Destination: Florida, Washington D.C., Virginia
"Nobody likes a math geek, Scully."
It's the end of an era with this tribute to 1013 Productions three-season offering, Millennium. Unfortunately, it's not a great send-off. It's not a great crossover either. I realize that given the entire catalog of The X-Files, it's not a bad episode, exactly, either. It's just sort of ho-hum. The world didn't end, as they say.
Millennium was a very interesting show that deserved better than Fox gave it. For example, it was cancelled for Carter's 'shinier' new show, Harsh Realm. Lord knows, Frank Black was a bit of a revolution for the TV world at large. I can't remember when someone so morose was our steadfast protagonist, before or since. The show had, at times, elegant focus, and it was always well-executed and well-written. It was different than its predecessor in all of the right ways. In the end, the low ratings weighed it down. But, throughout the whole series, Lance Henriksen's Black was memorable and watchable. Unfortunately, in 'Millennium,' he was relegated to 'tight-lipped mental institution resident', thus not a very compelling character to help Mulder and Scully solve this one. Whereby given another story and set of circumstances, the conversation and intelligence shared among these three might have sparked something great.
As an X-File, this works as a pretty cool concept. What's not to love about zombies? My lord, that salt pile in the deputy's mouth was quite something! I did one watch, to grab some screenshots, without sound because of reasons, and was floored by the ease of body language and facial expressions between Mulder and Scully that screamed of their closeness. There's not a form of communication between these two that doesn't have a shorthand by now. It's just lovely.
But, the pacing and some of the production values were off. Every scene in the mental health ward was boring and only when Black checks himself out does he get anything fun to do. The editing in the fourth act is weird, at best. The lighting is off and makes the climax hard to follow and uninteresting. To me the best stuff was the idea of the necromancy and the scenes with Holmes Osbourne (as le necromancer) and of course, Mulder and Scully chatter. Also, haha, Chris Carter, yes, your beloved Millennium gets resurrected for one more showing. You are the necromancer!
Now for the kiss. First of all, it lasts for seven seconds. Seven glorious seconds. Amen that they finally pulled the trigger on this. And amen that Vince Gilligan laid that scene on a page (to be directed by seasoned Millennium director, Thomas Wright), because he consistently wrote the MSR very very well. From the looks exchanged to the tenderness, to the softness of this moment, this kiss does go down in the history of this show. Can't wait to see where this goes.
You know you want to relive this. |
Other Thoughts
The necromancer is played with creepy aplomb by Osbourne – character actor extraordinaire (95 entries on his IMDb) – and the dad of my sister's college mate. (In the name of Mulder and Scully, you can assume I stalked him when I found this out.)
I've watched this entire episode about 12 times in my life, but the last 5 minutes about 200.
Look who I found! |
Scully's reaction when the picture of the ouroboros is being passed around = perfection.
Quotes
Scully: "See, you had me up until there."
Mulder: "Did I?"
Final Analysis: If you never watched Millennium and/or you love the love, you might enjoy this one better.
Terrific review, Heather.
ReplyDeleteI've always liked Lance Henriksen because he was in at least two of my favorite movies, and I did watch Millennium for awhile, but didn't stay with it.
Billie,
ReplyDeleteAre you referring to 'Alien'?!!! Thanks for commenting. I really like it when you pop by these XF reviews. Millennium was a tough show to stay with. It reinvented itself though, in successive seasons, which helped.
Heather,
ReplyDeleteLance Henriksen was in Aliens (the sequel to Alien) and The Terminator, two of my absolute favorite movies. In fact, Henriksen was originally supposed to play the Terminator, but the movie concept changed and they gave him another role, which he of course played the heck out of.
I've watched this entire episode about 12 times in my life, but the last 5 minutes about 200.
ReplyDeleteI can't claim to have watched the episode that many times, but those last five minutes? Too many to count! Finally.
I never watched Millennium, so this episode probably doesn't resonate with me the way it might have done. Don't hate it; don't love it.