This 2-Part Overlooked Sci-Fi Series Is The Unofficial Prequel To The X-Files

Although plenty of shows tried to replace the iconic ‘90s classic The X-Files since the series went off the air, only a two-season cult classic from the late 2010s truly recaptured the paranoid vibe of the original show. The X-Files spawned two revivals and two movie spinoffs, both of which were big box office hits. The series also helped birth an entire subgenre of TV shows that continues to flourish today. Alongside Mark Frost and David Lynch’s cult classic Twin Peaks, The X-Files laid the groundwork for supernatural police procedurals.

Focusing on the uneasy working relationship between David Duchovny’s true-believer FBI Agent Mulder and Gillian Anderson’s resident skeptic Agent Scully, The X-Files saw the pair travel across America investigating supernatural phenomena and hoaxes alike. This mixture of a cop show format with elements of horror and sci-fi went on to shape the 15-season hit Supernatural, Evil, Lucifer, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Fringe, among many other hit shows.

However, none of these titles managed to recapture the vibe of The X-Files quite as effectively as a largely forgotten show from the History Channel that debuted in 2019. Based loosely on the US Air Force’s titular real-life investigations into unidentified flying objects, Project Blue Book focused on Aidan Gillen’s Dr. J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer who became a ufologist in his later career thanks to his experiences with the eponymous project.

Project Blue Book Is The Perfect Show For Fans Of The X-Files

More grounded and less melodramatic than many of the shows that borrowed from the familiar formula of The X-Files, Project Blue Book featured cameos for real-life historical figures like Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy as well as delving deep into Hynek’s version of events. The astrophysicist was initially skeptical when he was called on to help the US Air Force investigate these mysterious unidentified flying objects, but his viewers gradually changed as the project’s findings grew increasingly strange and tough to explain.

With a stacked supporting cast including Michael Imperioli, Ksenia Solo, and Thomas Kretschmann, Project Blue Book had no shortage of star power. The series was also slickly directed thanks to veterans like Maleficent’s Robert Stromberg and Dredd’s Pete Travis, but it was Project Blue Book’s ability to recapture the true essence of The X-Files that really made the History Channel project work. Like the ‘90s hit, this show is never too forthcoming about the reality behind its strange findings.

Project Blue Book Is Better Than Its Rotten Tomatoes Score Suggests

In one famous scene from The X-Files season 1, Scully replies to Mulder’s famous claim that the truth is out by reminding him that there are also shady, cynical bad faith actors who want to discredit their investigations with hoaxes. Although The X-Files eventually went to some fairly wild places in its plots, the show always held onto this crucial sense of cynicism.

Where many of its competitors, such as Evil, Supernatural, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer swiftly confirmed that many different supernatural beings unambiguously existed in the world of the series, The X-Files always kept viewers unsure of whether each new case was merely a hoax or the real deal. Project Blue Book takes this even further, often feeling as much like a grounded paranoid conspiracy thriller like Three Days of the Condor or The Parallax View as it does like a UFO show.

The 67% critical rating that Project Blue Book received proves that reviewers weren’t sure what to make of a series that explored the investigations into UFOs without wholesale depicting the existence of aliens. However, Project Blue Book’s daringly ambiguous story deserved a stronger reception than this, and the show should be commended for offering no easy answers to fans of The X-Files who were eager to know the truth behind its mysterious source material.