Millennium Season 2 - Review

Release Year: 1997 to 1998

Country: USA
Cert (UK): 18
Running Time:45 Minutes each episode.

Director: Chris Carter (Creator of Millennium & The X-Files)

Cast: Lance Henriksen (Aliens) Megan Gallagher, Terry O'Quinn (Lost & the X-Files) Brittany Tiplady and Klea Scott.

Review
Brief storyline of the season, continues right after the events of Season 2 with Frank Black tracking down serial killer who took he’s wife, this season is more overtly supernatural occurrences into the show's mythology, with Frank often coming into conflict with forces that appeared to be apocalyptic or even demonic in nature.

Millennium Season 2 is more dark and unsettling, was notably different in tone, in style and in thematic content when compared to the first season. Whereas the first season looked at the evil acts committed by man usually in the form of criminal investigations into serial murderers, the second had a more spiritual and supernatural feel to it. This was a purposeful move made by the show's new commanders, Glen Morgan & James Wong (creators of Space: Above & Beyond), and on initial viewing of these episodes after watching the first season, the changes are a little jarring.However, once you've grown accustomed to the marginally lighter mood and the sporadic shifts in tone (as good as the comedy episodes are, they simply feel out of place), this is a highly commendable season. More time is taken to explore the shadowy motives of the Millennium Group that Frank Black consults for, Terry O'Quinn's character Peter Watts takes a more prominent role, and the edition of Kristen Cloke as Lara Means is welcome. Though Megan Gallagher is still on the opening credits for every episode, her appearances are few and far between this season.

The highlights in Millennium's middle season for me are "The Mikado" a deeply suspenseful and nerve-shredding tale of how the internet can be abused, "A Room With No View" the chilling return of evil-incarnate Lucy Butler (From Season 1), the "Owls" / "Roosters" two-part story (which explores a divide within the Millennium Group) and my personal favourite two-parter of the season "The Fourth Horseman" / "The Time Is Now" with shows one of the most shocking scene, I have ever seen on a TV series in which a lethal plague looks set to trigger the apocalypse.

Don't get me wrong, Season 1 is powerful viewing, but Season 2 simply builds on the themes the show originally presented and creates a signature series that leaves you utterly stunned by its quality. Whatever your feelings on Season 1, it is surely obvious that it began recycling the same formula in each episode and the serial-killer-of-the-week format started becoming redundant by the middle part of the series. I honestly don't think the show could have continued in this vein as it would have become rather stale. Morgan and Wong introduced a story arc, which the show needed, developed the existing characters, built on the supernatural suggestiveness (think 'Force Majeur' from 1) and focused more attentively to the shady Millennium Group; all of which served to create a more exciting and urgent atmosphere as the countdown to the Millennium itself begins.

Overall this season is a bold and brave development of an exisiting format that builds to a nail-biting apocalyptic conclusion, so if you’re looking for something new then give a watch.

Thanks for reading :D