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Oh, Holy Hannah!! Where to begin.
The opening sequence was a bit of a drag. I know it was meant to be a tag to last season's closing sequence with Cromartie and Ellison, but it just seemed unnecessary and unwieldy. The song went on for too long and didn't have the impact that the other one did. It was also a little hammer over the head with the whole Samson and Delilah I want to burn the house down as Cameron, quite literally, is coming for John to kill him, steal mankind's power, and is burning shit down along the way.
Of course, that next to last frame where you see her break down the door and ID John for termination ... that was absolutely chilling. Cameron's damaged chip adds an incredibl level of tension to the show. She's damaged now and at any moment could revert to her original programming. When that will happen is anyone's guess, but it WILL happen. Theoretically, she can be repaired but the problem is they're too far back in the timeline to repair her properly. I'm loving it already. I think I'll be on tenterhooks the entire season -- OMG!!
The way that Cameron's face was split distorted her jaw to such a lovely degree and gave her a very menacing look. Hardened and determined and not just blank eyed. The shift in music every time we saw her hunting John was awesome. Delilah coming for Samson but with blood in her eye and she's definitely planning to do more than cut his hair. We generally think of the story as one of seduction, but not in this instance. Although, Cameron's seduction of John is something that occurs in small ways and subtly over S1. When she says she loves him and that he loves her, too, I thought of her lying to keep him from removing her chip. But when he tells Derek and then Sarah, shouting it, that Cameron saves his life, I thought that it could be a case of love filtered through necessity. Not unlike Sarah's contemplation of the T-800 in T2. As she wonders what kind of father he would be it is as much a issue of survival as it is one of human emotion. People attach, we have a wonderful habit of assigning human characteristics to inhuman and inanimate objects. The Terminators make that tendency all the more easy. They are PROGRAMMABLE.
In the end Cameron does contribute to the cutting of John's hair as a symbol of John's shift into adulthood and not as a symbol of lost strength. I read it as his gaining power and agency. No longer blinded by his emo hair, no longer depending on his mother to protect him. John's had to really face the level of destruction and danger in this episode and really understand what he asked of his mother in Season One. That changed everything for him.
Bringing back Cameron was a stupid move especially considering that he had NO WAY of determining if cleaning off the chip would work. There is physical damage to the chip, so we know it requires more work and if his little experiment had failed it would have been dire. I wonder if Promise is like the code word or the password or whatever to activate the override program. My brother posited that she made the decision to override her programming on her own, but I don't buy it just yet. What we've been continually reminded is that as much as she appears to be human, can mimic humanity, Cameron is her programming. I'd like to believe that there is a negotiation of evolution and programming at work, but I'm not convinced just yet. She is changing but the question remains, to what degree can Terminators resist their programming? I wonder if she can evolve into something that crosses against the light.
Or if she's just a mimic.
We know that they lie. Her desperate attempt to keep John from pulling her chip was insane, the emotion in her voice all recall that first episode and her ability to blend with humanity. I believed her, but we KNOW Terminator's can lie. Her insistence on her own perfection, the language that she used, was also a huge tip-off. Telling him, I love you was a BIGGIE! John, good boy that he is, didn't trust her. He is his mother's son. Running when told to and not stopping.
Cromartie -- I speculated that he left Ellison alive because Ellison has some integral part to play in the creation of SKyNet. I suppose that remains very true.
The T-1000 showing up at the end was a total and complete surprise. Robotic Liquid Metal is such a handwave to me that I didn't think that they would bring it back, but they have and with upgrades. This model is obviously more advanced, displays a wider range of emotion. The biblical references -- Project Babylon, the Gateway to the Gods, conjures thoughts of translation. Here is the moment where the gap between man and machine will be bridged. But as much as this is about that path, that gate to understanding, it also conjures thoughts of chaos and dissonance because the root of Babylon is babel and the Tower of Babel was a failure. The sum of all that work was dissonance and confusion; a babble of uncomprehending voices. Judgement Day tells us that Babylon should be a success, but this show is always about re-writing the future, continually re-creating the parameters for Judgement Day. Is it inevitable? With SkyNet complicit in its own creation, I would say that yes, Judgement Day will come regardless because it's already happened. How do they wake up in a world where robots don't exist? Are they locked into this timeline without any real hope of affecting the future?
I'm excited to see the season. It's really, really nice to be excited about something! Except that intro. I really, really, really, really hope that they're not planning to keep those opening credits. It's cheesy and so NOT in a good way.
The opening sequence was a bit of a drag. I know it was meant to be a tag to last season's closing sequence with Cromartie and Ellison, but it just seemed unnecessary and unwieldy. The song went on for too long and didn't have the impact that the other one did. It was also a little hammer over the head with the whole Samson and Delilah I want to burn the house down as Cameron, quite literally, is coming for John to kill him, steal mankind's power, and is burning shit down along the way.
