Last night’s episode, “Mousetrap”, returned the show to the suspense and drama that we saw in the series initial episodes. And they did it without a lot of complications and terminator wars.
The episode begins with Charley Dixon (Dean Winters) and his wife Michelle (Sonja Walger) stopped at a gas station in the middle of nowhereville. They are fleeing in order to protect themselves. While Charley is distracted though, Cromartie (Garret Dillahunt) sabotages his own car, and steals Charley’s – with Charlie’s wife still in it.
Meanwhile, John Conner (Thomas Dekker) is stealing cable for his very pregnant neighbor, and sees a news story about an actor whose identity Cromartie used while he murdered a huge group of an assault team. Later, John gets a call from a crazed Charley, but Charley covers up his panic and asks to talk to Sarah (Lena Headey). She seems not happy to hear from him, but she’s really speaking to him in code. She manages to get Charley’s location and goes to help him, with Derek (Brian Austin Green) in tow. But, before she leaves, she tells Cameron not to let Charlie out of her sight.
Cromartie is holding Michelle captive, and he has her tied to a chair set up with wire and mousetraps so that any move she made would cause her to be blown up.
Meanwhile, while John and Cameron (Summer Glau) are loading computers onto their pickup truck, he gets a phone call from Riley who wants to see him. Cameron doesn’t like the idea but John takes off when she’s distracted and heads to find Riley.
Ellison (Richard T. Jones) is at home, and he watching one of Laslow’s movie when he gets a call from Weaver (Shirley Manson), who poses an opportunity to him and asks him to meet.
Michelle, despite being tied up, has managed to get access to her cell phone and calls Charley. Sarah insists that Charley ask Michelle something to be sure it’s really her, so he reluctantly asks her a question only she would know. It IS Michelle, and she gives them her location as she best knows. But unbeknownst to her, Cromartie sees that her phone is out of her purse. When Michelle pleads with him, he tapes her mouth shut and sets her chair on the mousetraps, and we can see what look like an explosive device.
While all this is going on, John and Riley are out having fun, when they see Cameron staring at them from across the street.
Sarah, Charley and Derek find the location where Michelle is being held, and enter with their guns drawn. When they see Micelle, Sarah warns that no one should touch her, seeing what looks like an explosive set up. While Sarah reviews the situation, Charley finds their truck had just been sabotaged. Sarah realizes the bomb is fake, and the Cromartie just wanted to keep them there. They free Michelle, and Sarah calls John, telling him to stay with Cameron. But Cromartie has tapped into the call and now has John’s number and the date code word. When Derek says he noticed some equipment tied to a huge cell phone tower right outside the window, Sarah realizes what is going on, and they all flee as Cromartie has the cell phone tower blown up to fall on the house.
Everyone seems OK from the explosion, and Derek and Sarah realize that Cromartie has heard her phone call to John and Cromartie knows the secret calling code. But, as Charley helps Michelle, he sees she is bleeding from her back. She insists she can go on.
Cromartie now calls John, posing as Sarah, and tells him to meet her at the pier and turn off his phone. Meanwhile, the group knows they can only make progress on foot in order to get help, and Michelle goes on, even though she is still bleeding.
While this is going on, Weaver and Ellison have their meeting, with Weaver showing pictures of a plane crash with terminator parts that were found in the wreckage. She said that she and her late husband spent $20 million to reverse engineer the technology, with no luck. She also indicates she knows about Ellison’s New Mexico case from eight years ago who saw a man with a robot leg trying to kill John Connor. She thinks Ellison knows what is really going on and who recently murdered all those police and agents. She wants Ellison to help her find another terminator.
Back in the desert, Sarah car jacks a lone van driver, and they escape. But Michelle is bleeding to death, and Charley demands Sarah to stop the van.
