The temptation in ranking The X-Files is just to list each season in reverse order. It’s a series that started out incredibly strong, became a global cultural phenomenon, and brought mainstream audiences back to SFF television, but buckled under an unwieldy and increasingly unsatisfying myth-arc until it finally dwindled into ignominy after a somewhat lackluster comeback. You can pretty much divide The X-Files into a first half which is a truly great, ground-breaking show (Seasons 1-6) and a second half that’s flawed but still pretty decent sci-fi (Seasons 7-11).
One of the key things that makes a great season of The X-Files is a balance between myth-arc episodes and Monster of the Week episodes. In the seasons with a strong myth-arc, this results in a compelling story overall that provides plenty of variation in its storytelling. In a weaker season, it provides an opportunity to step away from the convoluted mythology and produce some outstanding hours of television.
It’s that balance that kept the show a mainstream hit, popular with viewers tuning in when they had time as well as with dedicated fans who never missed an episode. But since not all seasons of The X-Files were created equal, it’s time to separate the bad from the good…After a poorly received ninth season and a movie that had a decent but not outstanding reception, it was pretty surprising and exciting to see The X-Files come back to the small screen in 2016. Unfortunately, season 10 is the weakest of the lot. With only six episodes, the fact that two of them are muddled myth-arc episodes that make a gigantic mess of an already messy mythology, and one of them is just bad, means that only 50% of the season could be called “pretty good” or “great.” And even those three are nothing to really write home about.
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