I didn’t even finish compiling my SIFF Stats during 2006…
A documentary about The Pixies that I saw during SIFF 2006.
During October 2005 I was writing reviews of every episode in the third season of one of my favorite TV shows, Millennium. Of course, I didn’t finish…
Alas, I finished watching Millennium a couple of weeks ago. The ending of the series is so unrewarding, that summarizing the second half of the season (see my review of the first half of Millennium season three) has been rather difficult. While there are some great episodes, I definitely felt empty at the end.
My feelings at the end were rather contradictory. Part of me was like, “Oh god, what happened to the show! Why has it turned into such a mess now!” But at the same time, I was also like, “No! Why does this have to be the final season… I wish the show could keep going.” There is lots of speculation (including a virtual fourth season of fan fiction) about where the show would have gone. I, of course, thought that season two was the perfect and would have brought Glen Morgan and James Wong back on the series.
Anyway, without further ado, here are my comments on the episodes in the last half of season two:
Matryoshka — I felt like this episode perhaps had the potential to be really cool — how was the Millennium Group involved with the FBI back in the 1940s? But then turning the story into something about the atomic bomb and having one of the scientists involved pulling a Dr. Jekyl/Mr. Hyde really makes it so unrealistic that the story loses something. Granted, Millennium (and pretty much every other television show I love) is “sci-fi” or whatever, but since it tried to incorporate itself in a historical event, it just felt lame.
Forcing the End — I loved that this episode brought Juliet Landau, who plays one of my favorite characters, Drusilla, on Buffy, to Millennium. Unfortunately, her character her wasn’t quite as interesting as Dru — I wish she would stick to playing crazy vampires, but oh well. The episode itself is about a Jewish cult that believes that Landau’s baby is a messiah who will re-build the Third Temple in Jerusalem. Of course, the semi-apocalyptic and religious overtunes make this a more “classic” Millennium episode, but the story just isn’t very engaging.
Saturn Dreaming of Mercury — This episode revolves around Frank’s daughter, Jordan, and her budding psychic abilities. I’ve been meaning to note that the actress who plays Jordan, Brittany Tiplady, is phenomonal as far as “children actors” go, but was waiting until this post to really highlight that fact. Ever since the first episode of Millennium, I’ve been in somewhat of awe of her. Watching her, you really cannot tell that she is “acting,” unlike most child actors. She is so convincing and natural. Sometimes I think that the crew fools her into thinking that everything is real and rather than telling her she’s an actress, they just make her think that Millennium is her real life and they are recording her or something — she is that good! As for “Saturn Dreaming of Mercury,” though, the episode itself is so-so. Jordan has trouble at school because she basically sees the devil in one of her neighbours/the father of a classmate. The episode ends very open-endedy (and even gives us a glimpse of Lucy Butler!!), but in a bad way. Nonetheless, I love the episode since it gives the character of Jordan a chance to shine.
Darwin’s Eye — The best part of this episode is the song “Trimm Trabb” by the band Blur. The episode is about a young woman who has some sort of psychological issues. She is also super smart, or something. At the begining of the show, she escapes from prison and gets picked up by a cop who she ultimately wins over. The two of them seem to fall in love, but then she kills him after he “sees the palm tree” (literally: the shadow of a palm tree in the motel room she brings him too). The episode is rather confusing and I’m not sure what everything means at the end. There is definitely something going on with the palm trees and nuclear bomb testing, but I think the episode does a poor job of tying everything together.
Bardo Thodol — Another weird and confusing episode that gets a little too sci-fi-ish for me. Frank Black investigates a crate of hands that, he later finds out, were artificially created and that the lab that created them also deals with stem cells, etc. etc. creating human clones. Hmm… sounds a little X-Files-like, eh? Added to that, though, is some sort of Buddhist/dying/spiritual reflection thing and Millennium Group evilness.
