The X-Files
SupernaturalGhosts, demons and powers beyond nature in our own world.This show: 10/10AtmosphericMood and place thick enough to touch.This show: 9/10Central duoOne pair's chemistry carries everything.This show: 8/10ProceduralA case or problem of the week, solved by a formula that works.This show: 8/10UnsettlingA creeping sense of unease and wrongness that gets under your skin.This show: 8/10Mystery boxCentral riddles sustained across whole seasons.This show: 8/10Distinctive scoreMusic inseparable from the show's identity.This show: 7/10Monster horrorCreatures and slashers, fear made physical.This show: 7/10
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Starring
David DuchovnyGillian AndersonMitch PileggiWilliam B. DavisRobert PatrickTom Braidwood
Written by
Chris Carter
Starring
David DuchovnyGillian AndersonMitch PileggiWilliam B. DavisRobert PatrickTom Braidwood
Written by
Chris Carter
Ratings per Episode
Votes per Episode
The X-Files Episode Ratings Heatmap
| Avg | E1 | E2 | E3 | E4 | E5 | E6 | E7 | E8 | E9 | E10 | E11 | E12 | E13 | E14 | E15 | E16 | E17 | E18 | E19 | E20 | E21 | E22 | E23 | E24 | E25 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | 7.7 | 8.2 | 8.0 | 8.5 | 7.5 | 6.9 | 7.1 | 6.7 | 8.7 | 6.2 | 7.7 | 8.0 | 7.2 | 8.6 | 7.3 | 7.0 | 7.2 | 8.3 | 7.1 | 7.0 | 8.3 | 8.2 | 7.0 | 7.2 | 8.9 | ||
| S2 | 7.8 | 8.0 | 8.2 | 7.4 | 7.6 | 8.6 | 8.6 | 6.3 | 8.3 | 7.1 | 7.5 | 6.9 | 7.3 | 8.0 | 8.1 | 7.1 | 8.7 | 8.7 | 6.4 | 7.4 | 8.5 | 7.4 | 8.0 | 7.8 | 7.7 | 9.1 | |
| S3 | 8.0 | 8.6 | 9.0 | 7.7 | 9.2 | 7.1 | 7.4 | 7.1 | 7.6 | 8.5 | 8.7 | 7.1 | 8.6 | 7.5 | 7.3 | 8.4 | 8.5 | 8.4 | 5.9 | 7.0 | 8.8 | 7.6 | 8.0 | 8.3 | 8.5 | ||
| S4 | 8.0 | 8.4 | 8.8 | 6.6 | 8.0 | 6.6 | 7.2 | 9.0 | 8.5 | 8.1 | 8.7 | 6.6 | 8.3 | 7.4 | 8.4 | 6.9 | 7.2 | 8.4 | 8.4 | 7.7 | 8.9 | 8.1 | 7.7 | 7.7 | 8.6 | ||
| S5 | 8.1 | 8.6 | 9.0 | 8.4 | 8.1 | 8.5 | 7.7 | 7.6 | 7.6 | 6.9 | 7.5 | 7.8 | 9.2 | 8.2 | 8.3 | 7.4 | 7.6 | 7.2 | 8.0 | 8.5 | 8.8 | ||||||
| S6 | 8.1 | 8.1 | 8.5 | 8.5 | 8.9 | 8.8 | 8.2 | 7.7 | 7.3 | 7.8 | 8.3 | 8.5 | 8.8 | 7.3 | 8.7 | 8.4 | 6.4 | 7.1 | 7.5 | 8.4 | 7.8 | 8.5 | 8.1 | ||||
| S7 | 7.5 | 7.7 | 7.7 | 7.8 | 7.7 | 7.3 | 8.2 | 7.5 | 8.1 | 6.5 | 7.9 | 8.0 | 8.4 | 6.0 | 7.3 | 7.9 | 7.3 | 7.0 | 7.5 | 7.2 | 5.9 | 8.3 | 8.5 | ||||
| S8 | 7.7 | 8.1 | 8.2 | 7.4 | 8.0 | 7.5 | 8.3 | 7.4 | 6.7 | 6.7 | 6.7 | 7.7 | 7.3 | 7.8 | 8.2 | 8.2 | 8.0 | 7.0 | 7.8 | 7.7 | 8.3 | 8.7 | |||||
| S9 | 7.4 | 7.2 | 7.3 | 7.1 | 7.7 | 6.8 | 7.3 | 7.3 | 7.0 | 7.4 | 7.2 | 7.4 | 6.9 | 7.2 | 7.2 | 7.2 | 7.5 | 8.1 | 7.6 | 8.2 | 7.8 | ||||||
| S10 | 7.5 | 7.8 | 7.8 | 8.0 | 7.2 | 6.4 | 7.0 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| S11 | 7.4 | 6.4 | 7.2 | 7.7 | 8.1 | 7.8 | 7.3 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 6.6 | 7.1 |
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About
"Paranoia and chemistry that redefined TV mystery"
Two FBI agents, skeptical Dana Scully and true-believer Fox Mulder, investigate unexplained cases ranging from alien abductions to shadowy government conspiracies. The show alternates between eerie standalone mysteries and a sprawling mythology arc about extraterrestrial cover-ups, blending genuine scares, dry humor, and slow-burn romantic tension. Shot in moody, damp locations with atmospheric lighting, it plays like a cross between horror anthology and paranoid thriller. Its pull comes from the leads' chemistry and the show's willingness to be genuinely unsettling, even as its overarching plot grows increasingly tangled across the years.