John, back at the pier, spots Cromartie, and runs, Cromartie also seeing him and begins to chase. It ends with both of them in the water, but Cromartie can’t swim, so John gets away. But, just like Star Trek the Next Generation’s Commander Data, Cromartie can still sink to the bottom and walk his way out, which he does. But John has already left the scene with Cameron, who managed to catch up with John.
Outside a hospital emergency room, Charlie is overcome by grief. Michelle is dead. Later, at her funeral, he drops a bible onto the casket and storms off. Ellison is there, and seemingly only a short way away is Cromartie. The episode closes with Sarah, John, Derek and Cameron lowering their heads at a dinner table, with a very subdued. serious tone.
This episode worked well because it was less of the terminator vs. terminator scenario, and a little more of a terminator using his brain, not brawn, to get to John Connor. Although I must admit, it seem a little odd that John, who knows the trouble he could be in when he goes off on his own, being unprotected no less, still does it. I realize that he wants to have his fun, but he’s seen the bad that can happen from complacency. One day, it would be good for John Connor to show that he is really learning from his mistakes.
Enhancing the story line is Michelle’s death, which puts Charley back on the market, and probably will give him a major chip on his shoulder. Nothing adds to the drama of a show with a guy who is angry and wants revenge. The question is – to whom will he direct his anger? To the terminators? To Sarah” Or to both?
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Showing posts with label Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Terminator Sarah Connor Chronicles: Too Automatic?
In this episode of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, “Automatic for the People, “ the group is faced with a potential disaster at a nuclear power plant. The only disaster here was the ease of which the power plant was infiltrated, not by a terminator, but by Sarah Connor and her cohorts.
The recap (below) outlines how the show set up the scenario where nuclear power plants will come under the control of the machines in the future. I have to admit, through, that the only thing it may have shown was how easy it is in a fictional world to get access to the sensitive insides of a power plant, either as an employee or a visitor. Even more unbelievable is the fact that a novice can pick up an emergency power plant manual and figure
out after looking at a few pages how to fix the problem.
Here’s how it starts. There is a new arrival in Sarah Connor’s world. A naked man appears in a flash, apparently from the future, with a wound in his chest. He grabs some clothes conveniently located next to a homeless man where the man luckily landed, and runs off.
Back at the church where they are hiding, everyone seems to be mulling over recent events and their injuries. Sarah (Lena Headey) is worried that Cameron (Summer Glau) can be trusted, Derek (Brian Austin Green) seems to be putting his trust is God. Cameron, of course, is healing faster than everyone else. But Cameron also is concerned that John Connor (Thomas Dekker) is taking too many risks as evidenced by him deciding to fix her. But to make everything better, Sarah tells John to go back to school.
He does go back to school, but seems uncomfortable. While he seems to be moping outside, a blond girl comes up and asks he bailed on English class, and calls him a weirdo. Her name is Riley and she seems miffed that John never seemed to notice her in class. She convinces John to cut class and head over to his new house that Sarah has just bought, with everything inside.
Meanwhile, Agent Ellison (Richard T. Jones) is at Dixon’s house and speaks to Michelle Dixon (Sonya Walger). She tells him there is a gun in the house and she is concerned because Charley hates guns. When Charlie Dixon (Dean Winters) comes home and sees Ellison, he wants to know what’s going on and Ellison says they need to talk. Michelle is stunned that Sarah is alive and in LA too, and seems incredulous about the robots on the loose, Charley tells her that he doesn't love Sarah "like that", but she slaps him, saying his should be the least of their worries. She leaves the room, and Ellison advises they should leave the place, because it’s not safe.
Back at home, Sarah is dozing off on the couch, and is awakened by a man crashing through the glass doors. Cameron goes out to check the outside area, while the man, on his last breaths, tells Sarah and Derek to “stop Greenway." He also says something will happen at a power plant in Serrano Point in two days, and then he dies. Sarah says he's from the future, sent by John. Derek says he'll take care of the matter at Greenway at Serrano Point, but Sarah is not so sure. We see what looks like Serrano Point in the future, complete with flying vehicles on the attack and resistance fighters shooting back. Derek thinks that Greenway must play a big role in the future. While Sarah wonders what is supposed to happen in two days, Cameron thinks they can find out from Greenway themselves.
