The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Fox TV series

[js]

I hate "Wire Fu!" It worked in the "Matrix" and "Croaching Tiger Hidden Dragon" but it is way overused! I just can't stand seeing the hero gliding through the air while chopping off the heads of his enemies.

I agree.

I do like "Battlestar Galactica." The flawed heros are great. Battlestar Galactica Razor was way cool. The XO's fight with her inner demons is something I can really relate too.

Yeah. That was well done and it's really hard to that sort of thing well. My main problem with Razor was a TOTALLY out of character decision by Lee to assume that the mission went South and to blow up the whole thing, his friends included. Meanwhile his father was the one telling him to wait. Just didn't seem in character--that scene.

But that's my only complaint and others will probably disagree. I liked it a lot overall, though. BSG if frigging amazing that way. It maintains a very high level show after show after show. And it has a way of never settling down into a formula--you really don't know what's going to happen next. The show doesn't allow you to get comfortable, like Star Trek NG or Voyager.

I for one like picking apart the techy stuff. But I don't let it ruin the movie for me. "Live Free or Die Hard," for example. I was really intertained but the way John McClain escaped death was really over the top.

Yeah, at some point, enough is enough, and it detracts. Hollywood doesn't seem to understand the concept. They figure that if THIS much of something is good, then TWICE as much will be that much better. They "amp it up". It's not enough that a character is hanging by his fingernails from a cliff in a story. No, when they make the movie, they have to add poisonous spiders and crumbling rock. It's stupid. It's why I dislike the Lord of the Rings movies in so many ways--that and they way Jackson consistently and destructively re-interprets Tolkien to be a Calvinist. It's really interesting to see all the changes against the book. The biggest one, of course, is Faramir. He is one of the few characters (Galadriel and Gandalf and Aragorn as well) who resists the ring. When he discovers that the hobbits have it, he does NOT capture them and drag them to Gondor. But in the movie, of course, he can't resist and does.

And I could go on. And on. But the other thing that I just was so disgusted at was when Jackson had Frodo kick Samwise out of the group, sending him packing, believing the lies of Gollum. I was ready to leave the theatre almost at that point.

It's amazing how consistently Jackson did this throughout.

Oh, one more thing--that stupid crap about Aragorn being a disappointment to Elrond, and him saying he had abandoned his way. WHAT THE HECK? Aragorn was out in the wastes because that was what his way called for! He wasn't afraid to become the King. He wasn't feeling "weak".

OK. Cutting myself off. Sorry.

 

[NeonLights]

I'm a huge Serenity/Firefly fan and a casual Terminator fan (I have all three movies in my collection), and watched both of the episodes in the new series so far, and really liked it. I also went back and watched T1 and T2 in the last couple of days to refresh the mythology in my mind. I think the creators/writers of the new series need to be careful not to overdue the time travel and resetting the past issue, but the show has a lot of potential and I hope it does well, but I fear a repeat of the whole Firefly fiasco on Fox. Time well tell I guess......

 

[flashy bazook]

I watched both episodes, and probably will need to watch a few more to make up my mind. So these are first impressions, subject to review.

I think that Linda Hamilton was just so amazing and well cast in the T-movies that I had trouble accepting Lena Headey in the role (so I had a similar reaction to Big_Ed on this one). Plus Lena is British, which is generally an issue in Sci-Fi roles (British Sci-Fi also normally sucks), and not gritty enough (too pretty and lithe, in a way) for the role. Plus she has to put a lot of effort into getting the accent right.

There were also just too many terminator chase scenes, which kind of got old by T-3.

Plus it was a big waste of time to set up all those "terminator disintegrates, terminator reassembles, terminator chases yet AGAIN" scenes. I mean if infinite terminators can come back from infinite different futures to keep chasing John Connor, what the hey does it matter if the same disintegrated terminator reintegrates and reattacks, when another one could just as well pop back into the timeline for another go.

I think a couple of themes had potential, like their loss of 7 years (so John does not know what a browser "history" is), although this particular theme is done better in the Journeyman, when bigger jumps through time are taken. (and where one of the female leads is in fact from even deeper in the past).

The other one I kind of liked was the theme where someone from the future can give equipment to the past, but can only do so by traveling and actually building it (and then putting it in several bank safety deposit boxes!). This has potential, such as how to build radioactive ion based disintegrator guns with materials easily available (though I am now reminded of Commander Checkov from STrek asking where he can find the nuclear reactors in SoCal in a thick Russian accent!). (although after being hit with the disintegrator gun, disintegrating, and captured by the time warp with his parts flying the terminator survives...quite unnecessarily).

