Sarah Connor Chronicles 1x06-1x07, T2, T3
Tue, Feb. 26th, 2008 11:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterWow, this show is just wonderfully solid, isn't it? And eep, two-hour finale next week. I am not ready! I want more episodes!
So I finally watched T3 over the weekend, and I have to say, it's awful! I could try to go into the gender stuff, but I'm not even going to bother. Also, I growled at the first image of the human resistance winning, with a giant, tattered American flag waving over them. Because of course the victory is still American, despite the whole global nuclear war bit. (Yes, yes, I know, John Connor is American blah blah, but that shot was a pretty symbolic one nevertheless. Also, isn't there a handy-dandy resistance flag or something?)
I cheered a little when I realized the kids being killed were John's future lieutenants, particularly as at least one was a POC and at least two were women, though I will ignore how they are all in the same city. My small happiness over the 2IC being female was overshadowed by my extreme annoyance as Kate Brewster, Wife of the Hero. Also, getting married because the future tells you to? Really squicky!
I think the only parts that made T3 worth watching was Kate blowing away something with a machine gun and John reacting by saying, "Wow, you suddenly remind me of my mother," and the revelation that Skynet sent a T-800 to kill John because of his emotional attachment to it.
Unfortunately, T3 also lost all my sympathy for John Connor. Apparently I am very fond of young, scruffy boys doing a really bad job of hiding their need of parental approval, but not particularly impressed by older, scruffy boys being cynical and more cynical. It also helps that I had a huge crush on Eddie Furlong as John Connor (I was a kid when I watched it! I now feel somewhat skanky, though my current fondness for him is more related to hair mussing and annoying "awwwww" sounds).
Also, I hate the ending, which undoes everything I loved about T2, from making your own destiny to the STUPID voiceover line "Everything I learned about strength and fighting, I learned from the terminator." Um, John, did you perhaps forget your mother?
Anyway. That was a long way to say that I really enjoy how much the show is concentrating on John's parental issues, from looking for a father figure in both Charlie and in Derek, to his guilt over his foster parents, to his issues with Sarah. I love how he rebels by not cutting class, and the moment about the tape was nicely underplayed and subtle. I pretty much melted when you could see John forgiving Sarah as she told him she would have died to get him out, and as we got a callout to T2. I love how his voice cracks when he says the first thing she did was yell at him.
Cameron continues to be a very scary robot, and I love that the show doesn't soften that. Her confrontation with Charlie and Sarah in 1x06 and her walking away from the ballet teacher and her brother in this episode were both great.
The T2 fan in me loves Cameron on a bike, with the mirror shades and helmet, just like T-1000! Also, tiny naked police officer somewhere in the city!
And! OMG! They brought back Silberman! And he is batshit insane! I love Ellison's look when he wakes up, tied to a chair, clearly thinking "What. The. Fuck?" I particularly love the bits and pieces we're learning about Ellison, and I am dying to have him and Sarah as reluctant allies. I love love love the recontextualization of the classic Terminator line "Come with me if you want to live" as Sarah's line now: she's not someone to be saved anymore because she's now the savior.
I paritcularly love the non-interactions via Ellison watching tapes of Sarah in Pescadero, and I will keel over when they finally meet, because Sarah knows he's seen them, and I cannot see her being comfortable with that. There can be loads of hot UST and uneasiness and reluctant trust based on recognizing each other's intelligence and competence!
Richard T. Jones does such a wonderful job illustrating Ellison's interiority.
Also also, I really want to know what went on in the classical music room of DOOM, as it clearly broke Derek somehow. And oh, his look as Cameron dances. Is anyone else worried that Derek will go after Charlie now?
In conclusion: much love, still need to rewatch all the episodes, want DVD set, still very impressed with the writing and characterization and general intelligence, very happy.
So I finally watched T3 over the weekend, and I have to say, it's awful! I could try to go into the gender stuff, but I'm not even going to bother. Also, I growled at the first image of the human resistance winning, with a giant, tattered American flag waving over them. Because of course the victory is still American, despite the whole global nuclear war bit. (Yes, yes, I know, John Connor is American blah blah, but that shot was a pretty symbolic one nevertheless. Also, isn't there a handy-dandy resistance flag or something?)
I cheered a little when I realized the kids being killed were John's future lieutenants, particularly as at least one was a POC and at least two were women, though I will ignore how they are all in the same city. My small happiness over the 2IC being female was overshadowed by my extreme annoyance as Kate Brewster, Wife of the Hero. Also, getting married because the future tells you to? Really squicky!
I think the only parts that made T3 worth watching was Kate blowing away something with a machine gun and John reacting by saying, "Wow, you suddenly remind me of my mother," and the revelation that Skynet sent a T-800 to kill John because of his emotional attachment to it.
Unfortunately, T3 also lost all my sympathy for John Connor. Apparently I am very fond of young, scruffy boys doing a really bad job of hiding their need of parental approval, but not particularly impressed by older, scruffy boys being cynical and more cynical. It also helps that I had a huge crush on Eddie Furlong as John Connor (I was a kid when I watched it! I now feel somewhat skanky, though my current fondness for him is more related to hair mussing and annoying "awwwww" sounds).
Also, I hate the ending, which undoes everything I loved about T2, from making your own destiny to the STUPID voiceover line "Everything I learned about strength and fighting, I learned from the terminator." Um, John, did you perhaps forget your mother?
