Trust No One: The Conspiracy Genre on American Television

Conspiracy on television is a distinct genre with heuristic value that fulfills important social-psychological functions for viewers. As such, this essay suggests that generic criticism can be productively expanded to focus on function rather than to be defined by recurring situation. This essay illustrates how conspiracy discourse works to articulate ideas about identity and reality in contemporary society. In addition to identifying the relationship between recurring situation and generic elements, this essay centers on the functions of the conspiracy genre that make it especially desirable for society right now. With the completion of the series, the conspiracy myth-arc of “The X-Files” is used as a paradigmatic illustration of the productivity of a functional approach to genre.