Sarah Connor Chronicles 1x01-1x02

[oyceter]

Just to let people know, Terminator 2 was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid. Well, that and Beauty and the Beast. I've never seen T3, and while I saw T1, it was after I'd watched T2 several times, and T1 sort of bored me because Sarah Connor was not an escaped mental patient wearing fatigues and wielding giant guns.

Spoilers for eps. and for T2

First of all, I realized that I was apparently still wired to love anything Terminator when I saw the font and heard the first beats of the Terminator theme and immediately started squeeing. I figured the first bit was a dream sequence just because of how T2 opens, and was happy to see apocalyptic flames of DOOM! All it was missing was the giant metal Terminator foot crushing a human skull as an anvillicious symbol of DOOM!

And just to get it out of the way: I miss Linda Hamilton.

But it's also been years since I've seen the movies, so it took less time to readjust than I had anticipated. The voiceovers sound different to me, but there are some shots that focus on Lena Headey's wide jaw, and she looks like Sarah Connor from the movies.

I was also incredibly amused by the return of the voiceover about fate while driving in the middle of the road (I have never understood why they put the yellow line in the middle. Yeah, it looks more dramatic but... middle of the road!).

Other callouts to the movies: the chainlink fence and the playground (this time, not in flames). "Come with me if you want to live" (dorky, but I still squeed). The giant-ass guns. Probably other stuff I missed or forgot.

I like Sarah so far, although I am slightly annoyed that she feels softer from the T2 version. That said, I am handwaving it as her having lived in the real world for two years, as opposed to being a just-escaped mental patient who was locked up for three years. I roll my eyes at the obligatory fiance, and I hope he does not come back too often.

I also like the paranoia and the feeling of being fenced in, of dark rooms and warehouses and constantly being on the run. I love Sarah's tenseness, the way she balances between fight-or-flight, the way she's always looking for an exit, for a weapon, for an edge. Sarah Connor of T2 was my heroine because she was badass and did chin-ups and could outfight almost anyone, and also because she was terrified out of her mind and covered it with paramilitary training. This Sarah Connor is a little more human, a little more maternal, and I will pretend it was a decision made so there was more room for characterization, as opposed to wanting to make Sarah Connor of T2 more acceptable for audiences.

So far, while some of Summer Glau's expression feel too much like River for me (the headtilt followed by her saying something strange), I love how off she is. I just wish we had more of her and Sarah Connor wielding giant guns and kicking a lot of ass.

I like that we revisit John's desire for a father figure; I wonder if he still dreams of the days when he had a dysfunctional yet strangely functional family composed of his just-escaped mom, himself, and a deadly machine sent back to protect him. That said, John leaving the house was stupid but not unexpected (I love that Sarah knows right away). On the other hand, John surfing the web while his actions were projected on a giant screen in the mall? STUPID! Also, rather implausible, given that I am pretty sure a hacker for 1995 would have know about the internet and things like browser histories.

And even if he didn't -- I find it completely unbelievable that someone who's been trained to be as paranoid as John could have missed that his every click was being projected on a wall right behind him.

I like the way the series inverts tropes by having the male character be the youngest one who needs to be protected. I also like that he's the brainy computer one while both of the women are the ones with guns and muscles (not that they aren't brainy, because they obviously are pretty smart).

I was happy that they included Enrique (continuity!), but sad that they killed him and that he was a snitch. I was doubly sad by the stereotypical portrayal of a Latino gang. For a second, I thought the woman was going to be Carlos, which would have been awesome, but sadly, no. So far, I'm overlooking the death of a POC since it brought in POC detective. I am also rooting for the return of Mrs. Dyson, especially as a sometimes-ally. I think it would be awesome seeing her and Sarah interact, particularly since she first met Sarah when Sarah laser-sighted her husband and attempted to assassinate him at home.

Random thoughts:

• Why no liquid-metal terminators? Aside from the whole budget constraint, of course.


• Bank vault sequence = awesomesauce


• Cameron's touch seeming like intimacy, but actually being utilitarian


• John generally isn't stupid and his whininess is fairly minimum, given the usual amounts of angst and whininess teen messiah figures tend to have (*cough*Kamui*cough*)


• The 9/11 metaphor was really dumb and anvilly


• John knowing from the "I love you" and the "come meet me" that it wasn't his mom (at least, that's what I think)


• Sarah just throwing Cameron out the window


• Apocalyptic barcode tattoos!