Anyway, best not to get too caught up in this series, as Fox was supposed to have 13 episodes on inventory but because of the Hollywood writers' strike it only has 9, so there's going to be a huge empty time period after the 9th episode, even if the series catches on and is continued.

To be continued.

 

[Oddjob]

...I think the creators/writers of the new series need to be careful not to overdue the time travel and resetting the past issue, but the show has a lot of potential and I hope it does well, but I fear a repeat of the whole Firefly fiasco on Fox. Time well tell I guess......

Inconceivable.


I like the show overall. Sometimes I like when characters and stories are expanded like in this show. There are other times when adding information is unnecessary and almost detrimental like in Star Wars Episode I. When I was a kid I liked the idea of Jedis using the force and being able to do amazing things but I really did not need to know the reason they can i.e. midichlorians.

 

[Lee1959]

I watched part of Monday nights episode. It was interesting. People tend to get too hung up in trying to explain the science or inconsitencies in it. Watch it for what it is, entertainment. It isn't reality, its not meant to be reality. If you cannot let yourself go and watch something and be entertained, don't watch, why wreck things for those who can by picking them apart and complaining.

I will probably watch, or listen to it occasionally. I tend to have the tv on for something to listen to and watch a bit while sitting working on knives or a black powder rifle alone at night while my wife is at work.

Beats being bored and gives the mind something to work on.

 

[TedTheLed]

it was a little wierd when the terminator character was just a normal- seeming sexy warm friendly, even seductive, girl, then lost all of those qualities when her true identity was revealed and she became more of just a cold robot..but then I was thinking maybe they programmed her for, er, 'making out' this time'??!! wouldn't THAT be cool???!!! I was almost certain it was going to happen and then when she caressed the back of his neck, I was certain! -- but then in the next scene she says she was just checking his skin temperature...
I still say the kid and the robot make it. :shrug: one can always dream..

 

[flashy bazook]

it was a little wierd when the terminator character was just a normal- seeming sexy warm friendly, even seductive, girl, then lost all of those qualities when her true identity was revealed and she became more of just a cold robot..but then I was thinking maybe they programmed her for, er, 'making out' this time'??!! wouldn't THAT be cool???!!! I was almost certain it was going to happen and then when she caressed the back of his neck, I was certain! -- but then in the next scene she says she was just checking his skin temperature...
I still say the kid and the robot make it. :shrug: one can always dream..

Don't worry, this will happen, we have it from a Fox executive:

"Fox executives wanted to make sure "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" was more than a weekly chase show. Fox hopes that the dynamic between the mother and son, and the character of the young nubile Terminator, Cameron (a nod to Mr. Cameron), will add spice to the program. Peter Liguori, president, entertainment, Fox Broadcasting Co., says the female Terminator will be "the forbidden fruit" for the adolescent John."

Full article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/the_weekend_adviser.html

 

[Sinjz]

I liked the first two episodes. Of course I've had a thing for Summer Glau since she was a ballerina on an Angel episode. Yes, I was a big FireFly fan too.

Only thing that bugged me so far is how did the terminator head make it through the time portal? I thought 'no tech'. Also seeing how the guys hid a pistol in his leg, why they couldn't do that with a futuristic weapon, seeing that Terminators make it through because of the flesh over there bodies.... Doesn't bother me enough to distract from my enjoyment. I wonder how it does rating wise, once Heros is back. :sweat:

BTW, could we erase cernobila's' post? I find it very annoying how people always have to inject that crap into every thread. It has ZERO to do with the show and I couldn't care less what his slanted views are.

 

[LuxLuthor]

SCC was a good Sci-Fi opener. My list of favorite TV Sci-Fi is long, so it has to really be bad not to make my watch list. Thank God for Tivo. Some favorites that come to mind:

Star Trek: NextGen, Voyager, DSN, Enterprise
Firefly
Battlestar (new)
Stargate SG1 & Atlantis
Babylon 5
Farscape
Lost
Heroes
Dark Angel (1st 2 seasons)

 

[da.gee]

Is there a difference between the Fox News and entertainment channels? Their news is entertainement.

 

[LuxLuthor]

Now back to the SCC show.......

 

[ValhallaPrime]

I watched it, was decent, but I really had to wince when during a firefight, Sarah hid behind a sofa while Mistar Terminatar was unloading what looked like a sig 229 into said sofa. sounded and looked like a 357 sig round, maybe a hot +p 9mm.

Anyways, I wanna know where you can get a cloth sofa (80's style) that can stop -bullets-. Somewhere, if he watched it, Dale Dye is crying.

Most of the .177 pellet guns i had as a kid could probably shoot through my sofas here.

Just a beef.

