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Season Three

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Guest betweenthelines

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Guest betweenthelines

Well it's been a few weeks since I viewed Season 3 of "Millennium". After the fantastic second season, I guess there was nowhere to go but down. As soon as I saw 'The Innocents', 'Exegesis', and 'TEOTWAWKI', I was highly skeptical of this season. While I liked the scenes in 'The Innocents' between Frank and his deceased wife's parents, I couldn't have cared less about the plane crash story. Oh and what about that little Marburg disease that killed off half the population? Well gee, looks like the reporters were exaggerating because it was just a local outbreak (the farmer in Wisconsin and that family in California aside).

That's not to say that the total season was a disappointment. The latter episodes were a solid return to form, with hours like 'Antipas', 'The Sound of Snow', 'Seven and One', 'Nostalgia', and the suspenseful finale ranking among the series' best. I also enjoyed 'Through a Glass Darkly' and 'Skull and Bones', though I didn't like how the latter tossed aside Cheryl's betrayal. As for the oft-maligned '...Thirteen Years Later', I think it ranks right up there with the comedic episodes of Season 2.

Overall this season was wildly uneven. It got off to a poor start, then improved along the way. I didn't like how Carter and Co. decided to rewrite storylines because they disagreed with what Glen Morgan and James Wong came up with for the previous season. I did like how they handled Peter Watts' character; I didn't really think he was so much a villain as someone who was torn between a close friend and the demands that the Group forced on him. I kind of feel bad for Watts at the end; Frank threatens to kill him because of his fears toward the Group and Hollis always assumes that he's the one to blame for everything.

Well that ends my rant on Season Three. Despite some awkward story-telling decisions, the season ended on such a high note (quality-wise) that I bthink a fourth year could have been pulled off with a good degree of success.

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Guest ModernDayMoriarty

I suppose you don't mind at all then that Morgan and Wong set the precedent for changing storylines in Millennium when they changed what the Poloroid Stalker story was all about. There is a well documented discrepency in when M+W assert Frank joined the Millennium Group and why the stalker is targeting him. M+W also changed the Group into something it patently was not in S1, changed Peter Watts into the man who inducted Frank into the Group (despite Chip J still saying it was Mike Atkins in 'Luminary'!), made Watts into a believer of a faction that all evidence prior would suggest he would have no truck with... the list goes on and on.

I fully accept that the changes made to S3's explanation of the outbreak stretch credibility but so did pretty much all of S2. It simply would not have worked on the most basic level to have S3 in a world where 80% of the population or so had been wiped out. As many people here have attested, Millennium is not a show that should dwell on global conspiracies and such; rather it should concentrate on Frank Black and the journey of one man struggling with his demons within and without.

I stand by Season 3 fully. Aside from 'Antipas', I find every episode highly watchable. I find it doubly incredible because it restored my faith in the show. After Season 2 I wasm't even sure I was going to watch the show ever again. I was pleased to see the writers put in so much work and effort to resurrecting a show that (I'm sorry if you don't agree with this) had been almost totally ruined by Morgan and Wong.

Season Two has its fans, there's no doubt about that. But the vast majority of the crew on Millennium, the man who created the show in the first place and the two principal actors working on the show (Lance H and Terrry Quinn) both considered the second season to be a mistake. And in the final analysis, I'm afraid I do too.

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Guest A Stranger

Yo, I support season three over two, for the record, too. I still like season two but think year three carries much more weight with it's emotional and philosophical seriousness.

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fully accept that the changes made to S3's explanation of the outbreak stretch credibility but so did pretty much all of S2. It simply would not have worked on the most basic level to have S3 in a world where 80% of the population or so had been wiped out. As many people here have attested, Millennium is not a show that should dwell on global conspiracies and such; rather it should concentrate on Frank Black and the journey of one man struggling with his demons within and without.

Yes, yes yes. Excellent encapsulation here. I only want to add two things. One, aspects of SII did cultivate Frank's struggle with his demons, but the conspiracy did not. Two, I thought Antipas was well done and provided further understanding into the nature of Franks demons.

