Rediscovering "The X-Files"

A look at a prescient show — and other things — we've revisited.

Agents Mulder and Scully in the “X-Files” TV show, featuring the “I want to believe” poster. Sree’s newsletter is produced with Zach Peterson (@zachprague). Digimentors Tech Tip from Robert S. Anthony (@newyorkbob). Our sponsorship kit.

🗞 @Sree’s #NYTReadalong: Our guest last week was Adam Nagourney, author of “The Times: How the Newspaper of Record Survived Scandal, Scorn and the Transformation of Journalism.” You can see a recording here. You’ll find three years’ worth of archives at this link (we’ve been reading the paper aloud on social for 8+ years now!). The Readalong is sponsored by Muck Rack. Interested in sponsorship opportunities? Email sree@digimentors.group and neil@digimentors.group.

🤖 For just $10, you can buy the video and slides from my recent “Non-Scary Guide to AI” workshop and all-star panel with experts Aimee Rinehart, Senior Product Manager AI Strategy for The Associated Press; and Dr. Borhane Blili-Hamelin, AI Risk and Vulnerability Alliance, here: https://digimentors.gumroad.com/l/aipanel. One cool part is that it has Purchasing Power Parity pricing, so it adjusts automatically to the country you live in. eg: Sweden: $8; Italy: $6.70; Singapore: $6.60; UAE: $6.10; India: $4; South Africa: $4. TESTIMONIAL: "What an excellent class... thank you! Generative AI is an unbelievably exciting and terrifying subject. Looking forward to participating in future classes." — Jill Davison, global comms executive. · I am doing these workshops around the country and abroad as well as by Zoom, customized for each audience. If you'd like to discuss organizing one, please LMK at sree@digimentors.group

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IT’S BEEN 30 YEARS SINCE THE DEBUT OF THE X-FILES, a show I grew to love during binges in the early streaming years. For this week’s newsletter, Zach Peterson had the idea of paying tribute to the show, which he had recently rediscovered. Scroll down to read his thoughts on an eerily prescient (at times) show, with great writing (always) and acting (most of the time) that is partly responsible for Walter White and one of my favorite shows of all time: Breaking Bad. We also asked some other members of my Digimentors team, including Bob Anthony, to tell us what they’d rediscovered. Is there something YOU rediscovered that you want to tell us about? Put it in the comments section or email sree@digimentors.group.

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Zach Peterson:

The height of the Covid-19 pandemic was, whether we wanted it or not, a time of deep reflection and introspection. Most of us were under some sort of lockdown or two (or three) for significant amounts of time. The rule was to view human-to-human contact as a suspect act, rife with the potential for severe consequences — for the most part, lockdown rules across the world were largely respected. That so many people came in on the other end of the “respect the lockdown/mask/quarantine” fence came as a profound shock. It wasn’t surprising that so many people were suspect of a killer virus prompting a situation nearing martial law, but the outright trolling and flaunting of those beliefs was too much.

When America elected Donald Trump president, we flew a flag of shame to the world. Covid-19 denial was the rope by which we raised that flag. A racist con man was president, we were locked in our homes, and Zoom meetings were the norm. If ever there were a time for taking stock of everything, this was it.

Now, things have returned to a very liberal use of the word “normal.” Joe Biden is president, we can interact with each other in public, and at least a few people are heading back to long-vacant, and still half-vacant offices. But this normal feels much different than the normal of the last five or six years.

I think that’s a product of self-reflection on a global scale that we will spend the next 50 years trying to assess. For me personally, it was a full-on recalibration of my life. I rediscovered my passion for fishing (and probably dialed that up to 11 a few too many times), found solace and laughter in improv and stand-up comedy, and re-watched 100s of movies and TV shows from my past.

Enter: FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, and the X-Files. What a show this was.

The show debuted in 1993 on Fox, with the initial run lasting nine years and 202 episodes. I was 12 when it first hit TV, but we didn’t have cable, so Fox was out of the question. I didn’t really discover the X-Files until later, in about season five. That all changed a few months ago when I found the show on Disney+ and started it right from the beginning. It’s sort of a slog through the first season, but things really start coming together in the middle of season two. Seasons three and four are some of the best episodic TV I’ve ever seen…still.

The streaming era has been a blessing for consumers and creatives in so many ways. Shows and movies that would have never been made a decade ago have a chance, but that also means a lot of low-quality, low-production-value stuff that just drags everyone down — and it lowers the standards for the form more generally, especially on the audience side. The X-Files is premium TV, even at its corniest moments, of which there are many.

