This is one addictive series.
Let me preface this by saying that I am not particularly a sci-fi person, definitely not a horror person, and actually not even a t.v. person. When The X-Files debuted in '93, the dramatic feature genre in television virtually didn't exist, and anything like the mini-movies we have come to expect from any series today was unheard of; consequently, I had turned my t.v. off two years prior, and resorted to simply renting movies. Ten years later, I still haven't missed t.v., but I've seen every episode of this show that's avaliable on video or dvd.

The trick is, it's an unexpected combination of attractions--several of them might be lost on you the first time, but one of them will hook in. When my space-age friend brought over the pilot one night from the video store to see what all the fuss was about, I at first didn't think it was my kind of fuss. The pilot was one of the creepier episodes they've made, because it uses actual cases to build its plot about horrific alien abductions; I'm generally not impressed by fear factor alone, and it seemed to me that this was the main gig of the show. Also, the pilot-budget, eighties-grade special effects were cheesy to me having only been watching films for many years. But I had to admit there was a snappy intelligence in the dialogue and a swave mystique in the plot that exceeded the attempts of a lot of big budget films. And the dynamic between the leads, even now, and having no familiarity with the actors, was intruiging enough to stay with me. For years after that, whenever some strand of pop culture would bring The X-Files to mind, I would wonder what that dynamic was like now. Finally, just as the series was ending, I ended up catching a midnight rerun while flipping channels at a hotel, and it was simply brilliant. It was a season five self-parody episode that worked the Mulder-Scully dynamic and their respective positions on paranormal matters for all it was worth, and I discovered that it was worth a lot. I was hooked.

Season one, as I now know, is more purely story-based than the others, which become more dramatic and complex out of accumulative history. When Chris Carter et al wrote the first scripts, he didn't yet know if his series would fly, so he planted no long-term clues except in the first and last episodes, and only remembered to play around with his stroke-of-luck leads every four or five episodes. Still, I came to genuinely appreciate the basic formula of the show carved out here: to pose an age-old paranormal problem like ghosts, ufos, genetic engineering, suburban ledgends, etc, put it into a dramatic narrative, and investigate it with an updated, clever scientific perspective. Carter has brought folklore and fairy tales into the twenty-first century. The best episodes are often scary, but in a conceptual, tense way rather than a shock-therapy freak-out way--as are the Grimms, for that matter. And because the show has its finger in so many different pies, claiming full allegiance to no single genre, it seems to carry inherent ironies. It is fantastic, but also grounded; dark, but also a hero myth; complicated, but also dualistic; serious, but always up for a self-parody; a buddy set-up that is always verging on and never promising more. The heroes are uncannily intelligent, and become more experienced and suave as the years go on, and yet they have a fundamental innocence about them, even a kind of angelic beauty as they hold their guns up at whatever slimy creature is before them. This is especially true in the first season, when newbie Gillian Anderson is only 24, long haired and soft around the edges, and 30 year old David Duchovny is like a skinny, buzzed boy scout. They are really posited as unconventional heroes in every respect, not the least of which is the gender role-reversal, which revolutionized female roles in particular in both television and film.

The seeds of greatness are here in this starter set, and those who have a taste for pure script will understand what it means for the later, bigger budget years. These are not the flashiest episodes of the series but they are well-conceived from the get go, as well as beautifully photographed and edited, especially for the times. They are darker as a unit than six together will usually be, because much of the human warmth and light the show can speak of comes out of the slow-building relationship between the leads--even a knowing glance, a single quip, makes the difference. But they are smart, and often dramatically tense--Ice is still a high point of that in the show--and set the stage for the future seasons. Other high points in the season are in the second triple-pack, which should definitely come with this one. If you only want a small sampling to start, try the E.B.E./Beyond the Sea video, and if that interests you, get the Pilot/Deep Throat video next, and work your way up from there.

A show about aliens and government conspiracies? Yeah, that'll be a big hit . . . And it was!

The first wave of videos in this box set are some of the best of Season 1. The first video contains "Pilot/Deep Throat", the first two episodes of the series. The second video contains "Conduit/Ice". And the third video in the set contains "Fallen Angel/Eve".

Any new fan of the show who is looking for a little background into the show should give this set a viewing. While buying the DVD sets would be the better deal (you get all the episodes from every season in the sets), for those that don't have DVD players videos are the only option.

It is interesting to note how far the series has come. It is striking in the way it has changed over the years in look, feel and sound. Anyone who doesn't know what Mulder and Scully looked like in those first few episodes will receive a pleasant surprise. Back in the first season, it was not known whether the series would survive past its rookie year, so Chris Carter and his writers penned nothing but stand-alones for the first part. While some of the Season 1 episodes are considered mythology, as they do have mythology-like elements in them, for the most part Season 1 is a collage of "Monster of the Week" episodes. The chilling episode "Ice" is an example of this.

For those who don't have DVD players and would like to see how the series began, this first wave of videos is highly recommended. The Truth is Out There - you just need to go out and buy it.

If you a just beginning to watch the show this season then you cant really grasp the greatness of the show because david duchouvny(sorry bout the spelling) is taking time off or he quit or something. Hopefully he will be back and it will just be mulder and scully, no disrespect toward robert patrick(agent dogget)

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