metaphorical level.
Just that it dealt with "the search for the truth" - that is good enough.
It took interesting approaches to characters trying to find answers. Also illustrated , that people find different answers.
The metaphorical/abstract element allowed people to read different things into it while the MOTW episodes maybe were more concrete (as in dealing with basic human or social needs/desires/fears/flaws). Sometimes those MOTW carried even so much philosophical elements, that - like myth-arc episodes, they would be referred to later on in the series because they became part of the 'canon' somehow.

good stories remain to be good stories.

I don't know about shows like CSI or Bones- and if they go beyond the case-of-the-week stuff.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Joan Crow Cimyotte on June 16, 2010 at 2:28pm

I can speak for my own experience. I became interested in the show because of the UFO thing. I don't believe the aliens are like the ones in the show although I would not rule out good verses evil which was a repeated theme of XF. There were many episodes dealing with different aspects of religious beliefs. It would further bring depth to it's characters.

traumcave said:

33. I think XF appeals to people who search for meaning in life.
This works for people in secular societies and people who hold on to religious beliefs.

I get the feeling that other TV shows don't tackle those "greater questions" as often (if ever) as XF did.
It's more "what is her newest lover" "where does she meet her friends for coffee".
And with the myth-arc I wouldn't say that XF provided answers to those greater questions really. It worked more
on a metaphorical level.
Just that it dealt with "the search for the truth" - that is good enough.
It took interesting approaches to characters trying to find answers. Also illustrated , that people find different answers.
The metaphorical/abstract element allowed people to read different things into it while the MOTW episodes maybe were more concrete (as in dealing with basic human or social needs/desires/fears/flaws). Sometimes those MOTW carried even so much philosophical elements, that - like myth-arc episodes, they would be referred to later on in the series because they became part of the 'canon' somehow.

good stories remain to be good stories.

I don't know about shows like CSI or Bones- and if they go beyond the case-of-the-week stuff.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by traumcave on July 19, 2010 at 2:59pm

34. Because there are still people who don't trust their government and wonder what things they are *not* informed about.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by traumcave on August 24, 2010 at 6:41am

Ok Ok Ok !

I think it is possible to comnpare what XF did to pop culture to
the literary episode Romanticism ( ca. 1795 -1840, in Germany at least).

1) science seems to have explained allmost everything (nature/ humans..). "reaction against the scientific rationalisation of nature,".
-> "disenchantment" (Max Weber)
"Disenchantment (German: Entzauberung) is a term in the social sciences used to describe the cultural rationalization and devaluation of mysticism apparent in modern society. The concept was originally coined by Max Weber to describe the character of modernized, bureaucratic, secularized Western society, where scientific understanding is more highly valued than belief, and where processes are oriented toward rational goals."


2) The search for the unexplainable, the secret, the mysterious and the numinous. (MOTW episodes)


3) The romantic generation has been faced with secularization, but was unwilling to completely deny metaphysical models, where christianity offered security regarding a 'larger meaning'

4) I don't know if there ever really was a stable, secure western society ? But maybe NEW AGE was/ is a reaction to that 'material security' too.
And if I am not mistaken, the time when X-Files aired was parallel to a phase where NEW AGE was strong(er than today).
Point being, that even if material life is secure, and one doesn't believe in God/any religion - there is still DEATH and experiences of powerlessness ( against 'larger forces' like economy , politics etc.) , that trigger the need for ...compensation- *maybe* a constant belief system beyond the material world / New Age...


5) So PHILES may be people who tend to question this "everything is scientific explainable" " we already do know everything"
------> (2)The search for the unexplainable, the secret, the mysterious and the numinous.

6) POLITICS: Then the point that there may be secrets hidden, that if we found out, we would find that the world is less save and secure than we experience in 'our comfortable daily life'.
So either - like Mulder- we want to find out THE TRUTH.
Or we try to suppress these truths/ fears of unsecurity to be able to go on / proceed in the usual way. Which might be irresponisble in a way so that it is interesting to
see a TV show that deals with this very MORAL issue.


So when people say that they "miss the X-Files", aside from Mulder and Scully- I think what they miss is the mysterious - the unusual, the WHAT IF.

Stargate did this in a way of "what might be beyond....", while The X-Files put the WHAT IF right into our daily lives.
So that Chris Carter said "it is only as scary as it's believable". This "What if" - because it is too 'far out there' and, unlike Mulder, the audience is not ready to believe the MOTW element, then the whole episode blew.

Thats all for now, hehe.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by XShipper on August 24, 2010 at 10:26am

41. Kontakt allein macht süchtig (sorry just know this promo quote in german/difficult to translate it, muuuahha)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by traumcave on August 24, 2010 at 10:38am

I think it was "exposure means addiction"
;)

XShipper said:

41. Kontakt allein macht süchtig (sorry just know this promo quote in german/difficult to translate it, muuuahha)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Morgana on August 24, 2010 at 1:13pm

Knowing that struggling with the world is worth it as the fight of Mulder and Scully show
-- real devotion might save us all
...
[don´t know which number it could be - was it really 41 last time???]

• ▶ Reply

▶ Reply to Discussion

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next ›
• Page