Season 2

[Lutheran122]

I love Millennium and I love the character of Frank Black..it killed me when the show was cancelled but after watching the season 2 DVD set I think I can see why the show lost some of its luster with the viewership..IMHO the first season was real good..the decision to have Frank and his family split up was a bad one and also there was too much tension between Frank and the group to early on in the series as well. The first 8 episodes of season 2 were also for the most part IMHO not nearly as well done as the rest of the season or for that matter season 1. Of course we all know Friday night is a death knell for any show and season 3 from what I can remember was fantastic so its a damn shame it was cancelled but I am slightly surprised after watching this DVD set how uninspiring a lot of the first 8 or so episodes were , to me it took a long time for season 2 to hit its stride and I wonder if that hurt the show. I don't remember the ratings or the reviews from those days so its just a guess from me..The X-FILES had a strong 2nd season , real strong. Just my opinion is all , I still love the series and even loved all of season 2 but I can see how others may have become disinterested.

[Guest ZeusFaber]

To a large extent, I agree.

I don't like what M&W did to the series in the second year, and I still don't know why they did it. IMO, they changed too many aspects, all for the worse. Catherine was even more underused (and misused) than previously, and Lara Means was a shameless creation to give Frank another female sidekick (not to mention that GM decided to cast his wife, again, just like in every other show he's ever worked on).

Interesting that you bring up the comparison between the second seasons of both MM and TXF. In particular, I think it's very interesting to compare the premiere episodes, "The Beginning and the End" and "Little Green Men" repsectively, both written by M&W -- just look at the teaser sequence to each, they are strikingly similar. I have to ask, why were M&W recycling their XF material so early in their positions as showrunners, and why did they continue to do so through S2?

[The Old Man]

Welcome to This Is Who We Are!

I've always found it interesting myself how the fans are clearly divided about Morgan & Wong, Season Two and even Season Three. Usually with shows, the fans are clear cut, for example take the 80's cult classic Airwolf. It had 3 good seasons, then a fourth when they dumped the cast fitted it with a laser and dumbed it down. The fans loved the first 3 seasons, but 100% hated the last season after they killed off the cast and made daft changes to the format! With Millennium there will always be the clear divide and I think that's good news. Whatever M&W did, whatever CC didn't like, it couldn't have been that bad and even in the third season (mention it on alt.millennium and they'll savage you!), there are some classic gems. Ah Millennium, its all good stuff!

[Guest ZeusFaber]

Well said. It is all good stuff.

I'm glad that this board is open to this kind of diversity. Elsewhere, S3 does seem unfairly treated, as -- like you say -- it does have some gems. It's simmilar to the last two seasons of "The X-Files", which are unfairly derided by some fans despite having plenty of gems of their own.

[The Old Man]

Yes, The X-Files is another good example!

[Guest ZeusFaber]

Yeah, opinion is perhaps just as devided as with "Millennium", only the divisions seem more hostile with "The X-Files".

[Guest lonegungrrly1121]

Well said.  It is all good stuff.

I'm glad that this board is open to this kind of diversity.  Elsewhere, S3 does seem unfairly treated, as -- like you say -- it does have some gems.  It's simmilar to the last two seasons of "The X-Files", which are unfairly derided by some fans despite having plenty of gems of their own.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree! i get shot down in flames on XF messege boards for loving season's 9 (and especially) 8 of the x files.

but on here, I love season 3, might even go so far as to say its my favourite season, but my opinnion is listened to and discussed. not belittled.

yey for TIWWA

[Guest ZeusFaber]

i get  shot down in flames on XF messege boards for loving season's 9 (and especially) 8 of the x files.

Same here. I've always said how I thought S8 came as a breath of fresh air after a lacklustre S7. Robert Patrick infused the show with a new energy, and provided a refreshing change of dinamic with his partnership between Doggett and Scully.

Back to MM, I prefer S3 to S2, but S1 has to take its place at the top of the pile for me.

[Maxx Blackwell]

You know, the more I think about it the more I disliked season 2.

I'm introducing my stepson to Millennium and he seems to be enjoying it, so I am again watching season 1. Season 1 was great. I liked virtually every episode with the exception of a few. Season 2 less so.

I've just finished updating my profile and insitead listing my first 5 favorite episodes it's turned into 13 with the first 5 separated from the remaining 8. The majority of my faviorites are from season 1.

In season 2 I didn't like ...

202 Beware of the Dog / 203 Sense and Antisense / 207 The Curse of Frank Black / 209 Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense / 217 Siren

In season 2 I though the following episodes were OK

205 A Single Blade of Grass / 210 Goodbye Charlie / 212 Luminary / 215 The Pest House / 214 Owls / 215 Roosters / 218 In Arcadia Ego / 220 A Room With No View / 221 Somehow Satan Got Behind Me

In season 2 I thought the following episodes were stellar!

201 The Beginning & The End / 204 Monster / 206 19:19 / 208 The Hand of St. Sebastien / 211 Midnight of the Century / 213 The Mikado / 219 Anamnesis / 222 The Fouth Horseman / 223 The Time is Now

Stellar: 9 (39.1%) / OK: 9 (39.1%) / Bad: 5 (21.7%)

Worth watching: 18/23 (78.2%)

OK. So maybe I'm being a little harsh here of only 5% I consider bad episodes. But i find myself when reaching for a DVD collection grabbing season 1. Here's why!

