Reviewed: Pilot

Contributor: MillenniumIsBliss

I'm not sure why, but suddenly the time feels right to go back to the beginning and watch season one from start to finish. Last night I started with the Pilot, and it was interesting going back to the start after most recently viewing season 3. It's kind of sad, looking back to the pilot and seeing a happy family in a new yellow house, with a new puppy and making a fresh start, and then seeing it all fall apart as the series progresses. Don't get me wrong, this is not a complaint, as I like a nice tragic story, but it is sad nonetheless. This episode really sets the tone for the series and does a great job introducing the characters and setting up the story line with Frank and the Millennium group.

I don't know if it's just getting older or if it's partially due to my love for shows like MM and the "cop shows" that delve into the dark side of human nature, but I frequently remind myself of Frank in a way. I have never faced evil up close and personal like Frank's character, and I have certainly never gotten disturbing polaroids like he does, but I kind of remind myself of Frank in the episode "The Curse Of Frank Black", when on Halloween night, when everyone else is in a light mood and having fun, he is seeing the creature in the window and thinking the program on TV is an actual person screaming. With all the maniacs and idiots out there, I never really relax with the family until we are at home. I guess it's a good thing I don't have kids of my own or I would probably always be imagining crazy scenarios. It would be fun to be a kid again for a day and not to have the slightest inkling of the realities of the world. Even during the first go around, I kind of viewed Millennium more from the entertainment point of view, but when you watch some of the documentary type shows, and think about it, the kind of thing we see on Millennium really does exist, and it's kind of disturbing to think that your grandparents and nephews and nieces have to go out among some of these monsters, not to mention your run-of-the-mill idiots. Season one really does deal with some fascinating subject matter, and might be the first show that really consistently explores the theory of there being a "greater evil" out there. The episode also really sets the tone of the series with some pretty graphic imagery, especially with the coffin scene and Calamity dancing on the blood-dimmed tide. Oh, and yes, now that it has been pointed out, I can see that the pilot did use another yellow house than the one we see throughout the rest of the series.

By the way, there were some scenes that kind of unintentionally made me chuckle. The first is when they make Peter Watts say "extraneous stressor" in his first scene. It really comes out of his mouth like a tongue twister. It sounds like the kind of thing you could flub a few times and have to keep reshooting the scene, kind of like in "Doomsday Defense" when it seems like Frank has to struggle to get "roving freelance forensic profiler" out without flubbing it. Another chuckle that comes to mind of kind of subtle, but typical Frank, he tells the Bletcher and the police that the killer doesn't see the world like everyone else, when Bletch asks him to elaborate on how he does see it, Frank simply says "Differently". Gee, thanks Frank.