If a character is introduced in the scene-setting cold open, you will see that character’s story unfold and you will understand where that character’s arc ends. It may seem like some silly background thing, but it’s really noticeable after watching a few dozen X-Files episodes with a keener, more-experienced eye. Every character that means something to either the plot of the single episode, or to the running plot through the show more generally — think the Cigarette Smoking Man — is out in front for the audience to see. Many of the “villains” in the episodes turn out to be quite sympathetic characters, and the viewer is never left questioning how that transition happened. It’s fantastic writing.

Then there’s Mulder and Scully. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson have elite on-screen chemistry, and their characters’ dynamic of UFO-true-believer versus fiercely-scientific-non-believer works at every turn. Sure, maybe Mulder’s ridiculous claims that a guy is a real shapeshifting lizard prove to be a true a few too many times, but the show consistently gives Scully’s rigorous empirical methods exactly the importance they need to have. Mulder says something like, “This woman was killed because an alien being touched her, depositing a cosmic super fungus on her skin,” and Scully will just be like, “Mulder, the lady had the chicken pox and a totally normal fever,” and it’s perfect every time.

The two characters are played to caricatures of themselves in a way that reminds me of The Sopranos. Of course, it usually turns out that the aliens were somehow involved in whatever happened, and maybe that’s the best part. There are references to all sorts of technologies that are commonplace today, including AI and neural networks, which is pretty impressive for mid-90s serial TV. I’m a sicko for “oh, that’s so-and-so from this-and-that” and then IMDB-ing my way to Wonderland, and seeing the many guest stars who ended up becoming quite famous — including Jack Black, Jane Lynch, Bryan Cranston, Lucy Liu, and more — sparks joy in every second or third episode when a Giovanni Ribisi-type just shows up as the boy who can control electricity…including, you guessed it, lightning.

The most glaring thing about the X-Files is, of course, that conspiracy theories have at least some grain of truth to them. Given the events of the last decade, it’s easy to watch the show with a bit more trepidation — we’ve all lost friends and family members to the Q crowd. The easiest way to get over that is just to do what any person can do, realize it’s a fictional mainstream cable show and enjoy the story.

We asked some of our Digimentors colleagues if they had rediscovered anything sometime in the recent past too. We’re sure you can relate to one or all of these, including those we chose not publish, which were heavy on “getting a normal cold and it not being Covid.”

Here’s what they had to say:

Marilyn Zayfert:

Unveiling Inner Strength in Quiet Moments: In the stillness of the pandemic, I navigated a path marked by challenges and losses. It was a silent journey characterized by fading dreams and the weight of unfulfilled expectations.

Silence became my companion, offering a space for introspection. In those quiet moments, I confronted the reality of what was lost and grappled with the challenge of accepting what couldn't be changed. It wasn't about moving gracefully through difficulties; it was about standing firm and discovering resilience.

Amidst the solitude, I uncovered a strength within me that had gone unnoticed before. It wasn't a heroic narrative but a simple realization that I held the power to make changes and let go of what was beyond my control.

As we transition into a post-pandemic era, I find myself more grounded. The challenges were a series of life's unscripted moments. The past, marked by loss, taught me that strength often emerges in the quiet, unassuming spaces of self-discovery.

In sharing this, my hope is that others can find solace in their own silent struggles and recognize the quiet strength that resides within each of us.

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Neil Parekh:

During the pandemic, when we were looking for things to do, we re-watched all of the Star Wars movies with our then-eight year old (in production order, starting with Episode IV: A New Hope). More recently, we watched all of the X-men movies (in chronological order) and just started the Rocky movies. I also watched ALL 18 seasons of NCIS two years ago.

Watching the early Star Wars movies and Rocky was nostalgic for us and fun to re-watch through our daughter’s eyes. For X-men, even though the movies were produced in a different order, it was interesting to see how they handled character and plot development when they had the chance to fill in back stories. For NCIS, 18 seasons is a long run. (They are currently in Season 20.) It was fun to watch characters come and go. In some cases, signature moves (Gibbs’ head slap) don't appear until a few seasons into the show.

Find an old show, with lots of seasons, or a movie franchise and re-watch it. You won't be disappointed.

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Yoyce Jones:

I rediscovered Avicii's music and realized how deep my grief was from his death by suicide. Before the pandemic I was all EDM, went to raves and negotiated the world as best I could as a black man and mental health advocate who’s also gay. The pandemic left me a gap — motionless, airless, choked screams, pregnant with the indirect trauma that triggered other traumas and the search for a bookend to the madness of those morbid days of Trump. I didn’t stop listening to music, I stopped listening to the EDM that elevates, agitates, moves and promises a happy ending. During the pandemic, that brush with the hereafter didn’t leave me completely despairing, I had Sree and his daily COVID show to push ahead. What the moment left me with was the awareness of how little action I’d been able to take given social-distancing. The pandemic bequeathed actions that became clearer as it started to loosen its grip on normative life. And, before and after the pandemic, I accepted the knockabouts that defined an experience that I graciously ignored, acceding to the psychological demand for closure. That looks different from every one else’s perspective but it means effort all the same. What have been negative impacts for me can be converted into a brighter future that make the pandemic and its jack-in-the-box surprises smaller as one looks ahead at the light and promise of right now and the prayer for seeing a tomorrow. Avicii’s music is still good but it’s part of a chapter I am now closing.

