Millennium, Season 1: 1-4

[lookingland]

So my dear pen pal of twenty years, utter_scoundrel, sent me the complete TV series of Millennium for Christmas and I hunkered down to start watching it this weekend (and subsequently did little else ~ ha!). For those of you who may not know the show, it ran in the late 90s (heading for the millennium), and was Chris Carter's (of X-files fame) second child. I think the show probably suffered from Carter overkill (X-files was heading for rocky shores with much of its fan base ~ including me at the time). After three seasons, the show was canceled.

Which means you have to suffer through three seasons of me yabbering about it. I promise I'll try to keep it painless.

I'm not going to belabor the plot points of these episodes because there's a ton of information out there about the show and its particulars, especially at the Fourth Horseman Press Millennial Abyss site. What's mostly here is brief impressions from a first watch, but they will have spoilers and since this seems like a great show to pick up between other shows (just as I am doing, I guess), I'll put the comments under a cut and you can read or not.

Some overall impressions: I love Lance Henriksen. He's just an interesting guy to watch, so his character of Frank Black immediately appeals to me. Different actor might not have caught my attention since Frank is somewhat removed emotionally most of the time. You see him as a different guy when he's around his daughter Jordan, but otherwise, he comes off as sort of tired but resigned ~ possibly a deliberate departure from Mulder who was relentless and passionate. Black's wife Catherine rubs me wrong from the opening moments. She has that ultra-attentive look on her face that makes her "look" like an actor. She's pretty and it's nice to have a main character who is married and has a family, but I'm guessing she'll be dead by the end of the first season.

Okay: on to the episodes ~

"Pilot"

Super strong opener: great camerawork that holds up well nearly 13 years later, effective use of lots of sex and violence and a nice tight introduction to all the characters. I was happy to see Terry O'Quinn in a recurring role as a sort of Millennium-equivalent "Skinner" named Peter Watts. He's always typecast as a soldier or cop, but he's a great character actor. Nothing spectacular about the case here: peep show killer with some serious psycho-sexual issues. I love that this show manages to say and show so much without it being gratuitous; has all the gross-out factors without actually being gross. Extremely effective. My only quibble: Carter's playing his hand too early with the polaroids. The episode is packed enough as it is.

"Gehenna"

Unfortunately, this is a somewhat forgettable followup to a great pilot. This story doesn't coalesce very well: young men are seduced with promises in a get-rich-quick scheme and then are killed and burned when they fail to become corporate clones. Too many unanswered questions about the "company" in this one. Loved the ashes in the rose bed, but some of this just seemed a little too silly, right down to naming the company Gehenna. Way to ham-fist it, Carter.

"Dead Letters"

This one takes a little suspension of disbelief as the perp etches messages to the cops on strands of hair (needle in a haystack anyone?) But it works overall, and I like the character of Jim Thorpe, a man who's sort of falling apart at the job. He gives us a glimpse into what Frank himself went through in his own history. Great conclusion scene when Jim blocks the van and beats the perp to a pulp. Sometimes that kind of thing is just gratifying.

"The Judge"

I really loved this episode. From the first shot of the pig pen, you knew there was going to be bodies in there. May not have been so obvious in a time before Hannibal and Deadwood, but in Hitchcock's theories of film, knowing the fact made it all the more intense. Great little internal puzzle about the mailed body parts and figuring out the connections. But I think what I loved most about this episode is that the reigning evil guy thinks he's so dang smart, but when it comes down to it, it just takes a fella one screw looser to dethrone him. For a moment I thought the ex-con was lying to set up the bad guy's getaway. I was extremely pleased to find that wasn't the case. My one quibble: the black hood was pretty goofball.

Final impressions for 1-4: We only have the hintyest hint of something supernatural going on at this point and Frank's "abilities" are lightly established, but not especially clear. Sometimes the cops, knowing his uncanny facility with these cases, are kinda dumb or reluctant. All things considered it's certainly a more plausible show than the X-files, if I have to be honest.

More next week! If you watched the series and remember it, I would love to hear your thoughts!

: D

Comments

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

Frank's appearance on the X-files was one my only experiences of him back in the day ~ i think i watched the show itself only once when it originally aired.

it's definitely nice to be able to watch it like this ~ otherwise, i don't know that i ever would have sought it out in reruns (and that's moot anyway, since i don't have a television).

: D