"Beware of the Dog" | |
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Millennium episode | |
Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 2 |
Directed by | Allen Coulter |
Written by | Glen Morgan James Wong |
Production code | 5C02 |
Original air date | September 26, 1997 |
Running time | 42 minutes |
Guest appearances | |
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"'Beware of the Dog" is the second episode of the second season of the American crime-thriller television series Millennium . It premiered on the Fox network on September 26, 1997. The episode was written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, and directed by Allen Coulter. "Beware of the Dog" featured guest appearances by Randy Stone and R. G. Armstrong.
Millennium centers on offender profiler Frank Black (Lance Henriksen), who investigates unusual crimes as part of the private investigative organisation the Millennium Group. In this episode, when Black investigates several killings by a pack of savage dogs, he discovers a strange old man who teaches him more than he ever knew about the Group.
Guest star Armstrong would reprise his role later in the season, while Stone was the casting director for both Millennium and its sister show The X-Files . "Beware of the Dog" received mixed reviews from television critics, and was viewed by approximately 6.37 million households during its original broadcast.
A couple in a camper van get lost along a country road. They stop near a small town to read their map, but a pack of dogs break into their van and maul them to death.
Meanwhile, Millennium Group investigator Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn) tries to convince fellow Group member Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) to investigate the case. Black, having separated from his wife after killing her kidnapper, initially refuses, but Watts' insistence sways him. Black arrives in the isolated town of Bucksnort and visits a local diner. Standing out amongst the residents is Michael Beebe (Randy Stone), who has moved there from Los Angeles. Beebe believes his elderly neighbor may be responsible for the dog attack and asks Black to investigate.
Black instead examines the crime scene. At sunset, he sees a group of five dogs beginning to follow him. He returns to his hotel, but when he discovers he is locked out the dogs attack him. He fights them off, killing one, and flees to a hospital where he is refused entrance. An elderly man (R. G. Armstrong) drives past, stopping to pick up the dead dog, and drives off again; the remaining dogs follow his pickup truck. Black passes out and is helped into the hospital. The locals believe he is unconscious and discuss the "situation"; however, Black is awake and overhears everything, realizing there is a greater threat at hand.
The next day, Black finds a group of obelisks in the woods. He is about to examine one when Beebe appears, chased by dogs. The elderly man also arrives, and Black asks him to call off the dogs. The man denies the dogs are his, but they retreat regardless. Black then sees that the obelisks all bear an ouroboros, the symbol of the Millennium Group. He visits the man's home, where the two speak about the Group and the coming millennium.
The man then brings Black to a clearing full of the wild dogs, where the latter realizes they are embodiments of the evil in the world. He approaches them, and stands his ground, being struck by several visions as he does so. The man explains that the world's balance between good and evil is being lost as the millennium approaches, and that Beebe's house, built on sacred ground, is one of the many small things upsetting this balance. Black rushes to the house, knowing the dogs will attack it. Beebe refuses to leave, but the house has been surrounded by five dogs; as they are killed they are seemingly endlessly replaced by others. The man arrives and insists the only way to rid the town of the dogs is burn down the house, which the trio do before fleeing. Back home in Seattle, Black refuses to sell his own home, telling his wife that they will move back into it together when their problems are resolved.
