Millennium The Complete Third Season

Being a series about the coming millennium, Millennium virtually came equipped with its own expiry date. At the turn of the century, the "end of days" scenario would either be played out as per lead character Frank Black's worst fears or it would pass in the night with nary a whimper. The series served as a build-up to that one pivotal moment, a perfect paranoid vision for North America's own pre-millennium tension. That said, a certain disappointment still lingers — cancelled after its third season and seven months before the end of 1999, we will never know how creator Chris Carter had planned to handle that apocalyptic moment of truth. Season three picks up with Frank Black (Lance Henriksen), a profiler who can literally see flashes of the crimes he investigates, returning to work at the F.B.I. while continuing to struggle with the death of his wife. A death he blames solely on the Millennium Group, the "consulting" firm he used to work for. Now back with the Bureau, he's bent on uncovering their true nature and bringing it all to light. Newly partnered with agent Emma Hollis (Klea Scott), the season is spent mostly investigating crimes, while a desperate struggle between Black, Hollis and the Group brews in the background. A struggle that ultimately finds Frank betrayed by those he trusts most. That said, while the series doesn't end with a traditional cliff-hanger, it also doesn't bring any closure to the story arc either. However, included in this six-disc box set is the seventh season crossover X-Files episode, "Millennium," which while it can't effectively wrap up three seasons of end-days plot, does allow fans a final peek at what happened to Black and his young daughter. Other extras include commentaries on two of the 22 episodes, a third "Between the Lines" featurette (discussing crime solving techniques with the agency that Carter loosely based his Millennium Group on) and a "making of" season three documentary. This latter doc is the best of the bunch, primarily because the cast and crew candidly muse about what went wrong and why the series was cancelled when it was. Speculation remains that it was merely several years ahead of its time. While the third season is arguably the show's poorest, poor for Millennium is still better than most of what's on TV. KISS fans will want to pay special attention during the episode entitled "…Thirteen Years Later," where the band not only makes an onstage cameo but each member sans makeup has an actual role in the script. (Fox)