Even if you have no pretensions to geekhood, you probably know that the X-Files is coming back for an eight episode run in 2016. This is good news, of course, but there is also great news that I will get to after I dish out another long-winded preamble about the X-Files place in history for a moment.
If we look back before The Sopranos we can identify the nascent shows that would eventually lead to the quality TV we are all familiar with today. It all started with Hill Street Blues back in the 80s. It was really the first show that held any pretense of being literary in nature, or even artistic. This was also the origin show for David Milch who eventually begat Deadwood. (I shall regale you with a deeper appreciation of Milch at a later date.)
The '90s brought us a pile of quality classics. The obvious ones being Homicide from David Simon who begat The Wire; the tragically forgotten Northern Exposure who's executive producer, David Chase, gave us The Sopranos, which in turn gave us Matt Weiner who gave us Mad Men; X-files brought adult tone to goofy horror and gave us Vince Gilligan from whom we received Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul; and Buffy grew from tripe into legendary status and of course gave us Joss Whedon who went on to make a handful of obscure and unpopular Hollywood films. That's the quick and dirty family tree of the quality TV.
That was just for setting the stage as to why X-Files is important and not just another sci-fi reboot for next gen geeks. Now, long time readers may recall that I have waxed poetic about the work of one of X-Files writers, Darin Morgan. In fact I wrote an ode to him over ten years ago when I was writing for Blogcritics. I stick by every word of that and I would also note that he has since achieved minor cult status from folks who would agree with me. I've had the chance to rewatch his episodes once or twice over the ensuing decade and my esteem only grows.
So imagine my delight when I heard that Morgan is writing an episode for the reboot. And imagine my further excitement to discover it is going to be called "Mulder and Scullly Meet the Were-Monster". OH. HELL. YES. This is going to be great! (BTW, how did I miss this? It has been known since July and I'm just finding out. What other Earth-shaking news have I missed? Next thing you know I'll find out they've made another Star Wars movie.)