"Beware of the Dog" was written by frequent collaborators Glen Morgan and James Wong, and directed by Allen Coulter. The episode was Coulter's first credit for the series, and he would return to helm "The Pest House" and "Siren" later in the second season. [1] "Beware of the Dog" was the fifth episode to have been written by Morgan and Wong, after "Dead Letters", "522666" and "The Thin White Line" in the first season; [2] and the second season première "The Beginning and the End". The duo would go on to pen a further ten episodes over the course of the second season, [1] having taken the roles of co-executive producers for the season. [3]
Guest star Randy Stone was the casting director for Millennium and its sister show The X-Files . [4] Stone was responsible for the casting of Henriksen in the role of Frank Black, and of the two lead roles in The X-Files. [5] "Beware of the Dog" features the first appearance by R. G. Armstrong as The Old Man, a recurring character who would reappear in the two-part episodes "Owls" and "Roosters". [6] [7] Armstrong has been described as "a long-time favorite" of Morgan's. [8]
The episode makes use of Bobby Darin's song "As Long As I'm Singing" in a diegetic manner. Darin's music has been noted by Millennium's resident composer Mark Snow as a hallmark of the works of Morgan and Wong. "Beware of the Dog" marked the pair's first use of the singer in Millennium, but his music would later feature in the episodes "Sense and Antisense", "Monster" and "Goodbye Charlie". [9]
"Beware of the Dog" originally aired on the Fox network on September 26, 1997. [10] The episode earned a Nielsen rating of 6.5 during its original broadcast, meaning that 6.5 percent of households in the United States viewed the episode. This represented approximately 6.37 million households, and left the episode the sixty-ninth most-viewed broadcast that week. [11] [nb 1]
The episode received mixed reviews from television critics. The A.V. Club 's Zack Handlen gave the episode a B+, finding it "endearingly batshit". [12] Handlen felt that the episode was not entirely cohesive and that its ending was somewhat disappointing, but felt that overall the episode's imagery made up for this—summing up this idea by saying "Millennium often seems to be at its best when sense is a secondary consideration". [12] Bill Gibron, writing for DVD Talk, rated the episode 3.5 out of 5, noting that its "atmospheric elements do not quite add up to a cohesive whole". Gibron felt that this resulted in "an episode that feels like the first half of a bad b-movie". [13] Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, awarded "Beware of the Dog" one-and-a-half stars out of five. Shearman felt the episode was so similar to The X-Files that it gave the impression that Millennium had "lost its own identity". He found that the script contained "enough wit in the dialogue" but that its plot seemed too "vague and elliptical". [10] Writing for the Star Tribune , Bill Ward felt that the episode featured a "lighter" tone than usual, comparing it to The X-Files. Ward described the episode as taking "some nice turns en route to an ambivalent semiresolution". [14]
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: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)The second season of the serial crime-thriller television series Millennium commenced airing in the United States on September 19, 1997, concluding on May 15, 1998 after airing twenty-three episodes. It tells the story of retired FBI Agent Frank Black. Black lives in Seattle, Washington with his wife Catherine and daughter Jordan. He works for a mysterious organization known as the Millennium Group, investigating murders using his remarkable capability of relating to the monsters responsible for horrific crimes. After killing a man who stalked and kidnapped Catherine, Black faces tension within his family while simultaneously being drawn deeper into the sinister Group.
"'Dead Letters" is the third episode of the first season of the American crime-thriller television series Millennium. It premiered on the Fox network on November 8, 1996. The episode was written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, and directed by Thomas J. Wright. "Dead Letters" featured guest appearances by Chris Ellis, Ron Halder and James Morrison.
"'522666" is the fifth episode of the first season of the American crime-thriller television series Millennium. It premiered on the Fox network on November 22, 1996. The episode was written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, and directed by David Nutter. "522666" featured guest appearances by Sam Anderson, Hiro Kanagawa and Joe Chrest.
"Weeds" is the eleventh episode of the first season of the American crime-thriller television series Millennium. It premiered on the Fox network on January 24, 1997. The episode was written by Frank Spotnitz, and directed by Michael Pattinson. "Weeds" featured guest appearances by Ryan Cutrona, Josh Clark and Terry David Mulligan.
"Force Majeure" is the thirteenth episode of the first season of the American crime-thriller television series Millennium. It premiered on the Fox network on February 7, 1997. The episode was written by Chip Johannessen and directed by Winrich Kolbe. "Force Majeure" featured guest appearances by Brad Dourif, Morgan Woodward and C. C. H. Pounder.
