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MILLENNIUM |
Season Overview
Frank Black - Lance Henriksen Catherine Black - Megan Gallagher Peter Watts - Terry O'Quinn Lara Means - Kristen Cloke 
OTHER MILLENNIUM SEASONS Season 1 Season 3 OTHER VISIONARIES Afterlife Medium Haunted Ghost Whisperer 
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Season OverviewAt the end of series one we left Frank Black in the middle of an airport with his wife kidnapped. This episode takes up from that exact point. The police swing into action with roadblocks that prove unsuccessful and the Millennium group show up even before Frank can summon them. They identify the prime suspect immediately and show Frank information that they had not shared with him before. The race is on to find his wife before she is killed, but this kidnapper fits none of the profiles and seems to know Frank's working practices a little too well. The first season of MILLENNIUM was serial killer of the week. There might have been hints of a story arc here or there, but none of these were laboured or pressed too much. This first episode of season two gives some hints as to what might be coming. The Millennium group know more than they are telling and are willing to use Frank for their own purposes without letting him know what they are, if necessary. Are they as benign as we have always taken them to be. The kidnapper doesn't think so as his entire operations (which have been going on throughout series one with the polaroids sent to Frank at various times) seem to be aimed at sowing the seeds of doubt about the group in Frank's mind. At the same time, little Jordan is seeing angels at the foot of the bed. We know she has some powers of her own, so what's that all about. It seems a bit harsh of wife Catherine to kick Frank out when he has just saved her, even if he did go a bit over the top with the knife. She says that she wanted the kidnapper dead and then blames Frank for killing him. Double standards we'd say. MILLENNIUM series two is off and running. It is to be hoped that it takes us somewhere a bit different from series one. TopThe Beginning and the EndAt the end of series one we left Frank Black in the middle of an airport with his wife kidnapped. This episode takes up from that exact point. The police swing into action with roadblocks that prove unsuccessful and the Millennium group show up even before Frank can summon them. They identify the prime suspect immediately and show Frank information that they had not shared with him before. The race is on to find his wife before she is killed, but this kidnapper fits none of the profiles and seems to know Frank's working practices a little too well. The first season of MILLENNIUM was serial killer of the week. There might have been hints of a story arc here or there, but none of these were laboured or pressed too much. This first episode of season two gives some hints as to what might be coming. The Millennium group know more than they are telling and are willing to use Frank for their own purposes without letting him know what they are, if necessary. Are they as benign as we have always taken them to be. The kidnapper doesn't think so as his entire operations (which have been going on throughout series one with the polaroids sent to Frank at various times) seem to be aimed at sowing the seeds of doubt about the group in Frank's mind. At the same time, little Jordan is seeing angels at the foot of the bed. We know she has some powers of her own, so what's that all about. It seems a bit harsh of wife Catherine to kick Frank out when he has just saved her, even if he did go a bit over the top with the knife. She says that she wanted the kidnapper dead and then blames Frank for killing him. Double standards we'd say. MILLENNIUM series two is off and running. It is to be hoped that it takes us somewhere a bit different from series one. TopBeware of the DogA small town has been plagued by dogs for what seems to the townsfolk like ever, but they have always stayed outside of the town limits. That boundary has now been breached and the first killing has taken place inside the town. Frank is sent by the Millennium group to investigate, but finds there is already someone affiliated to the group already there, someone who believes that to beat the evil you have to respect the evil and it will respect you. Well, different we asked for and different we got. There is a sense of foreboding about this episode that makes up for its total lack of sense. Frank is warned to get inside before the sun goes down, but nobody explains why. He is savaged and attacked, but never rings up his law enforcement friends to come and take a look. No explanation for the dogs and their behaviour beyond that of the balance between good and evil being distorted. What makes them evil? All a bit more mystical, a bit less real and much less convincing once the initial scariness of the situation and the first attack on Frank wears off. Also, the villagers warn him not to go out after sunset. It's so like the Transylvanian peasants warning of Dracula that you can't help but have a smile. TopSense and AntisenseA man, raving beyond comprehension and bleeding from all over the place, goes missing from hospital. Frank is brought in to help locate him for the Centre for Disease Control. When the man is taken, though, it becomes clear that the men into whose trust he was handed are not from the CDC and that there was no disease. Frank isn't willing to walk away until he finds out who is behind the man's abduction and why. An interesting departure here, with Frank and the team chasing what could be a government agency or rogue elements within that agency who are carrying out illegal activities and experiments. Those experiments are into mind control through gene manipulation. It's scary stuff to be thinking about and about as far removed from the 'killer of the week' format of the last season as you could imagine. The question is, where is this all taking us? It's far more interesting to watch now. There's also a sidebar