In season 1 I didn't like ...

105 522666 (Kaboom) / 110 The Wild and the Innocent /

In season 1 I though the following episodes were OK

101 Gehenna / 102 Dead Letters (although it was worth it for the woman in the glasses shop saying "I have a name! I have a name!) / 106 Blood Relatives / 107 The Well Worn Lock / 109 Weeds / 111 Loin Like a Hunting Flame / 114 Sacrament / 121 Paper Dove

In season 1 I thought the following episodes were stellar!

100 Pilot (The Frenchman) / 103 Kingdom Come / 104 The Judge / 108 Wide Open / 112 Force Majeure / 113 The Thin White Line / 115 Walkabout / 116 Covenant / 117 Lamentation / 118 Powers, Principalities, Thrones and Dominions / 119 Broken World / 120 Marantha /

Stellar: 12 (54.5%) / OK: 8 (36.4%) / Bad: 2 (9.1%)

Worth watching: 20/22 (90.1%)

Seaon 1, for my tastes, is in majority great! 54.5% stellar episodes - over half! 90.1% are worth the hour of time it takes to watch them! In season 2 it's only 39.1% stellar episodes and 78.2% worth watching.

In my opinion, what went wrong?

1. The decay of Catherine's relationship with Frank. Frank needs Catherine. Catherine is the perfect wife if you look at first season. Yes they have difficulties but they work them through. She's this huge well of support for Frank and she tries to understand him. In season 2 the well has pretty much dried up.

2. Season 1 had the Yellow House. It was symbollic of sanctuary and a safe place. Yes, it got eroded as the season went on, but it was trashed in season 2. The safe life, sanctuary is only a dream destined to fall apart. That's what we're told. Frank in the final episodes moves back in with Catherine at the Yellow House, but circumstances force them out again. Sanctuary - the safe place - is not only a dream, but if you managed to attain it and you've lost it, you'll never get it back.

3. The focus of the show shifted from what Frank does to what the Millennium Group was doing behind everybody's back. And what Frank does became secondary. He was no longer out there catching the bad man as Jordan once put it, but finding out that not only could the bad man not be caught but your allies are likely the bad man too. Our defenders which stand on the razor's edge between good and evil turn out not to be fighting for us, and worse are so caught up in fighting between themselves that evil can walk through the room un-noticed.

4. Frank's isolation. We come to identify with Frank. He becomes a symbol for us. Essentially he looses his wife and child, his friends and his coworkers. In the end of season 2 he also looses a large portion of the world. If life for him is bleak, for us the outlook is just as bleak for Frank at least has his gift, and we have nothing.

5. Hope. In season 1 Frank was out there doing his things with his friends at the Millennium group struggling to make the world a safer place. In season 2 he is overwhelmed by it and we learn that there is no hope - for any of us. In Armageddon (the Bruce Willis movie) even though all is lost and that damn asteroid is going to kill us all off, Bruce and his friends are still on that cursed rock and they're going to keep at it if they can figure out a way. There is hope.

6. Lara Means. Now don't get me wrong. I loved Lara and thought she indeed had a role to play. But for all the good her gift did her she could have had a pointer dog could sniff out evil and it would have been just as useful. I think they should have revisited Lara's concept before unleashing her into the series. So angels appear to her when evil is around. Big flippin deal. Maybe the angels could have talked to her. Maybe they could have helped her in some way like she was a modern day Joan of Arc! Maybe the ability to see angels could have been the tip of the iceberg for a greater gift that she had yet to dicover the potential of. Lara was a character with great potential which was wasted.

7. Frank's relationship with Lara. Now don't get me wrong, Lara was great! But trying to pull off the Scully/Mulder tension between the two characters wasn't going to work. Frank fell in love with Lara through the guise of his work but wouldn't express it. They should have just scrapped that idea to start with. Frank's so clean-cut and so loves his family that I don't think he'd betray Catherine and Jordan if you put a gun to his head. Yes I can see the separation from Catherine as being hard on him, but start relying on Lara? Come on. Please.

How could season 2 have been better?

I think they should have stayed the course of season 1. Let the Millennium Group continue to be an outfit the The Academy Group but keep building the intensity and occurances of the paranormal that were building in the first season. The Group's mandate of not just sitting back and hoping for a good outcome was fine - brilliant even. As the season progressed it would begin to see the possibility that they weren't prepared for the coming apocalypse, that it was in fact going to play out more or less in the biblical manner and that recruiting new members to the group that added to the group resources was required. As an example, a character I'm building for my story - a cop that shoots a kid, leaves the law enforcement field and becomes a priest, but sees that the forces of evil are rallying and feels he must take a more active hand is recruited.

Would Frank still kill the Polaroid Man. More than likely, but I think how he and Catherine respond as a couple to the incident could be handled better.

Lara still comes onto the series but as her character experiences things her gift grows and becomes a useful tool in the course of her life and work.

I'm running out of steam here. Perhaps it's time to post this and let others respond.

Cheers,

Maxx

[HighPlainsDrifter]

My Three Things that destroyed MM

1. Morgan & Wong

2. Killing off Catherine

3. Tie: Friday Nights (even though it had good numbers in that Slot) and,

taking away of the yellow house.

my opinon