We see Sarah and Cameron with IDs entering the plant as temporary janitors. (How they were able to get security clearance so quickly is beyond me.) They are shown a cartoon training video and shown around the plant. They are told to be careful of going in the fuel building without proper protection. Cameron sees Greenway (Paul Schulze) as he walks by.
Back at the power plant, Greenway is double checking everything as the plant is going back on line tomorrow. Sarah sees him drop some pills, and Sarah tells him that she would have a headache too if she had his job. He insists they’re just vitamins. She introduces herself as Kara from Elgin, Texas, and Greenway tells her he was stationed right near there in the Navy. Nelson (Dean Norris) – probably Greenway’s supervisor - interrupts and tells Greenway he wants to talk. Sarah follows them, but not before picking up Greenway’s empty pill bottle that he just conveniently threw in the trash. She trails them across a raised walkway to another building, hearing Nelson tell Greenway the plant is going back on no matter what and they won't be stalled by Greenway. Sarah gets stopped in her pursuit, as he doesn’t have the right pass card to let he in. Nelson thinks he sees someone in the doorway (Sarah) but she manages to hide out behind the door on the ledge.
Meanwhile, John and Riley are looking at John’s new room, which looks like it is appropriate for a 3 year old.
Sarah and Cameron follow Greenway to a bar, the hang out for plant employees. (It reminded me of a scene from the movie “China Syndrome”.) While Cameron play pool shark, Sarah makes nice with Greenway, who is at the bar drinking. He says he’s served 12 years in the Navy on a nuclear sub, he has a cheating wife, and he has cancer. He shows her the scar on his arm from the cancer operation. Nelson is at the other end of the bar. Sarah tells Greenway that he seems like a good guy, and that if the other people won't drink with him it's their loss. Greenway tells her that is not the reason they won't drink with him.
While Derek is outside in Greenway's car, a pick-up truck arrives, a man with a crowbar gets out, and then smashes Greenway's back window and leaves. Derek pulls a gun but the man in the pick up just speeds off.
While Cameron is counting her pool winnings, Derek comes in to the bar and tells her and Sarah about Greenway’s smashed windshield. Sarah tells him that Greenway has enemies as he stopped the last test over safety concerns, and that some are afraid the plant will get shut down and lose their jobs if he stops tomorrow’s test. Cameron confirms that the reactor is showing some problems
Back at the house, while Riley is still there, Sarah comes home. John introduces her. Sarah is not happy and Cameron gives Riley the eye. Riley looks uncomfortable. But John isn’t having any of his mother’s concerns, and takes Riley to his room, apparently to stay the night. Before she leaves in the morning, she throws John her phone and asks if she can call him. He programs in his number. He adds, though, that any time she calls him, the first words out of her mouth need to be the date. She asks why, but John just says that’s his way.
Returning to the power plant, Sarah gets caught nosing around, but is told by Nelson that she has to do a clean up of a spill. She going into the room with protective gear, but freaks out a bit and exits the room. She’s contaminated, and has to undergo a hose down. But after all that, Nelson tells her that the whole thing was a false reading, a “hiccup”, and he leaves.
At the Dixon house, Charley and Michelle are leaving, destination unknown, and Ellison gives him a bible, "for the road."
Back at the plant, it’s only minutes away from the test, and Greenway seems to be proceeding as if nothing is wrong. But Sarah makes a cell phone call to Derek who is at Greenway’s home, saying that something is wrong. Derek finds Greenway, who is dead by hanging. Sarah watches what is clearly a “terminator” who, doubling as Greenway (minus the scar), is proceeding with the countdown, and the plant goes back on line.
