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Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles 1.3
Despite the occasional hiccup, I continue to be a fan.
- We're continuing the theme of fathers versus mothers. Sarah as Mother of Mankind's Savior versus the Fathers of Destruction. She's dreaming her fear of inadequacy, will she be able to do what's necessary when it's necessary? It's interesting to watch her calculated murder of those fathers. In a way it brings to mind the Terminator, so to see the men transform into Terminators who proceed to murder Sarah is a fascinating comment on the interchangeability of man and machine. Fathers as destroyers as terminators. The mother attempting to become like the fathers, destroyers, but failing in the end to become a terminator. Sarah is ever tugged between the two extremes with John on one end of the spectrum and Cameron on the other. John's admonishment at the end ties it all together rather neatly, do we become like our enemies in order to defeat them?
- Sarah and Tarissa Dyson are made of AWESOME! I love everything about them. The tension and the dislike. Dyson was so very, very pointed about the consequences of Sarah being alive and her impact on the Dyson family. Loved that as much as Sarah wanted some kind of lead, Tarissa was so very, very unwilling to give up any information. The comment about people dying in vain. OMG!!
- Cameron continues for the win! Although, I find the transformation from episode one to now really curious. I wouldn't exactly describe it as a degradation of personality, but it is sort of a degradation in her personality. Her ability to behave human has been severely reduced. This episode focused on models of femininity, both Sarah and Cameron are learning and re-learning gendered behaviors. Cameron's indoctrination into the catty, double-standard and Sarah's uneasy re-appropriation of her own womanhood. That shirt she wore on the first date with Andrew felt like such a costume in contrast with Sarah's typical wife beater, structured button down look. Keeping her hair pulled back from her face in an attempt at openness, the bangs swept to the side, all very soft in contrast to the messy, utilitarian pony tail Linda Hamilton sported in T2.
- The secondary storyline in the school was a bit distracting and WTF up until the very end. I suppose it was a way to introduce Cameron to the aforementioned bitch culture popular among young women. I loved Cameron in that entire exchange. I was cheering -- step off, she will kick your ass, biotch! It did double duty, of course, to focus our attention on John as Hero. He's got instincts, yo! He's also got those girly, emo feelings that the women do not. John as intellectual nurturer. Sarah and Cameron are our blunt instruments. John grilling Sarah on the specs of the Andrew's computer was another example of her failure. I thought that his comment in the end was pointed and unfair. The school storyline was otherwise obscure and heavy handed. I was expecting so much more out of it besides home chick taking a swan dive off the cafeteria/gym/whatever it was.
- I will not be surprised if blondie bear with the long sleeves turns out to be a resistance fighter. Covering up her tattoo? hmmm ....
- I called the skin regrowth thing as soon as the Terminator stole all that blood. How gross was that, btw. And he STOLE the guys eyes!! OMG!
- Although, I understand that the scientist guy staying to watch the Terminator grow new skin and everything and then dying because of it was a comment on Sarah's voice over about how these men, these scientists, do not stop or think to stop even in the face of destruction, their own or of others, I'm not sure what that comment is. Is it just to reaffirm what we've already established? Sarah, after all, fails once again to become the terminator. Instead of killing Andrew, she destroys his work. We've seen before that this doesn't work, apparently, it only delays the inevitable.
In other news, I have to work tomorrow. *is very very sad*
Despite the occasional hiccup, I continue to be a fan.
- We're continuing the theme of fathers versus mothers. Sarah as Mother of Mankind's Savior versus the Fathers of Destruction. She's dreaming her fear of inadequacy, will she be able to do what's necessary when it's necessary? It's interesting to watch her calculated murder of those fathers. In a way it brings to mind the Terminator, so to see the men transform into Terminators who proceed to murder Sarah is a fascinating comment on the interchangeability of man and machine. Fathers as destroyers as terminators. The mother attempting to become like the fathers, destroyers, but failing in the end to become a terminator. Sarah is ever tugged between the two extremes with John on one end of the spectrum and Cameron on the other. John's admonishment at the end ties it all together rather neatly, do we become like our enemies in order to defeat them?
- Sarah and Tarissa Dyson are made of AWESOME! I love everything about them. The tension and the dislike. Dyson was so very, very pointed about the consequences of Sarah being alive and her impact on the Dyson family. Loved that as much as Sarah wanted some kind of lead, Tarissa was so very, very unwilling to give up any information. The comment about people dying in vain. OMG!!
- Cameron continues for the win! Although, I find the transformation from episode one to now really curious. I wouldn't exactly describe it as a degradation of personality, but it is sort of a degradation in her personality. Her ability to behave human has been severely reduced. This episode focused on models of femininity, both Sarah and Cameron are learning and re-learning gendered behaviors. Cameron's indoctrination into the catty, double-standard and Sarah's uneasy re-appropriation of her own womanhood. That shirt she wore on the first date with Andrew felt like such a costume in contrast with Sarah's typical wife beater, structured button down look. Keeping her hair pulled back from her face in an attempt at openness, the bangs swept to the side, all very soft in contrast to the messy, utilitarian pony tail Linda Hamilton sported in T2.
