The Sarah Connor Chronicles: apparently I has an opinion!
Look! I have some thoughts on the Sarah Connor Chronicles. I suppose it's quite good that I'm actually moved to write something about a show other than BSG here since BSG will soon be gone and I'll either have to turn this into the Star Wars blog which might drive y'all insane or...be one of those people who goes on forever about a show that's cancelled until I'm the only one left at the bar. Stupid TV failing to immediately provide me with a new obsession.
Anyway, TSCC. I've caught up with this season and...it's okay. I don't love it yet, but it has the potential to make me love it. I think the chief reason I don't love it yet is that I don't trust it. My initial instinct is that it will keep on doing things I find entertaining and interesting but not the things I think it ought to do to make full use of itself? I know that sound snobby and I'm not trying to put that forward as anything other than objective. To compare with BSG (cus all roads lead back there eventually), I thought season 4.0 was uber-awesome even the weird bits and that the show is really exploiting it's themes and situations and characters in interesting ways but I know that there's a large contingent of fandom out there that thinks it really lost its edge and went off the rails this season. I can't really understand that point of view but I can understand that it's a valid one.
Not all shows are made for all people and I'm worried that TSCC is too similar to BSG for me to really bond with it because I'll jump onto it as BSG methadone and then be disappointed its not exploring the techno-religious angle the way I want it to.
Example: OMG HOW BORINGLY OBVIOUS IS IT THAT JOHN CONNOR KILLED THAT MAN. *le sigh*
Now, this isn't even a case of me hating John for being a whiny emo boy. Because, well, he's probably my least-favourite except Derek (I know *hides from rotten vegetables* but I just find him...boring), but I don't actually dislike him. Sure occasionally I wish he would try to talk to his mom or be less whiny, but I also think that he actually has a reason to feel as terrified and trapped and confused as he does and I really liked the idea that um, yeah, he needs therapy. And can't get any.
The reason I'm bored by the decision to have him kill the guy is actually my desire not to turn him into a walking cliche of a lead character. I was disappointed when I heard that one of the things they were going to try and do in the second season was turn John into more of a leader. I know that the character has to get there eventually, but I liked that he wasn't that guy, that he was still eight parts scared kid, one part resistance leader, one part smart. I like that it's called the Sarah Connor Chronicles because I think she's an infinitely more interesting character. They pointed out last season that Sarah had never killed anyone. Personally I'm as interested in seeing her work through her first kill as I am in seeing John work through his, (more, in fact, because I like her character more, but objectively I think there's as much story value in each), but by giving John that storyline, they can't really ever give it to Sarah without reminding us that John's already done it. They've put John "ahead" of her in some way. He's moved beyond her sphere of protection. I understand why they wanted to do that or felt they needed to, but it makes him more important while rendering her more obsolete and doing so after only eight episodes is...*le sigh* Sarah Connor Chronicles, people.
I suppose there's also the fact that as soon as Sarah claimed credit for killing the guy and we didn't see it happen it was kind of blindingly obvious that it was really John which also puts me at odds with the 'reveal' because I feel a bit like I'm supposed to be impressed with it, when actually a bigger reveal was that Sarah was the one going for psychiatric help.
Also, I would watch a show just of Cameron's therapy sessions.
Also, while I don't feel that the reveal of Jesse's character keeping tabs on Derek was anywhere near as 'meh' as the OMG JOHN KILLED THAT GUY! reveal, I was mildly disappointed because I really, really, really, really loved the idea of a damaged soldier going AWOL into the past, so near the end, in some live-in-pretend-ignorance-eventual-suicide-attempt. I mean, I just love that. I was less crazy about her claiming it was so she could die with Derek - in retrospect that seems much more like part of her 'cover'. But the idea of wanting to go back to before the crash not to stop it but just to die with everyone else there really resonated with me. Probably because at the moment all roads lead back to BSG with me and how many people in the Fleet would go back and stay at home that day and ask for a swift death if they could? Not all of them, no, but probably a bunch.
So I was sad not to get that as the arc of the character.
Either Shirley Manson is improving as an actress or I'm getting numb to her because she doesn't bother me as much as she used to. Though I still think that awful and awfully written monologue about people crossing the street as her introductory scene probably didn't help her. I'm presuming she keeps the kid around because she couldn't get rid of her without blowing her cover, but given the levels of sophistication she employs around her company even though her demeanor is emotionless and cold, I'm surprised that she didn't have the intelligence to hire a nanny to take the kid since she really should have worked out that she's not capable of doing so. That said it's kind of creepy watching her learn how to interact with a child.
Also her ability to hide what she is seem very inconsistant. She displays a very high level of humanness in her interactions with Agent Ellison (or, I suppose, Mr Ellison now) but doesn't understand that "cow's blood" is a weird answer, or that a child will want some level of attention? Partly her weirdness in her business persona can be put down to her coldness as a business woman, but it still seems odd to me that she can manipulate James so well because she really seems human in those scenes, and be clueless about her "daughter" to the point of not understanding that young children require physical contact which is something you'd pick up from like...thirty seconds of observing a parent-child interaction.
I'm picking here, and it's not something that seriously bothers me so much as makes me casually interested in others' opinions. I guess that I feel they could have done the same storyline just as well and perhaps more creepily if she really was trying a lot of the right "surface techniques" with Savannah and they used the storyline as a way of showing how inadequate those techniques really are in a relationship with any depth?
Anyway.
AGENT ELLISON.
