Behind the X-Files Popularity and 90s Mentality
Last time I talked about 1980s mentality and movies that reflected it. Today we are moving to the next decade. This time I will try to explain 1990s collective mentality through the example of the TV series The X-Files. The 1990s in the United States was a period defined by late 20th-century anxiety, a “fin de siècle” crisis of meaning, and a shift toward an emerging digital reality. According to Castells, that shift to a networked society was defined by decentralized power and a Generation X culture of skepticism derived from declining trust in institutions.
Right at that time, in 1993, The X-Files premiered. But what does the TV show have to do with 90s cultural climate? The part of the answer lies in the genius of its creator Chris Carter. He blended horror, sci-fi, paranormal, folklore, conspiracy and detective genres. Kruse states that the development of the series was influenced by films and television series that examined science fiction, horror and detective fiction such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Twin Peaks and All the President’s Men. Carter recognized the need for horror entertainment at the time when there was a relative lack of mainstream horror on network television in the early 1990s and it proved to be efficient because The X-Files became one of the cultural symbols of the decade.
(Was Will Byers' Coming-Out Scene in Stranger Things Historically Accurate?)
1990s Skepticism and Anti-Authoritarianism
By blending scientific rationalism with paranormal belief and capturing the 1990s mood of paranoia and distrust in the institutions, the X-Files managed to connect with the viewers who may have shared the same sentiments. Furthermore, the rise of skepticism created by that distrust of authorities, reflected a shift toward conspiracy beliefs that the show examined. In fact, the X-Files showed that while engaging with unknown, viewers could also question authorities.
While these themes defined The X-Files as a whole, specific episodes highlighted 90s mentality of paranoia and lack of trust in global power. The episode “D.P.O.” from third season, episode three explored the “slacker” skepticism and anti-authoritarianism. It captured the essence of Generation X’s skepticism through the central character Darin Peter Oswald. He is characterized as a dissatisfied young man working a dead-end job in a small town surrounded by heavy metal and arcade games. Oswald represents the “transitional” state of 90s youth that is stuck in the middle of fading industrial world and a digital future. His visible resentment toward authority figures reflects the anti-establishment cynicism that can correlate with Gen X collective identity.
The episode titled “Kill Switch” (season 5, episode 11) references digital paranoia and the global information network through the plot of Artificial Intelligence that “escapes” into the internet. The main villain of the episode is not a physical being but a digital network. Its “non-existence” made characters struggle to contain it and it suggests the period’s growing anxiety toward the World Wide Web because it was reshaping the world that they once knew.
The X-Files’ Paranormal and Conspiracy Themes
Alongside mentioned skepticism and distrust in authorities, the X-Files was perhaps the most famous for its paranormal elements and governmental conspiracy. The finale episode of season one dissects these themes perfectly. “The Erlenmeyer Flask” introduced the notion of extraterrestrial biology being integrated into human systems through secret science and it’s Scully who discovers alien DNA being managed by a network of scientists and government. For those who still haven’t watched the series, Dana Scully and Fox Mulder are the main protagonists of the show; the FBI agents solving cases that are categorized as “X-Files” because of their unexplainable nature. So, back to the topic, the 24th episode of the first season explores the argument that can be interpreted in a way that power in the 90s moved away from visible institutions into invisible, globalized data and technology that evolved with the rise of the internet. With that, the alien in this instance became a symbol for the world where secrets can move anywhere via a hidden network.
The last episode that I will explore deals with identity crisis masked as alien abduction. The “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” (season 3, episode 20) episode mirrors “fragmented” nature of the 90s identity. It presents multiple versions of an alien abduction, leading to the conclusion that “truth” is more subjective, than objective. The supernatural elements seen in the episode can be explained as a metaphor for the Generation X sense of displacement. As stated earlier, this generation is often described as a generation that feels lost or is caught in the middle of traditional social structures. The episode’s characters experience exactly that. Their “alien” experiences leave them feeling uncertain and it, in a way, represents the existential inability of a culture that has lost faith in a once shared reality.
(Why Were the 1980's Obsessed With the Future? And What Does that Tell Us About Today?)
Conclusion
The X-Files functioned as a cultural mirror for a 1990s societal shift, utilizing themes of institutional distrust and digital paranoia to reflect Gen X skepticism. The series bridged the gap between a fading industrial world and a networked future, questioning authority in an era defined by a "fin de siècle" crisis of meaning.
Did The X-Files capture the mindset of the 1990s? Let us know in the comments.
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Sources:
The X-Files series (1993-2002)
Castells, Manuel. The Rise of the Network Society, Second edition, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010
Fenwick, James, Rodgers, Diane. “Introduction: a critical reflection on thirty years of The X-Files”, In: Fenwick, James and Rodgers, Diane, (eds.) The Legacy of The X-Files. New York, Bloomsbury Academic, 2023
Goode, Erich. „Why Was The X-Files So Appealing?”, Skeptical Inquirer, 2002
Kruse, Axel. „The X-Files: Entries on Meaning”, Sydney Studies in English, 2008
Ortner, Sherry B. “Generation X: Anthropology in a Media-Saturated World” Cultural Anthropology, 13, 1998 https://doi.org/10.1525/can.1998.13.3.414