X-Files: A Better Twin Peaks?

I must be honest. I was never a fan of the X-Files, and largely, I am still not. However, examining shows like the X-Files for class has gotten me somewhat interested in exploring these types of shows much deeper. Before this class I had no idea what Twin Peaks was. I had certainly heard of it, but knew very little about it. When we watched the episodes in class, I became interested in seeing more, largely due to the fact that it is quite a unique show. When reading the Strange TV article about the X-Files, I noticed there were quite a few references to Twin Peaks. This got me thinking about the two shows. There are a lot of similarities there.

Let’s take a look at some of the similarities between the pilot of the X-files and Twin Peaks. The show starts with the mysterious murder of a young, attractive female. Because of the mystery surrounding the case, a special agent of the FBI is called in to investigate, who is known for, shall we say, his somewhat strange and interesting practices. Which show am I talking about here? Exactly. Both. Now, of course, there is a large difference here. Twin Peaks largely surrounds the single case of Laura Palmer’s death, while X-Files seems to largely contain a case per episode: the monster of the week, as others have so eloquently put it. I think this what makes the X-Files more watch-able, since the story arches are smaller, as opposed to the series-long main arches of the soap-opera-esque Twin Peaks.

Both the X-Files and Twin Peaks seem to have an interesting self-awareness. There is a campy-ness to them, while still attempting to be at the very least somewhat serious: The X-Files does a much better job with its seriousness than Twin Peaks. Even the grotesque humor is an indication of this. Agents Cooper/Mulder are able to see the dead as objects, and often may be able to joke about them; whereas Agent Scully/Sheriff Truman, don’t seem to be able to share the same abilities.

Throughout the X-Files series, there are many episodes that one might call experimental. I can recall the X-Cops episode that was a parody of another Fox show at the time: Cops. While Twin Peaks ran too short to have ever explored these kinds of episodes, I do feel that the campy-ness is shared between them. I think that because the X-Files largely tried to keep a seriousness about itself, these episodes were a release of sorts: a tip of the hat, if you will, to the very overt campy-ness that Twin Peaks has.

Now up to this point, I have not even mentioned the supernatural similarities between the two shows. I feel that this is a fairly obvious connection for anyone who has seen an episode of both shows, or has even a little knowledge of the genre of the shows. Certainly both shows surround the topic of the supernatural, or the paranormal, which is, within the show, met with a great deal of skepticism. However, the X-Files deals largely with the idea of alien invasion of earth; an idea that never really appeared in Twin Peaks.

Certainly this is just a basic overview of the similarities. If you’re interested in further reading, there is one short website that I found that deals with the cast crossovers between the two shows. Apparently there was a lot:

http://www.angelfire.com/il/Fetterolfs/xfiles.html