I want to believe: Aliens, monsters and sinus infections

Last Thursday, I was standing outside of the office before leaving for my lunch hour. It was unseasonably warm for the end January, and for the couple of days prior, a tinge of pain encompassed the crown of my head. I suddenly felt a warm coarseness extend through the inner lining of my throat. I turned to Jon Swaby, who was standing next to me, and said, "It's happening."

In response to my cryptic remark, Jon returned glance which seemed to state, I think he finally lost it.

Twice a year I have the unfortunate disposition towards sinus infections, so I'm familiar with the procedure: headaches, followed by itchy throat, blockage of the nasal passage, ending with three days of not leaving the couch -- while retaining pathetic pleas known as "man sickness."

I left work early Thursday evening and spent essentially the next three days on my recliner. For those who are plagued by habitual sinus infections, it is understood reading is not an option. The headaches are the worst. With television as my only reprieve to stave off boredom, I finally had the opportunity to revisit one of my favorite television shows of my youth: The X Files.

At the end of the 2015, it was announced a new six episode miniseries of The X Files would be returning to television. Being a product of the 90s, my enthusiasm was anything but subdued. As a child, I would spend many nights, glued to white, 15" tubed-television in my bedroom, which was located by the foot of my bed, and watch reruns of the then popular show.

When I was young, The X Files represented the limited knowledge of the human condition, which transported the viewer to a world divorced from our own -- where the manifestation of monsters, alien abductions and psychic connections were so common place it was trite. Seriously, how could Agent Dana Scully not believe. The show was great in many respects, but hinged on the proposition: "What if?"

Partially due to the success of The X Files, many subsequent shows came in its wake, such as searches for Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster and the supposed visitation of aliens to this planet. The show officially signed off the air in 2002, and with its return in 2016, The X Files has entered a different world, a more skeptical one.

As I lay in near the clutches of death, riddled with "man sickness," I decided to take the financial plunge, and purchase Hulu, in order to stream the latest episodes. With a blanket wrapped around my body as a tortilla, I watched the first episode.

Though, as with most beginnings, the first episode was slow as it reintroduced the audience to the beloved Mulder and Scully, but there was another change I noticed. It was not the writing or the a change in the characters, but as the society in a whole. Watching The X Files through the eyes of 2016, presents the viewer as though they were looking into a time capsule of a former thought, which radiates on the furthest cusp of the collective consciousness, almost fringe in nature. Scully is still skeptical and Mulder still "wants to believe," but as an audience perhaps the move towards realism and the possibility of allowing the unbelievable to enter our thoughts has somehow left the show as former timepiece in television history.

For example, it is easy to dismiss the idea of aliens visiting this planet as an extremely slim possibility due to the apparent size of our universe, and the problem with faster than light travel.

To combat this, the show has moved more towards government conspiracy than to the nemesis being aliens, in my opinion to accommodate the tastes of the modern audience.

In truth, after almost 15 years, the show also had to adapt to a world with GPS, cellphones, readily access to the Internet and a world where now most people have a camera in their pocket (Episode III has a funny commentary on this very issue). But watching The X Files accomplished something to me specifically as an member of the audience: It transported me back to time when through the eyes child, I wanted to believe.

Grant is a staff writer for the Greene County Daily World. He can be reached by telephone at (812) 847-4487, ext. 19. He can also be reached via email at gkarazsia@gmail.com.