Back in the ‘90s, Chris Carter’s The X-Files perfected the paranormal procedural formula. Introducing iconic creatures and aliens week after week kept the show interesting, while the undeniable chemistry between Fox Mulder and Dana Scully kept us glued to our screens. It could be positively terrifying. Remember how traumatizing “Home” was? It sure made us miss the aliens, that’s for sure.
And the franchise isn’t done: Hulu has ordered Ryan Coogler’s reboot to series, with Danielle Deadwyler and Himesh Patel playing original FBI agents rather than Mulder and Scully. No premiere date has been announced yet.
As acclimatized to violence and horror as younger audiences have become, some shows (old and new) managed to retain the core elements of The X-Files with a family-friendly focus that worked surprisingly well. If you want to introduce younger viewers to the world of alien conspiracies and supernatural drama of The X-Files, but don’t want to expose them to something like “Home” (which is totally fair), these 10 shows are the perfect introduction to the formula.
10. Archie’s Weird Mysteries (1999): Riverdale Becomes a Monster Magnet
Poor Archie and his friends from Riverdale are used to dark forces corrupting their idyllic ‘50s suburban fantasy. The dark twists and violent romances of Riverdale might not be the best fit for a younger viewer, but luckily for them, Archie’s Weird Mysteries exists. Released in 1999, this animated series shows what would happen if the Archie gang became Mystery Inc. for a season.
After a failed physics experiment, the town of Riverdale turns into a monster magnet, summoning all sorts of classic creatures and ghouls. Archie and his friends solve a new mystery each week; at the end of each episode, Archie would add his findings to the school’s newspaper, essentially creating his own X-Files archive.
Though it lasted only one season, the show released a respectable 40 episodes and a TV movie sequel. You can stream the entire series on Tubi, Paramount+, and Amazon Prime Video.
9. Moville Mysteries (2002): A Small Town Where the Weird Happens Almost Daily
While The X-Files dealt with terrifying, sometimes world-threatening cases, Moville Mysteries focused more on local urban legends and general weirdness. The show could get very, let’s say, “creative” with its creature features. From episodes about ancestral witches to a parody of The Blob that only wants to clean stuff, Moville Mysteries is the best kind of weird.
The show’s character dynamics reflect much of that X-Files edge. Released in 2002, the show was far from the golden era of classic X-Files, but it was released smack in the middle of the early 2000s’ fascination with the bizarre. I mean, one look at the show’s art style is enough to either make you love Moville Mysteries or convince you to stay far away. Either way, give it a chance: it’s a criminally overlooked horror cartoon you can now catch on Tubi.
8. Freaky Stories (1997): The Canadian Anthology of Urban Legends
Canadian cartoons of the late 1990s sure loved all things bizarre, and Freaky Stories remains the freakiest of them all. This anthology of “true stories” that definitely happened to someone’s friend of a friend combined different art styles and writers to bring classic urban legends and eerie tales to life.
Each episode contains about four different stories ranging from bizarre to terrifying. Freaky Stories lacks the narrative cohesion of The X-Files, but it delivers similar thrills and scares with its self-contained stories. It’s also surprisingly scary for a kids’ show – at least, some episodes are. That’s the curse of an anthology series: you either get a brilliant episode, or one you’re better off skipping.
The show aired for three seasons, from 1997 to 1999, and you can watch most of them on Tubi. For the full package, your best bet is Pluto TV, or buying through Google Play and the Apple TV Store.
7. The Troop (2009): Nickelodeon’s Monster-Hunting Teens
Nickelodeon’s The Troop answered the age-old question of “What if The X-Files but high school?” The series focused on Jake, an average teenager who joins Hayley, the popular girl, and Felix, a sci-fi nerd, in the secret worldwide organization known as “The Troop.” Their task is to protect their town from supernatural threats, balancing monster hunting with the everyday drama of high school life.
Besides the clear nods to The X-Files and similar sci-fi shows, The Troop was otherwise what you would expect from a live-action Nickelodeon show. Heavy on the comedy but light on the scares, The Troop is best for those looking for a more “tame” alternative. The clashing tone may have been partially why Nickelodeon put the series on hiatus midway through Season 2, before canceling it.
Its short life and niche popularity have taken their toll on The Troop’s legacy. The only way to watch the show now is to buy it through Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV.
6. Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths and Legends (1999): Where Vampires Are Aliens
Don’t you just love it when a show’s title tells you exactly what to expect? Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths and Legends condenses everything about it right in the name, and it’s easily the most 1999 show ever produced. Co-created by Kaaren Lee Brown, Roswell Conspiracies is teeming with late-90s’ coolness: trench coats, sunglasses, conspiracies, aliens, cyberspace; if it was part of the Y2K anxiety zeitgeist, it was in this show.
In the show, the infamous Roswell incident wasn’t caused by aliens: it was a man-made diversion to hide “The Truth™”. The reality was that aliens had landed on Earth years ago, but we knew them as classic monsters like vampires and werewolves instead of little gray guys.