Seven and One — What does “seven and one” refer to? Eight. Jordan turns eight in this episode. I love the Jordan-centric episodes, but really this one is about Frank Black and his past. Apparently when he was a kid he was being teased by some bullies and when his brother tried to stick up for him, his brother accidently caused a kid to drown. Ever since, Frank has been afraid of drowning. At the end of the episode, of course, Frank confronts a sort of ghost or something and has a freaky drowning hallucination. But it was just a hallucination. But it wasn’t shot like one, so we are lead to believe that something actually happened. Another so-so episode…
Nostalgia — After a string of pretty lame episodes, “Nostalgia” lifted me up. Though, I must admit, this episode is totally a Twin Peaks rip-off. Through a recent murder, Frank and Emma end up investigating a young, blonde, flirtatious, self-destructive woman who died years ago. Hmm… Laura Palmer anyone?? This episode was pretty good, though. I loved how the “good cops” turned out to be sleezy womanizers.
I was going to write a review of Sonic Youth’s album Goo. It’s one of my all-time favorite albums and was re-released in deluxe edition so I was going to express my love for it… but I only got so far as writing down the quote that appears on the cover.
I stole my sister’s boyfriend. It was all whirlwind, heat, and flash. Within a week we killed my parents and hit the road.
This was an awesome movie I saw at SIFF during the summer of 2006. Probably one of my favorite documentaries ever. I only got as far as finding a pic for it…
A pretty funny/campy midnight movie I saw during SIFF 2006.
Adding to my theory that Smallville is awesomely postmodern, I just watched the season five episode “Thirst.”
The episode is about a vampire sorority headed by a girl named Buffy Sanders. Hmm… sounds a bit like my favorite vampire hunter Buffy Summers!
To make things more fun and postmodern, there is a scene where Clark tells Professor Fine (played by James Marsters) that he thinks Lana was bit by a vampire. Professor Fine responds, “There’s no such thing as vampires.” … Except that in Buffy Marsters played the evil-turned-good vampire Spike.
Oh will the references never end! Let’s hope not!!
The thing about being privileged (be it by being white, straight, male, etc.) is that if someone ever calls you a name or treats you what you perceive to be unfair or differently, you never have to think twice about whether it’s because you’re somehow “different” than most people.
This morning on The Commentators, they were talking about an incident in Portland in which two 14-year-old lesbians were kicked off a public bus for kissing/making out.
According to the girls (it sounds like the transit system hasn’t released audio/video of the situation yet), after making out the bus driver called them “sickos” and that after one of the girls went to hug her upset friend, the bus driver kicked them off.
John Carlson kept insisting that the girls were making out to taunt the passengers and drivers and that the driver ultimately kicked them off because public displays of affection make people uncomfortable, and that it had nothing to do with the fact the girls were lesbians.
Okay, fine, that very well might be the case, but to those girls, I’m certain that they assumed they were kicked off for being lesbians.
When you are straight and something like this happens, you never have to think, “Wow, does the bus driver somehow hate me or have a prejudice against me because I’m straight?” I think the fact you never have to worry about that stuff is one of the most prevalent ways that white/straight/male/etc. privilege exists.
Also, on a somewhat related pet peeve of mine, I hate it when straight people say that they don’t mind gay people “as long as they don’t flaunt it” (by holding hands, kissing in public, etc.). They try to disguise it as “public displays of affection make me uncomfortable” but I highly doubt they’d complain about straight people making out in public, too. You can ask my friends: As a joke, when I see straight people holding hands, kissing, etc. in public I often say, “Ugh, don’t you hate it when straight people flaunt their sexuality?”
Again, when you’re straight you don’t even have to think twice…
Fact of the day: Bill Breeden was the only person arrested for anything having to do with the Iran-Contra Affair.
Who is Bill Breeden? He’s from John Poindexter‘s home town and held a sign for a street named in Poindexter’s honor for “ransom.” He was arrested and jailed for this. None of the military or government officials involved with illegally selling weapons or funding a war that the U.S. wasn’t supposed to be involved with or covering up served jail time.
Anyone who thinks that the recent news about Paris going to/from jail/house arrest has anything to do with faith in the justice system is terribly confused, I’m afraid.
(Fact thanks to Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States.)
I just upgraded my WordPress install, so things might be a little weird for the next few days while I work out changes and whatnot.