Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.
Now airing its second season on the History Channel, “Secrets Declassified with David Duchovny” (10 p.m. Tuesdays through May 12; then 9 p.m. Thursdays starting June 11) almost wasn’t a show Duchovny wanted to be involved in.
“I thought it was in the same sphere as ‘The X-Files,’ which was completely fictional, so … I felt a little wary of treading into that area again,” Duchovny said during a Television Critics Association virtual press conference earlier this month. “But then I made the distinction in my mind and in the show, this is more like documentary, nonfiction reporting than it is fictionalization.”
“Secrets Declassified” pulls back the curtain on declassified, once-secret government activities, from black ops and extreme experiments to top secret sites, including the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., and strange weapons.
“Files do become declassified after a certain amount of time [and that] has always been interesting to me, in the sense of the truth will [come] out,” Duchovny said. “These are not fictional events; these are real events.”
Duchovny, former star of Fox hit series “The X-Files,” said it’s easier to talk about the real cases in “Secrets Declassified” than it was the fictional cases his Fox Mulder investigated.
“None of this is made up,” he said. “It’s much easier to have a fan interaction now because they never used to believe me when I’d say [stories on ‘The X-Files’ were] made up.”
The biggest challenge when recording “Secrets Declassified,” Duchovny said, is settling on a tone.
“These true stories are ridiculous, but they’re of world-shaking significance,” he said. “There’s a weird tonality you have to be able to strike between the high stakes – the possible life and death issues for 10 people, a million people, millions of people – and the ridiculous things that are being done. Some of it’s laughable, but then you step back and go, well, this could have really impacted a lot of people in a negative way. That’s kind of what I go through with our director and our producers: If I’m gonna be the host, what is my attitude towards these things? I’m not interested in giving David Duchovny’s attitude towards it. What is the attitude that we have as a show? What is our response to these stories?”
While “Secrets Declassified” unearths stories of mutually assured destruction and nuclear Armageddon avoided by a hair’s breadth, Duchovny said the show’s tales of government and CIA investigations into mind control and drug use fascinate him the most.
Season two of “Secrets Declassified” arrives at the same time that director Ryan Coogler is embarking on a new “X-Files” series for Hulu. Duchovny said he and Coogler have talked. When asked by The Hollywood Reporter if he might appear in the new show, Duchovny said, “There have been talks about certain things, but there’s nothing concrete at this point.”
“I wish them well,” Duchovny said of the reboot. “[‘X-Files’ creator] Chris Carter came up with a frame that is endlessly generative of story ideas with a believer and a non-believer. I have no doubt they’ve got a good shot at making a great show, and I just hope the writers’ room is stocked with great writers, because that’s really the key to making that show great.”