The special efx haven’t gotten more expensive, cameras haven’t risen in price, writers don’t seem to be demanding particular high prices, netflix takes anything that you can pitch without saying the word disney.
So what in the world happened? X-files was an amazing show and watching it you are not only entertained but you care about mulder and scully. The show is genuinely a great time. Why did they stop making them like this?
Less money in tv nowadays, the whole medium is dying. Plus they figured out they don’t need to put in nearly as much effort for reality tv stuff. Streaming wars might have been able to drive quality stuff, but most places did a scatter shot approach instead.
Fringe ended weird though. I chalk it up to JJ Abrams getting bored (yet again) with his wildly successful project and letting it sputter to an end instead of letting it go out with a bang.
I watched Fringe when it came out and loved it but for whatever reason never saw the final season. Last year I finally went back and finished it. I will concede the ending was a bit rushed but also I’m grateful it did get an ending. A lot of great shows get axed and don’t get to wrap up anything. So while not perfect, I’m going to say it was decent enough and does wrap everything up.
Electric dreams, Black Mirror, new Twilight Zone has a few bangers as well.
Stuff is being made you just aren’t aware of it. A more productive way to ask this question is to “what are some good sci fi shows X-Files being made currently?” Elaborate perhaps with “For reference, I am a big X-Files fan/prefer monster of the week shows and less serialized programming like Star Trek.”
I’m in the middle of rewatching X-Files yet again. It’s really hit and miss, even in the good seasons. I think people remember all the good episodes and forget about the bad and average ones.
You looking for a new X-Files type show? I can’t think of any good ones but I don’t really look for that type of show anymore either.
Mr Robot. Rewatching it now and x-files rewatch is next on the list.
Maybe Lost but you gotta kinda vibecheck if it’s your thing. And Stranger Things also has the whole mystery vibe going.
There are a lot of weird cringey exchanges in this show similar to this that end up being stylized writing to trick or subvert the viewer. You should continue watching
I’ve never seen x-files, but it does get brought up a lot in conversation about Fringe (one of my favorites). Fringe starts off as {insert scifi thing} of the week, and then the plot starts to develop later. I recommend giving it a shot.
They still make amazing shows, it’s just a matter of taste and preference.
You can try Fringe, it’s obviously inspired by X-Files. I even prefer Fringe but I don’t think it’s a popular opinion.
There’s also From, it’s like the only mystery horror TV show that gets horror right in a series setting. It gave me some similar vibes though it’s a very different show.
The real issue is that instead of 5-15 channels, there are dozens-hundreds, plus a dozen streaming service, and intellectual property is constantly pinging back and forth between them all.
No media has a reliable “home” you can consistently access it from. And when it does you still run into the discoverability issue. So many shows are made that you can’t reasonably scroll through all of them, so personal recommendations and algorithms ultimately dictate what we find.
If you want unusual and stand-out sci-fi then I’d recommend Twin Peaks: The Return, assuming you’ve seen Twin Peaks.
Also the show “Dark” on Netflix is incredible.
I still have a cue of newer stuff I haven’t gotten to because there’s so much to try.
I think what we’ve really lost is the social element. When FAR fewer things were on, and everyone had to “tune in” to see new episodes, it meant a ton more people would be watching the same thing at the same time.
Now the default has become everything on demand, and released in full seasons at a time. “Dark” is actually from several years ago, but became big in the US just a few years ago, and I just found it last year.
The viewing and Fandom experiences are just more fragmented and scattered now.
I think a lot of shows are AWESOME, but then late-stage capitalistic enshittification happens and they become... far less so, and often quite TERRIBLE even, though ostensibly still have the same title, even though nowhere near being an identical show.
One super-good example is Stranger Things, where the first season was really quite good! So many homages to nerd culture like E.T. and D&D - it was fantastic!:-) As I read though, the pair of creators had 2 rules: never use CGI, and absolutely do not "sell out", i.e. a story should want to be told, not sold merely for the sake of cash. So after the first season where they made it b/c of their love for the craft, you can guess how the subsequent seasons played out (I believe one of the pair even quit over it).
Arguably a better example is The Walking Dead - it started off REALLY good, but then... well... it too "sold out". Actually I keep trying to force myself to get through it, I even started watching it over again from the start (a couple times now) thinking that would help, but have yet to accomplish this feat.
Another is Designated Survivor. It had some big-name actors, most of whom quit (I think the show was sold to a different network... or something?), and the last season was just terrible, limping along before they finally put it out of its misery and ended it.
The really fantastic shows - like Star Trek - had to prove themselves, then the creators were given leeway to subsequently make great sequels and spin-offs and even entirely unrelated titles. Fun story: Gene Roddenberry even created shows after his death, as his wife took his unfinished notes and lead their creation under his vision, like Earth: Final Conflict.
TLDR: why offer you a good show when they can offer you a crappy show that they made for a tenth of the price, yet charge you the full amount?
