Singers or rock bands will release an album. It may be their first and sometimes that album can be very successful selling copies by the bucketful and then when it comes to their follow up they disappoint. Sometimes the quality of that second album is higher than the first, but the case is the mainstream are either disappointed, or not interested. So it is with Chris Carter's Millennium, the second series he made after the mammoth success of his breakthrough series The X Files. Whereas The X Files is about how their is light at the end of that dark journey you may journey, Millennium was always about the opposite and thus the tone of the show was set and it may have led to the disappointing ratings and a sudden cancellation after three seasons. This is a shame as this was undeniably one of the finest television dramas ever created, giving us one of the best central performances in a television drama series and giving us sixty odd episodes of thought provoking if very disturbing drama.
Whereas The X Files gave the audience a quirky set of characters in the shape of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, Millennium gave us the dark, secluded and world weary Frank Black, a man who investigated cases of serial killer using a unique, almost clairvoyant like ability to see what the killer was able to see. This set up was fantastic and like The X Files paved the way for over twenty mini movies a season. The stories were frequently clever and very well told and the main performance from Lancer Henriksen, the most underrated actor if there ever was one, was a sight to watch. The series was frequently disturbing, offering some of the most graphic images on mainstream network American television, the stories were hard hitting (incest and child molestation was dealt with at one point) and even the dip into X Files-esque waters worked as the paranormal element usually had something to do with the end of the world thus sometimes facilitating an explanation as to why so many bad things were happening in the world all of a sudden.
The thing was viewers were not prepared for this in light of The X Files. While both shows had the same creator and the same writers and directors, there was no break from the inherent darkness of Millennium. The X Files would counter balance the conspiracy and horror stories with episodes of light humor and whimsical comedy, but here there was not. Even the odd comedy episode had darker elements. A cross over with The X Files would see the character of Jose Chung appear. He was dead at the end of the episode he appeared in. It was story developments like these that let one know that this was not show of optimism and hope, even if the title sequence tried to tell us that. Nope, Millennium was dark, hideous and violent, but it was still a great show that was never given much of a chance. The critics outside of horror and science fiction circles didn't like it and audiences found it too much, but there was denying that this was a superb show.
Like The X Files the visual level and production values were superb and the moody Vancouver locations worked a charm, whilst there was rarely ever a bad episode. Here's hoping time will catch up with this fantastic show and that maybe some day an audience will appreciate it fully.
