Millennium - Season 1-3 [DVD] [1996]

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, 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 past events. Try as they might, despite some exceptional work, the show never recovers from the loss of the some major characters, 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 (201), 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.

Yes, even though it's premise begins firmly rooted in late nineties end of the millennium doomsday paranoia, this series was actually quite ahead of it's time with it's ideas and concepts.

The story at a glance may appear to be about "psychic detective" Frank Black investigating a different serial killer every week, but that is simply a gross oversimplification of what Millennium is all about. For one, Frank Black isn't 'psychic' in any way, he actually possesses the ability to put himself into the mind of a killer(Not literally of course) to an extent that borders on the abnormal, and consequently has caused Frank serious mental problems in the past. Something which comes up to usually powerful effect throughout the series as Frank simply could not have been played by anyone else half as well as he is played by the vastly underrated Lance Henriksen, who brings the stoic character to life in a way that shames pretty much every central character you've ever seen portrayed in an American TV show. Couple this with truly astounding supporting performances from Terry O'Quinn(Of Lost fame), Megan Gallagher and a rare example of a child actress that can actually act in the form of Brittany Tiplady as Frank's daughter, who may or may not ACTUALLY be psychic in some fashion, as the series teases and explores across it's run. The acting quality in this series is of an absolutely phenomenal quality that towers over any show on TV today, it really is.

The show did get a lot of heat for it's wild change of focus after the first season onto the more fantastical, supernatural elements of it's back story, but this is merely building on groundwork laid during season one, which also implied something more than the mere psychological was at play in the creation of so many serial killers at once, but it can be a tad jarring to go from season one stories about mad bombers who get off on explosions to season two stories comedy episodes about demons(It works a lot better than you're probably picturing here, believe me) swapping stories about their most recent exploits in tormenting innocent people. Even with the persistently changing focus of the series though, it is never anything less than supremely entertaining.

There are so many great episodes of this series I couldn't, simply couldn't pick a single one as a favourite, but I kid you not when I say you'll see where many of today's Hollywood 'serial killer' movies stole their ideas from in Millennium, with the season two episode 'The Mikado' being nigh on identical to serial killer movie Untraceable, despite coming around a decade earlier.

Basically, this is an intelligent, engrossing, and hugely entertaining series that is easily the single best thing that Chris Carter ever made. It's sole flaw is that it ends far too soon and too abruptly, leaving you only with an awful episode of the X-Files as closure(Included as an extra on the season three set), but don't let that put you off.

Give it a try, and marvel at how TV shows should be done.

Having bought this box set on the back of only seeinig two episodes back in the nineties on terrestrial tv before it moved to sky I knew I'd love it as much as I loved the X files, this however is a much more thought provoking show and it tends to get under your skin and into your head, after watching the episode Wide Open I always lock my back door when I'm in the living room, watch it and you'll get the idea. The first season was brilliant, however it went a wayward from season two but its still compulsive viewing. Lance Henrikson is excellent as the tormented Black and the supporting characters all fit in well with his tortured soul. All in all you won't be disappointed and on the evidence of todays world events it may make you think deeper. I wish Chris Carter would reprise it even for just one season more. Brilliant!!!!