Review

How do you make a great, spooky television series? Well, here is one recipe for success. Take a pound of flesh from the 1995 movie 'Seven', with Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, add a little demented serial killer from 1986's 'Manhunter' with William Peterson and Dennis Farina, and place it in an industrial sized microwave oven for a few minutes. Then add a slice of 1992's 'Silence of The Lambs', some fava beans and pop the cork on a nice bottle of Chianti. With this recipe, you have the hit Fox TV series that ran from 1996 to 1999 Years before TV shows like CSI' or 'Cold Case Files' and 'Law and Order SVU' were even thought of, there was this remarkable show. It was called MillenniuM.

MillenniuM was a series about a profiler named Frank Black. He could see into the mind of serial killers and offered us a glimpse at the world of the criminally disturbed. He worked for the Millennium group, an investigative firm that worked in the private sector. Every week, violent crimes, as well as the disturbing images they create, were the primary focus on this great series. The first season was superb. We all got to meet and know Frank, Catherine, and Jordan, who lived in their big yellow house in Seattle, WA, and we could almost feel the dampness and heavy rain that Seattle is famous for. However, after the haunting opening theme and the awesome boomp-boomp that led us into each segment with the white screen, we all immediately looked to the bottom of that screen to read the type-writer font, and see where this week's episode was taking us to. We would usually meet a member of the Millennium group within the first 15 minutes, and usually that character was Peter Watts. Looking like a Marine and always in control of his emotions, he quickly learned to trust Frank's feelings on most issues.{Peter Watts was played by Terry O'Quinn, and now stars on the ABC series "Lost" as John Locke.}These two made an excellent team, as well as the others from the group, and these relationships really made the show. Frank also had his demons, as all great heroes do. He was in search of a way to suppress his gift, for the love of his daughter, who may also be cursed with the visions. Frank was also working on his marriage, which was, as most marriages are, a daily battle. Frank Black was uncomfortable with his chosen profession, but he also knows it was his destiny to do this job, which he did so well.

That's enough about the show. If you are reading this review, you are already a big fan. Let's talk about the DVD's.

Besides the fact that I want to tell Fox thank you and it's about bloody hell time, this DVD set is great. All 22 episodes are in crisp, clear and in vivid color, and that awesome theme song before each episode. Sweet! I highly recommend this DVD to anyone who is a Chris Carter fan, as well as CSI fans and any fan of current TV programs that review evidence and solve crimes. Give it a try. You will not be disappointed.

Thanks, Brian R. Collins {BC}

P.S. As I am writing this the date is September 1, 2004 and I just received word that MillenniuM Season 2 will be released in the UK on September 27, 2004. So it can't too far behind for the good old U.S. of A.

BC