X-files is one of my favorite shows. It uses realistic details and sympathetic, well-acted heroes (the intense and charismatic Agent Mulder and his sensitive, intelligent sidekick Scully) to make fantastic and paranormal events seem believable. Mulder is the underdog, obsessed with finding the truth. The agency and the government are always the villains, involved in a conspiracy to prevent Mulder and Scully from finding the truth or revealing it to the public. This gives the show its narrative drive, aside from the weekly investigation of some fantastic mystery. The show plays into public paranoia about the government as a conspiracy against the people. (Unfortunately, this same paranoia is easily manipulated by right-wing demagogues.) Andrew Gordon