Darkness Falls (The X-Files) - Broadcast and Reception

Broadcast and Reception

"Darkness Falls" premiered on the Fox network on April 15, 1994, and was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on February 9, 1995. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 8.0, with a 14 share, meaning that roughly 8 percent of all television-equipped households, and 14 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. It was viewed by 7.5 million households.

In a retrospective of the first season in Entertainment Weekly, "Darkness Falls" was rated a B, with the episode being called an "eerie outing" set against a "torn-from-today's-headlines backdrop". Zack Handlen, writing for The A.V. Club, called "Darkness Falls" an "excellent" episode that "hits the right notes". He praised the episode's setting, comparing it to the earlier first season episode "Ice"; and felt that the "on-the-nose" approach to the environmental themes worked well. Matt Haigh, writing for Den of Geek, felt positively about the episode's ambiguous resolution, feeling that its "open-ended treatment" lent the episode "a real mysticism and strength"; and finding that the episode held a sense of "weight, credibility, and intrigue". Writers for IGN named the episode their fifth-favourite standalone episode of the show, finding that it "boasts several interesting twists", and noting positively the episode's "smart" environmental themes.

Although writer and series creator Chris Carter claims "Darkness Falls" was not written with an environmental message in mind, the episode was honored at the fourth annual Environmental Media Awards in 1994, winning in the "Television Episodic Drama" category. The plot for "Darkness Falls" was also adapted as a novel for young adults in 1995 by Les Martin.