Um...guys? What about "Millennium - Season 3"? (1 Viewer)

[David_Blackwell]

Millennium Season 3 DVD Review

No billigunal art on the S3 set for the USA. I don't know what will be the case in Canada.

 

[David_Blackwell]

Bill, I probably didn't respond because I have a million different things going on this week (like reviewing LOST Season One and Millennium Season Three, writing other stuff, and so on).

 

[GuruAskew]

Yeah, I wasn't angry or anything, my mention here was probably only an hour or two after I posted there. I am curious about whether or not the cover art is bilingual, though.

Edit: David's response there says that there is no French text on the US release.

 

[TravisR]

Thanks for the review, David! Can't wait to hear Lance's commentary

 

[DanielW]

Bill, to answer your question about Amazon pre-orders, I just got an e-mail from them today saying that they've shipped Millennium S3 to me. I chose their free shipping, so I'll probably get it on Wednesday or Thursday, but if you chose the quick shipping option, I would expect to get it on Tuesday.

 

[GuruAskew]

Mine hasn't shipped yet but I just checked my status and it says it's being prepared for shipment and cannot be modified or deleted. I guess I probably will get it Tuesday after all.

 

[Robin_B]

This will probably be my only purchase for a while. I look forward to seeing season 3 after what I consider a not-so-good season 2. As far as picture quality goes I'm sure this one will be up there with 1 & 2 as some of the best video I've seen on DVD.

 

[Pete Battista]

Looking forward to getting season 3 myself... Millennium: Season 1 was a blind buy for me... so these are all new to me.

Can't wait to complete another series!

 

[TravisR]

I'm six episodes into Season Three so far and I gotta say that the episodes are better then I remember (eventhough I have VHS copies I haven't seen them for about 5 years). The show goes back more towards the first season and Frank is hunting violent criminals rather than serial killers. I still think it's the weakest season of the show but nevertheless I'd recommend that anyone who liked the other two years to, at least, give it a rental.

 

[GuruAskew]

Amazon took their sweet time shipping mine. They had it in "shipping soon" mode since Sunday and only shipped it on Tuesday, meaning I couldn't cancel it. I couldn't wait so I headed to Wal-Mart at midnight in hopes that they would have it. Luckily, they did and I bought it there. When my Amazon copy arrives it's going back to Wal-Mart. As for my progress on the set, I have currently made it through the first four(!) discs in less than 24 hours. I plan on getting to 5&6 as soon as I finish posting this. My excitement for the DVD has more to do with finally completing my Ten Thirteen collection than actually anticipating this particular season. On the contrary, I expected the worst out of it. That said, I've been pleasantly surprised thus far. It doesn't stack up to the other two seasons but it's far from unwatchable. Anyways, I'm off to watch "Darwin's Eye". Next time you see me posting here, I'll have officially watched everything with the "Ten Thirteen" name on it that's ever been released.

 

[GuruAskew]

So, I finished watching all 22 episodes early yesterday morning. First of all, I wanna say that I'm a defender of Seasons 8 & 9 of "The X-Files", I'm in the minority when I say that I think all of the stuff Chris Carter and Ten Thirteen ever did was, at the very least, pretty good. Still, I think Season 3 of "Millennium" is undoubtedly the worst of the three. Don't get me wrong, I liked them enough to watch all 22 episodes in just over 24 hours, I just think Season 3 suffers because it seems they were either trying to copy Season 1 or totally ignore Season 2 as much as possible without literally writing it off. On top of that, it definitely seemed like they were trying to repeat the "X-Files" success by adding all the FBI stuff. Still, there were some great episodes, like "The Sound of Snow", "Antipas" and "Saturn Dreaming of Mercury". I could barely stay awake after watching all the episodes so I left the "X-Files" episode and the two featurettes for today. I had already seen the "X-Files" episode on the Season 7 box set before I ever saw an episode of "Millennium". That was over a year before Season 1 of "Millennium" came out on DVD and I refused to watch it again until after I had seen all 3 seasons of "Millennium". Now that I have I can definitely agree with the overall negative opinion of that episode. I think it fails as both an "X-Files" and a "Millennium". It is undeniably ridiculous to send a great character like Frank Black off by shooting zombies, not to mention that it didn't tie up any of the loose ends of the story. Frank Spotnitz discusses this on the featurette, he basically says that it provides closure for Frank Black as a character and not "Millennium" as a show. On that level, I think it succeeds somewhat. It's nice to see Frank and Jordan surviving into the Millennium with the Group disbanded. Anyways, it's sad to see that I have no new Ten Thirteen stuff to look forward to. I can understand why everyone is so impatient with Chris Carter. Now I'm looking forward to the release of "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" on DVD. I already have the MGM "Stalker/Strangler" double-feature. Don't be surprised to see me repeatedly posting in Kolchak-related threads until it's released on the 4th. That's just gonna be a temporary fix, though. I don't think the new Spotnitz version is gonna last too long and I haven't heard many good things about it.

