Millennium (TV Series) Kingdom Come (1996) User Reviews

I'd like my priest medium rare please

[injury-65447 · 8/10 · 3 June 2020]

I really enjoyed the opener to this episode. The shots of the choir spliced with the burning at the stake of the priest. Any murders targeting the church are exciting, a potentially demonic vibe. I was expecting great things.

Turns out no demons just a guy who lost his faith because of a house fire that killed his wife and child. Well he didn't lose his faith actually, just became angry at God. Honestly his motivations for targeting the priests is vague - it seems a bit of a stretch really to think he would be capable of executing something like this. I wish they established his logic a bit better.

I enjoyed the medieval imagery.

One thing I hated was the actress who played Artis - she delivered her lines so flatly and had no personality. Shame because the actor who played the killer was quite good.

Solid episode that I'll simply remember as the priest killing one.

Also, ummm she told her daughter that she and Frank are going to live forever! What kind of parenting is that? She's meant to be a counsellor - is she trying to set up her daughter for emotional devastation? Frank is in an extremely high risk occupation, the odds of him dying soon are pretty high. Guess she's just in massive denial about all that.

Whaaat? Ya don't like Lindsay Crouse?

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 13 April 2022]

As "Ardis" (Artis) - Although she wasn't as good as she has been in films like "The Arrival" and "All the presidents men", I thought she was still effective... Maybe she did deliver her lines flatly. But I thought that might've been the way she was playing the character... So it was appropriate.

It's true that the killers' motivations are not made very clear. "Mad at God" is not a recipe for good drama or murder mysteries, I think the killer was more likely "Mad at the Seminary system", and this is what he was attacking. Although he had made it personal.

There could have been a lot more to this episode and I believe it was there, it just was not emphasized.

I give this episode high marks for the gruesomeness...

And Frank was a little bit slow in this one, although he finally got there.

But I don't think Frank Black is anything near Fox Mulder, The two have completely different methods of investigation, also Fox Mulder does not have the same gift as Frank... although, as shown in episodes like "Grotesque", he does have a way of thinking that eventually brings him to the same conclusions as Frank... but in the long run, two completely different people. At least they get to meet in the X-Files episode, when they shot apocalypse-zombies together.

thoughtful examination of faith

[quinoble · 10/10 · 9 August 2020]

For me this episode was a slow starter. I found it plodding and tedious as the investigation proceeded. Then in the last ten minutes it all comes together perfectly.

The episode deals with the nature of faith, a theme usually either completely ignored or treated in a rigidly dogmatic, conventionally religious way in modern culture. Millennium shows itself to be levels above most television shows in its sensitive, subtle exploration of faith. There's nothing preachy or didactic in the story and the viewer is left to draw his or her own conclusions rather than spoon-fed parochial sermonizing about heaven and hell.

As Frank Black comes to realize, the murderer didn't lose his faith in God; he killed religious figures in order to try to rid himself of it. It's because the murderer finds it impossible to reconcile his belief in a just God with the tragic deaths of his family that he is in so much pain. As the murderer says in his moment of greatest despair, he feels he has to kill himself to end his pain, because he can't kill God, nor can he destroy or renounce his faith.

The episode also serves to give us basic insights into the character of Frank Black, a decent and kind family man whose vocation is plumbing the darkest recesses of human nature.

It was crucial to Chris Carter that Black not carry a weapon. For Black does not stop criminals through superior force, firepower, or combat skills. His only defenses against evil are his empathy and skills of perception--and these are two-edged swords because they leave him and those he loves open to danger. This makes Black a type of hero nearly unique in modern fiction.

Rather than allow the police to stop the murderer by brute force, Black bets everything on being able to reach him through compassion and insight into his mind, and succeeds. In an act of supreme physical courage, he walks into a hostage situation totally unarmed, and brings it to a peaceful conclusion with words alone.

The B plot involves the death of a bird, which prompts Black's daughter to start asking the difficult existential questions about death and the afterlife every child eventually asks, and contains some memorable reflections on the nature of faith that are interwoven seamlessly with the main story.

At one point Black remarks to his colleague that perhaps faith is something one should not think about every day, but it's something we need to know is there, waiting, when the time comes to pass it on--a thought I found beautiful. After stopping the killer, he speaks with his wife about what to say to their daughter, and he decides to tell her that grief over life's pain must be balanced with faith and hope, a perfect coda to the story.

This episode really stayed with me. Like all the best art, it raises more questions than it gives answers. It gives much food for thought and reflection on a theme that is often little explored.

There are shows of the "peak TV" era whose entire runs don't come up to the level Millennium reaches in this episode alone. I look forward to the episodes to come.

Episode reminds me x-files

[CursedChico · 9/10 · 16 January 2021]

Episode reminds me x-files

Frank black is like fox mulder. Went into the hostage room. Frank was not successful. Almost was killed.

Until now, lots of cruel murders, different type of killers have been shown. It is really hard to see such things.

Weak.

[bombersflyup · 2/10 · 15 August 2019]

Kingdom Come has a fine premise, albeit religious. It doesn't go far enough though and is mostly dull. This give up let myself be captured or killed's wearing thin as well. Frank's wife Catherine's really a non-person at this point.