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The W - Movies & TV - "Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season Two premiere
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Alessandro
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Since: 2.1.02
From: Worcester MA

Since last post: 467 days
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#1 Posted on | Instant Rating: 3.04
Pretty good way to kick off the second season ... I guess I'll cry "Spoiler!" beforehand, but two comments:

1) For storyline purposes, how can John really trust Cameron now? I mean, from the viewer's perspective, we saw the "Termination override" command through her HUD, but his little group of freedom fighters didn't; for all they know, she could be just biding her time to win back their trust (and a day, a week, even a year from now she ends up putting a bullet in his head while he's sleeping)?

2) T-1000 in the urinal! I honestly wasn't expecting the liquid-metal Terminators to be a part of this continuity (and I thought this new lady was just a human pawn in the future construction of SkyNet), so that made for a nice surprise ...



(edited by Alessandro on 9.9.08 1058)


Parquet Wishes and Leprechaun Dreams

The most hilarious thing about Tommy Dreamer is that everyone else in WWE, from Shelton Benjamin to dudes who haven't even debuted yet, has a T-shirt available. WWE doesn't even bother printing up a T-shirt for Tommy Dreamer, A MAN WHOSE GIMMICK IS WEARING A T-SHIRT WHILE WRESTLING. And why is that? Because not a god damn person would ever pay money for a Tommy Dreamer shirt. Not even his own mother. As a result he usually ends up wearing a shirt that says "WRESTLEMANIA 24" or "JUDGEMENT DAY." I think it's time for Tommy Dreamer to just print up a T-shirt that says "UPCOMING PAY PER VIEW"

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Twoflower
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Since: 4.1.02

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#2 Posted on | Instant Rating: 5.32
I felt the opener was pretty weak. There's the problem you mention that they can't possibly trust Cameron because they didn't get the POV shot we did, but also two other annoyances.

1. Opening music video montage. We watched it in 2x speed thanks to tivo and it STILL took too long. The laborious process of Cameron pulling herself out of the wreck and two thugs whose plot purpose I'd completely forgotten by that point kicking around Sarah and John took up the first EIGHT MINUTES of the show. And the song wasn't even that memorable. I guess they wanted to repeat the awesome of Johnny Cash and the FBI going into the pool, but you need more than music and slow action and arty angles to enthrall.

2. Shirley Manson. Egh. I LIKE Garbage, they're a good band, but her acting plus the hideous dialogue they gave her... she may as well be swirling a goblet of congac and stroking a white cat and tossing James Bond to the frickin' laser sharks. And she's not even a particularly eloquent bond villain ("It's from the BIBLE!"). And why is she even trying to be eloquent and poetic? Terminators are pretty single minded and terrible at imitating human emotions; even the one that was 'married' to someone last season was just going through generic, preprogrammed caressing motions whenever his wife felt out of sorts.

Hope the quality picks up. Mediocre television is still entertaining when it's all Terminator-y, but it's definitely still mediocre. Fun for the wrong reasons.
Quezzy
Scrapple








Since: 6.1.02
From: Pittsburgh, PA

Since last post: 1908 days
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#3 Posted on | Instant Rating: 3.50
    Originally posted by Alessandro

    1) For storyline purposes, how can John really trust Cameron now? I mean, from the viewer's perspective, we saw the "Termination override" command through her HUD, but his little group of freedom fighters didn't; for all they know, she could be just biding her time to win back their trust (and a day, a week, even a year from now she ends up putting a bullet in his head while he's sleeping)?


I thought the first episode was kind of weak but this isn't one of the reasons. Terminators don't bide their time. If she was going to turn on them then they'd all be dead as soon as John brought her back. Why would she wait and gain their trust when she can kill them now?

At first I was surprised that the T-1000 was in the show, then I started to think it made sense since this takes place after T2, then I started thinking why didn't they start with the T-1000. I know they probably wanted to save it but if the T-1000 already existed then why would there be a weaker model chasing John in the first season?

Good to see John shave his head. I still don't like the actor that much but at least he looks slightly more tough.



Lance's Response:

THAT IS AWESOME!
Zeruel
Thirty Millionth Hit
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Since: 2.1.02
From: The Silver Spring in the Land of Mary.

Since last post: 1675 days
Last activity: 1675 days
#4 Posted on | Instant Rating: 4.05
    Originally posted by Quezzy
      Originally posted by Alessandro

      1) For storyline purposes, how can John really trust Cameron now? I mean, from the viewer's perspective, we saw the "Termination override" command through her HUD, but his little group of freedom fighters didn't; for all they know, she could be just biding her time to win back their trust (and a day, a week, even a year from now she ends up putting a bullet in his head while he's sleeping)?


    I thought the first episode was kind of weak but this isn't one of the reasons. Terminators don't bide their time. If she was going to turn on them then they'd all be dead as soon as John brought her back. Why would she wait and gain their trust when she can kill them now?

    At first I was surprised that the T-1000 was in the show, then I started to think it made sense since this takes place after T2, then I started thinking why didn't they start with the T-1000. I know they probably wanted to save it but if the T-1000 already existed then why would there be a weaker model chasing John in the first season?

    Good to see John shave his head. I still don't like the actor that much but at least he looks slightly more tough.


That weaker model just happened to find John first. Don't forget, in T2, the T-1000 was just a prototype. There is no telling how many Skynet was able to produce and then send back in time. It could just be this one, or one-hundred.

Oh, correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounded like Manson was singing that opening song.



