...6 Years Later: Season Three In Review

[richard]

i think that season 3 is great to i just hope someone will wake up and try to get the cast back together and hurry up i am getting to old to be waiting i want another show or movie

[Walkabout]

More important.. before Lance is too old. Hes not getting any younger and the role of

Frank Black is very physical.

[Guest ModernDayMoriarty]

Well, I haven't quite got to 'Borrowed Time' yet but what the hell...

BORROWED TIME - C+

A lot of people (A Stranger amongst them I see), consider this to be one of MLM's best episodes. Whilst I don't agree with that, I do think it is a good episode. For me this episode is a bit of a pick and mix. I like some elements and am less happy with others. It is the most overtly similar episode to S1 yet presented coming across as being very much like 'Maranatha'. Now, I love that particular episode so what is it about this one that occasionally bugs me?

Well the look for one thing is very suspect at times. Millennium is a show that has excelled at producing excellent performances and knife-edge tension to inform its stories. A person's character comes through by reference to their posture, costuming, lighting and even the surrounding scenery. This episode shows me very little of this. Instead it resorts to slow motion and eerier wisps of mist to tell us that Samiel is supernatural. Also he is dressed in what seems the regulation outfit for angels - black everything. I much preferred 'Marantha' where Yura was dressed like that but you never really knew if he was something more than he seemed or not. Also, the actions and demeanour of Eric Mabius (as Samiel) are completely contrary to both Rod Eastman's Samiel and his eventual motivations. I just didn't get the idea that he was the same guy from 'Powers, Principalities' and wouldn't have given much credence to such a claim without seeing the credits. There is no scene for me that points to Frank recognising Samiel for who he is nor is there any indication that Samiel has or comes to have any sympathy for Frank's plight whatsoever. I like the idea of him sacrificing himself for Frank and Jordan but the performances didn't suggest this was even remotely likely to be on the cards. Such last minute 'deathbed conversions' of personality are unworthy of Millennium especially given the excellent ongoing work on both Peter and Emma in this season.

Speaking of deathbed conversions, we also get Frank praying and expecting help like he was always part of God's team. Now I accept that like A Stranger said, Frank can be said to be doing God's work by combating evil but there are many problems with that. Firstly, Frank is not and never has been a follower of religion. He states very clearly in S1 that he cannot subscribe to a doctrine that cannot or does not answer his questions about evil and the innocent suffering. He knows in his heart that he has not done any of this for God - he doubts the MLM Group's spirituality and prophecies. Frank is educated on this subject enough to know that trying to do good without true belief is unlikely to earn him any favour with the almighty. It is an unreasonable assumption for Frank to believe God (if he exists at all) would have the slightest interest in what occurs here and even if he did, would have no cause to help Frank. Add to this the fact that Frank has been told categorically in 'Powers, Principalities...' that salvation of the kind he is asking simply does not happen. There is a divine Order - the angels serve Order, not Goodness. If someone must be so, they carry out His Will. One man's wishes in that great scheme are of no consequence at all.

Now I see where Chip J is coming from. He clearly wanted to reprise Samiel and have him revoke that proclamation by helping Frank in exactly such a way as he said would never happen. Similarly however, it rather dilutes what happens at the end because Samiel has also stated that 'what happens here can merely pain me, not hurt me'. So are we to believe that Samiel has somehow ensured his death will be more final than it would otherwise have been? If so we are not told. After all Frank has been through I understand why he would break down and start praying - it couldn't do any harm right? But the scene is badly shot and realised. Frank should be pleading, cursing God for not helping - anything to show a man at the very end of his sanity. If Jordan dies he loses everything. I understand this but the scene comes acorss too much as Frank having an absolute conviction that he deserves her life to be spared because of 'his years of good service' which he and we both know is something of a misrepresentation of what he has been doing.

