Worst Mm Episode....ever

[Guest MillenniumIsBliss]

Heh, as usual I am opposite than most. Oh well, but yes - this show is my all time favorite and everytime I watch I still find it so hard to believe it's cancelled; absurd!

I agree, it's the best show ever. There have been many discussions here in the past regarding its early demise, but I think what it comes down to is that it was simply too intelligent and thought provoking for the average viewer. It's hard to believe that the ratings weren't high enough to keep it going, but I guess the hard core faithful audience wasn't enough after the curious X-files crossovers started to drift away. There are also some issues with the show itself, as well as the cast and writers, that might have contributed, but the bottom line is that the show deserved better.

[Guest ZeusFaber]

For what it's worth, I'm not overly fond of "Luminary" either. I wouldn't put it amongst the worst episodes myself, but I certainly wouldn't put it anywhere near the top-end like many people on this board seem to.

[Guest Moriarty]

For what it's worth, I'm not overly fond of "Luminary" either. I wouldn't put it amongst the worst episodes myself, but I certainly wouldn't put it anywhere near the top-end like many people on this board seem to.

I agree. "Luminary" was not that bad but as I said in another thread there were some flaws in it. As a standalone episode in season 2 it was ok but it never reached the level of "The Mikado" for example. So yes, I agree, just an average stand alone episode, nothing more, nothing less.

[Guest MillenniumIsBliss]

I agree. "Luminary" was not that bad but as I said in another thread there were some flaws in it. As a standalone episode in season 2 it was ok but it never reached the level of "The Mikado" for example. So yes, I agree, just an average stand alone episode, nothing more, nothing less.

Suddenly Luminary is taking a beating, so I'm going to step up and return some of its luster to it. As was mentioned by SouthernCelt, what I think was considered the main "flaw", the question about Frank going after the "floater" can be explained or rationalized. As for the rest of the episode, the score from Mark Snow was brilliant, the acting was great across the board, and it was a nice little adventure for Frank. I can go on and on about what I liked about it, but one of the main things I loved was how Frank was so determined to help people in need that he said "screw the group", and then later, Peter showed his loyalty to Frank and went to help. After Frank was abandoned by the group, called crazy by the locals, and risks his life to save Alex, it was just so glorious and satisfying to see him emerge from the woods with Alex, and see the look on the faces of the doubters. When you add the beauty of the setting, and, as mentioned, Snow's music, it all comes together as a great little episode, and worthy of the high vote totals in the "best episode" poll. Just my humble opinion.

[Guest Mondo]

Luminary took a couple of viewings for me to "get it". The explanation, that five hundred years earlier, a man named Petrarch climbed a mountain just to see the view, ushering in the beginning of the Renaissance, explained what was happening. In my mind, the aurora borealis, served as some kind of gateway.

I can understand the differences of opinion about this episode, this one treats death as a transfer of life more than an end to it.

Edited February 12, 2007 by Mondo

[Guest chagrin]

Luminary took a couple of viewings for me to "get it". The explanation, that five hundred years earlier, a man named Petrarch climbed a mountain just to see the view, ushering in the beginning of the Renaissance, explained what was happening. In my mind, the aurora borealis, served as some kind of gateway.

I can understand the differences of opinion about this episode, this one treats death as a transfer of life more than an end to it.

I couldn't get past the ramblings of the kid, it really turned me off; Frank always makes every episode worth watching at least once though.

[Guest chagrin]

but I think what it comes down to is that it was simply too intelligent and thought provoking for the average viewer.

I agree, and look what TV did, "dumb it down" and write "profiler" and "medium" 2 vomitous shows that are blatant ripoffs of the idea of Frank Black, yeah that's a great idea!

Edited February 13, 2007 by chagrin

[hippyroo]

I wasn't much of a Luminary fan either, until I saw it as an episode about chucking it all and just going away.

This is a fantasy that a lot of people have in their 40's or 50's; when they are tired of the results of their ealrier life choices.

[Guest Pencil Machine Operator]

I wasn't much of a Luminary fan either, until I saw it as an episode about chucking it all and just going away.

This is a fantasy that a lot of people have in their 40's or 50's; when they are tired of the results of their ealrier life choices.

I think its more universal than that, and increasingly so. I'm in my twenties and have for most of my life felt completely pissed off with the materialism/careerism, etc. of everyday life. Personally i think MLM's most genuinely hilarious moment happens in Luminary: Frank trying to explain to the boy's nonplussed parents why he has made this decision - the looks on their faces when they they realise their son isn't going to follow 'the true path' of law school or whatever other conformist hell they had planned for him, is, in my opinion, pure gold.

[Guest MrCox]

Well, as bad MM episodes (the ones I'd only give one star in a five or six star rating system) Id only count three (out of 67, that's almost nothing! ):

A Single Blade Of Grass

Exegesis

Human Essence

Every other episode has something in it that makes it worth watching, but these three are pure crap in my opinion.

In A Single Blade Of Grass the strange way Frank's gift is used just to drive the story along (it guides him into the hotel cellar) and this rather rediculous Indian cult that mixes prophecies of every tribe imaginable together drive me nuts.

Exegesis has a story I just don't buy at all: Remote viewing and cloned (?) mothers killing their children (and hundreds of other people) to save ONE CHILD from the bad Millennium Group. The group trying to kill the remote viewers with a plague (that just kills 70 people in the Northwest) instead of just tracking them down and shooting them? This is meant to be the explanation for the apocalypse scenario at the end of season 2? Besides this, the ending with Frank's wrong report and an ending that just ... ends, a lot of pointless action in a missile silo, I hate this episode!

Last but not least ... Human Essence ... let's just forget this pile of sh... Even Lance is not himself in this one!

(And why on earth is Agent Baldwin the best man McClaren's got?! And why is McClaren Assistant Director? )