The machine version of Greenway is walking through the plant, finds what looks like a release valve and turns it, releasing what appears to be steam. Sarah finds Cameron and informs her that Greenway has been replaced by a machine. Cameron doesn't react right away, saying that thinking about what she should do. An alarm goes off with some employees mention a leak, and Sarah tells Cameron to fix it.
As Greenway returns to the control room, alarms are going off and the staff is in panic mode. Greenway says that all will be fine, but it seems a melt down is in progress unless the cooling system begins to work. As one employee goes to check on the cooling system. Greenway shuts the door behind him, and tells a stunned staff to remain calm. As the staff member who ran out of the control room sees Nelson, he warns him that Greenway seems to have gone off the deep end. Nelson goes to the control room to find the staff on the floor –either dead or unconscious – and he meets a similar fate.
Derek drives up as people are fleeing the plant, and runs right in. (Doesn’t this place have ANY security?) Meanwhile, Cameron is trying to close the valve when Greenway picks a fight with her.
Sarah and Derek enter the control room (again, no security?) Melt down is imminent. They find Nelson unconscious, and Sarah looks through the emergency manual, which luckily is right out in the open. (I suppose it is “Nuclear Power Plants for Dummies?) Sarah has found information, but she runs out, while Derek tried to get help from the “red phone.”
While Cameron and Greenway fight, Sarah easily takes out a security guard and gets his gun. She enters the radioactive room with out a protective suit and runs through it. Derek does not follow, but somehow finds himself meting up in the same place as Sarah, who DID run through the room. Sarah shoots Greenway, and Cameron pushes him into some tanks, revealing his Terminator skeleton. Cameron finishes closing the valve, avoiding disaster.
In the radioactive room, Sarah is putting Greenway’s metal parts and some videotapes in a radioactive waste drum. Back at home she runs a wand over Sarah, and determines Sarah was not radioactive. Sarah asks Cameron about the her future cancer, and if any exposure from the day’s evens is the cause. Cameron doesn’t know. When Cameron enters the house, she and John talk about Riley. John asks if he's safe – from Riley – and Cameron doesn’t know, as "girls are complicated." John's phone rings. It's Riley, who says the date "16 November,” and says she was just testing.
Outside, Sarah sees a bloody hand print on a house post. She walks further and sees another on the door. She pushes the door open and walks into what looks like a basement or storage room. On the wall is writing in blood, with the following words: Greenway, Alpine Field, P. Alto, Wallace Brook, and more. We also Cameron, Derek, John, and Sarah standing there looking at the writing Sarah finds that the blood is still wet.
Later, a man is having a press conference, talking about the incident at Serrano Point. He says that it and six other power plants will be in partnership with Automight systems, which will take the human element out of the control room by adding automation. As the man leaves in his car, he morphs into T1000, Catherine Weaver (Shirley Manson).
As far as advancing the story, I’d say this episode did its job. The downside is that it seemed to take a very simplistic approach to the operations of a nuclear power plant. It was so simplistic that I found it laughable. The other thing that gave me pause was how simple it seemed to terminate the terminator version of Greenway, and how easy it was to dispose of its parts. Maybe something happened off camera where they removed the brains of the terminator unit? I didn’t think it was that easy to dispose of one just be breaking up its parts. Also odd was Sarah forcing herself to run through the radioactive room, when Derek seemed to be able to find his way around it just fine, and just as quickly.
Of course, we are being asked to draw a suspicious look to John’s new friend Riley, who John seems to think he can trust for now just because he gave her a code word to use when she calls him on the phone. That tactic wouldn’t work if she was already working against them.
All in all, the story moves forward. But hopefully they won’t have too many episodes where things are just too easy.
Check out my blog home page for the latest information, here.
