Even the mythology of Millennium was rather abstract, with fans (and the production team) struggling to find a clear throughline running through the interconnected episodes. The mythology of The X-Files advances in a (relatively) linear and (relatively) clear fashion between
The Pilot and The Truth, with layers pulled back and secrets revealed as Mulder and Scully move along. The execution might have been clumsy, but it was a relatively straightforward plot arc. In contrast, the mythology of Millennium is so hazy that it is possible to argue about whether it actually exists.
The show repeatedly suggested that Frank was caught up in the middle of some war in heaven, but in never provided any real explanation or logic for that conflict. Angels and demons seemed to be locked in some heated battle involving mankind, with Frank occasionally drawn into conflicts beyond his understanding. Fans of Millenniumhave great fun tying together the so-called “Legion” arc that is nowhere near as concrete or as rational as the colonisation arc on The X-Files. In many respects, Millennium is a show more about tone or atmosphere than plot or narrative.
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However, there was one very significant difference between The X-Files and Millennium. In many ways, The X-Files was a show that was fixated on the past. It was frequently a celebration of the quirky little places in America that were being eroded or destroyed by the forces of globalisation. Quite often, The X-Files looked mournfully to the past as it became clear that the eccentric spaces in the American consciousness were being torn down and dismantled to be replaced by strip malls and parking lots.
In contrast, Millennium looked to the future. Millenniumwas a show that was very firmly rooted in fears about what the future represented. In The Pilot, the Frenchman is driven insane by biblical prophecy; in
Gehenna, Frank worries about the possibility of a death cult on American soil. These fears were most explicit during the race towards the apocalypse in the second season, or the battle between hope and fear for the future in the third season. The idea that Millennium was a show about the future was reinforced by the fixation on Jordan Black, Frank’s daughter.
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Then again, this underscores the fact that it is very hard to talk about Millennium as a single holistic entity, because the show constantly reinvented itself over its short three-season run. These were not superficial changes, either. It seemed like the show fundamentally changed its identity during each summer break. The first season was a hard crime procedural with heavy religious undertones; the second season was an apocalyptic conspiracy thriller about the dissolution of a family; the third season was a messy blend of those two facets, never sure what it was doing
Each of the three iterations have a lot to recommend them. The first season starts slowly and painfully, but hits its stride once it reaches Force Majeure and
The Thin White Line. The second season is quite possibly the best season of television that Ten Thirteen ever produced, a strong thematic season that builds perfectly from the opening teaser of the first episode to the closing credits of the last. The third season has a bumpy start and never hits the consistent highs of the first two years, but it contains any number of underrated episodes.
