The Curse of Frank Black

[Guest ZeusFaber]

The entire show was filled with metaphors. Of COURSE it seemed nuts that the townspeople had put up with this for all these years. That was the POINT of the whole show. The Old Man explained the whole thing.

As before, I could buy into that if it was just the dogs, but it's the complicated, nonsensical and inexplicable set of "rules" about their behaviour which breaks the Millennium mould for me and makes this feel more like a rejected X-Files pitch.

Back to TCOFB :

This episode is near perfection but there was one minor thing that would have made the episode even better: a lack of a music score. So much of this episode was silent and rarely featured any of Mark Snow's distinctive cues. Naturally when they did show up it was kind of awkward. I think it would have been great if the only music we heard were the songs from Screamin Jay Hawkins and Dean Martin. But that's just my view.

Back to it indeed. Personally, I quite liked Mark Snow's work in this episode, both the haunting sounds of the final moments of the teaser that recurr later, as well as the ending riff on Handel's Sarabande. I wouldn't be without them.

[Guest betweenthelines]

I quite liked Mark Snow's work in this episode, both the haunting sounds of the final moments of the teaser that recurr later, as well as the ending riff on Handel's Sarabande. I wouldn't be without them.

I enjoyed Snow's music too, and the episode doesn't suffer because of it. I just think silence would have worked just as well.

[Guest Jim McLean]

It's been a while since I've seen this episode, and I think aside from the season opener, this is the only episode of season two I'd ever seen. I've made my way through all of season one, I'm on season two with my girlfriend, and now, to my thrill, the rest of the show is entirely filled with unseen episodes.

And this is a great previously seen episode to be my last, erm, previously seen episode. If you see.

For me, it's the direction which makes this episode so great. Just simple things; the green light reflecting off the CD as Frank fights with his car player; the low angle shot in which Frank strides past the camera on his way back to his house; the set up of the camera approaching Frank from in between the basement steps; the shot of Frank shining the torch in his face to scare the kids; the numerous shots of the devil.. brilliant work.

As for Beware of the Dogs. I personally had no issue with the ambiguity of the mythology. The town had a geographically based theological balance that kept the "hell hounds" out, and the new building broke that "circle" just as the circle around the old man's house kept the dogs out. I have no issue that the story didn't delve any further into the history of such a legacy because in real life, we don't always get total exposition of a situation. In fact, we rarely do, merely the tip of the iceberg. The reasons as to the dog's interest in the town to me seemed fairly superfluous to the threat and to the overall inference of powers greater and more significant than Frank realised.

What got me with the episode was simply this: if I wanted to watch the X-Files, I'd watch the X-Files, and the set up, the use of generic horror devices (rabid dogs/hell hounds) and Mark Snow's music, just didn't hit me as Millennium, it smacked me of X-Files. Yes, the Old Man gave a great deal of relevance to the legacy of the group, and yes, the lack of Frank's gifts or control was a little more unsettling that usual, but what I've always enjoyed in Millennium is the ability to resolve tales, a story approach the X-Files never could offer - be the story monster-of-the-week or "conspiracy". Funnily enough, "Beware of the Dog" and "Sense and Anitisense" both incorporate the problems of both X-Files devices.

So far season two has not lived up to season one. Mother and Curse of Frank Black were excellent. The Beginning and the End was also pretty enjoyable, but the rest has been very much an X-Files affair with Frank Blank in the driving seat either alone or next to a pretty lady of some sort.. and they therefore lack the depth, realism and dynamic of characters of season one.

But as I recalled, Curse of Frank Black is an excellent and worth spiritual episode of Millennium.

[stuartW]

I too enjoyed Curse of Frank Black as one of the stand out episodes of the second season. The second season to me was a notable shift to trying to redefine the story lines and the underlying pretext of the series.

Some times the results are brilliant other times less so, sometimes the episodes as a stand alone story work better than the experience of following a building storyline as part of a season.

As you have identified the technical side of the production was always first class and a tribute to the director, cameramen and technicians.

[Guest Jim McLean]

I too enjoyed Curse of Frank Black as one of the stand out episodes of the second season. The second season to me was a notable shift to trying to redefine the story lines and the underlying pretext of the series.

In a way, I miss the more straight forward profiling of season one, though I do like the way what we see in Gehenna is beginning to show relevance, as is just what the Millennium group is and the association of consultancy that is now dragging Frank in.

So in the long run (and bare in mind I have no knowledge beyond this point so no spoilers please!) the arc is looking more interesting even if the episode concepts and ideas are a little less fulfilling.

The shifts in the gift is interesting me. After being fairly sure that his "gift" was a "miracle" based heightened perception, the DVD behind-the-scenes made it very clear that beyond Morgan/Wong's episode referring to his daughter's insight, this was a merely a skill; a naturally born ability to read situations better than others. Season two has made it very clear this gift isn't just a skill in profiling, it IS a gift. So I'm bemused why the comments on the making of were so very anti "theological" in the power of the gift.

[Guest ZeusFaber]

It's very simple to me. Chris Carter fully intended it to be purely analytical and skill-based, nailed his colours to the mast and said "not a psychic", but other writers could never quite catch on, and M&W and their staff chose to deliberately contradict this and nail their colours to the mast in making him a psychic in the likes of "A Single Blade of Grass" and "Midnight of the Century".

It's a contradiction, but there's nothing bemusing in it to me. Two different showrunners, two different agendas.