(though stupidly enough, they also seem to be trying to offer us even more terrible shows that cost 50x the price to make, and yet somehow suck all the more for that!? anyway it all seems to be based on greed + arrogance - they want to make money, but they do not want to put in the effort to actually earn it, e.g. by paying the actors a decent wage)
There’s been plenty good shows since X files came out, maybe it’s more of a problem that you’re in a different head space than you were and not as open to like new shows anymore. Happens to me with video games, I keep going back to the ones I played in my early twenties when I had more time over the summer to invest into games. Now I have much less time to start a new game and get over the boring introductory bits before getting to the good parts.
xfiles, star trek (kirk, picard), twilight zone from the 1960s, twin peaks (first season), honey mooners, I did like the first season of true detective with mathew maccaughnahey and woody harrelson. I watched the first season of apple invasion before giving up after season 2 started (I just couldn’t do it anymore). I am a big fan of broad city though, a show that is very underrated, also workaholics was fun.
Everything is a serial now. They’re not bad, but you can’t just pick any random episode and have a good time. I prefer episodic stuff for that very reason.
I find myself enjoying episodic shows more than serials like star trek TNG, Voyager, House MD, etc. I tend to get bored with non episodic shows because with episodic ones I can look forward to watching a new story every episode. Keeps me interested.
Sure… If they did 1 episode a week. But when they dump the entire season in one day, I can just watch the whole thing over a weekend and cancel my subscription until the next season.
In TV there is a watershed moment. Before sopranos and after sopranos.
The shows that came before were specced to the particularities of broadcast television. Season length, episode lengths, budget, guest appearances, were all determined by the details of how broadcast television was organized in the late twentieth century, with seasons and sweep weeks and all that crap.
HBO was the first TV producer to bin all of that, and enable TV to reach its creative potential.
X files was a very cool show, but its late 20th century broadcast pedigree is on full display.
Agree so much on HBO. We just moved to the US and got the "Max" subscription and we're finding gem after gem, some of it a decade old. Like TV that rivals any great movie, amazing storytelling/directing/music/concepts. Still plenty of filler to sort through, but some genuine art in there.
Too bad their mobile app is the worst thing I've ever seen in my life regarding streaming services. I know people like to rag on Netflix, at least their app is top notch. How can a big company like HBO have such a piece of crap software when dozens of better examples to copy from already exist is beyond me.
I haven’t watched sopranos, but after all the mafia/gangster movies, i felt the genre was done with, the god fater 1 to 3, once upon a time in america, good fellers, casino, scarface, the list goes on and on. I’ll give sopranos a shot but i am not holding my breath…
That's.... not what the poster was saying. Prestige TV extends much farther than the mafia genre, sopranos was just the turning point when higher budget dramatic things were more commonly greenlit.
The Wire, Breaking Bad, Watchmen, The Expanse Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Mad Men etc all absolutely blow X files out of the water. And while I do love X files, the monster of the week format is not even in the same ballpark as those long form character dramas.
I think you might be letting nostalgia blind you to how great television has become.
bro you are seriously telling me walking dead is better than x files? I had to stop walking dead after 5 episodes because i couldn’t bare it anymore. Xfiles you get excited about every episode you watch. Don’t get me wrong i love zombies, but walking dead just aint it…
I mean, I am not a huge fan of the show and didn't finish it. But the first season was stellar. But that aside, reading your other comments it seems like you don't like a lot of modern shows. Which is fine, but personally I find older stuff I watched when I was a girl just sorta meaningless. X files had so many skipable episodes without serving the overarching plot. I'm honestly kinda baffled that you would prefer monster of the week instead of expanse and breaking bad, but you are allowed to think as you please. Just seems at odd with two of the most higely praised shows of recent history.
And I don't super appreciate being called bro... >_>
Watchmen - holy shit. I decided almost on a whim that I’d give it a try and I was totally unprepared for the awesomeness. It took a few episodes to kick in, but once it did, I was like OH MY GOD THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST SHOWS I’VE EVER SEEN WHY DID IT ONLY GET ONE SEASON THIS IS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY
The BBC did it first, in part thanks to a lack of ad breaks and shorter seasons.
Eg. the UK version of House of Cards is genuinely excellent and arguably better than the US version, even before Spacey.
were all determined by the details of how broadcast television was organized in the late twentieth century, with seasons and sweep weeks and all that crap.
Another thing is the production schedule on some of these shows. They'd be doing 12 hour days, 6 or even 7 days a week, sometimes writing shows that were going to be released within days. Far harder to create a coherent arc or plan stuff, when you have to write and direct far more episodes in a limited time frame.
OP, are you sure you’re not conflating the X-Files being your favorite show with it being good? Because Breaking Bad exists and that came out after X-Files. Also is arguably better than the X-Files lol
IMHO Breaking Bad is exactly like modern day X-Files. That’s why I hated it. BB happens in TV reality. It all feels incredibly fake, artificial and manufactured. In the 90s that’s all we had: fairly small and disjointed TV shows built on common tropes and similarly produced. Breaking Bad is a modern show that pretends to be more complex but in reality just regurgitates all the same tropes. That’s why it was so popular: it was same old stuff in shiny new packaging.
I hate breaking bad. Take that for what it’s worth. I hate it even more after people recommended it to me specifically praising how good of a show it was.