Of course, that next to last frame where you see her break down the door and ID John for termination ... that was absolutely chilling. Cameron's damaged chip adds an incredibl level of tension to the show. She's damaged now and at any moment could revert to her original programming. When that will happen is anyone's guess, but it WILL happen. Theoretically, she can be repaired but the problem is they're too far back in the timeline to repair her properly. I'm loving it already. I think I'll be on tenterhooks the entire season -- OMG!!
The way that Cameron's face was split distorted her jaw to such a lovely degree and gave her a very menacing look. Hardened and determined and not just blank eyed. The shift in music every time we saw her hunting John was awesome. Delilah coming for Samson but with blood in her eye and she's definitely planning to do more than cut his hair. We generally think of the story as one of seduction, but not in this instance. Although, Cameron's seduction of John is something that occurs in small ways and subtly over S1. When she says she loves him and that he loves her, too, I thought of her lying to keep him from removing her chip. But when he tells Derek and then Sarah, shouting it, that Cameron saves his life, I thought that it could be a case of love filtered through necessity. Not unlike Sarah's contemplation of the T-800 in T2. As she wonders what kind of father he would be it is as much a issue of survival as it is one of human emotion. People attach, we have a wonderful habit of assigning human characteristics to inhuman and inanimate objects. The Terminators make that tendency all the more easy. They are PROGRAMMABLE.
In the end Cameron does contribute to the cutting of John's hair as a symbol of John's shift into adulthood and not as a symbol of lost strength. I read it as his gaining power and agency. No longer blinded by his emo hair, no longer depending on his mother to protect him. John's had to really face the level of destruction and danger in this episode and really understand what he asked of his mother in Season One. That changed everything for him.
Bringing back Cameron was a stupid move especially considering that he had NO WAY of determining if cleaning off the chip would work. There is physical damage to the chip, so we know it requires more work and if his little experiment had failed it would have been dire. I wonder if Promise is like the code word or the password or whatever to activate the override program. My brother posited that she made the decision to override her programming on her own, but I don't buy it just yet. What we've been continually reminded is that as much as she appears to be human, can mimic humanity, Cameron is her programming. I'd like to believe that there is a negotiation of evolution and programming at work, but I'm not convinced just yet. She is changing but the question remains, to what degree can Terminators resist their programming? I wonder if she can evolve into something that crosses against the light.
Or if she's just a mimic.
We know that they lie. Her desperate attempt to keep John from pulling her chip was insane, the emotion in her voice all recall that first episode and her ability to blend with humanity. I believed her, but we KNOW Terminator's can lie. Her insistence on her own perfection, the language that she used, was also a huge tip-off. Telling him, I love you was a BIGGIE! John, good boy that he is, didn't trust her. He is his mother's son. Running when told to and not stopping.
Cromartie -- I speculated that he left Ellison alive because Ellison has some integral part to play in the creation of SKyNet. I suppose that remains very true.
The T-1000 showing up at the end was a total and complete surprise. Robotic Liquid Metal is such a handwave to me that I didn't think that they would bring it back, but they have and with upgrades. This model is obviously more advanced, displays a wider range of emotion. The biblical references -- Project Babylon, the Gateway to the Gods, conjures thoughts of translation. Here is the moment where the gap between man and machine will be bridged. But as much as this is about that path, that gate to understanding, it also conjures thoughts of chaos and dissonance because the root of Babylon is babel and the Tower of Babel was a failure. The sum of all that work was dissonance and confusion; a babble of uncomprehending voices. Judgement Day tells us that Babylon should be a success, but this show is always about re-writing the future, continually re-creating the parameters for Judgement Day. Is it inevitable? With SkyNet complicit in its own creation, I would say that yes, Judgement Day will come regardless because it's already happened. How do they wake up in a world where robots don't exist? Are they locked into this timeline without any real hope of affecting the future?
I'm excited to see the season. It's really, really nice to be excited about something! Except that intro. I really, really, really, really hope that they're not planning to keep those opening credits. It's cheesy and so NOT in a good way.
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no subject
Date: 2008-09-09 11:16 am (UTC)From:I'd also like to know what happened to the urinal that used to be there. (Really that just cracked me up.)
Do you have any idea who do that Deliah song? I liked it a lot.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-09 12:26 pm (UTC)From:My fannish investment these days seems to be pretty low and mostly as a viewer. TSCC and Life are big for me right now along with Mad Men. I'd like to say that I'm all hopped up about Heroes coming back, but although I am planning to watch it, it's low on the list. Every season has disappointed a little. Then there's Dollhouse. We can only wait and see how that goes.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-09 09:21 pm (UTC)From:I know what you mean about TV. Heroes I found completely uninspiring last season. I can't even remember what happened.
I think the show I most want to see the return of is "Pushing Daisies". It's just wonderful.
But I'm not fannish about that either.