Returning to the look of the episode I am generally disatisfied with how this episode looks. It uses slow motion badly and includes some extremely ugly sets (the train station consoles and the train interior are bland and look very cheap and nasty). The episode is cloaked in darkness which is severly overused to the point where I was almost saying 'Turn on the damn lights!' out loud. Add in some very poorly chosen props (I could get a watch like that out of a christmas cracker) and the dubious costumes... It just wasn't adventurous enough. It recycles so many S1 staple shots and effects without really coming up with any of its own. Samiel all in black, the blacker than black interiors etc etc. It is was playing things too safe and overusing everything. Take 'Maranatha' again for example. The only use of light and dark sets that was called into attention was when the two sides square off on opposite sides of the fence at the end. The heroes are in light from the lamp above the hospital door, the villains are in darkness from the helipad's tarmac. That was shot very well indeed. This episode just apes past success in lieu of any innovation.

It may sound like I hate this episode but I don't. C+ is a respectable score after all. I like the idea of the story very much indeed. It is also the correct time in the Season to bring back the supernatural divine/diabolic conflict angles after all the groundwork establishing Frank, Emma and Peter's positions in the Season. It confirms again that Frank needs Jordan more than anything else and evokes real terror by threatening to take her away. Also, it is interesting to see how Frank's new, darker atittude colours his response to this threat. Instead of being afraid, paralysed with fear at the possibility of her death, Frank is filled with a kind of righteous fury in which he is determined to do anything and everything to stop this. It is a disturbing sight because Frank is spending so much time brooding, simmering with anger and actually raising his fists in anger. This is the kind of response that the Poloroid Stalker would have given. When told how things had to be, he refused to accept it and took up arms against heaven if need be to avoid having his fate proclaimed to him. Frank is full of anger and hatred in this episode. He doesn't want to hear people like Emma telling him he is wrong about Samiel. If they don't want to accept it then fine, he'll do it himself. He is angry at Emma, Samiel, God, even the hospital staff get it in the neck from Frank in this episode!

But Chip J rarely ends episodes on negative notes. By finally breaking down and showing his grief (even though I didn't like how it was done, I like the idea), Frank is finally rewarded. He releases his hate and shows how terrified he really is. For this, not only is he given back his daughter but also hears of his wife too. Samiel dies it seems, to give Frank something back. Not just his daughter but the ability to recognise again properly what is important. From this episode and 'The Sound of Snow', Frank's rehabilitation begins in earnest as he moves towards letting go of his grief over his wife, his fear of violence to his home and family and finally the need for vengeance.

'Borrowed Time' is a difficult episode for me. I love the story itself and there are some arresting visuals. But it just lacks excitement on occasion because it is using the same old S1 tricks and generally looks badly presented in many areas. The performances really don't grip me either because in such a situation I would rather see Frank afraid and displaying a greater spectrum of emotions than simple anger and rage. There is some of that of course but I stand by my earlier comments that Lance H is not on his best form in this episode perhaps due to being alienated from how angry he was asked to be with Frank in this episode. However i understand why he is being asked to be like that so I can forgive it (less so the very badly handled prayer scene at the end - again good idea, shame about the execution). Eric Mabius does absolutely nothing for me as Samiel either. He is irritating and arrogant and not at all like Samiel in 'Powers, Principalities'. That episode showed how the spirit of angels/demons appeard to remain essentially the same (because of the excellent comparisons between The Judge and Allistair Pepper). Mabius plays Samiel completely differently, evokes no interest and gives no indication he could less about Frank.

So why C+, isn't that a bit harsh? Well despite everything, I love Chip J episodes usually. The story, I cannot emphasise enough, is very good indeed. The links to S1 plot-wise are welcome (though as I have said are not realised as well as they could be). But the episode is tense when it needs to be and is interesting enough to keep interest focused. The return of the serious attitude to the Divine is also very welcome (no silly shining angels like those in S2 for example) but they didn't do enough work on making it fresh. I simply feel that they dropped the ball on executing this episode. It lacks the razor-edge tension of 'Skull and Bones' for example and is simply far too lazy in its presentation of the supernatural. Despite liking the core ideas, this is an episode i rarely watch. With murky camerawork, grey unappealing sets and poorly chosen cast and performance ideas, this was something of a letdown for me.

