Ladies and gentlemen it's time, once again, for our masked avenger, wrestlemaniac and super powered reviewer DiRT to cast his x-ray vision upon another episode of Millennium and direct his considerable following in our direction in the process.
DiRT told me that he wanted to select an episode for this week's review that would encourage debate, and no doubt polarise our supporters, regarding the merits of a particular episode so there's no finer candidate for such a discourse than A Single Blade of Grass.
Written by Erin Maher and Kay Reindl this episode tends to polarise the opinion of fans with some loving the episode and others loving it not quite so much. Glen Morgan commented that the original concept was very different from the results we see on the screen and lamented not standing firm in the face of outside pressure to shape the episode a little differently. Without further ado, over to DiRT for his point of view.
So is he right or is he wrong? Tell us your opinion of this oft debated episode and don't hold back, we're big fans, we can take it.
As always, every new video we add to Youtube, or is added to Youtube for us, reaches out to a whole new audience and may find a Millennium who never knew of our campaign in the process. Don't forget, keep sending those letters and postcards to Mr. Steve Asbell. Frank's Army Fights on!
As always, lend your considerable support to the man and go visit his own websites and find out what it's all about. Remember, every video made for the this campaign is an indispensable way of reaching out to a potential new campaigner.
Mark x
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9 Responses to "Here's Dirt's Thing: A Single Blade of Grass!"
Nice video, as always.
I really can't comment on the episode, been a while since I saw it last, but it's not really high on my list of episodes that I like.
This Native American stuff seems pretty plausible to me, since I don't know not much about them.
If anything, it were Morgan and Wong written episodes in season 1 (like ep. 3, Dead Letters) that tended to skew Frank Black's "visions" towards the supernatural and whatnots...and by Frank Spotnitz's episode Sacrament it became more implied as Jordan seems to have the gift as well. And from the get go of season 2, Morgan and Wong just accepted their take on it. That's how I see the progression of Frank Black's gift.
I really have no problems with that.
I'll comment again if I'm able to watch the episode real soon.
Cheers from Iceland!
- Jósef
I think the fact that this episode polarises the fans is actually not as bad as that would first seem. Some episodes receive overwhelming support and praise from fans (Lamentation, Pilot, The Curse of Frank Black and so on) and others the exact opposite (Human Essence) so the fact that A Single Blade of Grass doesn't divide so decisively at least indicates that a portion of fans enjoyed and responded well to the episode.
I think the episode is really all about Frank's abilities and the changing face of them which is a preoccupation of the early episodes of Season Two - as Glen himself put it...
"I felt last year those visions were a cheat," Morgan said. "The camera would go to a coffee cup and Frank would say, `The murderer used a coffee cup.' It drove me nuts. What we were trying to do this year was to elevate Frank's visions to a dream-like state, so he would have to interpret what he's seeing. There would be more mystical, symbolic imagery that might give him more of a sense of what's going on.
I think, however, it was much too soon much too quickly and the above should have been rolled out gradually rather than hammered home a little too much in this episode.
That said, I still enjoy it, it is Millennium after all, and Amy Steel is great in her role.
Interested to hear what more of you think.
I find this episode perfectly palatable. Not the strongest episode of the series but an enjoyable one and I agree with DiRT and Mark, Amy Steel does deliver in her part and would have made an enjoyable recurring character had they found a way of making that work satisfactorily.
I don't know a great deal about Native American spirituality but I believe they did use a large amount of artistic licence with the episode but it is a work of fiction when all said and done and huge amounts of artistic licence were used from the very first episode of the show.
The ending is a little miscalculated but over all it is not a bad entry to the canon but if it's true that the episode was heavily interfered with I would have enjoyed seeing the unadulterated ideas that Kay and Erin had.
One of my favourite episodes as it happens (I'm always the odd one out.) It doesn't feel like a traditional Frank Black tale I will grant you but I love the partnership at the heart of the story and felt there was a great chemistry there that could have been interesting to see develop further and I have a real fondness for Native American Religion to I can cast aside any nitpicks and enjoy it for what it is.
Enjoyable review as always.
Nice review DiRT. I got a good laugh out of the indian burial ground in New York City comment. It would have been hard to find.
I like the episode "A Single Blade of Grass" because it focus' more on Franks gift. The old man told Frank that his gift would return and that it would be different (in Beware of the Dog). His visions take him to a spiritual plain that he had never been to before. I took it as an enhancement to his gift and something that Amy Steele was there to help him understand. After all, if it hadn't been for her role in the episode, Frank would have been killed, dismembered and buried. Then what would have happened.
At the end of the episode when the prophecy is fulfilled, I got a good laugh out of the circus. That was after all a way of fulfilling the prophecy.
I enjoyed the review and agreed with DiRT on several points. Thank you so much for all you're help with this campaign.
This Is Who We Are!!
Rhonda
Very nice! It does irk me, if I'm honest, in respect of the "Frank was never psychic in season one" stuff that fans hear about from time to time. Scenes of Catherine discussing her concern about Jordan inheriting her Father's gift seem to suggest otherwise unless it was being suggested that it's possible to inherit an ability to profile an individual based on years of experience and training.
Rhonda is so right - the episode builds on The Old Man's prophecy regrading Frank's abilities and Lara's assertion that they were being tested and developed and whilst it may have been a little ham-fisted it certainly seeks to explain why something as mundane as a profiler's inner perspective was depicted as anything but for an entire season of the show.
Oh, Amy Steele was great but we all seem to agree on that point, right?
Videos, videos and more videos :) I ♥ these reviews. Dirt is quirky, comical and clearly a fan boy (and I love fan boys) and I really ♥ whole masked avenger mystery man thang going off. He is my Video Man #2 with the awesome Music Video Man at number #1 (Hi Josef) - keep it coming, My Ipod loves it!!!
Very nice review once again. Very nice editing and presentation. Anyone who puts themselves in front of the camera has to be celebrated. There's no way I could do it without tripping over my words and making a real ass of myself.
Your contributions are very much enjoyed. Thank you!
I watched it last week, and it's a pretty solid episode.
Although, I'm still amazed how resourceful those Native Americans were. They were all over the place, at the swanky hotel (love the long shot before the main titles), the museum and down in the sewers without being spotted.
But those tiny nit-pics aside, it's a good one.
- Jósef
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