Millennium Failure

[Adam Chamberlain]

For my part, I think UK audiences would be much more appreciative of Millennium if it aired now for the first time at prime time. Over the past year we've had disturbing, difficult to watch programs...

I absolutely agree. Two-part dramas such as The Second Coming and Messiah 2 have been mould-breaking, extremely dark and yet garned much attention and praise, notably airing on one of the mainstream terrestrial channels and in primetime slots. Neither are they shows with particularly youthful, classically good-looking lead characters, rather they are complicated, troubled souls. In this context and, given a similar slot in the schedules and the kind of support seemingly reserved for the likes of (the admittedly superlative - and also dark) 24, Millennium could surely have been a runaway success were it to premiere in our schedules now.

That said, I also agree that it cannot be so readily branded a failure. It remains a fabulous body of work by any standards, regardless of the audiences it did or did not or may or may not have garnered. I lament the fact that its longevity was not assured by the higher audience figures it surely deserved, but still see it as an undisputed highlight of our TV schedules here in the UK, or anywhere.... now, or ever.

[Guest]

......what you say makes a great deal of sense and is VERY well put! It also brings to mind the huge success of "cracker",which as a u.s. resident i discovered on the canadian "trio" channel and now currently on BBC-america. i have almost every ep on dvd-r now and i consider it to be one of the finast shows EVER aired ANYWHERE!  the lead in that show,the fabulous robbie coltrane,was as far away from a young-attractive lead role as one could possibly get!! :D   that show also lasted 3-seasons,or "series"-(?)-as you call them over the pond. i think it's what a show does or does not accomplish that deems it's success or failure.-(hell,look at "star trek-tos" for proof of that!)-Though i would have given a "severed-lime green-tongue" for a 4th season of MM.-(and CRACKER too!)

                                     ~peace,

                                              se7en

BTW: can either you or GRA tell me if "wire in the blood" is woth a look?? can you recomend any others so that if BBC-america aires them i can keep a lookout for them?? -thanks

[The Old Man]

Hi Se7en,

I saw the pilot of Wire in the Blood. It was pretty Millenniumistic, dark and dreary! Give it a shot.

Regards,

Graham.

:D

[Adam Chamberlain]

Can't say that I caught Wire In The Blood to be honest, although it certainly sounds as though it was worth a watch. If I had to recommend any of our recent offerings here, it would certainly be the aforementioned Messiah, either the original or the follow-up which was entitled "Vengeance Is Mine".

[Guest jasminefire]

Originally I suspected that Chris Carter imbued the series with a split personality due to his own confusion regarding the show's direction, and one must admit that each of the three seasons was markedly different from the other.  But now I see the brilliant sum of its parts--spirituality, humor, anti-authority paranoia--and commend Carter for allowing the series to change and grow.  

Incidentally, the only TV show I watch with any regularity now is "The Simpsons."

[Guest Tammy55]

Millennium was closer to reality TV than anything that is on now.  The TV people want us to think selected people put on an island, with cameras is reality TV.

Sorry to say that life is full of darkness and sadness.  Unfortunatly we would find it easier to believe that life is all Baywatch, and ER.

We have become idealistic and would rather "believe" life is all great and we all live happily ever after.  Who wants to be scarred - they go see the latest flick with blood and guts or about elves with a ton of special effects.  Show people something that would really hit home - murder, people who really do bad things - they dont want to hear it.

Millennium may never have been made to last after the 2000 deadline - but it gave us a dose of good reality, made us think.   Most TV watchers dont want to think.  They want an easy story, with a beautiful woman, spood fed into their consious mind.  

Just some stuff floating around in my little head.

Tam

[Guest Pencil Machine Operator]

This is my first forum, so I'm not too sure of procedure with dead threads (I hope I'm not doing the 'net equivelent of walking on a grave.)

First of all, I think we're all agreed that MM was just a commercial failure (if even that), and that artistically, it was a great success. So why did it fail commercially?

    Well, just take a look at your TV guide (I'm doing it now): "Confessions of A Cad", "Young, Posh and loaded" and "Porn: A Family Business" (seriously). I dont think Im in any way stretching  logic by suggesting that maybe, just maybe (whisper it) Millenium might have been a little, just a little, out of place.

    Theres obviously a big demand for this grade A dog -- . And the same people demanding it sure as hell arent gonna want to see any of this serious stuff like Millenium (it could trouble their poor heads).

     unless... 1) send Lance to the gym, he needs a bit of beefing up; actually, no, scrap that, just replace him with...um...Kevin Sorbo! (AKA Hercules)

                2) Frank loses half of his brain (due to his visions) and has it replaced by ... a cold cyborg CPU that has no qualms about 'wasting' 'perps' (and thus dispensing with all that 'morality' stuff. tsk.)

               

Well, as you can see, bringing Millenium TO THE MAX (!!!!) is going to be tough, and I need some help. Got any ideas?

               

                 

[Guest MSandt]

I think Millennium was simply too intelligent for teen & dump American Christian audiences. It had no mutants, no big explosions, no sex, no breasts and it didn't feel as fresh as The X-Files - especially after Profiler.

PMO has a point there

[Guest Wellington]

Hi

I would add something that was brought to my attention a few days ago. There seems to be places where local TV production is boosted by governmental financial contribution in order to - and only - produce local. I think that New Zealand is quite comparable to Canada in those matters: high number of home-made shows, a few of them even eligible to cross any border and appealing to almost nobody except the funders. But they benefit from bigger marketing and better schedules. So people are so brainwashed and usually so dependant on tv, that they watch them because them have nothing else to do. And then it becomes a topic of conversation, and everybody likes it. It is worse in the province of Quebec: like in France a few years ago, laughs and jokes rule. So every Quebecer production revolve around this silly fashion, like it or not. Networks are flooded by these crap things, and I am talking about the adult ones. That is the new mainstream. That is what Quebecers want to talk about. Want to watch MM here? Tune on the sci-fi oriented channel, Z, and have a look at the night schedules. Only place to watch it in French, and it is more a teen channel than anything else.

So I think the TV world is far more divided than necessary. The number of networks is a big problem. Too many shows to which you may give a chance, and even if you taped half of them, you can easily spend 2-3 hours per evening in front of the silly box. If I was to do so, I think I would try to get a life... So it is maybe normal that failures are so abrupt, and so dependant on mainstream show characteristics.

Regards

[Guest PROVO_SIX]

Too dark, too complex, too scary, and too violent. ...too cool.

My daughter and wife would not come around when it was on Friday's at 9 PM EST.  But, when they would pass bye for just a flash, it would be quite the chilling scene and way too much for them.  

Gosh I loved it soo...