• Apocalyptic resistance fighters! Please let there be more women


• The absolute creepiness of a metal endoskeleton with a decapitated head on top


• I am assuming that the cyborg terminators and Cameron heal flesh wounds; otherwise Cameron's going to look really funny after a while. Or maybe Cameron is a different model.


• Am interested to see how Cameron differs from the other terminators


• Cameron and Sarah sort of bonding and sort of bristling over Cameron's knowledge of future!John


• Sarah as the best fighter John Connor could think of


• I know this is from the movies, but I still love that John Connor has taken Sarah's name, not Reese's. I'm sure it's because Sarah doesn't want to tip off future!Reese or something complicated like that, but it fits, given how all John's skills and military expertise are coming from Sarah, that Sarah's the one who makes him fight, that she's the one who ends up driving the plot and the beginnings of the resistance.


• They need to get rid of the voiceovers. For the pilot, it was ok as a callout to the movies, but now they are annoying and boring and redundant.


• Sarah in the hospital reminds me of Laura Roslin

So: not a complete fan yet, but the series shows promise. Also... female protagonist! As an action hero! Who interacts with another woman (ok, machine, but whatever).

Comments

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

# John knowing from the "I love you" and the "come meet me" that it wasn't his mom (at least, that's what I think)

That is what I think, too.

[oyceter]

(ooo, Cameron icon!)

Yeah, especially since Sarah later chews him out for not running and abandoning her.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

(I need to figure out what to caption this one to replace the illegible text.)

Exactly. Though I also think his default instructions are "Run!" whenever he sees a terminator.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

John generally isn't stupid and his whininess is fairly minimum, given the usual amounts of angst and whininess teen messiah figures tend to have (*cough*Kamui*cough*)

But will John ever give us a scene with enough emotastic melodrama to top tenderly cradling your True Love's decapitated head?

Most voiceovers need to go away. *not watching yet but plans to on DVD*

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

Ditto. I'm still waiting for more reactions and to see how the season pans out. I've been disappointed too much lately and I don't want to see my beloved memories of Terminator (well, okay, T1 & T2 because T3 was awful) ruined.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Except that I didn't go to T3 because the trailers alone told me I would come out sad.

Though with Christian Bale playing John in the next one, I might try it.

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

It was on TV. I've been known to watch all sorts of questionable stuff if it's on TV. Hence why I can admit to watching such SciFi classics like Snakehead Terror or Frankenfish.

[oyceter]

I am hoping my memories of the movie are far back enough to not be disappointed, but well.. we'll see.

Also, this gives me a great excuse to rewatch T2.

[oyceter]

Hee, I doubt it. Nothing tops X.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

It is one of my most preciousest anime moments.

[vee-fic.livejournal.com]

I'm pleased that the text follows through its gender-upending: the fiance is stability, and home, and responsible normal life. A male representative of domesticity, who isn't made fun of? I think that's pretty awesome by itself.

I also liked the fact that he went to the police on her behalf: it seemed like a traditionally feminine thing to do. Similarly, his denial in the face of Agent Clever's diatribe of crazy: he's loyal rather than empirical, and that makes him helpless. All of these feminine traits in a male character, and we're meant to sympathize with him. I sorta kinda wonder if it's not all accidental, and he'll ride in to the rescue suddenly with his macho pants on; but till then, I'm really enjoying the inversion of stereotypes.

[oyceter]

Oh, good point! I didn't catch that, but very yes. I also like that John runs to him as a parental figure, and of course Sarah's role as the protector and breadwinner is very traditionally masculine, as is her gruff, no-nonsense-ness.

I am really hoping he does not get macho pants.

[cofax7]

Well, he is kind of macho: EMT (okay not firefighter, but close!), tattooes, playing with car-parts, very gruff-looking casting and clothing choices.

I do hope he doesn't do any significant rescuing!

[vee-fic.livejournal.com]

So, you could say, the text is coding him so that he's not too feminine. (Not firefighter, but also, not a nurse.)

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

Skip T3 because a) No Linda Hamilton and b) John is reduced to being an emo boy with Claire Daines as a girlfriend. I was not highly impressed.

So far, Shirl and I like the series. I was sad that Enrique was the snitch and boo Latino gang although the sister who does Cameron's makeup cracked me up. You learned more about her without words than all the posturing the boys did.

I'm liking this Sarah Connor. I see her as being kind of worn down from being both mom of future!Messiah and just regular every day mom with an adolescent. If she was 'on' all the time, I wouldn't believe her. i like seeing her working her contacts, trying to hold it together.