[Guest Jim McLean]

It's very simple to me. Chris Carter fully intended it to be purely analytical and skill-based, nailed his colours to the mast and said "not a psychic", but other writers could never quite catch on, and M&W and their staff chose to deliberately contradict this and nail their colours to the mast in making him a psychic in the likes of "A Single Blade of Grass" and "Midnight of the Century".

I've never liked the psychic angle, and despite the rather clear "bridge" that Frank has in "Midnight", I like to see it as simply a "gift", a miracle, rather than any psychic/esp legacy. That way, it at least remains more in keeping with the show concept. Semantics maybe, but "psychic" implies (as Frank thinks in "Walkabout") that its something biological; a biological legacy. Personally I prefer to see it as neither magic or science, but literally an insight from God or other Higher state.

It's a contradiction, but there's nothing bemusing in it to me. Two different showrunners, two different agendas.

I was more bemused why the interviews on the DVD would set up such a staunch point regarding Frank Black rather than the intent of season one. That's what I found odd, sure, to suggest that Frank's aim was to be a profiler is cool, and to say that was season one's choice (bar a couple of episodes that inferred otherwise), but the to sort of go on record saying that this WAS what Frank's gift was in what looked like retrospective interviews, not contextual ones to the season, seemed odd.

I also found Morgan's point about its use in season one a little odd, as if it sort of lazily explained plot points to Frank in a mystical way, yet from my experience, it didn't tell him anything in season one that we couldn't presume a decent profiler, able to get into the mind of a murderer might find. However, in season two, it seemed to become precisely what Morgan hated. It was a plot tool, albeit not as frequent. "Single Blade of Grass" being very much an example of the gift being used as much for extensive plot exposition and validation as it was for character growth. Go figure.

[Guest ZeusFaber]

Personally I prefer to see it as neither magic or science, but literally an insight from God or other Higher state.

I see it as purely a skill, something human from years of training and experience, nothing to do with psychic ability, nothing to do with the supernatural, nothing to do with a higher state. The more I listen to what the Academy Group have to say on the DVD featurettes, the more I nod along for how it illuminates how Frank's facility has a real world precedent.

I was more bemused why the interviews on the DVD would set up such a staunch point regarding Frank Black rather than the intent of season one. That's what I found odd, sure, to suggest that Frank's aim was to be a profiler is cool, and to say that was season one's choice (bar a couple of episodes that inferred otherwise), but the to sort of go on record saying that this WAS what Frank's gift was in what looked like retrospective interviews, not contextual ones to the season, seemed odd.

I think it's just another example of how very independent each season was. The people who were around at the inception of the show in Season 1 aren't going to change their position just because Season 2 tried to retcon it, and rightly so IMO.

I also found Morgan's point about its use in season one a little odd, as if it sort of lazily explained plot points to Frank in a mystical way, yet from my experience, it didn't tell him anything in season one that we couldn't presume a decent profiler, able to get into the mind of a murderer might find. However, in season two, it seemed to become precisely what Morgan hated. It was a plot tool, albeit not as frequent.

I completely agree. In S1, Frank didn't gain any information from anywhere, he just put the pieces together that were already there. The visual stylistic device was just to show us what was going through his head, interpreting a mental process in a visual sense for the audience. In S2, by contrast, it just allowed Frank to pull things out of the ether and make wild assumptions because he "saw it" in his mind. "A Single Blade of Grass" is the worst example of this, IMO, with Frank literally having symbolic dream-like visions which lead him to figure out the mystery, based on nothing of real-world evidence.

[Guest Jim McLean]

I see it as purely a skill, something human from years of training and experience, nothing to do with psychic ability, nothing to do with the supernatural, nothing to do with a higher state. The more I listen to what the Academy Group have to say on the DVD featurettes, the more I nod along for how it illuminates how Frank's facility has a real world precedent.

That would be my preference, if the seeds of something more hadn't been planted in season one and followed through in season two. Interestingly, I never saw it as a mere profiling skill when I first half watched the show ten odd years back, but this time, until it was rather heavily hinted at in season one's later episodes and then blatantly confirmed in season two, I saw it as a profiling skill.

It is a pity it shifted, by as far as overall canon go, as I said, I see it as a literal gift, despite the indication of family legacy, I still don't see it as "psychic skills" as the genre normally offers. To me it's neither magic nor science based, more a bridge bestowed by a higher power. That does sort of clash with the genetic legacy noted in Walkabout and Midnight, but if we are to accept the gift as more than profiling, the more removed it is from science or magic, the less cheesy it seems.

"A Single Blade of Grass" is the worst example of this, IMO, with Frank literally having symbolic dream-like visions which lead him to figure out the mystery, based on nothing of real-world evidence.

Plus we have his gift leading him to objects of relevance. A far more plot motivated tool than in season one.

The lack of gift made Frank a far more vulnerable character, and personally, even if Season Two had to get more mystical, I don't really feel that the gift needed to be so blatant. The myth and the Millennium could be just as pronounced in Season Two with out the "gift" being defined as certainly non-analytical, then pushed to a new level.

Edited August 5, 2007 by Jim McLean

[Raven Wolf]

It's very simple to me. Chris Carter fully intended it to be purely analytical and skill-based, nailed his colours to the mast and said "not a psychic", but other writers could never quite catch on, and M&W and their staff chose to deliberately contradict this and nail their colours to the mast in making him a psychic in the likes of "A Single Blade of Grass" and "Midnight of the Century".

It's a contradiction, but there's nothing bemusing in it to me. Two different showrunners, two different agendas.

It's funny....

... I guess, like many things, it's all in how you take it. What looks like a change in story direction due to the writers, if viewed simply from the stories point of view, can instead look like the spiritual progression of a character through his life.