Anyway. That was a long way to say that I really enjoy how much the show is concentrating on John's parental issues, from looking for a father figure in both Charlie and in Derek, to his guilt over his foster parents, to his issues with Sarah. I love how he rebels by not cutting class, and the moment about the tape was nicely underplayed and subtle. I pretty much melted when you could see John forgiving Sarah as she told him she would have died to get him out, and as we got a callout to T2. I love how his voice cracks when he says the first thing she did was yell at him.
Cameron continues to be a very scary robot, and I love that the show doesn't soften that. Her confrontation with Charlie and Sarah in 1x06 and her walking away from the ballet teacher and her brother in this episode were both great.
The T2 fan in me loves Cameron on a bike, with the mirror shades and helmet, just like T-1000! Also, tiny naked police officer somewhere in the city!
And! OMG! They brought back Silberman! And he is batshit insane! I love Ellison's look when he wakes up, tied to a chair, clearly thinking "What. The. Fuck?" I particularly love the bits and pieces we're learning about Ellison, and I am dying to have him and Sarah as reluctant allies. I love love love the recontextualization of the classic Terminator line "Come with me if you want to live" as Sarah's line now: she's not someone to be saved anymore because she's now the savior.
I paritcularly love the non-interactions via Ellison watching tapes of Sarah in Pescadero, and I will keel over when they finally meet, because Sarah knows he's seen them, and I cannot see her being comfortable with that. There can be loads of hot UST and uneasiness and reluctant trust based on recognizing each other's intelligence and competence!
Richard T. Jones does such a wonderful job illustrating Ellison's interiority.
Also also, I really want to know what went on in the classical music room of DOOM, as it clearly broke Derek somehow. And oh, his look as Cameron dances. Is anyone else worried that Derek will go after Charlie now?
In conclusion: much love, still need to rewatch all the episodes, want DVD set, still very impressed with the writing and characterization and general intelligence, very happy.
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(no subject)
Tue, Feb. 26th, 2008 08:17 pm (UTC)I always wondered about reprogramming the terminators. I think the movies and TV series say they are neural nets, and those things I don't think are simple code structures that are easy to reprogram.
Since we discovered that Derek *did* in fact kill Andy Goode, that did make me think it was more likely that he, rather than Cameron, would kill Charlie.
The music room: I don't understand what terminators would be doing with music. Was that a John Connor operation? When we saw John's time travel setup, there were jet engines. So, the terminators salvaging a jet engine -- were they working for John? But John being in some sort of control of the music room doesn't really make sense to me, either.
I think Sarah is too harsh on Cameron. Sarah knows that terminators have learning capabilities. Are threats really the best way to teach them? Maybe with their cold, harsh logic, threats to them don't have the same sort of impact they do on humans, but still, I wish they showed Sarah thinking through her approach.
(no subject)
Tue, Feb. 26th, 2008 08:27 pm (UTC)What are neural nets, anyway? I think when I watched, I just handwaved that.
I have no idea what the music room is! I suspect we're going to find out in the finale, since the show has been remarkably good at filling in blank spots (I love that we learn exactly who killed Andy and who took the Turk). My hunch right now is that the music room is a Skynet thing, but I have no idea. I keep thinking it's brainwashing, but have no idea for what.
I sort of like Sarah's harshness with Cameron, though when I watch, I read the show as being critical of her harshness as well. My sense was that she's very paranoid and still influenced by her first experience with a terminator (I keep hearing Sarah from T2 saying something like "'It,' John. Not 'him,' 'IT'); contrast that to John, whose first experience was pretty positive, reflected in his nicer treatment of Cameron. Also, ten-year-old John prevented Sarah from destroying T-800's chip and was fairly emotional about it. Sarah seemed to be as well, from the ending voiceover, but I suspect she's more reserved.
I keep going back to the ending of T2, where Sarah's voiceover says something about how if machines can learn the value of human life, humans may be able to as well, and given that the rise of Skynet seems almost inevitable in all timelines (especially seeing all the interest in AI in "Queen's Gambit"), my bets are on the series going with Sarah and John and Cameron parenting Skynet.
I loved Andy's line in Queen's Gambit on how scared Skynet was when it first woke up -- it remembers that Skynet activates in T1 and T2 history because humans try to kill it first (it seems more aggressive in T3, which is another reason why I don't like that movie as much).
(no subject)
Tue, Feb. 26th, 2008 08:36 pm (UTC)When Cameron first took the chip from the defeated terminator with the lost hand, she seemed to give it a meaningful look. I had interpreted that as meaning she was surprised at its configuration or something, but now that she continues to hide it, I wonder what's up with that.
What are neural nets, anyway?
Sort of an attempt to mimic brains. Instead of having the normal programs people know (using C++, etc.), there are lots of little processing units. Think of them as neurons. They have various input and outputs, and there is some sort of adjustable formula for the outputs based on the inputs. You train them on some data and try to adjust those formulas to improve the outputs, sort of like rewarding a dog for good behavior and punishing him for bad behavior.
I don't actually know much about them, but from that vague description, reprogramming seems to me to be kind of hard. (Probably there is both the usual programming and also a neural net. The normal programming part might be easy to change, but you still need to deal with its interface to the neural net part and reprogramming the neural net part.)