[Guest A Stranger]

In response to the visuals, I do love them. It's funny becuase that is one aspects I forget to mention, the look of the episode. I love the bright blindng lights seen throught out the episode. The pale/blue pastels hightlight the story exceptionaly. As for Samiel, I never really saw him as the same character as the one before in "Powers." He does have a different name, it's spelt differently, and it seems there is an attempt in Mabius' performance, to show he is someone different. I've always seen him as apart of the same order that the previous Samual was. But it could be that Mabius is meant to be playing the same character and took his own slant. But I find it hard to believe Chip J meant it to be that way. Mabius is doing a 360 of the first one.

[Guest ModernDayMoriarty]

You have to be very careful with arty visuals like those in 'Borrowed Time'. Too much slow motion, severe light and dark etc engenders a distance from the story and places a certain coldness between the viewer and the episode. Episodes like this have to tread very carefully or they lose the human touch. The supernatural elements and intricacy of the story leave little time for character interaction - it loses any sense of real participation in the episode by the characters as they simply walk about seeing plot unfold. Chris Carter is someone who in early X-Files and most MLM episodes he writes, handles very well. Others are less accomplished at it. Like here.

[Guest A Stranger]

You have to be very careful with arty visuals like those in 'Borrowed Time'. Too much slow motion, severe light and dark etc engenders a distance from the story and places a certain coldness between the viewer and the episode. Episodes like this have to tread very carefully or they lose the human touch. The supernatural elements and intricacy of the story leave little time for character interaction - it loses any sense of real participation in the episode by the characters as they simply walk about seeing plot unfold. Chris Carter is someone who in early X-Files and most MLM episodes he writes, handles very well. Others are less accomplished at it. Like here.

I think I see what you're refering to. This happened a lot in sesaon two, I think. Things like Lara's mental breakdown "music video" sequence. It disconects the audience from the story, not just by bad pacing but pointing out that they are watching a TV show. I understand what you mean by losing the "human touch," but I think it should be viewed as something different all together and not necesarrily something bad. It's a different way of telling a story. I don't like it as much and it could be out of place by some standards of what MLM should be too.

I didn't think the visuals in "Borrowed Time" were all that arty compared to what has been done in series the year before. The episode didn't work for you, that's cool. It did for me.

[vain68]

Darwin's eye...now that may be the best episode, in content and form, of SIII and perhaps of the series in my mind; I have much more to say about this episode very soon...

[Guest ModernDayMoriarty]

Really? Personally speaking I thought 'Darwin's Eye' was quite a weak episode. The whole setup seemed enormusly contrived and many of the visuals were scrappy and silly rather than scary. About the only parts I did like were those of Emma and her father.

[Guest A Stranger]

Really? Personally speaking I thought 'Darwin's Eye' was quite a weak episode. The whole setup seemed enormusly contrived and many of the visuals were scrappy and silly rather than scary. About the only parts I did like were those of Emma and her father.

I thought the Frank/Emma/Baldwin relationship works here really well. I think they kind of forgot about Baldwin mid year and when they brought him back, I think he worked well of Frank and Emma. I Also really like how the story unfolds, I thought it worked really well. I like how it plays on the conspiracy threads in the show and how it turns out really simple in the end. It also does a good job of playing around with each character's perspective and how that perspective can alter each person's reality, which was one of the major focuses of year one.

[Guest ModernDayMoriarty]

Aside from a few scenes, Baldwin still doesn't get anything to do though which annoys me. The story with the girl seems wildly improbable also. Frank just doesn't have his usual excellent insight because it is convenient for him not to... sloppy. Plus the writing on the wall forming the picture of the girl - no-one noticed this? It was like a very poor version of the reveal they used in the X-File 'Conduit'.

It isn't a terrible episode but it has absolutely no power as far as I'm concerned. Opportunities with Baldwin are wasted, Frank and Emma seem unusally blaise about the murders (they joke about the head falling on Baldwin - when does Frank *ever* joke about crime scenes and victims or condone it?) Henrisksen states that the fact Baldwin acts in such a manner is a primary reason he felt Frank didn't like him in the commentary for 'The Innocents'.

The detective work is also very suspect utilising methods akin to Glen Morgan's personal irritation (Frank touchs a coffee cup - hey, the killer held a coffee cup!) I love Patrick Harbinson's writing generally but I consider this one of his lesser episodes.