10 TV Shows That Built Off the Legacy of ‘The X-Files’

7. Fringe

Fringe is perhaps the truest successor to The X-Files in terms of ambience, tone, and mythology. Looking back on it, Fringe is almost shamelessly a rip-off, but the crazy thing is that it really worked.

It had cases that thrilled and character we found genuinely compelling. There was mythology that constantly threatened to crumble like a deck of cards, but somehow managed to maintain itself, even if it did so just barely.

8. Warehouse 13

Yet another show that fully embraced the fun side of hunting the paranormal (in this case: artifacts) as federal agents that are slightly mismatched, Warehouse 13 found its rhythm and rarely lost it.

It doesn’t owe very much to The X-Files, but it owes enough.

9. Bones

The similarities between Bones and The X-Files are rather simple: an FBI agent teamed up with someone from a medical/scientific background working on strange, disgusting cases together and often butting heads. In fact, specific episodes have paid homage to The X-Files, and Booth and Brennan have referenced Mulder and Scully on the show.

10. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

There’s a reason this is last because it is the trickiest one to nail down. Let’s be clear about one thing up front: Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a seminal piece of television that trailblazed in a great many ways. Shows today are still mimicking its style of season-long arcs and villains, and many shows are still trying to recreate the feel and have its own Scooby gang.

That being said, when The X-Files premiered in 1993, practically no one (with very few exceptions) was dealing with the paranormal and supernatural on a weekly basis until it came along. The X-Files primed people in the 90s to be comfortable — in a very uncomfortable way — with episodic villains that were gross, weird, and well into the unknown. Would Buffy have existed and succeeded if The X-Files had never been created? Almost certainly.

Perhaps The X-Files made no impression upon Joss Whedon when he was developing Buffy the Vampire Slayer and it’s all just a matter of timing, but, in terms of audience reception, it does owe a tiny amount to The X-Files for preparing people to accept the kind of weird that both shows excelled at so well.

Do you have any other shows that you think worked in the same vein as The X-Files? Ones that have been overlooked? How do you think it has impacted television over the last two decades? Let us know in the comments.

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Drew Koenig

Drew has an ongoing, borderline unhealthy obsession with pop culture, but with television in particular. When he's not aggressively trying to get out of a perpetual state of catching up, he can be found passionately defending the ending of Lost. More of his online work can be found at The Lost Cause and he also co-hosts The Lost Cause Pod.