08/05/2005 10:1 AM
Posted by VeggieSteph

Millennium Season 2

I have always been a fan of Chris Carter, and I loved this series about a serial profiler who joins The Millennium Group, former law officers who contract out as experts to various law enforcement agencies. Naturally, I bought it on DVD. The series doesn’t hold up like The X-Files does, mostly because we’ve already passed the Millennium and I disliked the Owls & Roosters division in the Group that you see in this season. However, it’s still got the excellent Lance Hendrickson, whose face is expressive in ways most actors can’t even fathom, Megan Gallagher, Kristen Cloke (who definitely needs to find more work), and Terry O’Quinn. Plus, you can’t help but love a series where the main character is named after the Pixies lead singer, Frank Black.


I preferred the series to focus more on the human form of evil, rather than the divisions in the Millennium Group, and the episodes that do focus on that evil and deal with character development are especially good. Season One showed the tight family group that Frank relied on to stay even, and in Season Two, he has lost the Yellow House and all that it stood for, so you see his struggles with the evil in the world more keenly.

The best episodes in this season for me are:

The Beginning and the End – This episode is about Frank searching for his wife, who was kidnapped at the end of the first season. This is the turning point in their marriage, when she sees what Frank faces everyday, and how it changes him.

Beware of the Dog – This episode introduces the underlying history and philosophy of the Millennium Group in the character of The Old Man. It starts off the storyline of the extra secrecy of the Group and sets up the Season Two finale.

The Curse of Frank Black – Frank takes his daughter Jordan trick-or-treating and starts comparing himself to the scary old man from his childhood. You get a good look at Frank Black’s psyche in this episode.

Jose Chung’s Doomsday Defense – Jose Chung is one of my favorite characters from the X-Files, so it was a real treat to have him appear here.

Midnight of the Century – Christmas with Frank Black, with Kolchak playing his dad! Here is where you see how Frank gets his intuition, and its even more info about Frank Black the character.

Luminary – Frank searches for a lost boy in Alaska, except he starts to think that maybe the boy just ran away. I found this episode rather inspiring.

The Mikado – Frank searches for a serial killer who uses the Internet to broadcast his killings. The computer hacker techie is the alien kid from The X-Files Jose Chung episode.

Anamnesis – Catherine and Lara Means struggle with understanding a group of girls who claim to have seen the Virgin Mary, and one girl who is speaking the words of the Testament of Mary.

Somehow, Satan Got Behind Me – Hands down, the best Millennium episode ever. Four elderly gentlemen meet in a coffee shop. Turns out, they are four devils, swapping stories about how they damn humans, and how they have seen Frank Black, a man who can see their true selves.

The Fourth Horseman – The beginning of the end. Frank finds out the Millennium Group is planning on kick-starting their end of the world plague.

The Time Is Now – Talk about a season finale. Wow. I will never forget seeing this for the first time. The final few moments of this episode is so powerful. Kristen Cloke is a great lady on the edge. Finally you see that the Group is not a good thing, and just how crazy they all are. Scary stuff.