Summary
The Mire: Millennium brings a story spanning decades to a convoluted close, but it might require a refresher on the first two seasons to be properly enjoyed.
The Mire Season 3, subtitled “Millennium”, is the grand finale of the popular Polish Netflix series. The final six episodes, though, are deeply related to the first two seasons, both of which were set in different eras but had recurring characters and interconnected plots. It’s good, grown-up storytelling, but it’s also one of the least accessible streaming stories I’ve seen in some time and one of few instances where I’d genuinely suggest either rewatching or reading up on previous events before getting stuck in.
The Mire has always been about crime, and largely a refusal to investigate them by those who’re supposed to and a dogged determination to do so by people who aren’t. Season 1 was set in the early 1980s and had the most period character; Season 2 was set in ’97. I don’t think I need to tell you when Season 3 is set.
If it wasn’t obvious from the subtitle, the plot would make it so. The specific anxiety and paranoia of the changing Millennium is here, on top of nested crimes and conspiracies stretching back to decades before even the first season. The rot runs deep, and its tendrils are densely interconnected.
There’s always some detective work of your own to be done when returning to a complex series, but more so than usual here as you try to place old characters and new ones, with the passage of time having warped not just their appearance but the world around them. This gimmick has suited the series throughout and continues to here because it shows not just how people evolve, but how cultures, attitudes, and rules do, too.
Nobody in this show plays by the rules – never have. The rule-breaking has consequences, usually fatal. And the fatalities echo through the ages, ghosts lingering through seismic cultural shifts. This, I think, is what defines The Mire in an endlessly oversaturated crime genre. It’s also what makes it a bit unwieldy.
There’s usually a pleasure in revisiting previous events from new angles, getting more context, and unlocking fresh meaning. It is here, to a certain extent. It’s also nice to finally get a proper payoff to a lot of longstanding mysteries and connections. Again, though, it comes at a price. Old characters return, de-age into flashback versions of themselves, and meet new characters. Stuff you didn’t think was connected turns out to be, sometimes in obtuse ways.
The cast does their best to sell it all, and for the most part, they do. Any failure to get the point across isn’t theirs, but that of a script written with more ambition than skill. Fans will find it alternately satisfying and confounding, but they’ll watch it either way, since why wouldn’t you? This is the end, after all. You’ve earned it.
Mileage may vary
Make no mistake, The Mire is impressive in many ways and enjoyable in many others, and “Millennium” ends the saga satisfyingly. But you mustn’t expect to be welcomed back with open arms, or to be spoon-fed the details, or to not have to do some work of your own. Maybe that’s how it should be and The Mire is ahead of the curve.
Either way, invested fans are the obvious target audience, and I don’t think any newcomers would be silly enough to start here, though you never know given the anthological formatting of the titles. Refresh your memory before going in, maybe. The definition of a mire is this: “A complicated or unpleasant situation from which it is difficult to extricate oneself.” For the most part, this show performs exactly as advertised.
What did you think of The Mire Season 3: Millennium? Comment below.
RELATED:
