Welcome to another Millennium Group Sessions! And this week we do a format we've not attempted since last year - it's the Millennium Group Sessions panel! Yes, this is what myself and my colleague, Troy Foreman look forward to - the episode where we let everyone else do the work, and we sit back with coffee.
This week "Somehow Satan Got Behind Me", by Darin Morgan - one of the very few comedy focused episodes in Millennium's entire run.
With us is Peter Holstrom, Diego Zeziola and Fredric Fitz talk to us about the episode.
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3 Responses to "Millennial Group Sessions 25: Somehow Satan Got Behind Me"
Great podcast, great discussion.
Thanks to everyone involved!
You guys opened my eyes to a lot of aspects of "Somehow, Satan Got Behind Me".
With "A Room with No View" and this one, it was a true one-two punch hitting us with demons wanting people to be ordinary and go about their business mindlessly.
So, the placement wasn't maybe so strange. For me, there's no real build-up to the two parter before "Somehow, Satan Got Behind Me". At least no noticeable connection story wise.
And why shouldn't people think of this as cannon only because Frank Black was hardly in it? He was not in "Anamnesis". And then "Siren" wasn't too far away with another devil who tempted Frank.
Coupled with "The Curse of Frank Black" and you have a whole season of devils tempting or influencing people...which was started all the way in Season 1 with "The Judge" and "Powers, Principalities, Thrones and Dominions". And continued in Season 3 with Legion influencing the Millennium Group.
Now, it was a knock-off of the X-Files theme. Meaning, it implied he was working for FOX. But I never really took it as being X-Files, just a small inside joke.
They had to do this, and they turned it into a tragic joke with using the "alien massacre" on one of those disaster-caught-on-film clip shows. It shows us how desensitized we've become, the joke's on us.
And I don't think they would have hidden if they mentioned FOX in this context, it's done all the time on The Simpsons and every news report on 24 is from FOX NEWS.
Cheers from Iceland!
- Jósef
Thanks for a great discussion. I was almost surprised - although probably shouldn't have been - by the variety of reactions to this episode. I found myself agreeing with Diego a lot of the time, but thanks to everyone who took part and made it happen.
'Somehow Satan Got Behind Me' is certainly another personal favourite of mine for the themes it explores. It never seemed out of place for me in the context of the season, just offering a different perspective and slant on the demons that were a frequent inclusion in the show - literal or otherwise. Whatever influences were at play, it was another episode about the evil that men do, surely a recurring theme at the very heart of Millennium.
Darin Morgan's writing was for me consistently brilliant throughout the Ten Thirteen universe, and this episode again veered from hilarious to poignant. That's why it's a still one of an (albeit long!) list of episodes that still enjoys regular viewings in my home to this day.
This episode reminds me of "Downloaded" and "The Plan" from Battelstar Galactica. They were specifically written to show the perspective from the "bad guys" point of view, which is what we have here. It then makes sense that Frank has a small role, similar to the small and brief "Demon-Flashes" seen in the other episodes.
When I first saw this episode, the first thing I thought of was "The Screwtape Letters," by CS Lewis, which I had read some 10 years prior. I know that pairing evil to religion/spirituality is a hot button issue, but I think this this was done in a dark humor way to get that point across, becasue if it were serious like the rest of the show, it never would made it to the airwaves. Can you imagine the scary Lucy Butler Demon strategizing on how she is going to hang Bletcher and rip out a kidney in detail? Not on network TV! I agree with the points Fredric made on this issue. This episode would have made a really cool Sunday School lesson! The third part was over the top, but had an interesting point about how psychology has taken the perceived place of demon posession in today's world. Hmmm...Fast forward to Seven and One!
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