Revisiting Millenium

"I see what the killers see. I put myself in his head. I become the thing we fear the most. I become capable of it, I become the horror what we know we can become only in our heart of darkness. It's my gift, it's my curse" - Frank Black, Millenium Pilot Episode


If you were an avid follower of the old Chris Carter psychological drama Millenium back in the late '90's, you're someone I'd like to have a long conversation with over what, in many respects was my favorite TV show, ever. And I mean it.

I was a fan of The X-Files during it's earlier run. Creator Chris Carter, then riding on the success of his alien conspiracy drama serial, developed a series that focused on the the inner workings of the criminal mind set in the context of the grim outlook of a degenerating present on it's way to a doomed future, seen through the eyes of Frank Black, a retired FBI agent with a gift of seeing what "a killer sees".

The show aired for a short while over RPN 9 from 1996 to 97. It never really caught on with the mainstream audience in the States, which is why it only lasted 3 short seasons. Moreso here, where the second season was short-lived and the show had to be cancelled midway. It's sad because, for a time it was the most intelligenty written TV drama during it's time.

I many ways it was ahead of it's time. Being all about criminal psychological profiling and forensics, it would be the precursor to today's CSI franchise, Bones and even my favorite currently running TV drama, House. Also it was about the supernatural occurences associated with the Apocalypse and involved a protagonist that had a 'gift' of seeing crime through the eyes of the perperators. very much a precursor to the undeservingly popular Profiler, the more recent Ghost Whisperer and Criminal Minds.

The main guy Frank Black, expertly played by veteran character actor Lance Henriksen was a very unlikely, unorthodox hero. A middle-aged FBI retiree with a young family trying to escape the violence and darkness of his FBI agent days by moving in to his hometown and buying a nice yellow house, very much like the leading man in a good intelligent novel rather than a primetime TV show.

The reason I wrote this entry is because I for the longest time was longing for a DVD copy of the entire series. I looked far and wide into the corridoors of Arlegui in Quiapo but to no avail. At one time, I actually saw a box-set! Season two! But at that time I had already forgotten what the story was like in season I and I really needed to see it all again to refresh. I still don't know why I never came back and bought that boxed set!

A month ago I in the web I come upon the tv-links.co.uk and bookmarkd it right away. Here I got to watch advanced episodes of Heroes, House, Weeds, The Tudors and other shows I was into at the time. Sure enough it was a matter of time before I spent out all the seasons, left with nothing new to watch I browsed the older shows. To my surprise, Millenium was there. All three seasons! I started with the pilot. It was 1996 all over again.

I am almost done with Season one, again. And i cant wait to get into the episodes I never got to see. One more surprise I got was that, even though the show was cancelled permanently after Season three, the writers still wrote "virtual episodes", probably material that they did not want to go to waste. And they were all in the web. the materials go all the way to season five.

They dont write shows like Millenium anymore. Real grounded stories with no stupid dialogue, no cheesy character setups, no 'beautiful people', even. If you haven't seen the show, here are some links to some free episodes. I recommend you give it a look.

Seasons One Two and Three

The Virtual Fourth Season

The virtual Fifth Season