X-files is a fictional TV show with the premise "what if a skeptic doctor and a weirdo with nice hair--will they, won't they--went around looking into unexplainable paranormal events and found out many of them were real, and also there was a global conspiracy conducted at the highest levels of many governments about extraterrestrials?"

it's a tv progrum. a movie.

alex jones' meteoric rise came later and was basically, "what if Alex Jones, like Junior Soprano, watched the X-files believing it was documentary footage."

also, the most intensely controversial favorite/hated episode is from Season 4 and titled "Home". i still think about it sometimes, though maybe that's because i watched it as a teenager. i think it wasn't rebroadcast until syndication and was the first episode to have a "viewer discretion is advised" warning. it was absolutely too much for people back then. it's a one-shot/monster of the week episode and has nothing to do with any arcs, so it can be watched any time. (CW: i don't want to spoiler it, but it's jacked the fuck up).