Gillian Anderson was so wrapped up while The X-Files was on the air that she never got to appreciate the quality until years after it ended.
The truth was out there for a long time that The X-Files was an incredible show – well, for about half its run, at least. But Dana Scully herself, Gillian Anderson, didn’t realize it at the time, not acknowledging The X-Files’ high notes until well after it went off the air for the first time in 2002.
Appearing on the Smartless podcast (via EW), Gillian Anderson remembered the interference she ran into that pushed her to block out the success of The X-Files. “When you’re doing something like that, all anybody says is, ‘Oh my god. The show. Oh my god. It’s the most amazing [thing]!’ And you don’t wanna hear that anymore. You don’t…I suddenly got what they were talking about, like, five years after the show ended. I was kinda like, ‘Yeah. That was kinda cool. I was on this really cool show.’” She added, “You know what happens when…you’re on a long running show is everything becomes so enmeshed and and not incestuous, but you literally feel like you’re living and breathing this, you know, the entire crew, the entire experience. And so I think by the time we were done after — you know, we did nine years — and I think I was well ready for it to be over.”
Gillian Anderson isn’t the only one who was ready by this point, as The X-Files saw a dramatic dip in quality after season five, with a strong argument for anything after season six. Really, when we think about the show’s best episodes, we’re talking ones like “Squeeze” (season 1), “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” (season 3), “Bad Blood” (season 5), and more from the first half of the series. Who is really out there defending the post-Mulder episodes? After the ninth season went off the air, there were gaps in releases of more material, with movie The X-Files: I Want to Believe coming in 2008 and two additional seasons arriving in 2016 and 2018.
Where do you think The X-Files truly lost its way? What are your favorite episodes from the show? Make us believe in the comments section below.