with an anonymous caller on the line to Frank's new place, even though the number isn't listed. TopMonsterThe childcare centre in a small town becomes a battleground when suspicions of abuse arise. Then a child dies. The woman running the centre is immediately arrested, but Frank finds himself up against one of the most dangerous, and surprising, sources of evil he has ever encountered. Stories of this kind involving children are always going to have more of an edge, but this is less about the threat to the children than it is about the origin of that threat. It's intriguing and it's less specific in both content and outcome. Why the evil arose, what its purpose is and what the final outcome means is all left unanswered, leaving a sense of anticlimax and lack of satisfaction, but not a serious one. So far, season two hasn't followed the pattern of season one and is all the better for it. TopA Single Blade of GrassBuilding on a site in New York is being held up because of the discovery of an ancient burial site. It is then further held up when the fresh body of a native american is found there. Frank happens to be in the city and is called in to help, but his investigations put his sanity and his life in jeapordy in the name of prophecy and paradise on earth. Frank Black comes up against North American indian mythology in the heart of the most famous city in the world. The juxtaposition of ancient and modern is key to it all as the indians want to bring back their ancient way of life through the fulfilment of prophecy, a prophecy that can only be fulfilled by the drinking of rattlesnake venom. This is a faintly unsatisfactory episode, not linking to anything or coming up with any reason to be other than using the background of native american myths. This is interesting enough, but isn't explored in any detail sufficient to rise it above the mundane. TopThe Curse of Frank BlackIt's Hallowe'en and Frank's not having a good day. Not only is every single piece of electronic equipment in the whole world stopping dead on a certain number, but he's seeing the image of a demon wherever he looks. Then there's the small matter of the ghost that is trying to contact him. When it comes to bizarre then this is the strangest episode of the show to date. It's surreal to the point that you know Frank's going to wake up from the dream at any minute, except that he doesn't. The messages that haunt him are all pretty obvious, in fact they're rammed home so hard it makes him look stupid from not figuring them out way before the audience did, but the strangeness has a hook that means you can't look away. You have to know what's happening, what it all means even whilst you're not believing a moment of it. Portents are piling up on Frank's table. A smoking soldier from his past comes back from the grave to give him a message. He's been interfering and someone beyond the veil has taken an interest as a result. Good or bad, he's not saying, but indifferent is no longer an option. Walk away from the Millennium group or face the consequences to his life. Those are the choices. Top19:19A bus full of children are kidnapped and taken to a secret location. Frank's called in to help investigate and very quickly the kidnapper is caught. The question is whether Frank can make him talk and give up the location of the kids before they all die. Season two has been far removed from the repetitive nature of the first season. There haven't been two episodes even remotely alike. This one is the one most like the police procedural stories of the first season, but there is more going on beneath the surface, giving Frank even more to think about on dark and lonely nights. The kidnapper sees himself as working for God and is awaiting a sign that the great redeemer has come to save us all. One of the kids is that person and they will be revealed to him by God himself. The ending is suitably oblique and thought provoking. TopThe Hand of St SebastianPeter watts has been acting on a project of his own, outside of the Millennium Group. When a professor with whom he was working is savagely attacked and murdered, Peter asks Frank's help and they fly to Germany in search of holy relic, the hand of St Sebastian, which is supposed to give the holder knowledge against the effects of the Millennium. Somebody else doesn't want them to find that relic and is willing to kill them off to prevent it. OK, this is an interesting idea that loses itself towards the end as it slips ever deeper into bad spy story territory. The basic concept is fine, but is muffed by poor execution. You can't believe in the story for a moment because of the stock moments, such as the victim not being dead and then being visited in his hospital bed by the killers. How many times have we seen that? What has happened to the writers of this show? When it first started it was a dark, disturbing show with ripples of a millennial subplot to be slowly revealed. Now it's a poor action adventure with comedy germans! TopJose Chung's Doomsday DefenceA man is found electrocuted with a smile on his face. A recent follower of the new sect of Selfosophy, he had been meeting with a writer who was planning to expose the group in his new book about the Millennium. That writer, Jose Chung, tags along with Frank on another case regarding a killer who is acting on Nostradamus's predictions. The next victim on his list, according to the prophecies, is Jose Chung. OK, MILLENNIUM has gone completely off the rails. A change of pace is good as was shown with the recent The Curse of Frank Black, but this is just balderdash. There is not a single aspect of the whole episode that is even remotely convincing. You spend half of the episode wondering if this is some kind of spoof that's going to be revealed as the mad ramblings of a deranged mind, but it slowly becomes clear that it is simply an episode that has no relation to either the tone of the show or anything remotely approaching reality. And that's even before the plot gets garbled with two killers showing up at the end. Could we please get back