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(More customer reviews)MILLENNIUM is at first a product of the time, a manifestation of the 1990's fear of what Y2K could bring. It's easy to look back now in hindsight and dismiss millennial tension, but there were a great number of people who had serious thoughts of what could happen and looked for answers. It's also easy to dismiss its innovative mature and sombre tone when it has been copied to lesser effect in the last five or six years with other procedural shows like CSI and COLD CASE.
Chris Carter concieved MILLENNIUM to be like the feature films SILENCE OF THE LAMBS or SEVEN but on a weekly format. No aliens or govermental conspiracies like his X-FILES, but a psychological exploration of the nature of evil, of one man's ability to see into the thought processes of the worst of humanity. Frank Black's gift was not psychic in nature but an accute understanding of the heart of darkness: "I become capability. I become the horror -- what we know we can become only in our heart of darkness. It's my gift. It's my curse. That's why I retired."
Lance Henrikson plays ex-FBI agent Frank Black perfectly, a man who was driven to a nervous breakdown when he realized he could no longer keep his family safe from the evil he was helping to fight. He only returns to work with the help of the Millennium Group and the support of his wife, who realises he can't just sit back and wait for a happy ending. Their symbolic yellow house becomes not just a sanctuary but a fragile treasure in Franks mind, one that is threatened as his investigations continue. Evil takes a personal interest in him, tempting him to join it, and we see the toll his resistence to that evil has on his life.
The psychological aspect is what I believe Chris Carter was more interested in, however when Season two began and X-Files script writers/producers Morgan and Wong took over, they changed the focus away from that aspect and more on the supernatural, conspiratorial and mythological nature of the Millennium Group itself. Over that one season the Group turned from a noble company of ex-law enforcement agents (like the real life Academy Group) into a fractured quasi-religious cult, founded at the time of Christ's crucifixtion, with an agenda to not just wait for an apocalypse but to pre-empt it. At the end of the second season, after some exceptional pieces of work, the writers introduced a deadly ebola-type virus, supposedly manufactured by the group itself, that apparently wipes out half the world. At the end of that season, the world has ended, and the writers effectively changed the concept of the show.
Season three, back now in the hands of Chris Carter, starts off without making any real reference to the virus outbreak, with Frank back at the FBI, until a few episodes in when it's revealed it was only a media panic over a few isolated cases rather than the real apocalypse. The SOUND OF SNOW is particulary a heart-wrenching episode where Frank finally deals with his wifes death. Try as they might, despite some exceptional work, the show never recovers from the loss of the Catherine Black character, the loss of the symbolism of the yellow house, or the change of Millennium Group to religious conspiracy cult. After the Group begin to execute those members deemed too dangerous to their agenda, Frank goes on the run with his daughter Jordan.
These DVD's are still a must buy for any fan of dramatic storytelling, because even the worst episodes are better than 90% of current tv. If you like CSI, 24 and all of the other procedural shows, you'll like this. They're excellently put together with commentaries and documentaries, which especially give you a palpable sense of the frustration felt by the actors and Chris Carter of how great the show could have been if allowed to grow at its own pace. Regardless of any faults, MILLENNIUM is a special show, the level of acting and production elevating it over any inconsistancies of series narrative. It has inspired fans to create a continuation of the show in two professionally scripted Virtual Seasons (VS4 and VS5), with a third (VS6) being written this year (2010), and an ever growing movement in the Back to Frank Black campaign, to take the show to the big screen.
As Lance Henrikson says in the documentary, about missed opportunities, MILLENNIUM still haunts him.
So will this, but for all the right reasons.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Millennium: Seasons 1-3
Bonus Features: Season 1: Disc 1: **Millenium Season 1 Episodes (Disc 1) *Pilot with Commentary by Creator/Writer/Executive Producer Chris Carter *Gehenna with Commentary by Director David Nutter *Dead Letters Disc 2: **Millenium Season 1 episodes (Disc 2) *Kingdom Come *Blood RelativesDisc 3: **Millenium Season 1 episodes (Disc 3) **Wide Open *The Wild and the Innocent *Weeds *Loin Like a Hunting FlameDisc 4: **Millenium Season 1 episodes (Disc 4) *Force Majeure *The Thin White Line *Sacrament *CovenantDisc 5: **Millenium Season 1 episodes (Disc 5) *Walkabout *Lamentation *Powers, Principalities, Thrones and Dominions *Broken WorldDisc 6: **Millenium Season 1 episodes (Disc 6) *Maranatha *Paper DoveSeason 2: Disc 7: **Millenium Season 2 episodes (Disc 1) *The Beginning and the End *Beware of the Dog *Sense and Antisense *MonsterDisc 8: **Millenium Season 2 episodes (Disc 2) *A Single Blade of Grass *The Curse of Frank Black *The Hand of Saint Sebastian *The Hand of Saint Sebastian Commentary by Tom WrightDisc 9: **Millenium Season 2 episodes (Disc 3) *Jose Chungâ??s Doomsday Defense *Midnight of the Century (Holiday) *Goodbye Charlie *LuminaryDisc 10: **Millenium Season 2 episodes (Disc 4) *The Mikado *The Pest House *Owls *Roosters *The Mikado Commentary by Michael R. PerryDisc 11: **Millenium Season 2 episodes (Disc 5) *Siren *In Arcadia *Ego *Anamnesis *A Room with No ViewDisc 12: **Millenium Season 2 episodes (Disc 6) *Somehow *Satan Got Behind Me *The Fourth Horseman *The Time is Now**The Turn of the Tide: Making of Season 2 **Academy Group: VictimologySeason 3: Disc 13: **Millenium Season 3 episodes (Disc 1) *The Innocents (Commentary by Lance Henrickson and Klea Scott) *Exegesis *Teotwawki *ClosureDisc 14: **Millenium Season 3 episodes (Disc 2) *...Thirteen Years Later (KISS) *Skull and Bones *Through A Glass, Darkly *Human EssenceDisc 15: **Millenium Season 3 episodes (Disc 3) *Omerta *Borrowed Time *Collateral Damage (Commentary by Tom Wright) *The Sound of SnowDisc 16: **Millenium Season 3 episodes (Disc 4) *Anitpas *Matryoshka *Forcing the End *Saturn Dreaming of MercuryDisc 17: **Millenium Season 3 episodes (Disc 5) *Darwin's Eyes *Bardo Thodol *Seven and One *NostalgiaDisc 18: **Millenium Season 3 episodes (Disc 6) *Via Dolorosa *Goodbye To All That *X-Files "Millennium" episode from Season 7**End Game: The Making of Millennium Season 3 & Between the Lines
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