Fighting futurity : episodic queerness and serialized normativity in The X-files

This thesis considers queer fan readings of the television series The X-Files (1993-2018), arguing that the series’ use of episodic and serialized storytelling both enables and challenges such readings. Rooted in my personal experience with the series’ fandom, I draw upon queer theory, television studies, and film history in my analysis of the show’s form and of its protagonists, FBI agents Mulder and Scully. In my first chapter, I examine the varied forms of queer fan engagement with the series, considering how some read diverse sexual and gender identities onto the characters, while others identify an underlying queerness within Mulder and Scully’s heterosexual relationship. I take up the latter notion in my second chapter, arguing that the series implicitly queers Mulder and Scully by depicting their relationship as non-normative and emphasizing their lack of interest in heteronormative familial structures. Mulder and Scully’s subversive skeptic-believer dynamic, intellectual sparring, and frequent flirtation align them with the relationships depicted in screwball comedy films of the 1930s and 40s, a parallel which highlights their non-normativity. My analysis considers how the series’ use of episodic storytelling in both conventional and experimental episodes highlights and heightens the queer dynamics in Mulder and Scully’s relationship. I also consider, however, how The X-Files’ serialized episodes limit the queer potential of its episodic storytelling. In particular, I examine how the series’ overarching mythology becomes increasingly intertwined with narratives of family, heterosexuality, and reproduction. The series demonstrates an obsession with the family, repeatedly reconstituting the nuclear family only to destroy it. I suggest that the series is fundamentally unable to reconcile normative family structures with Mulder and Scully’s queer relationship dynamic, yet persistently attempts to do so. Considering Judith Roof, Lee Edelman, and Gary Needham’s writings on narrative, futurity, and linearity, I ultimately argue that the series’ commitment to serialization—and by extension, commitment to normative familial structures—inhibits the queer potential of its episodic storytelling.