It occurred to me that I haven't really talked much about the technology on the show, and that I've been intending to ever since I saw those giant bricks of cell phones in the first season.
If the fashion dates this show, I probably wouldn't realise that. I don't know what was in style in the 90s anyway. Though I will note that Scully has looked a lot better dressed lately. She's mostly wearing clothes that fit this season.
The technology, however, completely dates this show. I've kind of forgotten how far things have come in terms of computers and cell phones in the past twenty years.
There's definitely a bulkiness theme going on, because the computers are big and connected to CRT monitors, and the cell phones, even in 1997, are still pretty huge. Honestly, it's kind of impressive that they even have cell phones. I know the FBI would have to be a little ahead of the curve on that one, but it wasn't really that long ago that I remember people talking about having a 'car phone', and the cell phone that my parents would take when they did neighbourhood watch was about the size of a large shoebox.
The fact that they were using handheld cell phones at all as early as 1993 is amazing to me, because I sure don't remember them being around in that form that early. I do remember pagers, which seem to be mostly ignored in this show. (I'm also watching The West Wing right now, also for the first time - I know, I'm so behind on TV - and it started in 1999 and there are pagers. I guess it depends on which part of the government you worked for.)
But another aspect to the technology of the time is the filming style, or the cameras used, or something. The show does look dated, not just because of the clothing and the technology in the show. It has a very dark look to it - so dark that sometimes it's hard to tell what's going on. I don't feel that's the case with shows made even just ten years later. Fringe and Dollhouse had some very dark scenes, but they were always easier to follow than the darkest scenes in The X-Files.
I wonder if it's not so much a technological issue as a budgetary one, though. This show debuted at a time when sitcoms still pretty much ruled the day, and before reality TV took over in the 2000s. Big blockbuster films were obviously shot with better quality equipment, and maybe since there just weren't many other sci-fi dramas around at the time, it never occurred to anyone to try harder.
Modern (I use the word despite it now being less than 20 years later) science fiction on television, which isn't really that common since it tends to fail because networks like FOX don't get it, is still shot in a slick and smooth way. There's a definite style to it that's lacking in the early X-Files episodes.
Of course, there's also the fact that it was also meant to be watched on TV and nobody had 50 inch or even 35 inch TVs at the time, and widescreen TVs were still almost a decade away. TVs were small and 1080p wasn't even a Thing yet, so there wasn't much point in filming something that most viewers wouldn't appreciate. It probably only stands out now because I'm watching on a 70 inch HD TV. (The 4x3 stands out, too, though I've heard that changes in season 5.)
And given the disparity between the styles of filming in television and movies, it's no wonder Chris Carter wanted to make a feature film. Sure, a feature film is really no longer than a two or three episode sequence in the series, but again, when you take into account that TV was still considered the lesser medium and therefore given less attention. They needed to produce something truly grand, something bigger than TV.
I'm looking forward to the movie for that reason - in terms of plot, I'm figuring it's more or less just going to feel like a long episode between seasons five and six. But in terms of scale and quality, it'll actually look pretty good on my TV.
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