Is there something YOU rediscovered that you want to tell us about? Put it in the comments section or email sree@digimentors.group.

— Sree / Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube | Threads

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DIGIMENTORS TECH TIP | Rediscovering Life’s Endearing Imperfections with Film

By Robert S. Anthony
Each week, veteran tech journalist Bob Anthony shares a tech tip you don’t want to miss. Follow him @newyorkbob.

Sometime around the turn of the century (always wanted to use that phrase), I set aside my Pentax Spotmatic 35mm single-lens-reflex film camera for what seemed like the last time.

It had been a great companion since junior high school, reliably documenting family gatherings, road trips and even media events as I got older. But by the early 2000s, I already had a couple digital cameras and they were already generating photos that looked fine on paper or online on AOL, CompuServe or Genie (remember those?).

But a funny thing happened while I wasn’t paying attention: Many photographers, including young ones, have rediscovered the joy of “analog” film photography. But who would do such a thing in an age where we can photoshop, AI-enhance and otherwise finagle digital images until they approach magazine-quality perfection—or complete fantasy?

But that’s not the point with film. Like all of us, film is imperfect. Each film brand, fresh, expired or otherwise, sees the world differently—just like every human being ever born—and that’s a good thing.

For those of us who can’t hit 100mph fastballs, sink 30-foot jumpers or bend perfect corner kicks, shooting film reassures us that imperfection is fine, welcome and laudable. A hazy, yellowed image of the Statue of Liberty in the fog might better express the mood you felt the first time you saw it than a perfectly exposed sunny-day postcard image.

Like the return bar on a manual typewriter (ask your parents, youngsters), the film-advance lever on an old 35mm film camera feels like a reassuring handshake. Did I advance the film since the last shot? Is the lever is locked? If it is, I did. No ambiguity there.

Old cameras need your help with focus, zoom, shutter speed setting and more. It’s more like a working partnership; a finger-driven ballet which gets better with practice.

With photo prints, there’s no editing. The ones you got back from the drug store were the ones that got into the family album, imperfections and all. So what if some uncle got his head cut off or someone was caught laughing with food exploding from his mouth? Film captures life moments honestly.

And it’s that calming, imperfect, unpredictable reality that I’m rediscovering. The Spotmatic is officially out of retirement, but I have no clue as to what I’ll shoot with it. I’m just looking forward to the return of an old friend who accompanied me to football games, weddings, reunions and so many other moments.

And after all these years, the Spotmatic is still holding secrets: There’s an unfinished roll inside. I have no clue how old it is or what memories it holds, but the cheapskate in me forces me to finish the long-expired roll before I send it out for developing.

Film teaches a simple lesson: Stay imperfect. Your friends already like what they see. A nice rediscovery which I hope to hang onto for a while.

[Note: While I was halfway through writing this, I took time off to watch the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree on TV. During the show there was a Toyota ad which featured an old camera that a woman was handing down to her granddaughter. In a letter the grandma writes, “May it capture your big, beautiful life the way it did mine. Love, Grandma.”The old camera in the ad was a Pentax Spotmatic.]

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Did we miss anything? Make a mistake? Do you have an idea for anything we’re up to? Let’s collaborate! sree@sree.net and please connect w/ me: Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube / Threads

🤖 You can buy the video and slides from my recent “Non-Scary Guide to AI” workshop and all-star panel with experts Aimee Rinehart, Senior Product Manager AI Strategy for The Associated Press; and Dr. Borhane Blili-Hamelin, AI Risk and Vulnerability Alliance, here: https://digimentors.gumroad.com/l/aipanel. One cool part is that it has Purchasing Power Parity pricing, so it adjusts automatically to the country you live in. eg: USA: $10; Sweden: $8; Italy: $6.70; Singapore: $6.60; UAE: $6.10; India: $4; South Africa: $4. TESTIMONIAL: "What an excellent class... thank you! Generative AI is an unbelievably exciting and terrifying subject. Looking forward to participating in future classes." — Jill Davison, global comms executive. · I am doing these workshops around the country and abroad as well as by Zoom, customized for each audience. If you'd like to discuss organizing one, please LMK at sree@digimentors.group