Files of the Unexplained – Netflix Review

FILES OF THE UNEXPLAINED on Netflix is a new docuseries covering everything from UFO sightings to ghost stories and strange disappearances. From the creators of Explained. Read our Files of the Unexplained Season 1 review here!

FILES OF THE UNEXPLAINED is a new Netflix docuseries covering various strange cases. Hence the term “unexplained” as the cases tend to be so strange that there is no explanation. We’re talking ghosts, UFOs, and mysterious disappearances.

Each case is covered in a 30-minute episode, so this is a bite-size documentary format. As it comes from the creators of the Explained docuseries, it should be a familiar format for many. The season has eight 30-minute episodes.

Continue reading our season 1 review of Files of the Unexplained below. On Netflix from April 3, 2024.

A real-life The X-Files

In Files of the Unexplained, everything from UFO sightings to ghost stories and strange disappearances is covered. The 30-minute episodes focus on all angles of the case, making it feel like a mini-episode of a real-life The X-Files case.

This first season has 8 episodes and the cases tend to be covered objectively with lots of facts to help you decide what you want to believe. There’s both a Fox Mulder angle of “I want to believe” and the more fact-based approach of Dana Scully.

As someone open to believing, but also very much fact-focused, I found myself switching between being a Mulder and Scully.

A perfect Explained spin-off

The fact that this docuseries comes from the creators of the Explained series which also focused on bite-size documentary shorts is perfect. I mean, they already have the format down and tend to be very good at focusing on more than one side of the subject or case.

In Files of the Unexplained, it’s all about “eerie encounters, bizarre disappearances, haunting events, and more perplexing phenomena” as opposed to Explained which offered – and this will come as a shock – actual explanations.

The Files of the Unexplained does offer explanations, but cannot give definitive answers. If that were the case, it wouldn’t be unexplained. Still, this new Netflix docuseries is labeled as “an investigative docuseries” so facts are presented. Whenever possible, of course.

Watch season 1 of Files of the Unexplained on Netflix

As already mentioned, this Netflix docuseries comes from the creators of Explained. Among the producers of this docuseries is Skye Borgman. If this name doesn’t ring a bell yet, you’ve been missing out on some wild documentaries. Especially Abducted in Plain Sight which became a mini-series in 2022.

Each of the eight episodes in season 1 takes place in North America. The cases covered in season 1 happened in Pascagoula, Mississippi; Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana; Lake Lanier in Georgia; Mount Shasta in California; across Washington State; and in the Salish Sea in British Columbia.

In each episode, the event is contextualized with news stories, documentation, witness testimony, and expert analysis. Well, as much as these things are possible, of course. I very much prefer this more open-minded yet fact-based approach to one that is skewed.

Check out the 8 new episodes and find your favorite story. Personally, I’m partial to the blobs of episode 7 because it’s so weird and fascinating. Of course, the floating feet in episode 8 are also quite fascinating as it feels like something out of a horror movie.

Files of the Unexplained Season 1 is on Netflix from April 3, 2024.