T: TSCC
Finished Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles last week. One of these days, I'll have comprehensive, serious feedback. Right now,
Brilliant show. Well paced, well acted, deals with thematic issues in a nuanced and ambiguous way, without hammering them home or overtly preaching (I'm looking at you, BSG). I'm sad that there's no more of it to see. But perhaps I shouldn't be, since we would've had to see more of Kyle Reese's fucking patchy facial hair, lol.
I am finally an adult now, I think. I know this because I identified so much more strongly with Sarah than John. Much of my viewing involved frowning skeptically at John or outright talking to him through the TV, sometimes with my hands over my face. Don't get me wrong; I love him, I do. I love his awesome robot girlfriend, too. I just saw eye-to-eye more with Sarah's point of view. That probably means I was one of the wacky people who didn't mind the Sarah-centric middle of season two so much. I can totally see why people blame it for the show's demise -- those eps are harder for a casual viewer to get into, and they're meandering and thinky and slightly boring -- but I think they helped flesh out her character in interesting ways. Anyway, my alignment with Sarah and Derek, re: suspicion of Cameron, seems so strange to me, given my past affinity for good specimens of dubious bad-guy groups (see: souled vampires and kindly cylons). I think it's because I don't believe Cameron has anything like free will, even if her programming is apparently evolving, so it's not likely for her to choose a good path. Notice I said 'not likely,' because there's obviously something going on with her. That something is really interesting to me.
I'm going to do my top ten episodes, but I have to say that there wasn't a single episode that I disliked, and there were many single scenes (Derek and John in the park, watching young Derek and Kyle) and story arcs (Catherine Weaver and John Henry) that I adored beyond reason that won't be reflected here. These are the episodes I thought worked really well and interested me the most.
1.05 "Queen's Gambit" -- I liked the Andy Goode storyline, how something as awful as Skynet could start with someone as nice as Andy, and what that means for the people sent from the future to prevent Judgment Day. Also, HELLO UNCLE DEREK!
2.01 "Samson & Delilah" -- Cameron's chip malfunction. This was the episode I watched with my hands over my face, yelling at John.
2.04 "Allison from Palmdale" -- This one seriously fucked with my head. I'm still not sure I get it, but it was awesome because Summer Glau is, of course, awesome.
2.05 "Goodbye and All That" -- Apparently, I like any episode that deals with Derek and John's relationship. Good stuff about the present versus the future, and that conversation they have at the end? Wow.
2.08 "Mr. Ferguson is Ill Today" -- Final showdown with Cromartie! In Mexico! !!!
2.11 "Self-Made Man" -- It shouldn't work: a Cameron-centric episode about her library research with a dude we've never seen into a terminator living in the 1920s. But I loved it. LOVED, I tell you.
2.12 "Alpine Fields" -- Good use of past, present, and future timelines to create a story that draws out the real impact of what they're doing on the future. In all timelines, the daughter is awesome.
2.17 "Ourselves Alone" -- Where John becomes John Connor. A great look at his and Cameron's relationship as the Riley storyline begins to come to a head.
2.19 "Today is the Day, part two" -- I don't just love this one because Jesse finally gets the boot. I love the implications of the events on the Jimmy Carter, both for the show's examination of human-machine relations and for the T-1000.
2.21 "Adam Raised a Cain" -- The beginning of the more overt notions of John Henry being not necessarily evil. I loved the kidnapping stuff, even if my Uncle Derek got shot. And when Sarah was taken into custody? SHOCKING.
Brilliant show. Well paced, well acted, deals with thematic issues in a nuanced and ambiguous way, without hammering them home or overtly preaching (I'm looking at you, BSG). I'm sad that there's no more of it to see. But perhaps I shouldn't be, since we would've had to see more of Kyle Reese's fucking patchy facial hair, lol.
I am finally an adult now, I think. I know this because I identified so much more strongly with Sarah than John. Much of my viewing involved frowning skeptically at John or outright talking to him through the TV, sometimes with my hands over my face. Don't get me wrong; I love him, I do. I love his awesome robot girlfriend, too. I just saw eye-to-eye more with Sarah's point of view. That probably means I was one of the wacky people who didn't mind the Sarah-centric middle of season two so much. I can totally see why people blame it for the show's demise -- those eps are harder for a casual viewer to get into, and they're meandering and thinky and slightly boring -- but I think they helped flesh out her character in interesting ways. Anyway, my alignment with Sarah and Derek, re: suspicion of Cameron, seems so strange to me, given my past affinity for good specimens of dubious bad-guy groups (see: souled vampires and kindly cylons). I think it's because I don't believe Cameron has anything like free will, even if her programming is apparently evolving, so it's not likely for her to choose a good path. Notice I said 'not likely,' because there's obviously something going on with her. That something is really interesting to me.
I'm going to do my top ten episodes, but I have to say that there wasn't a single episode that I disliked, and there were many single scenes (Derek and John in the park, watching young Derek and Kyle) and story arcs (Catherine Weaver and John Henry) that I adored beyond reason that won't be reflected here. These are the episodes I thought worked really well and interested me the most.
1.05 "Queen's Gambit" -- I liked the Andy Goode storyline, how something as awful as Skynet could start with someone as nice as Andy, and what that means for the people sent from the future to prevent Judgment Day. Also, HELLO UNCLE DEREK!
2.01 "Samson & Delilah" -- Cameron's chip malfunction. This was the episode I watched with my hands over my face, yelling at John.
2.04 "Allison from Palmdale" -- This one seriously fucked with my head. I'm still not sure I get it, but it was awesome because Summer Glau is, of course, awesome.
2.05 "Goodbye and All That" -- Apparently, I like any episode that deals with Derek and John's relationship. Good stuff about the present versus the future, and that conversation they have at the end? Wow.
2.08 "Mr. Ferguson is Ill Today" -- Final showdown with Cromartie! In Mexico! !!!
2.11 "Self-Made Man" -- It shouldn't work: a Cameron-centric episode about her library research with a dude we've never seen into a terminator living in the 1920s. But I loved it. LOVED, I tell you.
2.12 "Alpine Fields" -- Good use of past, present, and future timelines to create a story that draws out the real impact of what they're doing on the future. In all timelines, the daughter is awesome.
2.17 "Ourselves Alone" -- Where John becomes John Connor. A great look at his and Cameron's relationship as the Riley storyline begins to come to a head.
2.19 "Today is the Day, part two" -- I don't just love this one because Jesse finally gets the boot. I love the implications of the events on the Jimmy Carter, both for the show's examination of human-machine relations and for the T-1000.
2.21 "Adam Raised a Cain" -- The beginning of the more overt notions of John Henry being not necessarily evil. I loved the kidnapping stuff, even if my Uncle Derek got shot. And when Sarah was taken into custody? SHOCKING.