The X-files (1993-2002) – A cult text

Résumé du document

The X-Files (1993-2002), about two government agents investigating unsolved cases relating to paranormal activities, was a quality drama which became a cult hit with audiences and subsequently an international cultural phenomenon, generating vast amounts of secondary texts including merchandise products, online communities and fan fiction. Some of the questions we can ask relate to the text's cult status and its position as a mainstream success. Indeed, we can focus on the characteristics of the show that made it credible as a cult text and ensured that it gained a much larger audience than what was customary for a television based cult text in its time. The X-Files drew on a range of processes commonly applied to cult texts, mainly through a hybridisation of generic forms and intertextual references as well as its mythological features. However, as Johnson (2005: 3) observes, ‘Producers may attempt to create a media cult text, but it is only through the activities of audiences that a television programme can become a cult text'. Therefore, a text can only become cult if it is activated as such by its audience.

Extraits

[...] et al In Lavery, D(ed) This Thing of Ours: Investigating The Sopranos. London: Wallflower, p. 44-45. Seiter, E.1999. Television and New Media Audiences. New York: Oxford University Press, p.119.Silence of the Lambs Jonathan Demme (dir.). Stark, S Twilight Zone: Science Fiction as Realism' in Glued to the Set: The 60 Television Shows That Made us Who We Are Today. New York: The Free press, p in Hills, M. in Creeber, G 2004. Fifty Key Television Programmes. London: Arnold p Star Trek. [...]

[...] In the pilot, the action takes place in a small community in Oregon, similar to that of Twin Peaks. Another feature was the Laura Palmer photograph in Mulder's office. David Duchovny (Fox Mulder) also played Denis Bryson, a DEA transvestite agent in Twin Peaks. Additionally, the show had references to other cult texts, as Scully was a replica of agent Clarice Starling from Silence of the Lambs (1991), and the following extract from ‘Small Potatoes' (Season refers the well- known cult of Star Wars (1977): Mulder: But the baby's father is an alien. [...]

[...] Exeter: Intellect Books, p McCracken, A In Hilmes, M. The Television History Book. London: BFI, p.137. Nollinger, Mark Things You Need To Know About The X-Files'. In TV Guide Vol No April 1996, p.18. In Lavery, D. et al Deny All Knowledge: Reading The X-Files. New York: Syracuse University press, p.23. Reeves, J.L., Rogers, M.C., Epstein, M ‘Rewriting popularity: The Cult Files' in Lavery, D. et al Deny all Knowledge: Reading the X-Files. New York: Syracuse University press, pp Reeves, M.C. [...]

[...] There is also a strong play with other cult texts and past influences. As Casey (et al; 2002: 128) state, ‘intertextuality demonstrates that our understanding of any one text will be informed, in part, by our experience of other texts'. This points out to not only the postmodern media world where primary and secondary texts are everywhere but also to the idea that referencing such texts attracted viewers that were familiar with those texts, such as Twin Peaks. Indeed there was a strong sense of intertextuality between the two texts and the two agents at the centre of the narrative. [...]

[...] The film Donnie Darko (2001) provoked a similar response when fans of the film started to look for the book Philosophy of Time Travel', as mentioned in the film. Therefore, far from alienating viewers in the way that Twin Peaks did with viewers who were not aware of the postmodern joke and irony present in the show, it proved to be compelling for the mainstream audience as well as the avid fan. As Reeves (et al; in Lavery, D.1996: 35) states, The X-Files is worth studying not just because it is the most successful cult series of the 1990s but also because it may very well be the first truly post-postmodern television show'. [...]