The recap (below) outlines how the show set up the scenario where nuclear power plants will come under the control of the machines in the future. I have to admit, through, that the only thing it may have shown was how easy it is in a fictional world to get access to the sensitive insides of a power plant, either as an employee or a visitor. Even more unbelievable is the fact that a novice can pick up an emergency power plant manual and figure
out after looking at a few pages how to fix the problem.Here’s how it starts. There is a new arrival in Sarah Connor’s world. A naked man appears in a flash, apparently from the future, with a wound in his chest. He grabs some clothes conveniently located next to a homeless man where the man luckily landed, and runs off.
Back at the church where they are hiding, everyone seems to be mulling over recent events and their injuries. Sarah (Lena Headey) is worried that Cameron (Summer Glau) can be trusted, Derek (Brian Austin Green) seems to be putting his trust is God. Cameron, of course, is healing faster than everyone else. But Cameron also is concerned that John Connor (Thomas Dekker) is taking too many risks as evidenced by him deciding to fix her. But to make everything better, Sarah tells John to go back to school.
He does go back to school, but seems uncomfortable. While he seems to be moping outside, a blond girl comes up and asks he bailed on English class, and calls him a weirdo. Her name is Riley and she seems miffed that John never seemed to notice her in class. She convinces John to cut class and head over to his new house that Sarah has just bought, with everything inside.
Meanwhile, Agent Ellison (Richard T. Jones) is at Dixon’s house and speaks to Michelle Dixon (Sonya Walger). She tells him there is a gun in the house and she is concerned because Charley hates guns. When Charlie Dixon (Dean Winters) comes home and sees Ellison, he wants to know what’s going on and Ellison says they need to talk. Michelle is stunned that Sarah is alive and in LA too, and seems incredulous about the robots on the loose, Charley tells her that he doesn't love Sarah "like that", but she slaps him, saying his should be the least of their worries. She leaves the room, and Ellison advises they should leave the place, because it’s not safe.
Back at home, Sarah is dozing off on the couch, and is awakened by a man crashing through the glass doors. Cameron goes out to check the outside area, while the man, on his last breaths, tells Sarah and Derek to “stop Greenway." He also says something will happen at a power plant in Serrano Point in two days, and then he dies. Sarah says he's from the future, sent by John. Derek says he'll take care of the matter at Greenway at Serrano Point, but Sarah is not so sure. We see what looks like Serrano Point in the future, complete with flying vehicles on the attack and resistance fighters shooting back. Derek thinks that Greenway must play a big role in the future. While Sarah wonders what is supposed to happen in two days, Cameron thinks they can find out from Greenway themselves.
We see Sarah and Cameron with IDs entering the plant as temporary janitors. (How they were able to get security clearance so quickly is beyond me.) They are shown a cartoon training video and shown around the plant. They are told to be careful of going in the fuel building without proper protection. Cameron sees Greenway (Paul Schulze) as he walks by.
Back at the power plant, Greenway is double checking everything as the plant is going back on line tomorrow. Sarah sees him drop some pills, and Sarah tells him that she would have a headache too if she had his job. He insists they’re just vitamins. She introduces herself as Kara from Elgin, Texas, and Greenway tells her he was stationed right near there in the Navy. Nelson (Dean Norris) – probably Greenway’s supervisor - interrupts and tells Greenway he wants to talk. Sarah follows them, but not before picking up Greenway’s empty pill bottle that he just conveniently threw in the trash. She trails them across a raised walkway to another building, hearing Nelson tell Greenway the plant is going back on no matter what and they won't be stalled by Greenway. Sarah gets stopped in her pursuit, as he doesn’t have the right pass card to let he in. Nelson thinks he sees someone in the doorway (Sarah) but she manages to hide out behind the door on the ledge.
Meanwhile, John and Riley are looking at John’s new room, which looks like it is appropriate for a 3 year old.
Sarah and Cameron follow Greenway to a bar, the hang out for plant employees. (It reminded me of a scene from the movie “China Syndrome”.) While Cameron play pool shark, Sarah makes nice with Greenway, who is at the bar drinking. He says he’s served 12 years in the Navy on a nuclear sub, he has a cheating wife, and he has cancer. He shows her the scar on his arm from the cancer operation. Nelson is at the other end of the bar. Sarah tells Greenway that he seems like a good guy, and that if the other people won't drink with him it's their loss. Greenway tells her that is not the reason they won't drink with him.
