I mean its not that bad but compared to the first it really pales. I know Season 1 was just unrelentingly bleak but Season 2 is pretty much a narrative disaster. I hope it gets better, I'm about halfway through and its turning into some paranoid poor man's X-Files.
Lance Henriksen is beyond awesomet though.
I think the second season of Millennium is one of the greatest seasons of sci-fi TV ever produced. Season 3 goes beyond "kinda" in the crappy department, but 2 is terrific. Had they ended after 2 seasons, Millennium would have the greatest sci fi finale of all time.
They hate you if you're clever & despise a fool --Lennon
The problem with season two is that it goes against what was established in the first season. I originally watched the show when it first aired and have recently bought the series on DVD. I have finished the first season and am now 6 episodes into season 2 and already I'm starting to remember why I didn't like it as much as the first.
The issue is that season 1 was made to be different than the X-Files and be about real life horrors. Any supernatural element was left intentionally ambiguous. In season 2 the whole good vs evil thing takes center stage and the whole overall tone is changed. "Beware of the Dog" was completely ridiculous and almost laughable. I'm not saying it's bad television but it doesn't fit in with what season 1 was about. Not to mention the humor and brighter atmosphere seems to forced to me. Even the beautifully shot "The Curse of Frank Black" was just a strange episode that dealt too much with the supernatural.
I haven't finished the season so maybe it gets better but right now it's still as underwhelming as I remember.
I demand episode 201 of South Park be uncensored.
S2 is my favourite, S1 is my 2nd favourite and S3 is my 6th favourite (I didn't like it very much).
After the way improved second season, I was mystified why S3 was quite different and worse. All my friends who watched the show loved S2. After observing many differences of opinion, I came to realize more than ever that the human brain has a huge capacity to think differently from one another. I guess the suits who called the shots in the late 1990's had more complaints than praises about S2, which made them retinker the show.
Well, I'll admit season 2 did get better. Episodes like The Mikado, Room Without a View, The Pest House, Owls, and Roosters really did make it an interesting season. I still have 3 episodes left so I'm not quite done yet. However the episode I really dread, Somehow Satan Got Behind Me,is the next episode and I just remember hating that episode. So hopefully the two part finale will be good, everyone says they're good episodes.
But overall, I still think season 1 was consistantly better. It was bleak and depressing and just fit the end of the world theme much better.I'd have thought that with the way season 2 went with the series, it would have been better to maintain that atmosphere. But episodes like Doomsday Defense, Somehow Satan..., Beware of the Dog, and a few others were either just plain goofy or a little too weird even for this show. Like I said in another post Season 1 made it seem like the supernatural stuff could have been in Franks head and were very subtle to mess with you. Season 2 shatters that mystery by implying that angels and demons are among us, taking the show in a direction I don't think Chris Carter intended.
Guns don't kill people. I kill people... With guns.
Nope. I prefer S2, actually. I never felt the series got underway until the episode "Maranatha" at the end of the first season.
shareI LOVED season two! I have to admit though that i was under the impression that all of the episodes had some kind of supernatural undertones. Season one was therefore a little tedious. But as soon as season two hit I was pulled right back in! I found Midnight of the Century extremely moving and casting Darren Mcgavin as Black's father was a stroke of genius! Too bad he only had the one episode. That was where season three went wrong. They discounted season two instead of embracing the strange and moving forward...like I feel they should have.
Also, The Curse of Frank Black, Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense, and Somehow, Satan Got Behind Me were episodes necessary to add back-story (Curse) and humor. If the show stayed morose and dark, it would have sunk even faster.
Word.
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Like I said, I don't hate the 2nd season but just found that I disliked more episodes than the first. And now that I'm into the 3rd season halfway, I feel it gets a worse rap than it deserves. Sure not as good as the first two seasons, but it's still got some great episodes. My only real beef was the explaination of the outbreak but I was able to get over it because they bring it up throughout the season. The episode, The Sound of Snow was great at giving an explaination of what happened in the final minutes of season 2.
Guns don't kill people. I kill people... With guns.