Roswell Conspiracies focuses on the X-Files-like duo of Nick Logan, a no-nonsense bounty hunter, and Sh’lainn Blaze, a Banshee, as they protect Earth from supernatural aliens. Cool just doesn’t cut it at this point, if you ask me. Fortunately, the entire show is available for free on Tubi. Discotek Media has also announced a Blu-ray release of the full series for October 2026.
RELATED: The Roswell Cast Just Had a Paris Reunion — and Emilie de Ravin, TV’s Most Hated Alien, Was There
5. The Secret Saturdays (2008): A Cryptozoology Adventure Cut Short
If we can call The X-Files a show mostly about aliens and UFOlogy, then Cartoon Network’s The Secret Saturdays was all about cryptozoology. Inspired by shows like Jonny Quest, this criminally short-lived cartoon presented a family of globetrotting zoologists who pursue and preserve the most mysterious cryptids inspired by real-life myths and legends.
Much like The X-Files, The Secret Saturdays included an overarching narrative about the mysteries surrounding the Secret Scientists organization. Sadly, it had to compete with heavy hitters like Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The show was canceled after just two seasons, and amid the recent Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery merger deal, The Secret Saturdays has no clear streaming home. You can still get the series through Amazon Prime Video, though availability varies.
4. Men in Black: The Series (1997): The Animated X-Files in Reverse
There’s hardly another show as evidently an “animated X-Files” as the Men in Black cartoon series. The show came out only a few months after Men in Black’s theatrical release, giving hungry fans more of Agents K and J saving the planet from extraterrestrial villains.
Instead of focusing on dispelling conspiracies, the Men in Black actually orchestrate the alien cover-ups. While that turns the entire premise of The X-Files on its head, it delivers more of the witty dialogue and surprisingly dark situations the Men in Black series is known for. And speaking of dark…yeah, this show could definitely give you some nightmare fuel for kids. That episode about the shapeshifting alien still has me double-checking all the chairs in my house—just in case.
Men in Black: The Series is one of those cartoons that proves that just because a show is animated doesn’t mean it’s exclusively for kids. Ambitious and gorgeously animated, you can watch the entire series on The Roku Channel and Tubi.
3. Eerie, Indiana (1991): The X-Files Before The X-Files
Unlike the other shows we’ve seen so far, Eerie, Indiana actually came out before The X-Files. So, we could say that The X-Files was Eerie, Indiana for adults! The show was way ahead of its time – which was both a blessing and a curse, as it struggled to find its target audience throughout its original run. As it turns out, networks were just finding out what “tweens” were in 1991. (Rotten Tomatoes: 95%)
We follow Marshall Teller, a teenager who moves to the boring town of Eerie, Indiana. What he doesn’t know is that the town is actually a mystical place where all sorts of weird phenomena happen. Marshall and his friend Simon investigate all the oddities they find, building their own field guide of weirdness. Mulder would be proud.
The show takes inspiration from Twin Peaks in how it presents its mysteries, and though it only ran for one season, it received a much warmer reception after its cancelation. Available on multiple streaming platforms, including Amazon Prime Video and Tubi.
RELATED: Eerie, Indiana Beat The X-Files to TV by Two Years, and NBC Ranked It 74th Out of 78 Shows
2. Gravity Falls (2012): Dipper and Mabel’s Monster-of-the-Week Mysteries
This is a classic that basically needs no introduction at this point. Alex Hirsch’s eerie masterpiece was the defining X-Files moment for an entire generation who grew up watching Mabel and Dipper solve all sorts of mysteries in Gravity Falls, Oregon. With its blend of charm, comedy, and genuinely gripping mysteries, Gravity Falls earned pop culture immortality after just two seasons. (Rotten Tomatoes: 100%)
Much like The X-Files, Gravity Falls works on two levels. The first layer has the usual “monster-of-the-week” format, with Mabel and Dipper dealing with all sorts of oddities. Then, there’s the overarching mythos of Dipper’s Journal 3. The amount of lore and hidden details in this show is borderline mind-blowing, and that’s just the show! Once you add the comics, shorts, and books into the mix, you start noticing just how truly ambitious Gravity Falls is. The show is available on Disney+.
1. So Weird (1999): Disney Channel’s Paranormal Mystery Series
Released in 1999, Disney’s So Weird is the definitive family-friendly X-Files experience. A show with all the charm of ‘90s Disney Channel live-action shows mixed with weekly mysteries and a darker tone, So Weird clearly understood the assignment. The show was eerie, moody, with enough teenage angst to last a generation.
The first two seasons follow Fi, a paranormal fan who runs a website about the occult. Her search for contact with her late father drives much of those first two seasons. She lives on a tour bus with her artistic family, including her mom, a rock star who had just started touring again. The bus dynamic means that every episode of So Weird takes place in a different locale, which was a brilliant way to justify the show’s anthology structure.
Season 3 saw Fi leave the show, leaving a friend, Annie, in charge. The last season also saw a noticeable change in the show’s tone: it was now brighter and less somber. Still, the series stuck the landing, ending its run without the dreaded unresolved cliffhanger. You can also watch So Weird on Disney+.
Want to go back to where it all started? Every season of The X-Files is streaming on Hulu (Rotten Tomatoes: 74%), which is also where Ryan Coogler’s reboot is headed.
