What to Watch on Netflix Watch Instantly

I started off the year watching That '70s Show on Netflix Watch Instantly, but about a month or so ago I moved on to the wonderful, mysterious and goofy world of The X-Files. I was just a little kid when X-Files first came on the scene, so I never watched it when the series ran its course on television. I do have flashbacks from my childhood of "The Host" episode, which I caught parts of when my aunt was babysitting me. The star of the episode, a frightening half-human/half-worm with a big suction-cup mouth, gave me nightmares for years. Though after recently watching the season 2 episode again, my memories were slightly off. The host never sucks on to a human that is using a public restroom and eats him/her alive.

Admittedly there are some rough story lines to work through in the early seasons, but David Duchovny (Agent Mulder) and Gillian Anderson (Agent Scully) are actors who play off each other so well you can tolerate episodes like "Firewalker". I love you Bradley Whitford (the guest star of that episode), but my goodness...killer spores that lunge through the victim's throat and shoot out evil diseased green powder? It's a tad much.

The fashion is fabulous. The 1990s for FBI gals meant snazzy big buttons and snappy dress suits (the ones with the super long jackets). And for those wilderness adventures? Over-sized puffy winter coats that snitch at the waist, in happening hues of teal and fuchsia are a must have.  Now that's just Scully's wardrobe. Mulder? He's got some wide paisley ties and is always (regardless of the weather conditions) wearing a long trench coat. Ah yes, '90s garb was magic.

One of my favorite things about this show is Scully's narration as she types up her case notes. Anderson has such a perfect voice for narration and she executes the scientific lingo in her lines like a pro.

Another nice touch... not every episode starts the same way. It isn't the staple setup where a crime happens, Scully and Mulder get the call and they go investigate. There is a good bit of variety in the layout of how each episode unfolds and I think that is a great strength of this mysterious crime driven series.

The show also appeals to a wide variety of the unexplained. Yes, aliens and extraterrestrial life are a huge component of this series, but there's also religious phenomenon, superhuman abilities, telekinesis, government conspiracy, scientific experiments gone array, killer insects, voodoo and countless other bizarre happenings.

There is also a good spread of deep emotional material and light-hearted humor. A hysterical episode from season 3 is "War of the Coprophages". Killer cockroaches? Yes, please! Just the idea of it can literally kill people.

Best scene from the episode when Mulder calls Scully from the town infested with cockroaches:
Mulder: I think you better get up here.
Scully: What is it?
Mulder: It appears that cockroaches are mortally attacking people.
Scully: I'm not going to ask you if you said what I think you just said, because I know it's what you just said.

This episode also comes at a good point in the season, because it's a break from the more serious, dark material. As any good literary writer knows, you can't bog down your reader with a thousand pages of heart-wrenching drama. Life has humor in it, even in the darkest of times, and you have to include a light side to your work. Clearly the writers for The X-Files knew that and they wrote gems like "War of Coprophages" to even out the horror of abductions, death and human test subjects with carrot-stick-long fingers.

I realize it is April and warm weather is around the bend, so most of us will be leaving our televisions off in the evenings for enjoying the great outdoors. But for those rainy or lazy days, I recommend making yourself a bowl of stove-top popcorn (it's so much better than microwaveable) and dimming down the lights in your media room, because it's the perfect time to take in The X-Files.

                                                              The X-Files Season 1 Preview.