Watch it for
the eerie mix of genuine scares and Mulder and Scully's slow-burn chemistry.
Maybe skip if
you need the overarching alien conspiracy to resolve cleanly and coherently.
Written by our AI editor to help you decide, spoiler-free by design.
All Seasons
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Season 11993
7.7191K2418h 10m
Two agents from vastly different backgrounds join forces to solve cases the FBI has labeled X-Files, involving paranormal or unexplained phenomena. Both are determined to uncover hidden truths — one searching for otherworldly answers, the other for more earthbound scientific explanations. Together they will make discoveries neither could have ever imagined.
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Season 21994
7.8150K2518h 40m
The X-Files has been shut down and Mulder and Scully are separated. Scully finds herself teaching classes at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, while Mulder is assigned to surveillance duty. With Agent Alex Krycek as his new partner, and the mysterious X as his new source of information, Mulder struggles to keep his search for the truth alive. But ironically it is Scully who experiences the close encounter Mulder has longed for, taking a journey that will ultimately bring the two agents back together and forging a bond that will make them closer than ever before.
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Season 31995
8.0135K2417h 53m
Mulder is missing and assumed dead . . . although Scully experiences a vision in which he is still alive. Yet even as they are reunited, each must deal with an additional personal loss, tragedies that ultimately serve to strengthen their connection to each other. And they soon find themselves depending on that strength as familiar foes resurface and preconceived notions are shattered.
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Season 41996
8.0120K2417h 45m
The prophetic words of the alien Bounty Hunter resonate throughout the fourth season, beginning with the near death of Mulder's mother and the murder of the mysterious X. Even the return of Alex Krycek and the alien black oil are overshadowed by Scully's cancer. Then the tragic reappearance of Max Fenig leads to the death of a fellow FBI agent. Yet even as these events strengthen Mulder's belief in a growing conspiracy, a startling truth revealed to Scully plunges him into a crisis of faith which could prove his ultimate undoing.
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Season 51997
8.195K2015h 1m
Even as Scully’s genetically altered DNA brings her closer to the brink of death, government agent Michael Kritschgau helps Mulder in the search for a cure, partly to atone for his own involvement with perpetrating the alien hoax. Scully’s DNA comes into play once again when she discovers she is the mother of a little girl named Emily, an incident that could only be related to her abduction years earlier. But in the end it is a young boy named Gibson Praise whose body may contain genetic proof of man’s relationship to an alien race — and who may hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of the X-Files.
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Season 61998
8.1100K2216h 27m
When a terrorist bomb destroys a building in Dallas, Texas FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are drawn into a dangerous conspiracy surpassing anything they’ve ever encountered. With the dubious assistance of a paranoid doctor, Mulder and Scully risk their careers and their lives to hunt down a deadly virus which may be extraterrestrial in origin — and could destroy all life on Earth.
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Season 71999
7.587K2216h 27m
As Mulder lies in a neurological unit, his brain under attack by a deadly onslaught of electrical impulses, Scully struggles to decipher strange symbols covering a spacecraft found submerged off West Africa's Ivory Coast. But the connection between these two phenomena is just the first of many challenges the agents are destined to confront. For they are about to enter a time of closure and a time of new beginnings. For Mulder there's the death of his mother and Diana Fowley, and the end of his search for his abducted sister, Samantha. For Scully it is a time to face her own personal demons, among them the return of death fetishist Donnie Pfaster. Yet just as Scully faces the ultimate new beginning, the ultimate horror occurs — the abduction of Mulder.
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Season 82000
7.770K2115h 44m
After Mulder’s disappearance, Scully returns to FBI headquarters to find Special Agent John Doggett heading up a FBI manhunt for her partner. Knowing that type of search will prove futile, Scully and Skinner turn to the Lone Gunmen in hopes of uncovering information about additional UFO activity around the time of Mulder’s disappearance. Although such information leads them to Gibson Praise, the man with Gibson, a man who appears to be Mulder, is in fact an alien bounty hunter. Finally realizing that Mulder will not be found so easily, Agent Doggett is officially assigned to the X-Files. Now, after all she has been through with Mulder, it is Scully who is “the believer” and who must find a way to work with “the skeptic,” John Doggett.
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Season 92001
7.458K2014h 49m
Aware his presence only puts Scully and William in jeopardy Mulder once again disappears — but at least this time it is his own choice. A frustrated Agent Doggett tries to find Mulder so he can proceed with his investigation against Deputy Director Kersh, but Scully and Skinner finally convince him to drop his case. Yet even as Scully helps Agent Doggett and Agent Reyes on some of their cases she realizes William is still in danger. When she learns a religious cult wants her son dead she turns to the Lone Gunmen. But even they cannot prevent William from being kidnapped, a fact which forces Scully to make a painful decision. Yet even in her darkest hour she receives word that Mulder has been found — and is being held in a military brig for the murder of a man who cannot die.
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Season 102016
7.542K64h 25m
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Season 112018
7.438K107h 15m
Full Cast & Crew
Cast
David Duchovny Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson Dana Scully
Mitch Pileggi Walter Skinner
William B. Davis Smoking Man
Robert Patrick John Doggett
Tom Braidwood Melvin Frohike
Bruce Harwood John Fitzgerald Byers
Dean Haglund Richard 'Ringo' Langly
Annabeth Gish Monica Reyes
Nicholas Lea Alex Krycek, Michel
Crew
Chris Carter
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