to the quality of the early season one shows rather than this nonsense? TopMidnight of the CenturyWhen Frank's daughter draws a picture of an angel and says that her grandmother (now dead) helped her draw it, Frank starts to see visions of angels himself. He learns that his mother had contact with angels herself, at the time of her brother's death and shortly before her own. Frank's visit to his father to learn these things has a profound effect on the old man. It's a family reunion, sort of, as Frank faces some of his history and some of his fears. There is no more doubt that Jordan has inherited the trait that apparently runs in his family. Scintillating television it isn't, but there are some nice moments for the actors. TopGoodbye CharlieSomeone is tying people up and injecting them with deadly drugs. Worse than this, they are karaoke singing 'Seasons in the sun' to them as they die. An apparently open and shut serial killer case becomes more complex when it is revealed that the victims were all terminally ill and might have wanted to die anyway. Euthanasia (or doctor-assisted suicide if you must) is a tricky emotional subject and the debate rumbles on year after year. The trouble is that it's a debate and debates don't make for the most interesting television. The police procedural side of things is carried out almost woodenly and the characters spend too much time standing around debating the rights and wrongs of the subject. TopLuminaryFrank is summoned before a circle of the Millennium Group's highest minds to answer for some of his actions. He doesn't take kindly to their insinuations and walks out. When he takes on the job of finding a boy who has gone missing in the Alaskan wilderness, the Group refuses to help him and cuts him off from all his resources. It's not long before he finds himself cut off from everything. The Millennium Group is progressively showing itself to be much less the benevolent society it would like to project, revealing hidden agendas and unreturned loyalties. The underlying story is peeking out from under the morass of unconnected stories, but still not showing enough to be identified. The stuff about Frank's wife learning from an astrologer that her struggles with Frank is part of a much greater universal struggle is interesting as well. Either that or just plain stupid. TopThe MikadoA serial killer is carrying out his murders in full view of the world on the internet. A site is set up and a victim revealed, sat on a chair. As the number of hits on the site rises towards the number painted on the wall behind the woman, the killer appears and when the numbers match he slits her throat. Frank believes it to be the work of an old nemesis known as Avatar. He has all the power of the Millennium Group behind him, but it's going to take more than computing skills to catch this monster. This episode is a triumphant return to the early darkness of the first series. The modus operandus of the killer is sufficiently chilling and there is the countdown drama element to add to the tension to the point of making it unbearable. It's simple, but it works. There are flaws, of course, such as have both Frank and the group completely forgotten their disagreements of The Pest HouseA serial killer has returned to his killing ways, copying the murders that were so awful that they have entered urban legend. When the trail leads to an asylum, however, it seems that the original killers are all there. Who is responsible and can Frank find a needle in a stack of needles? Asylums are naturally scary places and so it's easy to make a scary episode in one. This is just such a scary episode. The return to form continues as the show gets back to its roots. TopOwlsThe Millennium Group is in danger of splintering. There are two warring factions inside, both of which want the same thing, but who have differing opinions of how to acheive that. Now they are under attack from an outside force, one with some very dark roots. This force also has part of the cross on which Christ was crucified and intends to use this to destroy the group once and for all. This is the first of a multi-epsiode story (at least two part anyway) and that allows it time to develop its story more slowly and with more care. It's also a very interesting story, bringing in a number of strands that slowly intertwine with serious conclusions for some of the more major of the supporting characters. It's a while since we've wanted to see the next episode of MILLENNIUM quite as much as we do for this one. TopRoostersWhilst the two factions of the Millennium Group grow ever more violent in their disagreements, Frank comes into more information about the true meaning of the group than ever before. He learns of two prophecies for the end of the world and discovers that the outside force trying to destroy them is Odessa, a remnant of Nazi dark religions. For the group to be healed, or least to continue, a leader must die and another must follow him for survival. The second part of this story is full of portent and dark meaning. There is so much portent and dark meaning that more than a little of it gets lost along the way. The plot is as mudded and dark as the shadows most everyone stays in the whole time. Despite this, it is fascinating and proves to be compelling, even though there are loose ends, untied plotlines and what appears to be a whole story that got abandoned somewhere along the line. MILLENNIUM just got a whole lot more interesting. TopSirenA ship smuggling chinese aliens into America is caught at the docks, but the police also find a woman held in chains and the bodies of four men who died of exposure. Frank's daughter says that the woman will save his life, but his investigation leads him to the very edge of death. Another bizarre episode that takes MILLENNIUM further away from its serial killer roots again. The siren of the title is able to convince anyone of anything. What she convinces Frank of almost kills him and it's only in retrospect that you realise that she convinced Frank's wife to set the whole thing