While Derek is outside in Greenway's car, a pick-up truck arrives, a man with a crowbar gets out, and then smashes Greenway's back window and leaves. Derek pulls a gun but the man in the pick up just speeds off.
While Cameron is counting her pool winnings, Derek comes in to the bar and tells her and Sarah about Greenway’s smashed windshield. Sarah tells him that Greenway has enemies as he stopped the last test over safety concerns, and that some are afraid the plant will get shut down and lose their jobs if he stops tomorrow’s test. Cameron confirms that the reactor is showing some problems
Back at the house, while Riley is still there, Sarah comes home. John introduces her. Sarah is not happy and Cameron gives Riley the eye. Riley looks uncomfortable. But John isn’t having any of his mother’s concerns, and takes Riley to his room, apparently to stay the night. Before she leaves in the morning, she throws John her phone and asks if she can call him. He programs in his number. He adds, though, that any time she calls him, the first words out of her mouth need to be the date. She asks why, but John just says that’s his way.
Returning to the power plant, Sarah gets caught nosing around, but is told by Nelson that she has to do a clean up of a spill. She going into the room with protective gear, but freaks out a bit and exits the room. She’s contaminated, and has to undergo a hose down. But after all that, Nelson tells her that the whole thing was a false reading, a “hiccup”, and he leaves.
At the Dixon house, Charley and Michelle are leaving, destination unknown, and Ellison gives him a bible, "for the road."
Back at the plant, it’s only minutes away from the test, and Greenway seems to be proceeding as if nothing is wrong. But Sarah makes a cell phone call to Derek who is at Greenway’s home, saying that something is wrong. Derek finds Greenway, who is dead by hanging. Sarah watches what is clearly a “terminator” who, doubling as Greenway (minus the scar), is proceeding with the countdown, and the plant goes back on line.
The machine version of Greenway is walking through the plant, finds what looks like a release valve and turns it, releasing what appears to be steam. Sarah finds Cameron and informs her that Greenway has been replaced by a machine. Cameron doesn't react right away, saying that thinking about what she should do. An alarm goes off with some employees mention a leak, and Sarah tells Cameron to fix it.
As Greenway returns to the control room, alarms are going off and the staff is in panic mode. Greenway says that all will be fine, but it seems a melt down is in progress unless the cooling system begins to work. As one employee goes to check on the cooling system. Greenway shuts the door behind him, and tells a stunned staff to remain calm. As the staff member who ran out of the control room sees Nelson, he warns him that Greenway seems to have gone off the deep end. Nelson goes to the control room to find the staff on the floor –either dead or unconscious – and he meets a similar fate.
Derek drives up as people are fleeing the plant, and runs right in. (Doesn’t this place have ANY security?) Meanwhile, Cameron is trying to close the valve when Greenway picks a fight with her.
Sarah and Derek enter the control room (again, no security?) Melt down is imminent. They find Nelson unconscious, and Sarah looks through the emergency manual, which luckily is right out in the open. (I suppose it is “Nuclear Power Plants for Dummies?) Sarah has found information, but she runs out, while Derek tried to get help from the “red phone.”
While Cameron and Greenway fight, Sarah easily takes out a security guard and gets his gun. She enters the radioactive room with out a protective suit and runs through it. Derek does not follow, but somehow finds himself meting up in the same place as Sarah, who DID run through the room. Sarah shoots Greenway, and Cameron pushes him into some tanks, revealing his Terminator skeleton. Cameron finishes closing the valve, avoiding disaster.