Fair enough - everybody’s tastes are different. Fwiw I didn’t really enjoy the X-Files that much when I watched it, but I have heard the same thing that it’s a really good show.
Firefly. Watch the one season before the Movie. Then there are 8 novels now and comics by both Dark Horse & BOOM! Much disagreement about BOOM!'s but they got canceled too. It’s at least critical to read up on Wash’s family history and more, I think, but whatever.
You like it enough, gimmie a buzz and we’ll set up signal and video chat you into participating the original board game.
Here in a couple months or so I’ll be excited to do exactly that as the decade celebration of the original publish of the game has been conducted to issue an upgrade with minor extension elements, a make on quality parts for the game, and some extra things like options for player ships and whatnot.
Then there’s Firefly: Adventures which is a co-op game I got a friend who is excited to learn and play as I am seeing as we haven’t gotten to do so successfully yet. I have all the extensions and all that for everything too.
For example, Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul are two series I could watch on repeat. Absolutely solid.
First few seasons of Orange is the New Black (really ran out of steam after that imo)
Now, sci-fi specifically … it’s been a while since I’ve seen a good one. Some people I know really, really like The Expanse, though for me it just didn’t connect. Black Mirror is hit and miss, but when it hits, it’s amazing (the stinker episodes are real stinkers though).
I tried Breaking Bad - hated it. I never gave Better Call Saul a chance as there is nothing that seemed promising about it. I guess I could watch an episode of Better Call Saul, I just don’t see this being a good idea. Now I can’t hate it because I never watched, it once I watch an entire episode, I have a hunch I won’t remain so indifferent… :/
Ok then… can you explain (in detail prferably) what got you hooked oh X-Files, the things you live about the show?
I like it too, but saying Breaking Bad is a bad show, just… IDK… doesn’t sit right with me. And I don’t watch just any show, I’ve probably watched like 5 or 6 in my entire life (I’m 38 BTW).
You have to give The Expanse a chance. I had no idea what was going on for most of the first season, but I really enjoyed the world-building and character development. It pays off later.
S1 is good, though a bit rough imo. Later seasons (after Bezos bought the rights, said “finish the story”, and threw money at it to make it happen) do have a much more polished feel. Overall, I found it to be a very good adaptation of the source material.
The books are excellent - can’t recommend them enough.
The Expanse spent the first three episodes setting things up; it got much better after that, although eventually it stopped being as good to me; kind of like Battlestar Galactica in the day.
Give The Expanse another try; it does truly get good before it gets derivative in later seasons.
edit2: I hate HATE HATE game of thrones with a passion, I gave it a shot twice! (2x) What’s worse is the entirety of society gaslighting you into it not being an awful show.
Admit got is no-where near as good a time as x-files. I just watched a humanoid leech escaping through a system of sewers. I witnessed alien abductions. Intrigue within the fbi. Secret allies, even more secret conspirators and classified government units on even more classified government missions.
got is like a bad off brand xenia warrior princess…
Things like good an awful are subjective, so yeah. Sometimes I feel like a lot of people insist something is good based on their own connection to the media, but nothing is really objectively good or bad.
People warned me against playing Final Fantasy 15, the critics trashed it, yet it’s one of my favorite games in the franchise.
There are 16 actually, and that’s only including the mainline games.
Each game is standalone, but shares certain attributes. Think similar to the Legend of Zelda series.
For me, 15 was just a great escape. I often call it my “bro roadtrip simulator” because it’s a lot of driving around an open world and getting to know the characters.
The last segment was rushed in development, and it shows, but for me it works because by the time I enter that segment, it’s because I’m ready to be done.
I didn’t intend it to be a direct comparison. It’s just that both are similar in that the games tend to be standalone experiences rather than sequential. They share certain characters, themes, and archetypes, but you can pick up any game and play it on its own.
In spite of my username, I actually haven’t played LoZ since Wind Waker, though I did enjoy that one a lot
But what really pisses me off about current Zelda is the incredible amount of missed oportunities it has.
Like, why can’t we customize Link? (And if we can’t, why don’t they give him an actual dialog?)
Why can’t we have mainstream titles with playable characters other than Link?
It’s those kinds of things that prevents me from giving Skyward Sword and everything that came after a proper chance.
I love ALL Classic Zelda (yes, even Zelda 2 and the CD-i games for all the wrong reasons xD)
Not only the gameplay was fun, but you could see the developers really gave their best considering the limitations of their time.
Windwaker and Twilight Princess are… odd special cases.
The 2000s was a experimental era, and let’s be honest, Nintendo shot themselves in the leg by limiting the Gamecube to 1.4GB size discs.
But once the Wii arrived there really was no reason to keep on the same “silent yet uncustomizable” main character trope.
I like videogames when they are fun, yes.
But showing a good, creative design is also a big part of the inmersion for me.
And that seems to be the last thing on the list for Modern Zelda.
People will say that Breath of the Wild had beautiful graphics and was wonderful design.
And to a point, they’re right.
But when i see Windwaker, Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild side to side i can’t avoid to think that they feel a bit… same-y.
I’m not saying i want a realistic Zelda, but again, i would either a customizable, path branching Zelda game, OR a Zelda game where Link has something other than button inputs on the script.
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