And for those who care little for the complexities of such wide-reaching mysteries, the standalone episodes are equally satisfying. But for patient, attentive viewers - those who understand that such missteps are inherent to the challenge of spinning such a complex weave - the overall pay-off is well worth the journey. For all its intrigue and atmosphere - and the far greater number of storylines that genuinely worked - the show was not without its moments when all direction, logic or sense appeared lost. Even the most ardent of fans would be occasionally hard-pressed to lay out a factual explanation of the conspiracy's many elements - the Cigarette Smoking Man, Mulder's murdered father, his abducted sister, murderous shape-shifting clones, Black Oil, alien-human hybrids and the changing loyalties of Alex Krycek.

Of course, any endeavor so ambitiously envisioned stumbles from time to time and throughout the course of nine seasons and one feature film, the ratio of questions-to-answers became frustratingly disproportionate. For most of its run, the show succeeded tremendously on both levels, one's blood-pressure rising whenever a seemingly disconnected episode would produce some character pivotal to the ongoing conspiracy storyline, reminding viewers that no matter how standalone any episode might appear, enemies both human and alien fueled the show's ever-tense narrative. From week to week, fans of any genre could tune in and find themselves genuinely surprised by what unraveled before them - horror stories, sci-fi yarns, comedic episodes, dramatic turns and, perhaps most importantly, the ongoing journey of Agent Mulder to discover the truth about extraterrestrial life. In fact, it was that expertly-crafted element what made the show so damn enjoyable to watch. Following the exploits and misadventures of two FBI agents - the believer, Fox Mulder, and the scientific skeptic, Dana Scully - X-Files represented, in a sense, the perfect blend of one-off, Twilight Zone mysteries and serialized, continuing stories.

For nearly a decade, America sat riveted before its collective television repeating a single phrase over and over: What the hell is going on? Whether the show before them was mining religious folklore, exploring the supernatural, heralding the dangers of modern technology or weaving a ten-year tale of aliens and government conspiracies, The X-Files reveled in posing more questions than it would ever dare to answer.

X files complete series