1x01 Pilot
Millennium (1996)
1x01 Pilot, written by Chris Carter, directed by David Nutter.
This is a good first episode where so much is introduced without making it seem packed too full. We have all the main characters, the new yellow house, Frank's red jeep and that dull green coat he always wears. We hear his calm, gravelly voice for the first time. He seems just a little breathless.
We hear Mark Snow's main title and music. He understood the show as well as anyone and supports every story throughout.
The plot is the sort of police procedural emphasized in the first season. We open in a grubby peep show place where the dancers are beautiful and the men are sleazy creeps. The serial killer writes and mutters apocalyptic poetry. "The great plague in the maritime city" suggests events at the end of the second season. We find he is quoting Yeats, Nostradamus and the Bible. A criticism: he monologues when caught.
Audiences had seen The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Se7en (1995) and knew this sort of story. I look forward to further developments, a mythology beyond profiling and psycho-killers.
The original intent was to do without supernatural elements, but I don't see how it could be avoided. Already the seeds are planted: Frank's gift of seeing the crimes and understanding the killers is visionary, inexplicable. The title of the show. The apocalyptic content and ominous tone is taking us somewhere.
We learn that Frank did police work in "sexual murders" for 10 years in Seattle, moved to DC with the FBI and is now consulting with the Millennium Group, ex-law enforcement people. We meet Terry O'Quinn as Peter Watts, another member of the Group who will have a tortuous path through the series.
Frank's only joy is in his family: lovely wife Megan Gallagher ("Catherine") and adorable daughter Brittany Tiplady ("Jordan"). Catherine understands his work and he could lean on her more than he does, but he dreads getting her involved. His nightmare is not being able to protect them.
This is his crippling fear. He started receiving anonymous photos of them, just like the MO of a killer in prison. He quit his job and stopped going out because he had to stay with his wife and daughter to protect them.
At the end of this episode: more photos. The stalker has followed them to Seattle.
Set in Seattle but filmed in Vancouver.
On DVD season 1 is 4:3 aspect ratio; 2 and 3 are 16:9.
Chris Carter provides a commentary track on the DVD.
He says the peep show set was a recreation of a real place in Seattle. The director visited it to get the ambience correct.
He wrote the part of Frank for Lance Henriksen and no other.
His instructions to Lance were to leave his hands at his sides. Frank doesn't communicate by waving his hands around.
Director David Nutter made improvements to the story while shooting.
Finally: the bit where Jordan licks the tip of Frank's nose was unplanned but they kept it.
