The X-Files Meets Lost In Stephen King's 3-Part Sci-Fi Series

1 week ago 16

Published May 17, 2026, 2:06 PM EDT

Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.

While a blend of The X-Files and Lost seems like it would inevitably have been a huge hit, this Stephen King series that mixed their premises ended up lasting only three seasons before it was canceled. Although the show borrowed some of its inspiration from David Lynch’s iconic Twin Peaks, The X-Files still revolutionized the police procedural when the show began airing in the ‘90s. Its addictive mix of supernatural horror and sci-fi plot elements with a straightforward cop show format was one of the decade’s most influential innovations.

Lost's focus on a group of characters trapped in an impossible nightmare and the complex story of how they got there was smart, innovative, and ambitious in what it expected from its audience. One of many shows that was influenced by its approach was 2013’s Stephen King adaptation Under the Dome, based on the novel of the same name from 2009. Like Lost, the show centered on mismatched survivors trapped and forced to work together in mysterious circumstances. Like The X-Files, its byzantine central mystery only grew more complex with each new season.

Why Under The Dome Ended After 3 Seasons

Barbie turning around in Under the Dome.

Under the Dome combined elements of Lost and The X-Files in its story of Chester’s Mill, a small town that is inexplicably trapped under an impenetrable, transparent dome of unknown origin one seemingly random morning. An ensemble piece, King’s drama fleshes out the lives of the town’s many residents, but its story eventually centers on Mike Vogel’s visiting veteran, Barbie, and his love interest, Rachelle Lefevre’s suspicious local reporter, Julia.

Julia’s attempts to get to the bottom of the dome’s origins while Mike tries to work out what is going on with the citizens of Chester’s Mill call to mind the dynamic of Mulder and Scully in The X-Files, but that’s not the only thing the two shows have in common. Like The X-Files and Netflix’s later King homage Stranger Things, Under the Dome boasts a conspiracy storyline behind its mystery that only grows more complex with each revelation.

This ultimately proves to be both a blessing and a curse as, like Lost, Under the Dome struggles to stick the show's landing. The show gets a lot wilder as Under the Dome’s story goes on, increasingly deviating from the book’s plot in ways that definitely don't help its overarching story. King struggles with endings at the best of times, and Under the Dome’s attempts to outsmart its audience meant that, like Lost, its eventual ending left a lot of mysteries unanswered.

How Under The Dome Compares Against Other Stephen King Shows

Still, much like the many great sci-fi shows that arrived after its cancellation, Under the Dome is well worth checking out despite its unfinished, messy story. Compared to the perfectly self-contained classic Stephen King shows Storm of the Century or Salem’s Lot, this series can’t help but feel a little too ambitious, a little too sprawling, and a little too surreal for its own good.

However, compared to It: Welcome to Derry or Castle Rock, Under the Dome is another superb example of a King story about a creepy small town where, even though not every plot strand pays off in the end, the experience is still worth the ride. Like both The X-Files and Lost before it, Under the Dome proves that sometimes, an entirely satisfying ending isn’t a prerequisite for a fun sci-fi mystery show.