When he first showed up I was vaguely disinterested in him, but by the end of season one he was one of my favourites and he just keeps getting more awesome. Please, please, never die.
Also I would not be averse to Charlie Dixon returning in one way or another.
And there's that. :)
Anyway, TSCC. I've caught up with this season and...it's okay. I don't love it yet, but it has the potential to make me love it. I think the chief reason I don't love it yet is that I don't trust it. My initial instinct is that it will keep on doing things I find entertaining and interesting but not the things I think it ought to do to make full use of itself? I know that sound snobby and I'm not trying to put that forward as anything other than objective. To compare with BSG (cus all roads lead back there eventually), I thought season 4.0 was uber-awesome even the weird bits and that the show is really exploiting it's themes and situations and characters in interesting ways but I know that there's a large contingent of fandom out there that thinks it really lost its edge and went off the rails this season. I can't really understand that point of view but I can understand that it's a valid one.
Not all shows are made for all people and I'm worried that TSCC is too similar to BSG for me to really bond with it because I'll jump onto it as BSG methadone and then be disappointed its not exploring the techno-religious angle the way I want it to.
Example: OMG HOW BORINGLY OBVIOUS IS IT THAT JOHN CONNOR KILLED THAT MAN. *le sigh*
Now, this isn't even a case of me hating John for being a whiny emo boy. Because, well, he's probably my least-favourite except Derek (I know *hides from rotten vegetables* but I just find him...boring), but I don't actually dislike him. Sure occasionally I wish he would try to talk to his mom or be less whiny, but I also think that he actually has a reason to feel as terrified and trapped and confused as he does and I really liked the idea that um, yeah, he needs therapy. And can't get any.
The reason I'm bored by the decision to have him kill the guy is actually my desire not to turn him into a walking cliche of a lead character. I was disappointed when I heard that one of the things they were going to try and do in the second season was turn John into more of a leader. I know that the character has to get there eventually, but I liked that he wasn't that guy, that he was still eight parts scared kid, one part resistance leader, one part smart. I like that it's called the Sarah Connor Chronicles because I think she's an infinitely more interesting character. They pointed out last season that Sarah had never killed anyone. Personally I'm as interested in seeing her work through her first kill as I am in seeing John work through his, (more, in fact, because I like her character more, but objectively I think there's as much story value in each), but by giving John that storyline, they can't really ever give it to Sarah without reminding us that John's already done it. They've put John "ahead" of her in some way. He's moved beyond her sphere of protection. I understand why they wanted to do that or felt they needed to, but it makes him more important while rendering her more obsolete and doing so after only eight episodes is...*le sigh* Sarah Connor Chronicles, people.
I suppose there's also the fact that as soon as Sarah claimed credit for killing the guy and we didn't see it happen it was kind of blindingly obvious that it was really John which also puts me at odds with the 'reveal' because I feel a bit like I'm supposed to be impressed with it, when actually a bigger reveal was that Sarah was the one going for psychiatric help.
Also, I would watch a show just of Cameron's therapy sessions.
Also, while I don't feel that the reveal of Jesse's character keeping tabs on Derek was anywhere near as 'meh' as the OMG JOHN KILLED THAT GUY! reveal, I was mildly disappointed because I really, really, really, really loved the idea of a damaged soldier going AWOL into the past, so near the end, in some live-in-pretend-ignorance-eventual-suicide-attempt. I mean, I just love that. I was less crazy about her claiming it was so she could die with Derek - in retrospect that seems much more like part of her 'cover'. But the idea of wanting to go back to before the crash not to stop it but just to die with everyone else there really resonated with me. Probably because at the moment all roads lead back to BSG with me and how many people in the Fleet would go back and stay at home that day and ask for a swift death if they could? Not all of them, no, but probably a bunch.
So I was sad not to get that as the arc of the character.
Either Shirley Manson is improving as an actress or I'm getting numb to her because she doesn't bother me as much as she used to. Though I still think that awful and awfully written monologue about people crossing the street as her introductory scene probably didn't help her. I'm presuming she keeps the kid around because she couldn't get rid of her without blowing her cover, but given the levels of sophistication she employs around her company even though her demeanor is emotionless and cold, I'm surprised that she didn't have the intelligence to hire a nanny to take the kid since she really should have worked out that she's not capable of doing so. That said it's kind of creepy watching her learn how to interact with a child.
Also her ability to hide what she is seem very inconsistant. She displays a very high level of humanness in her interactions with Agent Ellison (or, I suppose, Mr Ellison now) but doesn't understand that "cow's blood" is a weird answer, or that a child will want some level of attention? Partly her weirdness in her business persona can be put down to her coldness as a business woman, but it still seems odd to me that she can manipulate James so well because she really seems human in those scenes, and be clueless about her "daughter" to the point of not understanding that young children require physical contact which is something you'd pick up from like...thirty seconds of observing a parent-child interaction.
I'm picking here, and it's not something that seriously bothers me so much as makes me casually interested in others' opinions. I guess that I feel they could have done the same storyline just as well and perhaps more creepily if she really was trying a lot of the right "surface techniques" with Savannah and they used the storyline as a way of showing how inadequate those techniques really are in a relationship with any depth?
Anyway.
AGENT ELLISON.
When he first showed up I was vaguely disinterested in him, but by the end of season one he was one of my favourites and he just keeps getting more awesome. Please, please, never die.
Also I would not be averse to Charlie Dixon returning in one way or another.
And there's that. :)