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All Three Seasons At Last But Why Season Two?

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Guest Xcalibrate

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Guest Xcalibrate

Having only previously seen most of Season 1, a couple of Season 2 and none of Season 3 it was a pleasure to see them released on DVD and looking great. Fox, whom disgracefully cancelled FireFly, have done themselves and Millennium proud.

Now having watched all the Seasons, including some episodes many times, I am puzzled about why is seems, at least looking through forums and review sites - old and new, that Season Two appears to many to be their favourite Season and Season Three the poor relation. Personally I thought that Season One was strong, on the whole and Season Three, quite possibly the strongest story wise.

My problem with Season Two is not that is wasn't enjoyable, it was but rather that they ( M&W ) took Millennium and dumbed it down to the lowest common denomination to the point were it became almost child-like. Why take a dark, foreboding, gritty and ambiguous series such as Millennium and dumb it down to such an extent that it feels the producers are slapping people in the face with a great big fish with Supernatural etched into its side? Why remove all the violence and grit? These are not complaints as such, I just feel that Season Two is so out of place as to be almost a different series. I've seen people criticise Season Three for not being Millenniumesque and yet, for me at least, Season Two should be the one which aptly fills that niche. Season Three at least tries to return to the original premise and ambiguity of Season One whilst trying hard to clear up and work around the mess that Season Two created. Seasons Three works hard and should be lauded more than it has.

Anyway, my little foot stomp over, I'm just happy that I have ALL three seasons and that I can watch them over and over again.

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I wouldn't call it dumbing it down. The first episodes of season three are what Millennium dumbed down looks like. For me, what raises season two above the rest is just that it has more great episodes than the other two combined. It has some brilliant stand alones, nice mythology storyline and it ends with a bang.

Actually though, the latter half of season one is on par with season two. So ignoring the seasons, my favorite part of the show is from somewhere around The Thin White Line to The Time Is Now.

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Guest Xcalibrate
I wouldn't call it dumbing it down. The first episodes of season three are what Millennium dumbed down looks like. For me, what raises season two above the rest is just that it has more great episodes than the other two combined. It has some brilliant stand alones, nice mythology storyline and it ends with a bang.

Actually though, the latter half of season one is on par with season two. So ignoring the seasons, my favorite part of the show is from somewhere around The Thin White Line to The Time Is Now.

I personally think that Season Two is too much like the X-Files and I believe that this is the reason for the increased popularity and my reason for not finding it fitting in with the rest of the Seasons.

I still believe that Season Two was indeed significantly dumbed down and the grit and dark and foreboding nature of Season One lost - This is also somewhat confirmed by the significant shift in BBFC ratings for Season Two. Personally I would rather see an alternative Season Two than Season Three but this obviously is just my preference. I just find it quite sad that Season Three is somewhat maligned by some.

Don't get me wrong, in its way, I still enjoy Season Two ( except for the absolutely dreadfully done Lara Means descent into madness 5 min painful viewing ), and you are quite right there are some standout episodes although I wouldn't go anywhere near as far as saying that there are more standouts in Two than One and Three combined.

It does seem, to me at least, that the people who like X-Files prefer Season Two as this Season bears more resemblance to that Series whilst I stopped watching, at the time when it was run on TV, because of this. X-files became a little same ol' same ol' to me and the difference between this series and Millennium Season Two became blurred and what made Season One so appealling became diminished.

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I just don't think that the toning down of violence and darkness equates with dumbing it down. Sitting around in dark offices doesn't make The West Wing any deeper. :;): And i love dark stuff. Season two just has different kinds of thing going for it.

I'm now halfway through (re)watching season three from the DVDs and it gives me more of an X-Files vibe than season two. There's the occasional brilliant episode and the whole thing is sprinkled with lots of contradictions and nonsensical storylines.

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Guest Xcalibrate
I just don't think that the toning down of violence and darkness equates with dumbing it down. Sitting around in dark offices doesn't make The West Wing any deeper.  :;):  And i love dark stuff. Season two just has different kinds of thing going for it

A little confusion in the original post. The BBFC ratings reduction quote was NOT related to the dumbing down of the show,

"I still believe that Season Two was indeed significantly dumbed down and the grit and dark and foreboding nature of Season One lost - This is also somewhat confirmed by the significant shift in BBFC ratings for Season Two. "

Perhaps a comma was needed between 'dumbed down" and "and" or maybe an "also" but I think it is still reasonably clear given that BBFC ratings relate to content regarding violence etc rather than an intellectual content - after all this is the BBFC's remit. Even with the missing grammer I would have thought that this was a reasonable assumption for the reader to make. Ah well, maybe not though.

Obviously agreeing to differ is what liking Millennium is about. I just feel somewhat let down by Season Two in comparision to the others, you obviously feel different. Having said that Season Two is still enjoyable, it's just having to get used to the taste of fish all the time.

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A little confusion in the original post. The BBFC ratings reduction quote was NOT related to the dumbing down of the show

Ah, I see. And I'm agreeing to disagree, but for me the lowest common denomination would be something like the show Profiler. Season two pretty much abandoned the basic stuff of season one or left it in the background.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Guest FrankWhiteM

I thought season one was the best.

I consider season one and two similar to Godfather 1&2.

I have every episode of S1&2 and I'm currently Dling as many of S 3 as I can, but from memory felt S3 was a let down compared to the first 2.

How much are the DVD's?

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I'm now halfway through (re)watching season three from the DVDs and it gives me more of an X-Files vibe than season two. There's the occasional brilliant episode and the whole thing is sprinkled with lots of contradictions and nonsensical storylines.

This is pretty much what I thought, although the second half of the season is better. One of the problems with Season 3 is that they were trying to get away from Season 2 style episodes and the serial killer of the week episodes, so instead we had remote viewers, clones, conspiracies and various medical experiments, in other words The X Files, I do love TXF but MM is a different show and it was sad seeing it ape Carters other show just to get better ratings, which ultimatley it didn't.

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