I'm Fourteen Again

I recently picked up The X-Files Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD on the cheap, and we've been slowly watching the first season an episode or two at a time on weekends. I'd forgotten how good those shows were - and the series didn't even get really good until the third or forth seasons. And then yesterday, a whole day early, what's waiting in my mailbox but the complete Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. on DVD!

Brisco and The X-Files came out at the same time (as I recall, I think they even debuted in back-to-back timeslots) during my freshman year of high school. As much as I cited graphical adventure games as an influence in my development as a writer, I'd be completely remiss if I didn't give these two series at least the same amount of credit. Brisco's mix of futuristic pulp, good-guy (but not too-good) heroics, and classic storytelling played as much of a role in how I see stories as X-Files creature-feature and vast-conspiracy plotlines do (and, as anyone who has read anything I've written that's over 1000 words in length can attest, I milk both of those things shamelessly.)

What began as a tribute to pulp has in turn influenced a new generation of writers. And so the circle turns.