Millennium-Season 3: Part 1 (1999)

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General		Extras
Category	Mystery	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio Audio Commentary-Lance Henriksen And Klea Scott - 'The Innocents' Audio Commentary-Tom Wright (Director) - 'Collateral Damage'
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	521:46 (Case: 540)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (3)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Various
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Lance Henriksen Brittany Tiplady Megan Gallagher Klea Scott Terry O'Quinn
Case	?
RPI	$44.95	Music	Mark Snow

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.33:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired Italian Swedish Italian Titling English Audio Commentary Italian Audio Commentary	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) is back for another season of fighting millennial evils and demonic crime, and once again the series has been completely re-imagined. Season Two's ending saw (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) the world end and Catherine sacrifice her life for Jordan but that's all largely ignored (until The Sound of Snow offers some closure). Frank has returned to work with the FBI in Washington D.C., taking Jordan (Brittany Tiplady) with him. The Millennium Group and Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn) are now (suddenly, it seems) his bitter and despised enemies and Frank does his best to pass on his hatred for them to rookie agent and faithful ally Emma Hollis (Klea Scott).

    In the first twelve episodes of the season available in this release, teething problems are more than obvious: throwing Season Two's self-conscious religious posturing aside, new executive producer Chip Johannessen seems a little unsure what he wants Season Three to be and heavy studio interference appears to have taken its toll. At best, these episodes are a vague rehash of The X-Files, toying with a few conspiracy theories and focusing heavily on the FBI. Millennial themes are practically absent and, despite Frank's bitter anger, the Millennium Group itself gets very little airtime at all (Collateral Damage adds a few twists and turns though). Frank and Emma's interactions feel a little flat, but there are still enough episodes remaining for things to develop. Pleasingly, though, Frank's relationship with Jordan is explored with some depth and Brittany Tiplady is always enjoyable to watch in her role.

    Season Two, for me, was a major disappointment after Season One, and Season Three doesn't improve on much. It doesn't reach anywhere near the levels of the prior season's hyperbole and histrionics, but instead seems happy to be very average television struggling for direction. Still, part two remains and who knows what twists and turns are still to be played out . . . one can only hope.

    Disc One

    1. The Innocents (42:14) - A plane crash and the mysterious deaths of several identical blonde women greet Frank as he returns to work with the FBI. The Marburg virus is forgotten, Catherine's father becomes bitter and hostile, and Frank's supervisor doubts his readiness to return to work.

    2. Exegesis (42:48) - Frank and Emma continue to investigate the blonde murders. Millennium seem to have their own devious interests in the case.

    3. TEOTWAWKI (43:10) - High school shootings, Y2K paranoia, and a survivalist group stockpiling food and weapons.

    4. Closure (43:41) - A trio of friends go on a thrill-seeking shooting rampage and Frank and Emma bond a little.

    Disc Two

    5. Thirteen Years Later (43:36) - The set of a film based on one of Frank's cases becomes a serial killer's playground. Wants to be funny and almost kind of is.

    6. Skull and Bones (43:43) - Ever wondered what happened to medical examiner Cheryl Andrews (CCH Pounder) after she seemingly betrayed the Millennium Group? Peter Watts may be hiding more secrets than we know.

    7. Through A Glass Darkly (43:47) - A recently released sex offender is blamed for a girl's disappearance. Frank is not convinced of his guilt...

    8. Human Essence (43:43) - Agent Hollis is in a world of trouble after failing a drug test. Her sister, though, is in even deeper waters as tainted drugs begin turning users into horrifying monstrosities.

    Disc Three

    9. Omerta (43:47) - On Christmas vacation, Frank gets caught up in a strange case involving mafia hitmen and their resurrected victims.

    10. Borrowed Time (43:48) - Jordan lies in hospital close to death as a serious of mysterious drownings take place . . . on dry ground.

    11. Collateral Damage (43:46) - Would Peter Watts sacrifice his child to protect the Millennium Group?

    12. The Sound of Snow (43:43) - Frank receives a cassette tape containing audio white noise. The sound has deadly effects on its listeners but could help Frank find some closure on Catherine's death.

Video

    The video transfer is good and of an equal standard with the first two seasons. Once again, like Season Two, the original full frame ratio of 1.33.1 has been cropped to 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced. Consequently, the overall video rating as had an extra star deduction.

    Sharpness and shadow detail are satisfactory. Quite a lot of grain and some low level noise is visible in all episodes. Bright whites are especially noisy (see Borrowed Time in particular). The cinematography is much brighter than Season One and colours are realistic and rendered without problem. Pixelization is often visible and posterization is an annoying issue. Edge enhancement is also visible and just a little distracting. Film artefacts are all but absent.

    Subtitles are accurate and in a readable, white font.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Audio is available in English Dolby Digital 2.0 (surround encoded) and Italian Dolby Digital 2.0. The transfer is satisfactory.

    Dialogue is clear and audible but has a little crackle. Loud voices, shouting and yelling tend to distort somewhat. Audio sync is accurate. In general, the audio sounds tinny and flat. The surrounds carry atmospheric effects and support the score. Office noise, for example, fills out the rears nicely. The surround stage is let down by the track's limited dynamics. Enough bass information is available to keep the subwoofer involved.

    Music is, as usual, provided by Mark Snow. He does his usual good work but pushes things a little too far toward the irritating end of the scale in Omerta.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Audio Commentary

    Actors Lance Henriksen and Klea Scott chat on Innocents and discuss Season Three's teething problems.

Audio Commentary

    Director Thomas J. Wright's commentary on Collateral Damage is less than impressive and readily skipped.

    For our added pleasure, 10 second copyright warnings now play in front of every episode as well as at the beginning of the disc.

    The Region 1 and Region 4 releases are identical apart from PAL/NTSC and secondary language differences. The Region 1 release is not, however, divided into two parts.

    Millennium struggles on, unsure of its new direction, in the first part of Season Three. Average television, thankfully missing the over-the-top aspects of Season Two.

    Audio and video are satisfactory.

    Two commentaries, light on substance, round out the package.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall