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Frank's Neighbor

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Guest EzekielWatts

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Guest EzekielWatts

Frank's neighbor through season 1 always seemed to be nosing into Frank's business, appearing suddenly, and was always just a little too cheerful. The first time I watched the series, I had this creeping suspicion that this guy was not what he seemed and that in a later episode he may become more of a key player; perhaps a character that turned out to be stalking his family, or even an accomplice to the man sending polaroids, maybe even just a killer that Frank ends up taking down, or possibly an evil/demonic type of character that is way too nice on the surface to be a "good guy". Sadly, nothing ever came of this character and he just kind of faded away into our memory. Does anyone else think they should have had a story in this vein or am I alone in thinking the next-door neighbor was just a little on the creepy side?

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Guest ZeusFaber

Personally speaking, no, I wouldn't have been all that keen on that sort of twist, making Jack Meredith into some form of "demon" or stalker. To me, that would have felt a bit silly, and rather hard to believe that Frank and family just happened to move in next door to some sort of psychopath. Millennium was always smarter than that, more intelligent, and not about preposterous twist and cliffhangers at all costs the way some other shows operate.

Chris Carter has gone on record to say that Jack Meredith was only ever meant to be a minor background character, someone that projected an image of the quintessential American neighbour, and that he never expected people to see him as so nosy or suspicious. I imagine a big part of that came from the actor's interpretation of the role. I never saw him as anything all that significant myself, and was never expecting him to be anything more than the background character he started out as.

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Guest Laurent.

I usually felt sympathy for Jack Meredith. Frank always tried to keep his distance from his neighbor so that he wouldn't learn about Frank's dark side... but Jack had no way to understand why he was being rejected like this from Frank.

I think that the character was useful, in the sense that it showed how Frank had problem dealing with his gift. He wanted to help catch those horrible killers, but still hide them from the normal people, which forced him to isolate his family from the real world.... and not allowing them to have a normal life.

Am I making sense here?

edit: Welcome to the board EzekielWatts! It's cool to have some young blood to start some new discussions!

2nd edit: I have to admit that the actor's portrayal is a bit weird... but that's probably because he's the most naive character in MillenniuM's dark world.

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Guest RodimusBen

Aww, I wouldn't want to see Jack die. He just struck me as a goofy retired guy.

I think he was another element from the first season that represented innocence. The yellow house and Jordan were meant to convey this, to some degree, but you don't have to be young to be relatively innocent (in the context of the dark world Frank inhabits). Jack was the happy-go-lucky kind of guy who's probably lived a middle-class existence his whole life, never been exposed to genuine hardship or horror, which is what allows him to be so oblivious to Frank's world and lifestyle.

A lot of times, writers will try out certain elements in a new series, only to find out that they just don't "work" or have a place in the series. We already had Catherine, Jordan, Benny and the yellow house to represent Frank's ideal world that he's trying to protect; we didn't need a goofy neighbor too. Another good example of this was in LOST when they had the fresh water caves in the first season, which they disposed of before long because they were dark, and on a sound stage, and the beach seemed like a more visually exciting place to base the crash survivors.

Plus you have the fact that MM's first season supporting cast was already getting pretty big, with Bletcher, Giebelhouse, Watts, and various recurring MM Group members.

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Guest EzekielWatts

I don't think such a twist would've been "preposterous". Meredith just seemed a little too nice and cheerful; like something wasn't right beneath the surface; and what better way to show the evils of the world is than to have Frank just happen to move in next to some demonic or psychopathic type of character that is just quirky enough for us to wonder about. While the idea isn't the most original one in the world, I don't see it as not being a smart move.

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I am in for the neighbour being but a one-dimentional quintessential character.There definitely must`ve been someone like him to add to the symbolism of Frank`s Utopia.

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  • Elders (Moderators)

Great points, especially Arthur-R and R-Ben. Jack's comment: "You couldn't have picked a nicer place to come back to." And then at the end of the episode, the polaroids arrive. Such a friendly neighbourhood with caring people, yet the darkness can still invade, whatever Frank's hopes were. Just gives me chills.

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That creep was up to something. When I first started watching the show I thought for sure he'd be a person of interest later. Struck me as the kind of pervert who'd be peeking in their window at night or something. (I have a very dark view of human nature :)

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