In the radioactive room, Sarah is putting Greenway’s metal parts and some videotapes in a radioactive waste drum. Back at home she runs a wand over Sarah, and determines Sarah was not radioactive. Sarah asks Cameron about the her future cancer, and if any exposure from the day’s evens is the cause. Cameron doesn’t know. When Cameron enters the house, she and John talk about Riley. John asks if he's safe – from Riley – and Cameron doesn’t know, as "girls are complicated." John's phone rings. It's Riley, who says the date "16 November,” and says she was just testing.
Outside, Sarah sees a bloody hand print on a house post. She walks further and sees another on the door. She pushes the door open and walks into what looks like a basement or storage room. On the wall is writing in blood, with the following words: Greenway, Alpine Field, P. Alto, Wallace Brook, and more. We also Cameron, Derek, John, and Sarah standing there looking at the writing Sarah finds that the blood is still wet.
Later, a man is having a press conference, talking about the incident at Serrano Point. He says that it and six other power plants will be in partnership with Automight systems, which will take the human element out of the control room by adding automation. As the man leaves in his car, he morphs into T1000, Catherine Weaver (Shirley Manson).
As far as advancing the story, I’d say this episode did its job. The downside is that it seemed to take a very simplistic approach to the operations of a nuclear power plant. It was so simplistic that I found it laughable. The other thing that gave me pause was how simple it seemed to terminate the terminator version of Greenway, and how easy it was to dispose of its parts. Maybe something happened off camera where they removed the brains of the terminator unit? I didn’t think it was that easy to dispose of one just be breaking up its parts. Also odd was Sarah forcing herself to run through the radioactive room, when Derek seemed to be able to find his way around it just fine, and just as quickly.
Of course, we are being asked to draw a suspicious look to John’s new friend Riley, who John seems to think he can trust for now just because he gave her a code word to use when she calls him on the phone. That tactic wouldn’t work if she was already working against them.
All in all, the story moves forward. But hopefully they won’t have too many episodes where things are just too easy.
Check out my blog home page for the latest information, here.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Sarah Connor Chronicles “Samson and Delilah” Off and Running Again
Fox is getting an early start with its new season. Last week we got the disappointing premier to Prison Break. Yesterday, the season premier of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" aired, titled “Samson and Delilah.” It was an improvement over the premier of Prison Break, that’s for sure. The only think that is of concern to me is that I wonder how long the series can sustain interest in the repetitive chase and attack scenarios. It tends to become predictable after a while.
The voice over opening using a man’s voice rather than Sarah’s had a bit of a cheesy quality to it and I found that it detracted from the whole feel of the introduction of the episode. The slow motion struggle (with its musical accompaniment) involving Sarah (Lena Headey) and John (Thomas Dekker) and the bad guys du jour was a little drawn out for my tastes and also seemed to ruin the atmosphere for me as well.
Also a mystery is why James Ellison (Richard T. Jones) was spared by the massacre at the hands of terminator Cromartie (Garret Dillahunt). I suppose that Cromartie thinks that he will be able to use Ellison somewhere down the road. And since Cromartie is from the future, he may already know that he needs Ellison for some reason to help bring down John.
An interesting twist was Cameron’s (Summer Glau) programming getting a little confused, and she seems to forget that her charge is to protect John Connor and instead thinks she has to terminate him. And, when she’s trapped between two trucks, one being driven by Sarah, she uses every trick in the book to get John not to pull out her programming module. Still, John yanks it anyway, but later, to the horror of his mother, takes a chance and puts it back in. It seems Cameron is back to “normal” – at least for now. Again, this is one stunt that the show can only do so many times before it becomes and overused plot device. The question lingers, though, is Cameron more than just the sum of her programming, or can she really feel and rationalize her importance to John’s cause?
I also found myself wondering how Charley Dixon (Dean Winters) could go so long with having his ambulance, and himself, out of commission for his work without it creating a problem for him. And one good thing – yet also a bad thing – was when John cut his hair. I was glad he cut it but yikes, the new cut wasn’t a big improvement.