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Alessandro
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Since: 2.1.02
From: Worcester MA

Since last post: 467 days
Last activity: 72 days
#5 Posted on | Instant Rating: 3.04
    Originally posted by David Kronke of the LA Daily News
    Season two of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" begins mere seconds from where its first season (which was truncated by the writers strike) left off: with Cameron (Summer Glau) blown up in her truck.

    What's to worry? She's a Terminator - you can't kill them - and after she staples her face back together with a staple gun, she's back in the hunt. But it turns out that even if you can't kill them, you can knock a screw or two loose.

    Tonight's season premiere is basically a nonstop chase, opening with a violent melee played over a cover of the Grateful Dead's "Samson & Delilah." And while Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) and her son John (Thomas Dekker) are defending themselves, a building does get burned down, a decent-size body count amasses, and Sarah discovers that her driving skills leave a little to be desired, as she causes at least $100,000 in vehicular damage in just a couple of hours' time.

    Garbage lead singer Shirley Manson has joined the cast as Catherine Weaver, the head of a computer company who might want to consider softening her severe look if she doesn't want to exude evil.

    Catherine speaks direly of a computer "that will cross against the light." Destroying the planet, presumably, comes in version 2.0.

    It's a splashy, eye-popping return for a show some fans wished had more action in the first season; they get it here. And last season ended on John's birthday, remember? It's one he won't likely forget.


Oh, I think someone's trying to be clever without giving away spoilers!



Parquet Wishes and Leprechaun Dreams

The most hilarious thing about Tommy Dreamer is that everyone else in WWE, from Shelton Benjamin to dudes who haven't even debuted yet, has a T-shirt available. WWE doesn't even bother printing up a T-shirt for Tommy Dreamer, A MAN WHOSE GIMMICK IS WEARING A T-SHIRT WHILE WRESTLING. And why is that? Because not a god damn person would ever pay money for a Tommy Dreamer shirt. Not even his own mother. As a result he usually ends up wearing a shirt that says "WRESTLEMANIA 24" or "JUDGEMENT DAY." I think it's time for Tommy Dreamer to just print up a T-shirt that says "UPCOMING PAY PER VIEW"

John Orquiola
Scrapple








Since: 28.2.02
From: Boston

Since last post: 3560 days
Last activity: 3560 days
#6 Posted on | Instant Rating: 3.84
I've found Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles to be pretty mediocre since the pilot. I wasn't even sure I wanted to watch season 2 but my DVR recorded it so I decided to give it a chance. And it's still pretty mediocre.

The writing on this show is still so so weak. The dialogue is poor, allowing the characters little charm and wit. The episode was basically a long chase, which is fine -- chases can be fun -- but this chase made no sense from a logistical standpoint. The Connors could have easily escaped Cameron but they HAD to get in a car crash because they HAD to hide out in a church (even though John had a visibly gruesome leg wound that never bothered him after it was shown) so that Cameron HAD to find them to chase them, then they HAD to crash into Cameron, who just HAPPENED to be at the exit at the tunnel, then they just HAPPENED to be found by Reese and Sarah's ex. Reese's explanation: "You cut a path of destruction across the city" is no explanation. So no authorities could follow that path? No cops investigated all this destruction? The characters are barely characters, just pieces moved around for convenience of plot. As the titular (ahem) hero of the series, Sarah Connor never quite comes off as capable as she ought to. The writing has largely been stupid monkeys banging on typewriters work.

But -- and there's a big but -- this episode was the best work as a Terminator Summer Glau has done yet, and there were three standout moments in the episode made it pretty damn memorable.

1) When Sarah rammed her truck into Cameron to incapacitate her against John's truck, I thought that was excellent. Really clever. Cameron's panic (feined or real?) and flurry of pleading at John not to pull her plug was shocking and strangely moving.

"Iranatest...I'mfinenow...Iranatest...don'tdothis...don'tdothis...Iloveyou!...Iloveyou!"

Wow. No Terminator has ever plead for its life or attempted emotional manipulation of a human like that (if that's what it was and nothing more... I'm not so sure.) That was the first amazing moment of this series that shows signs of its true potential. As a Terminator moment, it's perhaps on par with the T-800's "I know now why you cry. But it is something I can never do."

That was a really solid peek into the inner life of this teenage version of John Connor. The affection (and what else? Confusion, sure. But what else?) he feels for his hot girl Terminator is understandable. Can she feel back? No, but she has a learning computer. What are the limits of that ability to learn? The T-800 understood why 11 year old John cries. Can Cameron understand why John resurrected her? Does John understand why he resurrected her? And even beyond the trust issue, what about the ramifications of resurrecting Cameron? When you develop a relationship, however they define it, with a machine like Cameron, how personally do you take it when that machine turns on you? How much can and should they rely on Cameron, and how much of that reliance is dependent entirely on their control, or percieved level of control, over her? There are so many more questions.

These are the issues and questions the series should explore, and not in a ham-handed way. We've seen a boy and his Terminator done extremely well in T2. I'm way more interested in how a young man interacts with his female Terminator than in all the generic action the series hurls at us. This kind of Blade Runner-style sci-fi questioning was inherent in this series the very moment the decision was made to create a female Terminator and cast someone has beautiful as Summer Glau to play her opposite a teenage John Connor. (It doesn't have to go into Fry and his Lucy Liu-bot territory either. There are other avenues to explore.) I could care less about the FBI agent's endlessly boring B plot.

2) Shirley Manson is the T-1000. Really didn't see that coming. That was a mark-out moment by design and it worked. But the jury's out on the character itself.

3) The haircut. About damn time. With the buzz cut, John no longer looks like a Tahitian prostitute.

(edited by John Orquiola on 11.9.08 0728)
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