Is there in truth no beauty? The final, devastating season of The X-Files

By Michael Idato
Updated January 19 2018 - 11:48pm, first published January 18 2018 - 3:55pm

Across about 25 years and hundreds of episodes The X-Files (Thursdays, 8.30pm, Showcase) always played a safe game weaving through three genres: traditional monster-in-the-woods horror, arched-eyebrow not-quite-serious comedy and, the most enduring of the three, institutional conspiracy.