Other than that, it was pretty spiffy. Pretty high budget too. The scene with the teacher carving open his leg was primo.

Man that Terminator really shredded that bank vault, getting in there. That was wild.

 

[PurpleDrazi]

but I really had to wince when during a firefight, Sarah hid behind a sofa while Mistar Terminatar was unloading what looked like a sig 229 into said sofa

You mean the first firefight after the Terminator shot up the school?

I believe they explained that with someone commenting that there was kevlar in the chair (couch?)

Francis

 

[js]

it was a little wierd when the terminator character was just a normal- seeming sexy warm friendly, even seductive, girl, then lost all of those qualities when her true identity was revealed and she became more of just a cold robot..but then I was thinking maybe they programmed her for, er, 'making out' this time'??!! wouldn't THAT be cool???!!! I was almost certain it was going to happen and then when she caressed the back of his neck, I was certain! -- but then in the next scene she says she was just checking his skin temperature...
I still say the kid and the robot make it. :shrug: one can always dream..

Very good point, I think. I wondered the same thing myself. Perhaps she stopped using her seduction/blending in/humanity software routines once there was no need to waste processor cycles on them?

But then, what about when she was questioned by the police officer or when they were interacting with others in the outside world. You'd expect her to be more human then, in that case.

For me, these are the sorts of things I do get a little nitpicky over. Because this is the heart of the story, or the show --for me anyway.

 

[js]

I'm having a thought! If we assume that the discrepancy in Cameron's behavior isn't an oversight or mistake or something (which you always should assume, to start with), then it must mean something significant.

Could it mean (especially in light of other information) that in the future, Cameron and John were/are lovers. If this is true, then we should be able to notice that Cameron is always more "human" when she is around John. The "Diamonds are a Girls best friend" thing is maybe a piece of evidence in favor of that. As well as the touching him--which I don't think is covered by the skin temperature test thing. Heck, Cameron is able to see IR, so she didn't need to touch John to know his skin temperature. As witnessed by her shooting Enrique because he was maybe lying. She took that assessment from across the room, no touching involved.

Yeah. I think it's a pretty sure bet that Cameron and John ARE lovers in the future, and WILL become intimate on the show.

Lux,

I appreciate that you felt the need to take a stand on a political issue in response to cernoblia's post, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with your post. But, as one member to another (and this goes to cernoblia as well) I'd appreciate it if you both might see your way clear to editing your post(s) to remove the politcal content. This sort of thing will go South in a hurry, and will likely result in this thread being closed. Discussing Fox in regards to this show is fine. Discussing Fox in regards to politics is bound to stir up a hornets nest.

On the topic of Fox, I dearly hope that they do not prematurely can the SCC like they did Firefly! Fox seemed to go out of its way to doom FF back when it was being aired. They showed stuff out of order. They had little to no advertising ahead of time for the series. It's like there was an interal conflict going on between two sides. One side wanted FF and forced it through. But the other side decided to go out of its way to ensure the shows failure, no matter how well done it was.

Pure speculation on my part, of course! But looking back, that's a scenario that I wonder about. Firefly was some of the best TV ever aired. Amazing stuff.

 

[Ras_Thavas]

So far I have liked the first two episodes, which is more than I can say for some other shows (The Bionic Woman.)

I am not completely sold on the actress playing Sarah, but I think they nailed it with the actor playing John.

 

[NA8]

Very good point, I think. I wondered the same thing myself. Perhaps she stopped using her seduction/blending in/humanity software routines once there was no need to waste processor cycles on them?

I was thinking, "it's a toaster", it doesn't care when it shifts out of one subroutine back to the basic operating system. It's in full guard mode now.

Then again, I think the bot is the best part of the show. I like the weird dynamic with Sara more than with John. The scene at the forger's where the chicana look out is applying some makeup to a submissive Cameron and the focus pulls to Sara's WTF? was quite the moment.

 

[js]

I thought that this thread needed some pictures!!!

So, without further ado, here is the "come with me if you want to live" pic, right after Camron has smacked down the other terminator with a pickup truck.

And here she is flirting with John at the beginning of the first episode:

And here they all are in the bank vault:

And two more in no particular order with no sense of context provided:

And, the best (in my opinion) saved for last:

 

[sunspot]

"Fox executives wanted to make sure "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" was more than a weekly chase show.

My wife and I were thinking that the first show was very much like "The Fugitive" but with a FBI guy and a terminator after John Kimball.
I have the second show on my recorder and based on the good reviews here, we will watch it.
Thanks guys.

 

[Coop]

So, anyone noticed the flashlights in episode 2? Looks like Surefire M3 or M4...