wait...worry...who cares?

so, for our customary midwinter gift exchange, my sister got me the 2nd season of Millennium DVD box. (i'd gotten her the first season for her birthday, you see, so she thought she was being clever. XD)

as i don't think i've gone on about my love for Millennium at length here, i will now do so---behind the handy cut below.

assuming you're already aware of this fine and overlooked TV series that started in 1996 and lasted three seasons (two of which were brilliant; one of which was absolute and unmitigated shite) and was created by the same Chris Carter of X-Files fame, let me say flat out: i thought (and still think) Millennium was a much better and more consistently engaging show than X-Files ever was.

X-Files had its moments, and there were a lot of good episodes, it's true. my sister was a huge X-Files fan, and through her i saw most of the series (up till she gave it up for lost in the last couple of seasons, and especially when Duchovny went away and the T1000 Robert Patrick stepped in). but Millennium was more consistent all around---at least, the first two seasons were. XD

Millennium, simply put, was the predecessor to Profiler, the rash of CSI variants, and the general forensic profiling pop-cultural rage, and if i may say so, was much better than any of them. for one, it didn't have characters attempting to explain aspects of their jobs to other characters on the show for no particular reason other than as a point of plot exposition because the show's writers obviously felt their audience was far too stupid to grasp it otherwise. it was the (fictional) story of forensic profiler Frank Black (played by Lance Henriksen), who had a rather cursed gift: his mind could quite readily get inside the minds of those individuals he was profiling. or, to put it in Frank's own words, "I see what the killer sees." which, while it sounds like the sort of premise that could go horribly wrong, didn't. it examined the various complications of this "gift," and the ramifications it had and continues to have on his personal and professional lives.

which, i believe, is what was so brilliant about this show. it was episodic, in one sense, but because it so skillfully intertwined the various portions of Frank's life, it was very easy to get a sense that the characters portrayed were more real, more true---and the show itself was more linear and less episodic than it actually was. it wasn't just a crime drama, and it wasn't just a family drama---it was a life drama, and not in the sense that most movies-of-the-week tend to be. critically lauded and yet reviled by some for the extreme levels of violence portrayed, it was such an interesting mix of human elements and rampant symbolism that it was fascinating to watch in a way few other shows before or since have been.

the first season focused on introducing the viewers (all two of us) to the lives of Frank Black, his wife Catherine (Meghan Gallagher) and daughter Jordan (Brittany Tiplady), his contacts in Seattle law enforcement, his flirtations with a mysterious organisation called the Millennium Group (hence the title), and acquainting us with elements of his past that had led to his family's move into the yellow house that came, as the series progressed, to signify all that is pure and good in the world. it was, perhaps, slightly episodic at the beginning, but soon built up the confidence to weave a more ongoing story. it was this that we loved about this show.

the second season focused on things built up in the first falling apart, and further exploration of various levels of refreshingly non-monochrome evil. it also introduced the brilliant character of Lara Means (played by Kristen Cloke), a forensic psychologist also being courted by the Millennium Group for possible induction, and also gifted with a dubious ability: that of seeing angels, usually as a harbinger of horrible events. it also introduced the character of Lucy Butler, which may have been the only reason to even bother with watching any of the third season. (this show could not have had better recurring characters if it tried. seriously.)

the third season, sad to say, was when the show lost the plot altogether and decided it wanted to be another X-Files, with the reintroduction of Frank into the FBI (after having a nervous breakdown after two rather key and rather stupid plot points happened at the end of the second season) and the subsequent introduction of his new partner, Emma Hollis. i generally tend to think those two key (and did i mention stupid?) plot points at the end of the second season colluded to comprise the EXACT point where the series went badly off course, but i wanted to believe it might right itself somewhere along the line...despite more Lucy Butler in the third season (and a guest appearance by Juliet Landau!), it never did.

the show died in the ignominious shadow of its rather terrible third season, but thankfully it's now in the process of being released on DVD. at first, i didn't believe it would actually be released in R1; the UK seemed to like it a lot more than the US did, so it was no surprise that it got released there relatively quickly. however, had Harsh Realm gotten released here and Millennium not, i'd have been really upset. cos, y'know, Harsh Realm is kinda crap. Millennium (or at least, the first two seasons of it) was very much not.