The X-Millennium-Gunmen-Realm Discussion Thread

[rarehero]

I'd like this to be a Chris Carter kind of series/film thread, that being:

The X-Files (series and movies)
Millennium
The Lone Gunmen
Harsh Realm (added!)

kicking it off, I just watched the entire millennium series.
at the time it was on the network I was a very big fan.
I watched it all the way up to halfway through season 2
but sat the rest out since I worked on the weekends.

So it was great to finally get closure and see the whole series through.
I thought it brought a lot to the table though.
Frank Black has his almost psychic intuition and insight into the killer's mo
but it wasn't a story gimmick that was abused too much through the series.
additionally although the series dabbled in the mysticism dealing with the
millennium group, I thought the real strengths were the arcs dealing with good and evil.

In fact, my favorite episodes are with lucy butler.
or millennium's equivalent of legion (also called in the series "the base sum of evil")

ultimately I think it was a great series.
even when there were campy episodes,
they tended to rebound story wise towards the end of the episode,
making it worth watching.
like "the devil got behind me" where you had 4 demons talking together
about stories all loosely connected to Frank Black.

I've read that there was loose talk that there might be a Millennium movie,
but that was directly related to if the dvd sales did well.
:fingerscrossed:
I'm a fan of Lance Henriksen, his deadpan voice and demeanor is
phenomenal and to me he totally made the Millennium series with his Frank Black character.

 

[SouthtownKid]

I barely remember Millennium now, but I do remember there was a Christmas episode I enjoyed, and I never like Christmas episodes. I'm right there with you that I like Henriksen and his deadpan delivery. A very unconventional choice to carry a show, but I thought it worked great.

With the X-Files, I started watching regularly with the season 2 premiere. I'd seen a few episodes from season 1 and thought they all sucked hard. But I gave it another chance with season 2 for whatever reason and quickly got hooked. I watched the show until the first movie. That movie was my jumping off point. Didn't like it.

I watched a few of the episodes where T-1000 took Mulder's place and I thought he was a good addition to the show. But not enough to really get me watching regularly again. I still don't know how the series ended, and when the wife rented the second movie on dvd, I let her watch it by herself.

I think my favorite character on that show (other than Scully) was Krycheck (however you spell it).

 

[rarehero]

I actually was a big fan of robert patrick's entry into the show.
It was curious how the believer status transistioned to scully,
who had been there and done all of that
and patrick being the skeptic.
I always enjoyed mulder's character and though you can argue
that he saw most things through conspiracy/paranormal tinted glasses,
he actually was privy to things that obviously didn't fit into
normal categories, lending them to be unexplained.

anyways, I missed just about the entire last season
due again, to working weekends back in the day,
so a friend said he'll lend me the series to check it out.

and stk.
The second movie was fan service.
don't worry about it, if you didn't want to see it.
chances are you wouldn't care seeing it.
personally I'm glad they did it.

 

[twalden]

I'm a big fan of Chris Carter's work.

X-files is great. Seasons 8 and 9 are easily the weakest, due to the story arc. It was obvious that they had no idea where to go with it. All that super soldier crap. More black oil. Who cares? There were enough decent episodes in both seasons, even without Mulder if you give it a chance.

Season 7 is way underrated. So many great episodes. Hollywood AD is still one of my favorites.

I've been meaning to Watch through Millennium again. There's also Harsh Realm, but I think there's only about 8 episodes. It wasn't even given a chance. Thanks Fox.

 

[rarehero]

not to get off the subject,
but I'm actually surprised about fringe and it being around on fox still.
it's very quirky and has an x files feel.
fox has a way of killing good shows.
I'll look for harsh realms though.

 

[rarehero]

So a friend gave me the lone gunmen to check out.
I think I saw one or two of them when they were on the air.
but it was entertaining since I was a fan of the characters in the x files
where they made cameos and then the episodes they actually starred in entirety.

But the series, just like their appearances were comedic in nature and
it's very funny in the idea that the series had a light hearted naiveness to it
that is characteristically pre 9/11 and was kind of a last of it's kind.
I'm not sure if it's just me, but this era of television is gritty, complex, and
more mature. It's like in a way, since '01, television as a whole grew up and lost
hopeful optimism with most dramatic series painting bleak realities with violence
and maliciousness. it might just be for ratings, but the lone gunmen has
this great feeling of these guys standing for what's right and true against "the man"
whether it be big corporations, the govt, etc. and to keep doing that.
anyways, it's nice to see something with heart.

The new characters to me, seemed contrived when they were introduced,
evah and jimmy. but as the series progressed, they developed into really great
characters that you almost can't see the lone gunmen without afterwards.
The series my friend gave me didn't end the series, since the series was ended in season 9
or something of the xfiles since fox didn't want to make another season.

looking back at Chris Carter's work so far,
all of his series kind of follows a theme and formula.
all of them involve searching for a greater truth and in the case of millenium and the xfiles
a trend of loss of important things like family, friends, position, & credibility.
but the lone gunmen, while having for the search of truth, isn't as so despair driven as
chris's other series.

good series though.
something to watch if you'd like to watch something more light hearted and funny.

 

[rarehero]

hahah.
Gotta love these threads where I'm just about talking to myself.
So I ran into the Frank Spotnitz's blog and saw that there will be an upcoming podcast
with Frank, Lance Henriksen, and Chris Carter from the guys at Back to Frank Black

click for the link.


The significance of course being that they really haven't been in the same
place for an interview for years since Millennium and since it's Back to Frank Black,
an online campaign to finish off the series (probably by movie),
there's speculation that an announcement might be made.
Even if there wasn't one made, it would be an awesome thing to listen to if you're
and x-phile or millennium fan like me.
+ Lance Henriksen is awesome.
No time announced for when the podcast is, so I guess I'll check back periodically.

Also looking at Frank's site it looks like he worked with the Night Stalker series
based off the Kolchak the Night Stalker series in the 70s that the X-Files pulling inspiration from.
Looks like I need to look those up and check them out.

 

[SpamYouToDeath]

That is all.

 

[rarehero]

That is all.

Oh boy.

So they did have the pod cast that I talked about
and actually it was cool because it was basically a conversation between
Lance, Chris, and Frank S. about what direction the new (probably movie) direction
they would go with and what they would need to do.
Lance has always been enthusiastic about revisiting the frank black character
and it was nice to see that Chris and Frank Spotnitz confirm that they felt the same way.
Here's the link to the post
http://backtofrankblack.libsyn.com/...nce-henriksen-talk-about-millennium-s-future-

site: http://bringbackfrankblack.blogspot.com/

It's actually pretty deep when you think about what Chris is talking about
with what happened with the world in the time inbetween and what they would
need to incorporate into their new endeavor.
Well, it seems kind of deep when you think about the modeling of the original show
and it's metaphoric portrayal of good and evil in the setting pre millenium
with the millenium group and Frank Black against evil personified either by serial killers, legion, etc.
So it would be interesting to see how anyone would fit a show like millenium or even something
like the xfiles into a post 9-11 world (sorry, I know that term gets thrown around too much)
where the subject matter that was explored back then
might be looked at as trivial, juvenile, or unbelievable.
Even with the xfiles movie they went in a direction away from supernatural unexplained stuff
into a serial killer/mad scientist topic area.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And please check out the site,
they're doing a letter campaign to FX to work on some sort of cable tv event.
Sounds good to me.