1.15.2008
Come With Me If You Want To Live
"This season a mother will become a warrior, a son will become a hero, and their only ally will be a friend from the future."
I've started watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I may have been dissatisfied by the TV adaptation of Painkiller Jane, I may have been disappointed by the remake of The Bionic Woman, but I finally have my "women who kick ass" show! (Just to be clear, the only reason that Battlestar Galactica doesn't fill that bill is because it's an ensemble show. Yes, it does have plenty of women who kick ass but it has an equal number of men who kick ass. Different category. But I digress…)
Perhaps I'm simply blinded by my love of the James Cameron Terminator movies, but I don't think that's the case; I love it because it's faithful to Cameron's vision. I love how Lena Headey's Sarah Connor stays true to Linda Hamilton's Sarah from T2. I love how the opening and closing narration mirrors the films. I love the nods to the films, with the line used as the subject for this post being a prime example.
But I also appreciate the new directions: the time travel, the presence of Cameron (nice choice of name, btw) and the questions that her presence raises: Why couldn't the other terminator identify what kind of cyborg she is? What is her special relationship to John and/or Sarah? Basically, what's her secret? Because you KNOW she's got one.
One quibble: I get that the TV show has a fraction of the budget of a feature film, especially when that feature film is Terminator 2: Judgement Day, but they should have at least taken a moment to explain why we wouldn't be seeing any of the high tech T-1000 terminators with that cool liquid metal. But if that's my only problem with it, I'll learn to deal.
Overall, I think it succeeds where Painkiller Jane and The Bionic Women fail because of the power of its mythology. Yes, it has the advantage of movies to provide backstory for that mythology (mind you, Painkiller Jane should have had the advantage of comic books to provide backstory, but they didn't really bother to use that advantage). But I think it could stand on it's own without the films. The epic nature of their struggle, combined with their solitary existence as they hide from the world, gives it far greater scope than the other two series mentioned here.
If anyone believes that I'm overrating Chronicles and underrating the other shows, I would be very interested in your opinions so feel free to comment.
Addendum: Just realized another interesting name choice. The FBI agent in the show is named Ellison. James Cameron's original Terminator story was inspired by the writings of Harlan Ellison
. Pretty cool, dontcha think?
I've started watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I may have been dissatisfied by the TV adaptation of Painkiller Jane, I may have been disappointed by the remake of The Bionic Woman, but I finally have my "women who kick ass" show! (Just to be clear, the only reason that Battlestar Galactica doesn't fill that bill is because it's an ensemble show. Yes, it does have plenty of women who kick ass but it has an equal number of men who kick ass. Different category. But I digress…)
Perhaps I'm simply blinded by my love of the James Cameron Terminator movies, but I don't think that's the case; I love it because it's faithful to Cameron's vision. I love how Lena Headey's Sarah Connor stays true to Linda Hamilton's Sarah from T2. I love how the opening and closing narration mirrors the films. I love the nods to the films, with the line used as the subject for this post being a prime example.
But I also appreciate the new directions: the time travel, the presence of Cameron (nice choice of name, btw) and the questions that her presence raises: Why couldn't the other terminator identify what kind of cyborg she is? What is her special relationship to John and/or Sarah? Basically, what's her secret? Because you KNOW she's got one.
One quibble: I get that the TV show has a fraction of the budget of a feature film, especially when that feature film is Terminator 2: Judgement Day, but they should have at least taken a moment to explain why we wouldn't be seeing any of the high tech T-1000 terminators with that cool liquid metal. But if that's my only problem with it, I'll learn to deal.
Overall, I think it succeeds where Painkiller Jane and The Bionic Women fail because of the power of its mythology. Yes, it has the advantage of movies to provide backstory for that mythology (mind you, Painkiller Jane should have had the advantage of comic books to provide backstory, but they didn't really bother to use that advantage). But I think it could stand on it's own without the films. The epic nature of their struggle, combined with their solitary existence as they hide from the world, gives it far greater scope than the other two series mentioned here.
If anyone believes that I'm overrating Chronicles and underrating the other shows, I would be very interested in your opinions so feel free to comment.
Addendum: Just realized another interesting name choice. The FBI agent in the show is named Ellison. James Cameron's original Terminator story was inspired by the writings of Harlan Ellison
. Pretty cool, dontcha think?Labels: film, pop culture, tv
Comments:
The T1000 issue is simply that it was a prototype (why we didn't see it in the third film either). It's actually stated in T2 so it kind of forgives them not addressing it.
I'm not a huge fan of Sarah Connor in this as I believe that they have softened her. The female Terminator though is really well done and makes the show for me!
I'm not a huge fan of Sarah Connor in this as I believe that they have softened her. The female Terminator though is really well done and makes the show for me!
Thanks for your comments. I'm always interested in hearing what other viewers of the shows I like have to say.
I do remember them saying in T2 that it was a prototype but I still assumed that it would have been developed further. But I never saw the third film (refused to because it wasn't a James Cameron creation), so I didn't realize the T1000 wasn't seen there. If I'd known that, then I probably wouldn't have even thought of it here.
I see what you're saying about this Sarah Connor, but I guess I see her as somewhere in between the Sarah from T1 and the Sarah from T2. The Sarah we saw in the T2 had a lot of anger: her son had been taken away from her, she had been diagnosed as insane and been locked up on top of everything else. So it makes sense to me that a few years later she would have released a bit of the anger and found a better balance. Having said all that, I did think she seemed a bit softer this week than in previous episodes.
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I do remember them saying in T2 that it was a prototype but I still assumed that it would have been developed further. But I never saw the third film (refused to because it wasn't a James Cameron creation), so I didn't realize the T1000 wasn't seen there. If I'd known that, then I probably wouldn't have even thought of it here.
I see what you're saying about this Sarah Connor, but I guess I see her as somewhere in between the Sarah from T1 and the Sarah from T2. The Sarah we saw in the T2 had a lot of anger: her son had been taken away from her, she had been diagnosed as insane and been locked up on top of everything else. So it makes sense to me that a few years later she would have released a bit of the anger and found a better balance. Having said all that, I did think she seemed a bit softer this week than in previous episodes.
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