Television Review: 'Brimstone' and 'Millennium'

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Television Review: 'Brimstone' and 'Millennium'

Hell night on Fox: 'Brinstone' and 'Millennium' make for a dreary Friday night combo

Friday, October 23, 1998

By Rob Owen, Post- Gazette TV Editor

Peter Horton plays a dead man walking in "Brimstone," Fox's latest stab at the horror genre.

Television Reviews:
'Brimstone'
When: Tonight at 8 p.m. on FOX.

'Millennium'
When: Tonight at 9 p.m. on FOX.

The show premieres tonight at 8, replacing the sitcoms "Living in Captivity" and "Getting Personal." "Brimstone" is certainly a better fit with Fox's 9 p.m. drama, "Millennium," but only viewers who like their TV macabre are likely to tune in.

Horton stars as Ezekiel Stone, a cop who died in the line of duty 15 years ago and found himself headed to hell for the murder of his wife's rapist.

Now the devil (John Glover) will give Stone a second chance at redemption if he tracks down 113 escapees, hell's most vicious residents.

Since these baddies are already dead, Stone can't shoot or stab them all over again. Nope, it takes something special to send these souls back to the beyond. Female fans of "thirtysomething" may tune in to see what their scruffy heartthrob is up to, but they're likely to flee once they learn he's charged with poking out a villain's eyeballs each week. Something special, indeed.

Tonight Stone goes after a priest who's abducting altar boys he plans to kill after he puts masks on them. There's some mumbo jumbo religious connotation to this, but it boils down to a priest killing kids.

"Brimstone" has its moments, particularly when Stone confronts Satan.

Glover makes a dashing devil as he warns Stone that heaven "is a very boring place." The pair have an interesting discussion on the nature of evil and whether what Stone did was wrong.

"God's universe is not like the American judicial system," Satan says. "You do something and you have to pay for it."

To be sure, Stone broods and contemplates with the most sensitive souls.

In a future episode, he's conflicted about returning a female escapee who was raped and later killed her rapists.

But no matter how layered the producers try to make "Brimstone," it's still a chase show about catching the bad guy of the week.

"Millennium" remains a more intriguing series than its new lead-in, but this show has undergone substantive changes from last season. Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) is back working for the FBI after the mysterious (and never satisfactorily-explained) death of his wife.

Black has a new partner, Emma Hollis, played with steely reserve by Klea Scott. I like her, but not what the show has become. Once again, the producers of "Millennium" have decided to rethink their series.

In "Millennium's" first season Black tracked a new serial killer every week. That got old quick. The second season was more eclectic, delving into ancient religious history and the mythology of the shadowy Millennium Group Black worked with on cases. That was good stuff.

Now the show has become a thin "X-Files" rip-off, complete with a short-fused FBI boss (like Skinner) and a dweeby agent who annoys Hollis (shades of Spender). Peter Watts, Frank's Millennium Group liaison, has become this show's Cancer Man, now that Frank believes the Group is the root of all evil.

"Millennium's" first-season tendency to put women and children in jeopardy has returned, too.

For viewers who like dark, dreary TV, the "Brimstone"-"Millennium" one-two punch is a nightmare come true. For the rest of us, it's a lot closer to TV hell, than heaven.