"'Walkabout" is the seventeenth episode of the first season of the American crime-thriller television series Millennium. It premiered on the Fox network on March 28, 1997. The episode was written by Chip Johannessen and Tim Tankosic, and directed by Cliff Bole. "Walkabout" featured guest appearances by Željko Ivanek and Gregory Itzin.
"'Maranatha" is the twenty-first episode of the first season of the American crime-thriller television series Millennium. It premiered on the Fox network on May 9, 1997. The episode was written by Chip Johannessen, and directed by Peter Markle. "Maranatha" featured guest appearances by Bill Nunn, Boris Krutonog and Levani Outchaneichvili.
"'The Beginning and the End" is the first episode of the second season of the American crime-thriller television series Millennium. It premiered on the Fox network on September 19, 1997. The episode was written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, and directed by Thomas J. Wright. "The Beginning and the End" featured a guest appearance by Doug Hutchison as the Polaroid Man.
"'Sense and Antisense" is the third episode of the second season of the crime-thriller television series Millennium. It premiered on the Fox network in the United States on October 3, 1997. The episode was written by Chip Johannessen and directed by Thomas J. Wright. "Sense and Antisense" featured guest appearances from Clarence Williams III and Ricky Harris.
"'Monster" is the fourth episode of the second season of the American crime-thriller television series Millennium. It premiered on the Fox network in the United States on October 17, 1997. The episode was written by Glen Morgan and James Wong and directed by Perry Lang. "Monster" featured guest appearances from Kristen Cloke, Robert Wisden and Chris Owens.
"The Curse of Frank Black" is the sixth episode of the second season of the crime-thriller television series Millennium. It premiered on the Fox network in the United States on October 31, 1997. The episode was written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, and directed by Ralph Hemecker. "The Curse of Frank Black" featured a guest appearance from Dean Winters.
"The Hand of St. Sebastian" is the eighth episode of the second season of the American crime-thriller television series Millennium. It originally aired on the Fox network on November 14, 1997. The episode was written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, and directed by Thomas J. Wright. "The Hand of St. Sebastian" featured a guest appearance from C. C. H. Pounder.
"'19:19" is the seventh episode of the second season of the American crime-thriller television series Millennium. It premiered on the Fox network on November 7, 1997. The episode was written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, and directed by Thomas J. Wright. "19:19" featured guest appearances by Kristen Cloke and Christian Hoff.
"'The Pest House" is the fourteenth episode of the second season of the American crime-thriller television series Millennium. It premiered on the Fox network on February 27, 1998. The episode was written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, and directed by Allen Coulter. "The Pest House" featured guest appearances by Melinda McGraw, Justin Louis and Michael Massee.
"Owls" is the fifteenth episode of the second season of the American crime-thriller television series Millennium. It originally aired on the Fox network on March 6, 1998. The episode was written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, and directed by Thomas J. Wright. "Owls" featured guest appearances by Kristen Cloke, R. G. Armstrong and Kimberly Patton.
"Roosters" is the 16th episode of the second season of the American crime-thriller television series Millennium. It was originally shown on the Fox network on March 13, 1998. The episode was written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, and directed by Thomas J. Wright.
"'Siren" is the seventeenth episode of the second season of the American crime-thriller television series Millennium. It premiered on the Fox network on March 20, 1998. Millennium concerns offender profiler Frank Black as he investigates crimes for the Millennium Group. The episode was written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, and directed Allen Coulter. "Siren" featured guest appearances by Vivian Wu, Tzi Ma and Kristen Cloke.
"In Arcadia Ego" is the eighteenth episode of the second season of the crime-thriller television series Millennium. It premiered on the Fox network on April 3, 1998. The episode was written by Chip Johannessen, and directed by Thomas J. Wright.
"'Somehow, Satan Got Behind Me" is the twenty-first episode of the second season of the American crime-thriller television series Millennium. It premiered on the Fox network on May 1, 1998. The episode was written and directed by Darin Morgan, and featured guest appearances by Bill Macy, Dick Bakalyan and Alex Diakun.