New Mythology In Season 3

[HighPlainsDrifter]

I have been getting ready for the Sept. 6 release of MM3 by reading Season 3 Synopsis on The Millenium Abyss. I only remember watching a few episodes when they where aired on F/X some years back. Does anyone see a developing mythology in Season 3? I have been noticing a different mythology developing. Does anyone else notice this? As of now i wont elaborate because i want to see other peoples responses, curious to know if you all see what i see

[Guest ModernDayMoriarty]

In Season 3, the emphasis moves away from the countdown to a global crisis and refocuses on Frank Black and his struggles. The Group are very present in the season but as a threatening, controlling presence.

The events of 'The Fourth Horseman/The Time is Now' are altered to prevent the world from having been pretty much destroyed. Instead, the viral plague is revealed to have been a MLM Group bio-attack on a sect of people gifted with second sight. These people saw the Group and its controlling evil and the Group was afraid of who they would tell this information to.

This kicks off the whole basis for the Season. The Group are people who cannot accept that their time has passed. If people like the Seers choose to look forward and hope for a brighter future then the Group targets them and kills them. A future without them is no future at all to their minds. They look back on past triumphs and hard won years of peace and use these to justify their increaingly extreme methods.

Doing this, they create such fear and loathing amongst those who know of them (Frank included), that they remain a vital and significant part of the equation for modern life. People devote their entire lives to cataloging their crimes, people like Frank and Emma spend their time hunting them and investigating them etc etc.

The Season has a very different focus to Season 2. S2 was all about accepting your duty and putting aside your concerns to aid in the greater struggle. In S2, Frank grapples with the Group controlling ways and disregard for individual people and their suffering. He wants to leave them but feels that pull of duty and the necessity of using valuable information to save lives even if it is obtained by dubious means.

Season 3 is all about letting go. Let go of duty and service to higher causes because by doing so, you ignore your duty to yourself and your family. Accept that the world does not revolve around your actions, that the world simply is. The Group invent prophecy and force readings of obscure prophecies trying to shut this truth out. There is no greater cause than living without fear. Man must not lose sight of his humanity, he must not become a monster because he feels only a monster can survive.

The pull towards needing to feel a sense of duty, that is a greater plan in life is still maintained by the Group and also by Emma Hollis. The fact that such a powerful force as the group believes this and one of the main characters too, means that Frank overcoming this and regaining his life is all the more wondrous when he achieves it.

[Guest ZeusFaber]

I wont say too much, but just that as someone who found S2 to be a step in the wrong direction, I very much enjoy how S3 managed to salvage things with its own unique approach.

Less about fairytales, less about gadgetry and cult ceremonies, less juvenile, less raiding of the lost arc.

More down-to-Earth, more about how the apocalypse has relevance to today's world, more adult, more Legion.

"An Apocalypse of Our Own Creation" are the watchwords, especially for the outstanding second half of the season.

Edited August 5, 2005 by ZeusFaber

[Guest fledgling666]

i agree, the third season has a definite Nuclear feel to it. with Matryoshka, the one with the old lady in the silo and Frank seeing a different future, Closure with the terrorist/kidnappers, Forcing the End (regarding a Terrorist group again), . seems to be about fear of a Nuclear event and about seeing a different future. seeing a different angle as to where the threat comes from. the threat now comes from us, not God, not religion, not prophecy, but from the human propensity to destroy itself.

but as far as mythos? hmmmm.... i don't know, the same players are still there....

[Guest zombieromero]

Yeah I enjoyed season 2 as it went back to the same kind of show as season 1, which in my opinion was the best one.

[Guest Bob Bletcher]

i agree, the third season has a definite Nuclear feel to it. with Matryoshka, the one with the old lady in the silo and Frank seeing a different future, Closure with the terrorist/kidnappers, Forcing the End (regarding a Terrorist group again), . seems to be about fear of a Nuclear event and about seeing a different future. seeing a different angle as to where the threat comes from. the threat now comes from us, not God, not religion, not prophecy, but from the human propensity to destroy itself.

but as far as mythos? hmmmm.... i don't know, the same players are still there....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree with you guys, although i haven´t seen season three (it hasn´t aired in country, but i´m expecting the dvd box set), i think season one was WAY better then season 2. In fact, season one was a true television masterpiece. S2 deviated from Carters´ original vision, and went a lot the X-Files territory. Not bad, though. In fact, it had some great moments.

Anyway, it´s only my opinion. I have yet to watch S3.

[Guest ZeusFaber]

I agree with you about the missteps of S2.

[Guest Bob Bletcher]

I agree with you about the missteps of S2.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It´s good to see that i´m not the only one with that opinion, before entering this forum every MM fan i knew thought season 2 was the best.

Anyway, as I have not seen season three yet, i have a question to ask: how does it compares to the other seasons? Is is more similar to season one or two?

One of the more interesting aspects of S1, IMHO, is that all that "Evil" stuff was very subtle, i mean, you saw all those murders and thought "man, that´s pretty ****ed up", but you felt like it could really happen in our own world. It was really scary, really powerful. S2, on the other way, gave the "Evil" aspects a more supernatural feeling, it seemed a little, hmm, "artificial". For me, it did not work as well the previous season. As I said before, it became too much X-Files-ish (don't ge me wrong, i like the x-files a lot, at least until the fifth season, but they are supposed to be totally different shows).

[Guest ZeusFaber]

I agree with you entirely. S2 started to feel more like a comic-book to me, and as I've said to others, there was too much globetrotting, too much gadgetry, and to much raiding of the lost ark (in fact you could say that the likes of "The Hand of Saint Sebastian" epitomises almost all the problems I have with S2). And then there was the way the Frank/Catherine/Yellow House stuff was mishandled IMO.

I also agree that it sometimes seems that everyone has S2 as their favourite. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just nice to find that not everyone thinks that way from time to time.

Now, as for your question, the best answer is that S3 is really another unique season in its own right, neither like S2 nor like S1. It does return to a more believeable tone if you ask me, and it does start to faze out the comic-book lack of subtlety and the tomb-raiding round-the-world expeditions. At times it does become a bit like S1 (especially "Nostalgia", which was conceived as a throwback), but it also develops its own identity with the idea of "an apocalypse of our own creation".

While S2 explored the apocalypse in terms of religious artefacts, Holy conspiracies and buried treasure, S3 explored it in more accessible, contemporary terms such as the nuclear threat ("Matryoshka"), genetic tampering ("Bardo Thodol"; "Goodbye to All That") and military misdeeds ("Collateral Damage"). At the same time, it also maintained the examination of good and evil as respective forces in the way that S1's "Lamentation" and "Powers, Principalities, Thrones and Dominions" did so, in such third season episodes as "Borrowed Time", "Antipas", and "Seven and One".

This is all just my opinion of course, but I do find S3 to be vastly more enjoyable and less objectionable than S2, and it remains my second-favourite season behind S1. I am also a big fan of TXF, of ALL nine season, although like any show it had those that were better than others. However, I also feel that S2 strayed too far into TXF's territory, because they ARE different shows which offer different pleasures. It's a shame too, as it sometimes results in CC being accused of creating a cloned series, when in fact it was M&W who did this.

In any case, I think you should enjoy S3 if you feel the same way as I do about S2.

[Guest Bob Bletcher]

In any case, I think you should enjoy S3 if you feel the same way as I do about S2.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for answering my question. I feel much more optimistic about S3 now :)

I´ll buy the DVD box set as soon as it is released in my country (no dates yet, unfortunately - probably next year, as S2 was released here four months after the US release).