- The secondary storyline in the school was a bit distracting and WTF up until the very end. I suppose it was a way to introduce Cameron to the aforementioned bitch culture popular among young women. I loved Cameron in that entire exchange. I was cheering -- step off, she will kick your ass, biotch! It did double duty, of course, to focus our attention on John as Hero. He's got instincts, yo! He's also got those girly, emo feelings that the women do not. John as intellectual nurturer. Sarah and Cameron are our blunt instruments. John grilling Sarah on the specs of the Andrew's computer was another example of her failure. I thought that his comment in the end was pointed and unfair. The school storyline was otherwise obscure and heavy handed. I was expecting so much more out of it besides home chick taking a swan dive off the cafeteria/gym/whatever it was.
- I will not be surprised if blondie bear with the long sleeves turns out to be a resistance fighter. Covering up her tattoo? hmmm ....
- I called the skin regrowth thing as soon as the Terminator stole all that blood. How gross was that, btw. And he STOLE the guys eyes!! OMG!
- Although, I understand that the scientist guy staying to watch the Terminator grow new skin and everything and then dying because of it was a comment on Sarah's voice over about how these men, these scientists, do not stop or think to stop even in the face of destruction, their own or of others, I'm not sure what that comment is. Is it just to reaffirm what we've already established? Sarah, after all, fails once again to become the terminator. Instead of killing Andrew, she destroys his work. We've seen before that this doesn't work, apparently, it only delays the inevitable.
In other news, I have to work tomorrow. *is very very sad*
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no subject
Date: 2008-07-14 09:17 pm (UTC)From:I loved that part. This show is so thematically rich.
The mother attempting to become like the fathers, destroyers, but failing in the end to become a terminator.
Hadn't really seen it as a contrast between mothers and fathers (creators and destroyers)--excellent point.
Tarissa Dyson
They need to bring her back. Also, it'd be awesome if they brought in her son. He would be around John's age now, right? I loved John and that kid's moment together in the movie (Govenator was about to cut his arm open to show the Dysons what he is; John took the boy's hand and was like, "come on let's look at your toys"). It would also help to emphasize that John and Sarah travelled into the future eight years--while they mention it occasionally they don't seem to really drive home the sort of impact even missing eight years can have. For instance, I really wanted Dixon to say, "how is John still a teenager?"--too late now though because Dixon knows what happened now.
Her ability to behave human has been severely reduced.
ALthough most aspects of the show seem very well thought out, this bothered me. I think they want her in on the school plots, so she has to be human enough right from the beginning to fit in. But they also want her to have that same not-human dynamic as the Governator had, so there can be that interesting "learning to be human" theme. It's a hard balance to strike, but I wish they'd been more even about it, because while Cameron is AWESOME in some ways, I find her hard to get a handle on as a character.
That's my problem with most the series, actually. Thematically it's very rich, like I said. The plots are awesome and intricate and deal with issues from so many different angles. But I feel like the characters only ever do exactly what they're supposed to. Cameron gets to make a funny comment from time to time, but I don't care about her at all the way I cared about the Governator. Though I cared about the Governator because John cared about him, and they all seem really indifferent to Cameron. My biggest problem is John--we only ever hear from him exactly what he has to say because of the plot. Where is his whining, his idealism, his sarcasm, his cocky bad boy street attitude? But he doesn't need to be that--he doesn't need to be the John Connor I loved from T2. He just needs to be *someone*.
This episode focused on models of femininity, both Sarah and Cameron are learning and re-learning gendered behaviors.
Awesome analysis! I hadn't noticed that parallel.
He's also got those girly, emo feelings that the women do not. John as intellectual nurturer. Sarah and Cameron are our blunt instruments.
Yeah, I love that. I wish we saw it more. In this ep and some others I'm kind of surprised at Sarah's reluctance to kill people. I guess because in the movie, she's perfectly willing to kill Dyson if it will really save all those lives. It's John who has to tell her no. I hope she would have learned from that incident, but I'd love to see more moments in which it's John who must have mercy because Sarah tries so hard to shut her own down.
Oh! On that note, I always thought it was John's Super Power Of Compassion that made him The One. In T2, the one way in which he is stronger than both Sarah and the Terminators is his love. He goes back to get his mom when he shouldn't. He makes her not kill Dyson. He cries when the machine dies. In particular, I want it to be his compassion for the machines that makes him such a great leader--his innate understanding of them as something that is in some ways possibly more than mechanical parts, and tragically it's that understanding that gives him a special ability to destroy them. Which is I guess why I want to see him care about Cameron and constantly wonder whether she's more than some program. We get to see him seem to care about her as more than a machine once or twice, but most the time she's just...there.
Thanks for giving me a chance to talk about all this stuff. I'll probably write up a review, but I knew you'd have interesting things to say!
no subject
Date: 2008-07-16 07:10 am (UTC)From:Amen!! I was re-watching T2 the other day and was struck at how different Dekker's John is from Furlong's. They are night and day. I don't know if it's the network's insistence on likeable characters, which might also explain Headey's Sarah. John is almost personalityless. I am definitely more invested in Sarah and Derek and Cameron (mostly because we know so little about her or her model).
because while Cameron is AWESOME in some ways, I find her hard to get a handle on as a character.
Yeah, Cameron is such an unknown quantity. She's got lots of potential but it's all programming and it's difficult to write anything onto that. She is completely unrelatable.
I love the point you make about John's strength being his humanity. In the series, at least, part of what Sarah is working to preserve is that softness that her son has. It's definitely an interesting comment if that softness, his humanity, is what makes him so effective against the Terminators.