V

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Guest ModernDayMoriarty

'Antipas' fails for me because it seems too far-fetched. Carter and Spotnitz assert that the family hire Lucy and disbelieve what Frank tells them because no evidence of Lucy's arrest now exists... what? Frank could simply pick up the phone and call Gibelhaus who could confirm everything Frank is saying about Lucy. And all of the evidence and files are gone are they? Frank has files on her himself I would strongly suspect - he has files on everything else!

Also, I truly detest that lawyer bloke - the Devil's advocate style person. He hams it up completely and ruins what could have been a tense situation when Frank is accused of rape. Overall, I would like to like 'Antipas' but the structure is scrappy and just makes no real sense at times. Also, the Saint P.A 'clue' is very poor and is hardly the obvious invitation that Frank claims it is.

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Guest A Stranger
'Antipas' fails for me because it seems too far-fetched. Carter and Spotnitz assert that the family hire Lucy and disbelieve what Frank tells them because no evidence of Lucy's arrest now exists... what? Frank could simply pick up the phone and call Gibelhaus who could confirm everything Frank is saying about Lucy. And all of the evidence and files are gone are they? Frank has files on her himself I would strongly suspect - he has files on everything else!

Also, I truly detest that lawyer bloke - the Devil's advocate style person. He hams it up completely and ruins what could have been a tense situation when Frank is accused of rape. Overall, I would like to like 'Antipas' but the structure is scrappy and just makes no real sense at times. Also, the Saint P.A 'clue' is very poor and is hardly the obvious invitation that Frank claims it is.

I didn't find that aspect too hard to believe. Lucy was never convicted of any crime, found innocent for the murder of her son and was only arrested at the end of "Lamentation" for a outstanding traffic fine, which was most likely a way for her to run into Frank again. Giblehouse doesn't seem to have any reason to believe she was involved in Bletcher's death, either. Frank seems to keep that suspiscion to himself, mostly. It also appears that Jon Saxum is having a sexual relationship with Lucy and she has taken hold of him in some way, though that is very unclear. Plus Lucy is supernatural.

"Antipas" isn't one of my favorites, it just sits kind of blandly with me. It's filled with too many cliches. Jon Saxum's line about Divina's health being an "omen" is over the top and doesn't really make sense. Too much time is spent on the Saxum family, which is boring. I appreciate the idea of Lucy trying to corupt a politcal family but it's just not as convincing as it should be. And yeah, the "Saint PA" clue is not as obvious as "an invitation" as Frank asserts.

Which is not to say it's worthless, the Frank and Lucy scenes are all great, it finally brings season three a Legion episode, and it does have a darker, scarier vibe that was lacking.

Edited by A Stranger
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  • 4 weeks later...

I have to agree. Season three was a major disapointment. I wanted to fast forward the whole thing. The only episodes that were any good, imo, were the ones that played out more like they were part of season 2 [storyline, characters, etc].

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  • 4 years later...

I know first impressions are everything, but I have heard some say that season three can be more enjoyable as a whole, on the second time around. I found this to be true for me, mainly due to the whole anticipation of waiting for resolutions from season 2 with "Snow," and that it took 12 episodes to get there! I understand that there were some behind the scenes issues regarding this and that viewers (not remote viewers, mind you!) can only be with "baited breath" for so long. There were definitly good episodes up to "Snow," but for me, I really wanted to see season two resolutions sooner.

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I agree. The Sound Of Snow is where the real quality of this season begins for me and had it started in the the manner with which it ended it could well have ranked as the best season of the show. It was a difficult period of transition between the second and third season for a variety of reasons both artistic and practical and it needed someone with a working knowledge of the show to make that transition a smooth one. In my opinion that transition needed Chip Johannessen from the off and it was a mistake to bring Michael Duggan from "Law and Order" and ""C-16: FBI" to do that.

Eth

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