Millennium Episode Review of Weeds by ZeusFaber

Reviewed: Weeds

Contributor: ZeusFaber

The most average of average episodes. Not to say it's bad, just one of the most straightforward, down-the-line Millennium episodes you'll ever see. Serial killer, check; clues in the post and written in blood, check; unique gruesome selling point (forced to drink human blood), check. It's all here, and it's all decent enough, just rather formulaic.

Where the strength of this episode really lies is in its vivid use of point-of-view. The pilot sets up the theme of the season in that killers don't see the world like everyone else, they see it differently, and this capitalises on that idea like never before. The images of the residents as aged and decayed look terrifically frightening on screen, and add some real texture to the episode.

Conversely, the greatest weakness of the episode is that the notion of killers motivated by the desire to send a message or make a statement to society is rather tired by this point, and executed in a rather clumsy manner. Why are these villains always so obtuse and obscure in sending clues to law enforcement to decipher? If they want to send a message, why not just shout it from the rooftops? Still, it's got the scare-factor and it's got the tone and flavour of the series down well enough, it's just not an episode that's likely to stick in the memory or demand a repeat viewing very often.