The X-Files, S01 E00: Pilot

We begin, for the first and only time, with a disclaimer informing us that ‘the following story is inspired by actual documented accounts.’ Clearly by the time the show got picked up for a season, somebody in legal at Fox had got involved. Because suggesting that a storyline about a massive government conspiracy involving an alien plague carried by bees and a creepy oil alien that crawls under your skin is an ‘actual documented account’ is just making trouble for yourself. But I am getting ahead of things here. No creepy oil aliens in this one, kids! Just some really suspicious-looking mosquito bites and some terrifyingly-dated fashion. Let’s go!

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Meet The X-Files

Now, I am an unabashed Buffy fan. While it was still airing, some might have even said obsessive (I would have to disagree – what do you call the level between buying action figures and traveling to attend the conventions?). I watched every single episode as it aired – no delayed Tivo gratification for me – with the phone unplugged and the blinds drawn. This remained true throughout the frustrating later seasons as well. Even erratic, dark Buffy was better than no Buffy at all.

Still, if the show suffered from one major flaw, it is that it peaked too soon. The sheer brilliance of seasons 2 and 3 was hard to match, and many viewers quickly became disappointed in the show. There were enough excellent one-off episodes (“Hush,” “The Body,” “Once More With Feeling”) to convince me that the show still had a lot of life left, but they often were placed between forced drug metaphors and annoying little sisters. Even when it was good, it wasn’t as good as earlier seasons, and each week I watched the show, wondering if this was the week it returned to top form. It never really did.

And yet, watching it again without such impossibly high expectations, I can only remember why I loved it. I’m no longer horrified by unexpected and unwanted plot twists (seriously – a little sister?) and can appreciate everything the show did right. Sure, it was inconsistent, but so were earlier seasons, as anyone who remembers the swim team monsters or the magical Christmas snow of redemption can attest. The show was still witty and interesting and, although it can be painful to watch our strong heroine behave like a self-destructive college student, I can’t say that depiction is entirely inaccurate. I have entire parts of my brain dedicated to humiliating university incidents that I would happily lobotomize.

It’s a pleasure rediscovering this old show without the weight of its earlier excellence pulling it down. I’m not sure if I’ll be quite so generous when I get to the bimbo god or the crayon that saved the world, but I’m certainly going to try.

What about you? What shows improved upon a second viewing, and why?

Once More With Feeling

For someone who rarely watches televised sports that aren’t the Olympics, I watch an awful lot of sports TV. Long before Friday Night Lights started making its case to be my one true love, there was Sports Night.

Believe it or not, there was once a time when Aaron Sorkin was better known for his talent than his drug dependency or his ego. Back in the distant days of the late 90s, he created the mold for the critically-loved-if-ratings-deficient-sports-show years before the cast of FNL had even hit puberty. Sports Night was adored by basically everyone who ever wrote a television review and roundly ignored by viewers. When the show was canceled after two seasons, Sorkin quickly moved on to success with The West Wing, but the rabid fans were not so quick to forget. Some of them, I suspect, are still hoping for a reunion.

Sorkin’s recent public crash-and-burn with Studio 60 suggests that he isn’t actually the man with the Midas touch, at least when it comes to quality. While some people loved the show, many more found it pretentious, smug, and far more pleased with itself than it had any right to be. Now that viewers are familiar with Sorkin’s faults, can Sports Night still hold up as a brilliant show canceled before its time?

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Old School TV: Sports Night