up in the first place. There is no answer as to who she is, or what, or of her purpose. Obscure, skewed, fascinating. TopIn Arcadia EgoTwo female inmates break out of prison, killing a guard in the process. Frank joins the hunt and discovers that not only is one of the women pregnant, but that she believes it to be a virgin birth. Local law enforcement want revenge for their dead colleague. Frank wants to to save everyone. This is one of the more believable episodes of Season two. It still has all the religious, mystical overtones of this season, but is firmly rooted in the real world and real characters. The relationship between the two women is especially touching, making the inevitable ending more powerful. TopAnamnesisCatherine and Lara Means find themselves on opposite sides of the debate when a group of schoolgirls declare that they have had a vision of Mary, not the virgin but Mary Magdalene. Here's a thought, let's take the main character out of the show altogether and have a debate about religion and psychology shall we? It's actually not quite as bad as it sounds, but it isn't good either. The plot is muddled, it's unclear as to who is seeing what and the revelations don't seem to change anyone's mind about anything. TopA Room With No ViewSomeone is kidnapping kids who believe themselves to be something special and brainwashing them into being mundane and average and mediocre. Frank suspects it to be an old 'friend', but the Millennium Group has lost track of her. Can they find her lair before the latest of her victims losing his determination to escape? This is back to the original format of the show with a serial bad person doing something bad to lots of people and Frank tracking them down and trying to save them. What she is doing is very interesting, but the lack of clear motivation undermines that and the finale is so rushed as to be a total letdown. The music that is playing endlessly throughout the whole of this episode, though, is the true horror of the show. TopSomehow Satan Got Behind MeFour ageing devils meet up in a donut shop to swap stories about the souls they have corrupted, stories that seem ot have a common link in the shape of Frank Black. As someone who has followed MILLENNIUM from its early days as a startling serial killer show through its metamorphosis into unfocussed religious, metaphysical and philosophical experiment I would just like to say 'What the hell?'. Some of the episodes in this second series have been a little odd or pushing the envelope, but this is not just bizarre it's downright perverse. I mean what was that? Was it a dream, a fantasy, reality in terms of the show? What it seems to have been is a joke by the makers, a joke at our expense. True, there is a certain fascination that keeps you rivetted to the end, but it is the fascination of watching a once fine ship sink slowly into the deep. This just makes a joke of everything that has gone before and takes away every shred of credibility that the show has ever built up. There are some faintly interesting musings on the corrosive nature of banality and the appearance of THE X-FILES (show creator Chris Carter's original TV breakthrough) in a spoof moment is faintly amusing. The makers clearly had a great time with this and we're all for people enjoying what they do, but when it shows so little respect for what has gone before you have to wonder why they were allowed to do it. Maybe Satan got behind them. TopThe Four HorsemenA dead man turns out to have died of an extremely virulent disease that kills in minutes and bleeds the victim out, much like ebola, but much faster. Frank, Peter Watts and the crime scene team are put in quarantine and secretly given a vaccine. This confirms everything that Frank has feared the most about the Millennium Group - they have a cure, but they're saying nothing. Peter's faith in the group is shaken, but when he accurately predicts an earthquake, Frank also finds that he must question his judgements. Following the complete inanity of Somehow Satan Got Behind Me, MILLENNIUM gets right back on track with an episode that erases the bad memory of that lost hour and which encapsulates everything that this second season has been leading up to. Season two has been about the nature of the group and what their purpose actually is. Here we see the darkest side of the organisation and both the sceptic and believer shaken in their viewpoints. It's really clever having Frank questioning his position as much as Peter is forced to question his, keeping the true nature of the group shrouded and unsure. The character drama of two men locked up and trading philosophies is contrasted with the danger rising outside, shown graphically when the virus wipes out a family gathered for Mother's Day. It's a nasty scene, but one that brings home just how bad things are. This is MILLENNIUM as it was at the beginning, brutal and dark and dangerous. TopThe Time is NowPeter Watts investigates the group and learns that they were not behind the virus that is spreading across the world, but that they developed the vaccine which they have kept for a select few. The members of the group will each get a shot, but not their families. The information that Lara Means has been given as part of her initiation has driven her mad, but her shot remains in an an envelope addressed to Frank. Frank gets his family and takes them up into the hills where he must decide to whom he gives the vaccine, his wife or daughter. It may be the end of the world or it may not, but it is certainly Frank Black's apocalypse. The personal consequences of this climactic episode will resonate throughout any third season. That's nothing to what Lara Means goes through. Her insanity is shown in pretty graphic fashion with a long (overlong) sequence of striking images and disturbing music. It's a bold experiment, it just goes on far too long. We get the poing already. Not as powerful as The Four Horsemen, The Time is Now leaves us wondering just where this show can go now. Top |
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