Millennium

Millennium is one of those true gems which outshined everything else, but burned out too fast. Lance Henriksen as Frank Black is one of the greatest acting jobs ever attempted. The writing, directing and producing are second to none. It's a shame that FOX canceled Millennium before its time. If your a fan, you know what I mean. If you have never seen Millennium, do yourself a favor and check it out.

Fantastic mixture of drama, suspense, action, horror, and mystery. Raises the bar of Television to a whole new level. The masterful combination no-tell-all driven plot and detailed personal characters creates a canvas on which great things have come. The dark photography and surreal flash scenes surpass current mystery and horror series. The detailed historical and mythological connections interwoven within the story line is commendable. This series does not rely on a physical monster, but the monster within everyone. The horror of pure evil and the evils of mankind. The music of Mark Snow is an excellent backdrop to this type of setting. His use of synthesized strings in thick chords compliments the dark visions of the drama. Snow also uses sounds and alterations of the human voice to set effect. The use of a solo violin in the main title and though out the series reflects the struggle of a single man (Frank Black) against the undeviating force of evil in the world. Together, Carter's vision for a dark, artistic drama has come to life.

How do you make a great, spooky television series? Well, here is one recipe for success. Take a pound of flesh from the 1995 movie 'Seven', with Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, add a little demented serial killer from 1986's 'Manhunter' with William Peterson and Dennis Farina, and place it in an industrial sized microwave oven for a few minutes. Then add a slice of 1992's 'Silence of The Lambs', some fava beans and pop the cork on a nice bottle of Chianti. With this recipe, you have the hit Fox TV series that ran from 1996 to 1999 Years before TV shows like CSI' or 'Cold Case Files' and 'Law and Order SVU' were even thought of, there was this remarkable show. It was called MillenniuM.

MillenniuM was a series about a profiler named Frank Black. He could see into the mind of serial killers and offered us a glimpse at the world of the criminally disturbed. He worked for the Millennium group, an investigative firm that worked in the private sector. Every week, violent crimes, as well as the disturbing images they create, were the primary focus on this great series. The first season was superb. We all got to meet and know Frank, Catherine, and Jordan, who lived in their big yellow house in Seattle, WA, and we could almost feel the dampness and heavy rain that Seattle is famous for. However, after the haunting opening theme and the awesome boomp-boomp that led us into each segment with the white screen, we all immediately looked to the bottom of that screen to read the type-writer font, and see where this week's episode was taking us to. We would usually meet a member of the Millennium group within the first 15 minutes, and usually that character was Peter Watts. Looking like a Marine and always in control of his emotions, he quickly learned to trust Frank's feelings on most issues.{Peter Watts was played by Terry O'Quinn, and now stars on the ABC series "Lost" as John Locke.}These two made an excellent team, as well as the others from the group, and these relationships really made the show. Frank also had his demons, as all great heroes do. He was in search of a way to suppress his gift, for the love of his daughter, who may also be cursed with the visions. Frank was also working on his marriage, which was, as most marriages are, a daily battle. Frank Black was uncomfortable with his chosen profession, but he also knows it was his destiny to do this job, which he did so well.

That's enough about the show. If you are reading this review, you are already a big fan. Let's talk about the DVD's.

Besides the fact that I want to tell Fox thank you and it's about bloody hell time, this DVD set is great. All 22 episodes are in crisp, clear and in vivid color, and that awesome theme song before each episode. Sweet! I highly recommend this DVD to anyone who is a Chris Carter fan, as well as CSI fans and any fan of current TV programs that review evidence and solve crimes. Give it a try. You will not be disappointed.

Thanks, Brian R. Collins {BC}

P.S. As I am writing this the date is September 1, 2004 and I just received word that MillenniuM Season 2 will be released in the UK on September 27, 2004. So it can't too far behind for the good old U.S. of A.

BC

I don't think I've ever fully gotten over the cancellation of Millennium. Re-watching the old episodes on the FX channel, you can really see how well written most of the episodes were and the characters were all memorable and likeable. Right up until the very last season, where I personally feel the writers ruined the series. The two episodes, the cliffhanger before the last season, were incredibly well done, I'd even say masterpieces, titled "The Four Horsemen" and "The Time is Now". But they missed the point when they came back the next season. We were expecting to see the series go in the direction of Frank and his daughter trying to survive a holocaust and instead they copped out. We could have had an amazing survival story there. What a shame. But, I highly recommend watching the reruns of this series if you can. It really was so much better than the X Files. And it will forever be sorely missed. The character of Frank Black did guest star on an X File episode after Millennium was cancelled and I'm still hoping for at least one more appearance. It's so hard to let a good character go forever.

This is undoubtedly one of the most intelligent and thought-provoking series that has come out in a long time. If we were able give it a vote, I would give it a 10/10.