 

[Andrew Bunk]

Bill,

I had to chuckle at your purchasing it at Wal-mart when you had it on the way, as I've done this many times. I'm not the patient type.

Just don't be scared when your shipped copy sets off their security system on the way into the store.

 

[PaulP]

So is Ten Thirteen no more? Is Chris Carter trying to create any other new shows? There's the second X-Files film, also...

 

[GuruAskew]

I don't know about Ten Thirteen's future. It definitely seems to be something solely used by Carter. Otherwise one would think that, as President of Ten Thirteen, Spotnitz probably could have gotten away with producing "The Night Stalker" under the Ten Thirteen banner. Instead, Spotnitz formed his own production company, "Big Light Productions". If anyone other than Carter could still operate under that production company it would be Spotnitz, and the fact that he isn't would suggest that Ten Thirteen exists exclusively for Chris Carter projects. Carter himself seems to be taking it easy since the end of "The X-Files". He's expressed interest in writing a couple screenplays called "The World of Ted Serios" and "A Paranormal Investigation" (both book adaptations) in addition to a new "X-Files" movie but to be completely honest, these don't seem to be any closer to production than when they were first announced. It seems like everyone is on-board but nobody is making an active attempt to get the ball rolling. I'd think that Fox would eventually put some pressure on Carter to get a movie out. On one hand, the show did experience decreasing viewership as time went on, but on the other hand Fox obviously sees the show as a DVD cash cow. Anyways, I know that the actual Ten Thirteen offices were shut down after the final episode of "The X-Files" was produced but I'm fairly certain that it will always exist as long as Carter is alive and working.

 

[TravisR]

I'm up to Darwin's Eye. After about a 1/3 or so of the way through Season Three, they seemed to drop the cop show aspect a little bit and go for more of a supernatural feel. As I said before, looking back the episodes aren't as 'bad' as I once thought. They're the weakest of the series but they're still not as bad as their reputation might lead you to believe. TEOTWAWKI, Closure, Skull & Bones, Borrowed Time, Collateral Damage, Matryoshka, Saturn Dreaming Of Mercury are all pretty good. Omerta and ...Thirteen Year Later (their attempt at Darin Morgan) were both alright. And I think The Sound Of Snow stands with some of the best episodes of Millennium.

I like The X-Files episode only because you get to see Frank Black reunite with his daughter as the new millennium begins. When I heard that that episode was happening, I was sure that they weren't getting into the Millennium Group so I wasn't too surprised/dissapointed when the episode had almost nothing to do with the series. The one thing that irked me was that Skinner says that the Group disbanded a few months ago. They had existed for hundreds of years and suddenly right before their big date, they just fall apart and disband. What kind of cult is that?

I think 1013's days of TV are over. Maybe someday Chris Carter will get another show going but, as Bill mentioned, Carter currently seems to be more interested in movies. That Ted Serios script has been around forever.

They sure as hell had a great run and I'm happy it's ALL on DVD. Now onto The X-Files sequel!

 

[Mike Graham]

At the Walmart yesterday, they had S1 and S2 marked down to $43CDN each. S3 was priced around $55. For such high quality sets these prices are awesome.

 

[Mike Graham]

Got this set as a gift today, and I've already gone through the first disc, and the extras. The series doesn't seem to get into Frank's head that much anymore, and feels more like an ensemble or police procedurial series - each season feels separate from one another, much like "24". And like someone has already stated, the episodes aren't as bad as I remember them.

Once again, the crystal clear video quality of these releases shows FOX is one of the best studios for TV-DVD sets!

 

[GuruAskew]

The first few episodes had Chip Johanneson and Michael Duggan serving together as executive producers. The episodes that Duggan worked on are the weakest of the series and he quickly got the axe, and the episodes with Johanneson serving as the only executive producer (other than Chris Carter, who got the credit on seasons 2&3 of "Millennium" even though he didn't work on them in any hands-on capacity) are noticeably better.

 

[Ric Easton]

I have not picked up season 3... yet. As I remember, they started the season out with little or no reference to what seemed to be a major cliffhanger at the end of season 2. I quickly became disgusted and gave up on the series. Did they ever address what happened more fully?

 

[Marko Berg]

...with the notable exception of Thirteen Years Later, an absolutely brilliant spoof Halloween episode. As far as quality goes, it's right up there with The Curse of Frank Black from the second season.

I also have to agree about the video quality. Season 3 looks absolutely marvellous, no complaints here.