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Frank
Black is an ex-FBI agent who can enter the minds of killers.
After a breakdown caused by fears for his family's safety,
Black has moved them out of Washington, DC to Seattle, where
his ability to delve into the psyche of murderers has made
him a valuable consultant for the mysterious and clandestine
Millennium Group, an organisation of former law enforcement
officials dedicated to fighting the rise in crime as the new
millennium draws closer. Frank helps the Group solve the most
difficult of cases through his special abilities and begins
to feel he is finally using his gift to protect others...
Season
one of Millennium starts off on fairly rocky ground.
While the pilot sets the scene nicely, and is incredibly well
executed, the following episodes seem to take the early X-Files
approach. It's back to the monster of the week story lines.
Frank's
ability of being to see into the mind of the killer also becomes
confusing in the early episodes. Is he simply able to think
like them, or is he psychic? Well, if you watch the extras
on the disc it is made quite clear that Frank is not psychic,
yet he seems to know everything and at other times misses
the obvious.
And
the fact that Frank seems to know everything also detracts
from the suspense of the majority of the early episodes. Part
of the success of detective shows is that tracking down the
killer and piecing together the motive and way the killer
operated is the whole point of the suspense. In Millennium,
the writers can, and do, write themselves into corners only
for Frank to wade in, see how the killer thinks and solve
the crime before you know what is going on. This really is
annoying in quite a few episodes.
For
example. In the episode Weeds, Frank can't work out
why some of the kids that are being kidnapped are killed while
others are freed. Now, I worked it out straight away and I
can't see into the mind of the killer... so what gives? And
while we are on the subject of Weeds... how did the
killer know the guilty little secrets of all the men he was
punishing? One of them was even the perpetrator of a hit and
run accident - why didn't he tip off the police?
Some
of the episodes are very X-Files in style. All you'd
have to do is throw in a little paranormal activity and you
have a season one, monster of the week, X-Files episode.
This is especially evident in the season finale Paper Dove,
but traces of it are there in the weird mutilations that
occur in The Judge, the religious killings in Kingdom
Come, and the Noah's Ark revisited episode Force Majeure.
Extras
include: Order in Chaos: Making Millennium Season One,
a 50 minute look at the first season with interviews with
cast and crew; Chasing the Dragon: A Conversation with
the Academy Group, a 20 minute featurette that interviews
members of the Academy Group, an organisation of retired FBI
agents who work in the corporate sector; Creating the Logo
and Title Sequence; and a very out of date trailer for
the TV release of season two of 24... er... this Millennium
DVD is released just before season three of 24 is being
released on DVD. So why is this pointless 24 extra
included?
It's
not until the final quarter of this season that things start
to settle down, you start to warm to Frank and things start
to look hopeful. Sadly though, that will be a little too late
for most people.
Ray
Thompson
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