Although, more guns for her and Cameron would not be amiss.

FYI, sf author S.M. Sterling wrote three novels that take place after T2 (while incorporating the female Terminator from T3 or at least making her a whole lot more plausible). I've read them and found, as opposed to some other Terminator tie-in novels, that they advanced the story in such a way that made me wish this is how everything would unfold. Plus, the author introduces you to the person who the original Terminator is based on. Sweet.

The books are: T2 - Infiltrator, T2 - Rising Storm, T2 - The Future War.

[oyceter]

I am... sort of tempted to do T3 anyway just for more canon. Possibly I will watch while knitting something extremely complicated so I don't throw stuff.

I really want to see the Latina woman who leaned against the car again. Mely made a point about her radiating menace without saying a word, which very much fits in with the women of the series.

Oh huh! I usually avoid tie-ins, but I may check those out, thanks!

I am personally voting for a gratuitous chin-up scene, with close-ups on Sarah Connor's biceps and sweaty hair.

[cofax7]

I gotta say: this Sarah Connor doesn't mass enough to do pullups, I suspect. LH is thin, but I don't see much definition in her arms.

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

I am... sort of tempted to do T3 anyway just for more canon. Possibly I will watch while knitting something extremely complicated so I don't throw stuff.

There's canon and then there's really bad script writing that is supposedly canon. Make sure that knitting project is really complicated.


I really want to see the Latina woman who leaned against the car again. Mely made a point about her radiating menace without saying a word, which very much fits in with the women of the series.

Now that's a tag line: Watch The Sarah Connor Chronicles: where women radiate menace without saying a word. Seriously, sistergirl was menacing but in this way that most of us dream about.


I am personally voting for a gratuitous chin-up scene, with close-ups on Sarah Connor's biceps and sweaty hair.

"Dear Fox executives, can we please please PLEASE have some chin-up scenes (tastefully done of course) featuring close-ups of Sarah Connor with her biceps showing and sweaty hair? We will love you forever.

Sincerely,

Concerned Female Fans of the Sarah Connor Chronicles"

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I would sign your petition and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

Hee! First newsletter will come out if we get at least five episodes.

[oyceter]

I would so be on board with that letter!

[cofax7]

SM Stirling and I have issues. He's weirdly hung up on people's ethnic backgrounds (very very hung up on them), and the longing for a feudal society that comes through in Dies the Fire made me quite uncomfortable. Skeevy is the word that comes to mind.

So, that said, I love me a good apocalypse; are they actually good, or will they still make my skin crawl at the internal politics?

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

I've been reading Sterling since his early Fifth Millennium novels in the late 80s and like the Nantucket novels. I'm a little less impressed by the Dies the Fire novels (we have the first three) because that feudal society comes about mighty quick. Plus the whole emphasis on the Old Religion (grits teeth) hit me the wrong way in that I'm so tired of it being the *only* religion that seems to show up in some post-apocalyptic landscape. Especially since his early stuff showed a variety of cultures, practices and beliefs which made me like it.

That said, the T2 novels are good. The internal politics are a lot less (although he has serious issues about Luddites which, by the end of the stories, you kind of end up saying, "Yeah, those idiots") and the way he builds up to the moment that Skynet goes online and starts offing humanity leaves you with this really creepy feeling that is appropriate to the story.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

Why no liquid-metal terminators?

Good question. Maybe Sarah changed things enough in T2 that that technology never developed in the revised timeline?

[oyceter]

Hrm, maybe! That would be cool. I hope they bring it up eventually...

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen this thing, so I'm avoiding spoilers, but I felt the exact same way about the Terminator films! I saw T2 first and loved it, saw T1 a few years later and wondered when Sarah Connor was going start being a crazy fatigue-wearing killer with ominous knowledge of the future.

I still haven't brought myself to watch the third film.

[oyceter]

I will report on the third when I see it! Hopefully...

I have such a giant girlcrush on T2 Sarah Connor. She was just so awesome.

[seraphcelene]

Love your reading of the show! I'm enjoying it quite a bit so far, and you've just helped me to enjoy it just a little bit more. I did pick up on the gender coding switch very briefly when Sarah Connor tells John to stay home while she and Cameron head out to face gather up a new identity.

I was also totally expecting Carlos to be the girl and wouldn't that have been absolutely awesome!!

Thanks for writing this up, btw.

[oyceter]

Thanks for reading! I am glad I have something to look forward to on Mondays now!