With his unique ability to see into the minds of killers, profiler Frank Black left the FBI to join the Millennium Group, a covert team of ex-law enforcement experts battling the growing forces of evil in the world... or so he thought. For when a deadly viral outbreak swept across the country infecting thousands of people, Frank discovered it was all part of a secret plot engineered by the Group. Now, disillusioned and outraged, Frank returns to the FBI determined to expose the Millennium Group. But protecting his job and his daughter, who Frank fears shares his gift, is no easy task when there are group members who believe that if he is not on their side, there is no reason he should be allowed to keep using his gift against them. FBI Agent Emma Hollis (Klea Scott) joins Frank in strange investigations that hopefully lead to the truth about the Group and provide answers to the mysteries being investigated in each episode.

CRITIQUE

The third and final season of Millennium is very much hit-and-miss. The events from last season’s apocalyptic ending (a virus was released by the Group) are too conveniently forgotten and not directly addressed. The season opens with the two-part The Innocents and Exegesis which finds Frank assisting in the investigation of a plane crash that may or may not be connected to the viral outbreak, but really we find that a series of women and their kids (with psychic abilities) are being killed off, and it looks like the Group is behind it. These two episodes offer a decent (just decent enough) opening to the third season, but the majority of the episodes are just plain average, save for a few standouts.

In order to avoid sounding too negative on Millennium (though I loved the first season and thought the second had some good moments), I’ll list the good episodes first. In Skull and Bones, Frank meets a man who pieced together information about the disappearance of forty-three people over a 15-year period, fearing the Group was behind the murders. Perhaps the best disc in the entire set features three good episodes, starting with Borrowed Time, in which Frank investigates mysterious drowning deaths, continuing with Collateral Damage, Frank offers to help Peter Watts after a Gulf War veteran kidnaps his daughter forcing the Millennium Group to admit their crimes, and closing out with The Sound of Snow, in which Frank realizes that a cassette tape with seemingly harmless white noise actually makes people hear things they fear most and see deadly hallucinations.

Two other good episodes, both scripted by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, bring back two specific story threads from the previous seasons. The first is Antipas, which sees the return of the evil Lucy Butler, and the second is Seven of One, where Frank again begins receiving Polaroid photographs in the mail. The last two episodes of the season, Via Dolorosa and Goodbye to All That, end the show on a pretty good note, with the finale packing more punch; Frank finds two files inside his car after leaving Peter Watts’ house, one about him and the second about his daughter Jordan.

As for the really weak episodes, Human Essence takes the prize. In it, Emma tries to help her drug addicted sister, and Frank follows her to Vancouver when she finds that a pack of heroin turns users into monsters… wait, I don’t even care. Without wasting your time explaining what they’re about, here’s a short list of episodes you can or probably should skip after you pick up or rent this DVD set (it’s still worth taking a look at): Closure, Omerta, Forcing the End, Darwin’s Eye, Bardo Thodol, and Nostalgia. Also not a strong episode, but marginally/somewhat interesting, is Thirteen Years Later, in which Frank and Emma investigate murders on the set of a movie based on one of Frank’s former cases. The episode also features a cameo by KISS.

THE VIDEO

Fox presents the second season of Millennium in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. There's nothing wrong with this presentation, in fact it looks quite chilly and dark as it should. There's grain here and there, as well as some dust, and some images are very dark. Dark tones and black levels look relatively good. Image quality is perfectly fine, no major flaws. I didn't notice any compression artifacts. The show's color palette is mostly dark, but brighter colors such as red and yellow come through quite nicely.

THE AUDIO

Fox presents Millennium in English 2.0 Dolby Surround. There's nothing going on with the rear speakers as all sound comes through the front speakers. In effect, dialogue sounds just fine, it's clear and easy to understand. I didn't hear any distortions or noise during the presentation. Sound effects and Mark Snow's creepy score come through well in this 2.0 track. Overall, there's not enough bass to the presentation, but the 2.0 track gets the job done.

THE EXTRAS

Two audio commentaries are provided on this release. The commentary on The Innocents by Lance Henriksen and Klea Scott is a pretty decent track with the actors discussing their characters and the direction of the show. There are some silent spots but overall they offer some good recollections. The commentary on Collateral Damage by director Thomas J. Wright is quite boring. He’s often too silent on this track, and fails to offer any good insights or valuable information, mostly he talks about technical things and points out obvious stuff that’s happening on screen.

The last disc offers the majority of the extras.

The X-Files episode “Millennium” (44 minutes) from that show’s seventh season is included to give viewers some closure for the Frank Black character. The story finds Mulder and Scully asking Black for help in search of a methodical killer. The final minutes of the episode are pretty good.

End Game: The Making of Millennium Season Three (39 minutes) offers interviews with Chris Carter, Lance Henriksen, Klea Scott and several episode directors who comment on the final season and how/why they decided to end the show. There’s some good info in here.

Between the Lines (13 minutes) is another featurette focusing on the Academy Group in which a select group of its members are interviewed. If you’ve seen the previous featurettes with these people, you know what to expect here.

FINAL THOUGHT

There you have it, Millennium has ended. After a great first season and a half-good second season (where the writers/producers took the show into the wrong direction and later found they dug too deep a hole to get themselves out), the third season offers several good episodes among plain and average ones. If only Chris Carter would’ve stayed with the show for all three years, but instead he returned to The X-Files, of which the last few seasons lost steam also. In the end, I’m giving Millennium a slight recommendation, but it’s a toss-up whether the set is worth a purchase.