I think I read that a lot of the crew had come over too. So it makes sense that it has such a similar look and feel.

If x-files isn't the mother of Supernatural, it's definitely an ancestor.

Absolutely. It's amazing how similar the shows can feel, even though one is based in a very white collar, working (to a degree) within the system world, and the other is definitely more blue-collar and outlaw.

I feel like The X-Files was one of the first shows to stretch a little, style-wise, and they kept experimenting with format and tone until nearly the end. (I could also be wrong, of course.)

But when we got Tall Tales and Monster Movie, especially, I thought we owed to The X-Files. And I know Sam and Dean mention Mulder and Scully more than once, too.

I think we were three episodes into Supernatural when I told D, "you know why this show is better than the X Files? Because the good guys figure most everything out and kill the monster by the end of almost every episode." Sometimes I miss the moster of the week. But I'm very glad we have Cas.

Then there was also Jose Chung's From Outer Space. I could see that as having influenced some of the more meta episodes, or things like Ghostfacers.

I will say, for all that it has occasionally elicited a buh? from me, SPN's mytharc has at least been largely coherent and focused.

JOSE CHUNG! God, I miss that show.

SPN's mytharc has at least been largely coherent and focused

They take a stab at it anyway. One of the reasons I haven't bought any X-Files DVDs (aside from how obscenely expensive they were in the beginning) is that I really only want MOW episodes.

But even when X-Filed did MOW episodes, rarely was anything resolved.

They take a stab at it anyway.

I think the writer's strike in S3 really threw things off in a way that they had to pick up slack for in S4 with marginal success. I do think that if Kripke et.al. had thought through their cosmology a bit more and to greater depth, some of the buggier parts of the overall mytharc wouldn't have been quite so, well, buggy.

Oh, I agree, Anne. But they've definitely made an effort to tie things together in a way Chris Carter either gave up on or couldn't manage.

I think that's why Jesse's one-off (when he was SUCH a smoking gun) bothered me. I'd have to look up the episode of X-Files, but the one with the little boy who was, like, the key to the whole world or whatever, and who disappeared into the ether never to be picked up on again.

I think that's why Jesse's one-off (when he was SUCH a smoking gun) bothered me.

I'm still holding out hope they'll revisit the Jesse idea, but I also got the idea that Jesse used his power in the end to deliberately and permanently remove himself from the conflict, giving destiny the kind of 'screw you' that Dean and Sam were not yet able to pull off.