I have just finished watching season two yesterday. I think the main problem is that it does goes against what was established in the first season. There are good episodes I liked Jose Chung's Doomsday Defence and Satan Got Behind Me. It was good that they introduced some comedic episodes. I think Mikado was a great episode(reminds me of Zodiac).
sharemattressman_pdl said:
That was where season three went wrong. They discounted season two instead of embracing the strange and moving forward
I agree about Morgan & Wong. I don't care what anyone says, they did some amazing work in the Carterverse.
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^Their X-Files episodes were great. And had Millennium started out the way that Morgan and Wong took it, I'd have said they were great. But I can't agree because season 2 seems almost like a completely different show. They totally ruined the cliff hanger from season 1 with The Beginning and the End.
Guns don't kill people. I kill people... With guns.
Ruining cliffhangers... *Sigh* I had to tolerance that for years with X-Files, episodically.
There were only two shows in my life I never missed their air times. X-Files and Millennium.(Some of 4400, BSG and LOST too.) And I have to say, I loved season 2 because it was nothing like X-Files. It was actually delivering the long story arc.
That being sad, I didn't have any problems with S1 or S3. I like the show overall. But I can't stop thinking the epicness of S2 time to time after all these years. I can't help it.
Epicness. Good word for it. I agree.
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Season 2 was too tonally uneven and awkwardly paced. The lame attempts at humor slightly eroded the show's oppressive and nihilistic atmosphere. BUT... There were some great ideas and delving into the Millennium group's past, Peter Watt's badassery, and Lara Means helped it not be a total debacle.
shareLara Means helped it not be a total debacle.This helped your post not be a debacle.
i believe the season 2 was the best millennium had, and ive seen all the episodes.
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"Common sense is not so common."
- Voltaire
I liked season two. I hated season three.
shareS2 was and is still awesome.
S1 was great.
S3, watched the first 2 eps, that was it for me. Broke my heart.
Just so you know homer, the first 2 eps of season 3 are BY FAR the worse. It picks up as the season goes on, and the finale episodes are pretty great. Might be worth stomaching through the craptitude to get to the later parts of the season.
share[deleted]
For me, Millennium is probably the best example of changes between seasons working against the show. No matter what stance you have on the different seasons, it's hard to debate this fact.
When a person goes into season 1, he is either drawn towards, or repulsed by its tone, its formulaic nature due to its crime drama nature, and anything else that made the show what it was. Chris Carter had an idea for a show, and the audience had a whole season to decide whether they wanted to keep watching or to avoid it.
Season 2's change of ideas and tone did two things: It created a division between the fans of the show, which has been shown in this thread, and it created a division between the creators of the who. When it comes to the fans, this is a problem for obvious reasons. The show in season 1 had appealed to a specific group of people, and it was only those people who would be coming back to the show in the second season (not counting people who start watching randomly later on). With such a limited audience, they probably couldn't really afford to alienate so many of its established fans. I personally didn't watch the show until a few years ago on DVD, and looking back on it, I'm surprised that the show even survived such a division to make it into the third season. But it did, and that brings me back to the second issue, the division between the creators.
Considering everything that happened with the series, it's easy to see that giving the series to Morgan and Wong was a mistake, at least from Carter's viewpoint. He wanted the show to be one thing, and they changed it into something completely different. If he wanted to keep the integrity of the show's innitial ideas, he probably should have kept a closer leash on their control over the show, but he didn't, and once he returned, he felt the need fix the "mess" that he was left with, while feeling the need to not alienate the fans on either side of the division. On top of the fact that I feel this led to the first several episodes being the weakest period of the series, despite some great moments, it also created a third identity of the series, leading to more division of the fanbase, and ultimately leading to the cancelation that I'm surprised didn't come sooner. Now, other series have had certain changes over time which led to division of fans (Lost and MASH come to mind), but I can't think of one that had as much of a radical change, nor as sudden change as this series had, and the results shouldn't really be surprising to anybody.
