There’s been plenty good shows since X files came out, maybe it’s more of a problem that you’re in a different head space than you were and not as open to like new shows anymore. Happens to me with video games, I keep going back to the ones I played in my early twenties when I had more time over the summer to invest into games. Now I have much less time to start a new game and get over the boring introductory bits before getting to the good parts.

I’m in the middle of rewatching X-Files yet again. It’s really hit and miss, even in the good seasons. I think people remember all the good episodes and forget about the bad and average ones.

You looking for a new X-Files type show? I can’t think of any good ones but I don’t really look for that type of show anymore either.

But they still make good shows? I don’t understand your point? There were plenty of mediocre and bad episodes of xfiles. Are you just talking like low sci-fi? Also how old are you - depending on your age - xfiles may have just played a big role in shaping you, so it will be hard for you to find anything that tops xfiles. Like for example - no game has ever grabbed me as hard as Earthbound - there have been so many good games that have come out, but nothing tops Earthbound for me. So i think it would help if you didn’t compare other shows and media to xfiles and try to find something that makes each of those shows worthwhile in their own way - plus, would you really want another xfiles?

I’m middle-aged, and Xfiles was great, but some of the best shows I’ve seen have been in the last decade

I’m going to interpret the question more as "why don’t they make shows like “The X-Files” any more than on specific quality.

The 90’s was the last hurrah of quality serialized television. You were seeing a lot of improvements in the quality of writing and willingness to push against norms and standards. You could still make a shallow serialized series and they still do today, but you could make a show back then with a lore tied together from callbacks.

So why did these kinds of shows stop? DVD sets and ubiquitous time-skipping technology meant that writers could shift from good serialized content to longer form and continuous stories. You started seeing shows filled with “previously on…” because it became the expectation that viewers watched all the episodes up to then. Streaming make it the default.

There has been a recent push to go back to a serialized model, but the economics of the industry has changed. Writers rooms able to churn out 26 shows a year have been whittled away. You also have some actors that don’t want the work schedule that comes with it. You also had a time where a show that lasted a year found it easier stay on air to get to the 100 episode minimum to make syndication valuable; there isn’t that profit motive any more.

Have you seen Fringe? It’s a tv show from about a decade ago, very similar vibe to the X-files.

If you don’t like that and combined with all the other stuff in this thread, then I think you might just not like TV as a medium anymore.

Shows like that are still happening.

The real issue is that instead of 5-15 channels, there are dozens-hundreds, plus a dozen streaming service, and intellectual property is constantly pinging back and forth between them all.

No media has a reliable “home” you can consistently access it from. And when it does you still run into the discoverability issue. So many shows are made that you can’t reasonably scroll through all of them, so personal recommendations and algorithms ultimately dictate what we find.

If you want unusual and stand-out sci-fi then I’d recommend Twin Peaks: The Return, assuming you’ve seen Twin Peaks.

Also the show “Dark” on Netflix is incredible.

I still have a cue of newer stuff I haven’t gotten to because there’s so much to try.

I think what we’ve really lost is the social element. When FAR fewer things were on, and everyone had to “tune in” to see new episodes, it meant a ton more people would be watching the same thing at the same time.

Now the default has become everything on demand, and released in full seasons at a time. “Dark” is actually from several years ago, but became big in the US just a few years ago, and I just found it last year.

The viewing and Fandom experiences are just more fragmented and scattered now.

They still make amazing shows, it’s just a matter of taste and preference.

You can try Fringe, it’s obviously inspired by X-Files. I even prefer Fringe but I don’t think it’s a popular opinion.

There’s also From, it’s like the only mystery horror TV show that gets horror right in a series setting. It gave me some similar vibes though it’s a very different show.

OP, are you sure you’re not conflating the X-Files being your favorite show with it being good? Because Breaking Bad exists and that came out after X-Files. Also is arguably better than the X-Files lol

there have been good shows since but ill admit there is a lot of crap to wade through as the various media streams pump out anything they can.

I’d just like to point out that the Stone Angels episode of Doctor Who came out after X-Files.

I think a lot of shows are AWESOME, but then late-stage capitalistic enshittification happens and they become… far less so, and often quite TERRIBLE even, though ostensibly still have the same title, even though nowhere near being an identical show.

One super-good example is Stranger Things, where the first season was really quite good! So many homages to nerd culture like E.T. and D&D - it was fantastic!:-) As I read though, the pair of creators had 2 rules: never use CGI, and absolutely do not “sell out”, i.e. a story should want to be told, not sold merely for the sake of cash. So after the first season where they made it b/c of their love for the craft, you can guess how the subsequent seasons played out (I believe one of the pair even quit over it).

Arguably a better example is The Walking Dead - it started off REALLY good, but then… well… it too “sold out”. Actually I keep trying to force myself to get through it, I even started watching it over again from the start (a couple times now) thinking that would help, but have yet to accomplish this feat.

Another is Designated Survivor. It had some big-name actors, most of whom quit (I think the show was sold to a different network… or something?), and the last season was just terrible, limping along before they finally put it out of its misery and ended it.

The really fantastic shows - like Star Trek - had to prove themselves, then the creators were given leeway to subsequently make great sequels and spin-offs and even entirely unrelated titles. Fun story: Gene Roddenberry even created shows after his death, as his wife took his unfinished notes and lead their creation under his vision, like Earth: Final Conflict.

TLDR: why offer you a good show when they can offer you a crappy show that they made for a tenth of the price, yet charge you the full amount?

(though stupidly enough, they also seem to be trying to offer us even more terrible shows that cost 50x the price to make, and yet somehow suck all the more for that!? anyway it all seems to be based on greed + arrogance - they want to make money, but they do not want to put in the effort to actually earn it, e.g. by paying the actors a decent wage)

Less money in tv nowadays, the whole medium is dying. Plus they figured out they don’t need to put in nearly as much effort for reality tv stuff. Streaming wars might have been able to drive quality stuff, but most places did a scatter shot approach instead.

Are you a fan of ratchet and clank btw? Are 3rd person platformers the only good genre and are games since PS2 all trash?

What TV shows do you like, OP?