BARBELITH underground
 

Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.


Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

  
 
Evil Scientist
07:13 / 28.03.08
A rather entertaining little show which is playing on digital here in the UK currently. Based on the Terminator films and continuing on a few years down the road from where Terminator 2 left off we're once again following the adventures of mighty Sarah Connor and her son John who is fated to be the saviour of the human race in a post-apocalyptic future where Artificial Intelligence is bent on wiping out pretty much all the hairless primates it can find.

A little time-travel MacGuffin propels Sarah and John into the world of 2007 alongside a re-programmed Terminator called Cameron (played by Firefly's Summer Glau who gets to expand her range from crazy killing machine to impassive killing machine who "learns about Humanity").

I'm finding it a lot more enjoyable than the initial trailers led me to think I would. The concept of both sides sending forces back into the pre-Judgement Day era on various missions has some strong possibilities if played properly (both sides trying to alter the future to get the best result).

Sarah Connor doesn't look much like her Linda Hamilton incarnation, however Lena Headey is a good replacement. John Connor is all sulky and rebellious (but continually trying to get out from under his Mother's shadow and grow into the future Leader of Humanity figure he's supposed to be). We also have an FBI agent who's chased Sarah in the 90's and is back on the case, plus a Terminator whose followed them through the timestream (well, his head did) and is also hunting them.

Cameron, the "friendly" Terminator is great, although the concept of the emotionless cyborg who learns about Humanity is a big ol'sci-fi cliche it is being carried quite well. I am enjoying the current theme of all Terminators being just as difficult to kill as they were in the films, basically Cameron has to do all the real work whilst the others let off vast amounts of ineffectual gunfire.

Sarah and John are trying to deal with the fact that Cameron has an innate tendency to settle problems by killing people and is showing creative levels of independance (unlike Big Arn, she won't obey John because he's not "her" John).

Bad points: Well, Kyle Reese's brother just turned up (tres convenient). Plus, the concept of vast numbers of Terminator sleeper agents (some of whom have been programmed to think they are Human!) is more than a little Battlestar Galactica.

Other than that, it's all gravy.
 
 
My Mom Thinks I'm Cool
17:28 / 18.04.08
gave up trying to find a way to watch this legitimately and torrented the first five episodes.

I'm having a great time! I'm not sure why some of the other people I know got bored with it.

I don't think I have the fanboy appreciation of near-nude Summer Glau that I'm supposed to have, but I love Cameron as a character and I want a robot sister for my very own now. Her personality is an interesting mix of "robot who doesn't get it" and strangely emotional ("what's this?" "hope!", or her comments about future John Connor, who she seems to almost revere or love) and enigmatic ("what model are you? you seem different." "I am.") some of the apparent inconsistency might just be sloppy writing, but it seemed kind of purposeful to me - they seem to be hinting that she's not only capable of learning about humans, like Arnold was, but designed to as a primary function. And I suspect she's got some significant secrets she's not telling Sarah and John yet.

the show seems to be avoiding too much looking into the weirdness of time travel and it's effects on history, and spending most of the screen time on character development and action scenes. which might be a good idea, because time travel logic in the terminator universe has always been pretty wonky.

I'm hoping there's good progression and development as things go on, and not just episodic, watch-in-any-order-you-like encounters with robots and potential creators of Skynet.
 
 
My Mom Thinks I'm Cool
16:21 / 28.04.08
I'm up to episode 9 now. and still really enjoying the show.

I still haven't really seen any sign of vast numbers of Terminator sleeper agents (some of whom have been programmed to think they are Human!). there was one terminator guy who was involved with the LA traffic control computer project designer woman at a level that surprised me, but I never got the impression that he didn't know he was a terminator, just that he was very good at pretending to be human. or maybe I missed something.

are we really the only 2 people watching this show?
 
 
PatrickMM
05:38 / 12.09.08
I watched the first few episodes when they were on earlier this year, and I just caught up with the rest of the first season on DVD. It's still not great, but it's a solidly entertaining show, and particularly after the appearance of Derek Reese, it's been getting better. I loved the sequence from the finale with all the soldiers falling into the pool, and as others have said, Cameron is great throughout.

If there's a problem with the show for me, it's that it all seems very emo/heavy metal, and there's not that much room for fun within the show. That's not to say it should be wacky adventures with terminators, but I'd like to see the characters take a break from the mission occasionally and remember what it is they're fighting for, the right to live and be free.

The new season just started, I've got the first episode DVRed, so I'll be checking it out shortly.
 
 
Evil Scientist
09:36 / 24.10.08
The second season kicked off in the UK last night. I wasn't too impressed with the opening sequence to be honest (far too much slow-mo for my taste). I had kind of predicted the twist involving Cameron but I'm a hardcore fatbeard.

The Cromarty/Ellison exchange was a high-point. Terminators aren't really known for their subtle inter-personal skills so seeing Cromarty speak to the FBI agent in a way that was almost human is, hopefully, a sign that he's going to be developing a bit of personality (although not in an "I now know why you cry..." way please, he's a solid bad-guy).

The appearance of Scottish-IceQueen-T-1000 would've been more impressive if Virgin hadn't been bombarding us with that particular detail in their trailers for the past month. But I'm looking forward to her bumping heads with Cromarty.
 
  
Add Your Reply