timepiececlock (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timepiececlock) wrote2008-02-14 01:02 am
timepiececlock) wrote2008-02-14 01:02 am
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Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, #1-4, unspoilery except for general characterization
This show is so good!
It's just so good.
It's not quite epic yet, it's not quite all it can be, but it's getting pretty damn close.
It has a strong, compelling protagonist in Sarah Connor. I believe her as a desperate survivor and as a fighter. I believe that she struggles with doing the necessary things and retaining her humanity, even as she behaves more and more like the machines she hates. I can look at her and imagine the woman from the first film as the person she used to be. When she says that even she doesn't know how far she can be pushed, I believe that. The scene of her learning about 9/11 was particularly interesting, as far as showing a woman out of time. I find the narration is alright for now, and echoes the films, but any more and it could be over-used.
I figured right from the start that John Connor's character would be the hardest to write well. How do you write a kid who knows he's going to grow up to be a messaiah without being trite or campy? How do you make him sincere as what he is now but also suggest what he could be? It would be pretty easy if he himself wasn't aware of his future-- but he is, and we the audience are, and he's struggling to live up to expectations while living under the control of a parent who's such a strong, dominating force that it's amazing he develops any sense of individual leadership at all. Yet he does. And we've seen him change even in these four episodes, as if the sudden onset of his destiny brought by the machines' presence finally manifesting in his life after 15 years of waiting has kickstarted something inside him. All of a sudden he is not just bitter and sulky, suddenly he wants to see if he can be what people for his whole life have told him he must be.
The protector machine (played by Summer Glau... does her character even have a name?) is the weakest of the trio so far, but even so I see the potential. I like that she uses her waking hours to research the media-- that's a great information resource most people can't afford. The actress is doing just fine; in fact the moments when she's with other humans not of the Connor brood are her best moments, the moments where she really seems alien and those big eyes loom at you. Her fighting is awesome of course. This show really *could* be called River Tam Beats Everyone Up. The only thing that seems awkward to me is that when we're introduced she seems so normal, her acting as a human so smooth, that her awkwardness in the next 3 episodes feels weird. I can see that she doesn't need to act like a human around her charges, but the girl in the beginning of episode one is nothing like the weird stranger in the bathroom in episode 3. Where did that smooth affectation of humanity go?
So far the use of other cyborgs has been reasonable and intelligent-- why not send multiple people/robots back with multiple missions? Time travel becomes a game of competing forces here just like it does in The 4400, with both sides operating figures in the past present and future like tiny pawns. John Connor may be important, but he's only one piece of a huge puzzle, and not all the pieces know about each other.
My favorite thing about this show is that, for an action series, they picked such an unusual design: a trio in which the dominant characters are women, very strong women at that. They are joined as family and as allies. There's no romance here (somehow I don't want to see John/robot!girl fics please god no), it's just necessity and blood. Family and truth. Sarah to John to RobotGirl to Sarah. While Robot Girl and Sarah vie subtly for dominance, Robot Girl also serves Sarah and John as a vassal. Then John goes between treating her like a pet tiger he's afraid to touch, like a sibling, and like a bizarre piece of public art that no one can figure out the purpose for. Meanwhile Sarah has to deal with the fact if she wants John to live to become the man she is training him to be, then that means she has to let him go free to be it, when all she's thought about for 15 years was keeping him as close as possible while pushing the world away. I am glad that the show has given us her story instead of just John's--- because John Connor's story IS Sarah Connor's story, and she is the architect of the salvation of the human race. He leads the world, but everything he becomes is her gift to the world.
Anyway, I like this show. Provided they don't cancel it and it doesn't go to dreck, we're all in for a fine ride.
It's just so good.
It's not quite epic yet, it's not quite all it can be, but it's getting pretty damn close.
It has a strong, compelling protagonist in Sarah Connor. I believe her as a desperate survivor and as a fighter. I believe that she struggles with doing the necessary things and retaining her humanity, even as she behaves more and more like the machines she hates. I can look at her and imagine the woman from the first film as the person she used to be. When she says that even she doesn't know how far she can be pushed, I believe that. The scene of her learning about 9/11 was particularly interesting, as far as showing a woman out of time. I find the narration is alright for now, and echoes the films, but any more and it could be over-used.
I figured right from the start that John Connor's character would be the hardest to write well. How do you write a kid who knows he's going to grow up to be a messaiah without being trite or campy? How do you make him sincere as what he is now but also suggest what he could be? It would be pretty easy if he himself wasn't aware of his future-- but he is, and we the audience are, and he's struggling to live up to expectations while living under the control of a parent who's such a strong, dominating force that it's amazing he develops any sense of individual leadership at all. Yet he does. And we've seen him change even in these four episodes, as if the sudden onset of his destiny brought by the machines' presence finally manifesting in his life after 15 years of waiting has kickstarted something inside him. All of a sudden he is not just bitter and sulky, suddenly he wants to see if he can be what people for his whole life have told him he must be.
The protector machine (played by Summer Glau... does her character even have a name?) is the weakest of the trio so far, but even so I see the potential. I like that she uses her waking hours to research the media-- that's a great information resource most people can't afford. The actress is doing just fine; in fact the moments when she's with other humans not of the Connor brood are her best moments, the moments where she really seems alien and those big eyes loom at you. Her fighting is awesome of course. This show really *could* be called River Tam Beats Everyone Up. The only thing that seems awkward to me is that when we're introduced she seems so normal, her acting as a human so smooth, that her awkwardness in the next 3 episodes feels weird. I can see that she doesn't need to act like a human around her charges, but the girl in the beginning of episode one is nothing like the weird stranger in the bathroom in episode 3. Where did that smooth affectation of humanity go?
So far the use of other cyborgs has been reasonable and intelligent-- why not send multiple people/robots back with multiple missions? Time travel becomes a game of competing forces here just like it does in The 4400, with both sides operating figures in the past present and future like tiny pawns. John Connor may be important, but he's only one piece of a huge puzzle, and not all the pieces know about each other.
My favorite thing about this show is that, for an action series, they picked such an unusual design: a trio in which the dominant characters are women, very strong women at that. They are joined as family and as allies. There's no romance here (somehow I don't want to see John/robot!girl fics please god no), it's just necessity and blood. Family and truth. Sarah to John to RobotGirl to Sarah. While Robot Girl and Sarah vie subtly for dominance, Robot Girl also serves Sarah and John as a vassal. Then John goes between treating her like a pet tiger he's afraid to touch, like a sibling, and like a bizarre piece of public art that no one can figure out the purpose for. Meanwhile Sarah has to deal with the fact if she wants John to live to become the man she is training him to be, then that means she has to let him go free to be it, when all she's thought about for 15 years was keeping him as close as possible while pushing the world away. I am glad that the show has given us her story instead of just John's--- because John Connor's story IS Sarah Connor's story, and she is the architect of the salvation of the human race. He leads the world, but everything he becomes is her gift to the world.
Anyway, I like this show. Provided they don't cancel it and it doesn't go to dreck, we're all in for a fine ride.