As for my personal opinion, I'm with those who have said that season 2 is the best. Season 1 was a bit too fomulaic for my taste, though it did a lot with that formula. The ideas and style were great. I thought that the lack of any entertainment element did give it its own identity to make it stand out, but at the same time, I can't say I hated the fact that they eased up on the bleakness, while still keeping the series dark, even in its most comedic episodes. For me, season 2 was my favorite season of the series, and until I watched the 4th season of The Wire, it was actually my absolute favorite season. There were certainly a few missteps, which seems to come hand-in-hand with experimental television, but as a whole, I feel they did a remarkable job with the new direction of the series. Season 3... As I said, I feel like the first several episodes were the show's weakest due to the fact that Carter was struggling to find a nice middle ground given what he was left with. This struggle was pretty obvious in the earlier episodes, and it made it kind of hard to get into, especially with some of the weaker episodes. That being said, once they did settle on a new identity for the show, that's when it started to get stronger, and I'd say it was almost as good as the second season. Almost...
So, in short, I can easily see why some people would feel the way you do, but I strongly disagree.
Personally I think S1 is far and away the best, absolutely no contest - S1 was gripping and had a terific atmosphere which was lost in S2 which was - for the most part - an incoherent 'son-of The X Files' mess. Yes, there were some good episodes in there but on the whole a huge disappointment that they had messed up what was an outstanding show.
S3 seemed to be trying to recapture the feel of S1 but was a pale imitation.
Season 2 is far and away one of the best seasons of television of all time. It was a wonderfully rich, atmospheric and captivating journey. There were so many brilliantly crafted episodes this season which terrified, inspired and delivered real pathos.
It's astounding to realize that Morgan and Wong only scratched the surface on what they wanted to achieve during this season. Imagine if they had a chance to create season 3 .... one wonders how MillenniuM's fate would have differed.
Truly remarkable story telling. I have yet to see anything equal this season.
I didn't care for season 2 too much, went off in strange directions, some of the humor was just plain silly - there was still some good shows though. In the extras, Chris Carter mentions how he was busy with both X-Files and the X-Files movie so he didn't have much to do with the second season and didn't even see some of the episodes. When he talked about season 3, he doesn't badmouth Morgan & Wong, but you could tell he wasn't all that happy when he talked how the direction the show took in season 2 kinda hogtied him as to what storylines he had to follow in season. Would have been nice if there had been at least one more season to take them into the year 2000, or a Millennium movie to wrap things up would have been nice.
shareIf the preposterous, outright wackiness of the opener of season 3, and a large amount of the first half of the season, are any indication, carter likely would have had no idea what to do with the show regardless of what season 2 did.
Season 2 really didn't leave writers in a corner, severely limiting their options on where to take things. And even if it had, a LOT of the odd elements of what season 3 did were in no way a direct result of how season 2 left things.
I actually think the ending of season 3 did serve as a nice wrap up to the series.
I so agree with your comments of season 2. Now new producers
Glen Morgan and James Wong attempted to take Millenium into
an entirely new direction though I do feel that this season
had some of the best and creepiest episodes. My favorites being:
1. The Day of the Dog with guest star R. G. Armstrong
2. Siren with guest star Vivian Wu as the mysterious woman
3. The Mikado-my choice for one of the very best creepiest
episodes of this series and also one of my personal favorites.
4. Somehow Satan Got Behind Me-one of the most innovative
storylines of Millenium which was also a very dark comedy.
5. A Single Blade of Grass-The very spooky native American
ghost story episode with guest star Amy Steele.
Despite all of the criticism of Season 2, I actually enjoyed
this season and loved Millenium overall.
Lawrence Sunny California
Call me a sailor or a swabby just don't call me a squid!
I just rewatched seasons 1 and 2 and I know where you're coming from. I think Lance is amazing and he makes Frank Black eminently watchable no matter what he's doing.
It's well documented how much things changed between the seasons. I don't find S1 as relentlessly bleak as some. It was rooted in a painful realism. And Frank's way of going about solving crimes set the stage for many procedurals that came afterward.
There are many S2 eps that I really like and most of them are not heavily rooted in the conspiracy. If some found the quotes at the start of the S1 eps pretentious, I found both sides of the Millennium group to be even more so at times. Also, Frank seems to have lost the ability to ferret out who is good and who is bad, which might have been the point, but detracted from the character for me.
Eps like Monster successfully combined both points of view for me. I love the Darin Morgan eps, however non "millenniumistic" they were. He had vision that I really took to. Room Without a View was another one I really liked. The Mikado may seem incredibly dated now, but it still resonates very strongly.
So on to the much-maligned S3 for me!