Forgotten Favourites – The Lone Gunmen

Posted on 11 November 2020
By Dana Andersen
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Many shows are forgotten overtime as better ones take their place, especially spin offs of successful shows that never quite reach the same popularity as the main show, but The Long Gunmen is a show that should be remembered, even by those who are not fans of The X-Files.

Following the misadventures of Melvin Frohike, John Byers and Richard Langly, the show is a less serious, less paranormal reimagining of what The X-Files could have been, if Mulder and Scully had dropped out of school to go rogue.

Our three main characters come across as constantly down on their luck nerds, who you find yourself rooting for no matter how often they mess up or miss the obvious.

The addition of Yves Adele Harlow, a woman who is smart, sexy, and dangerous, and Jimmy Bond, who the audience first meet as a coach of a blind football team, bring the show up to a main cast of five very different characters, who have a fantastic and ridiculous chemistry.

Most elements of the show sound like they shouldn’t work, and yet they somehow all work together perfectly to create one of the most charming, cheesy and heartfelt shows to have ever aired.

Vying away from the ghouls, ghosts and aliens of The X-Files, The Lone Gunmen largely focus on government conspiracies and small town mysteries, including the spooky pilot episode, which aired in March of 2001, and has a plot which focuses on rogue members of the US government hijacking a plane, and panning to fly it into the World Trade Centre, though their plan is foiled.

With episodes that include typing apes, children’s TV shows, a prediction of 9/11 and even Elvis, The Lone Gunmen shows its age, and that works well for it.

Each character is hugely likeable, each plot is just a little bit ridiculous, and anyone that hasn’t watched this show is definitely missing out.