The real story is the pursuit of the “Turk” which is supposed to be the eventual key to the computers – Skynet - being able to take over in the future. And Catherine Weaver (Shirley Manson) is in charge of a company who plays a big part in it. When she tells her staff that she’s starting a new division called Babylon that will change the world, and will be pirating people from their teams, not everyone is happy about it. Who two of the department heads are in the men’s room talking about Babylon - one of them very vocal against it – we see that Catherine Weaver is really a T-1000, who morphs from the form of the urinal, into a her liquid metal form, then into her human looking form. Of course, one of her fingers forms into a pointed knife, which spears her disgruntled employee in the head.
While the Sarah Connor Chronicles runs the risk of being repetitive and predictable, the twist at the end was just enough of a tease to create more interest and excitement for next week. One things is for sure…men will be watching their urinals very closely.
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The voice over opening using a man’s voice rather than Sarah’s had a bit of a cheesy quality to it and I found that it detracted from the whole feel of the introduction of the episode. The slow motion struggle (with its musical accompaniment) involving Sarah (Lena Headey) and John (Thomas Dekker) and the bad guys du jour was a little drawn out for my tastes and also seemed to ruin the atmosphere for me as well.
Also a mystery is why James Ellison (Richard T. Jones) was spared by the massacre at the hands of terminator Cromartie (Garret Dillahunt). I suppose that Cromartie thinks that he will be able to use Ellison somewhere down the road. And since Cromartie is from the future, he may already know that he needs Ellison for some reason to help bring down John.
An interesting twist was Cameron’s (Summer Glau) programming getting a little confused, and she seems to forget that her charge is to protect John Connor and instead thinks she has to terminate him. And, when she’s trapped between two trucks, one being driven by Sarah, she uses every trick in the book to get John not to pull out her programming module. Still, John yanks it anyway, but later, to the horror of his mother, takes a chance and puts it back in. It seems Cameron is back to “normal” – at least for now. Again, this is one stunt that the show can only do so many times before it becomes and overused plot device. The question lingers, though, is Cameron more than just the sum of her programming, or can she really feel and rationalize her importance to John’s cause?
I also found myself wondering how Charley Dixon (Dean Winters) could go so long with having his ambulance, and himself, out of commission for his work without it creating a problem for him. And one good thing – yet also a bad thing – was when John cut his hair. I was glad he cut it but yikes, the new cut wasn’t a big improvement.
The real story is the pursuit of the “Turk” which is supposed to be the eventual key to the computers – Skynet - being able to take over in the future. And Catherine Weaver (Shirley Manson) is in charge of a company who plays a big part in it. When she tells her staff that she’s starting a new division called Babylon that will change the world, and will be pirating people from their teams, not everyone is happy about it. Who two of the department heads are in the men’s room talking about Babylon - one of them very vocal against it – we see that Catherine Weaver is really a T-1000, who morphs from the form of the urinal, into a her liquid metal form, then into her human looking form. Of course, one of her fingers forms into a pointed knife, which spears her disgruntled employee in the head.While the Sarah Connor Chronicles runs the risk of being repetitive and predictable, the twist at the end was just enough of a tease to create more interest and excitement for next week. One things is for sure…men will be watching their urinals very closely.
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Monday, January 14, 2008
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and The Return of Prison Break
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles premiered on Fox Sunday night (January 13) at 8:00 PM ET, with the second episode due to air on Monday, January 14, 2008 (at its normal time of 9:00 PM ET).
I watched the show out of sheer boredom, since not much else was on. I generally liked the Terminator movies. I saw Terminators 1 & 2, but I can’t recall ever seeing the third installment. Since Fox’s TV show is set between the movie installments 2 & 3, I don’t have any problems with how the story has progressed.
The TV show seems to be very action packed, like the movies, and follows a very similar theme: Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) and her son John (Thomas Dekker) on the run from cyborg terminators from the future, who are trying to kill John because he saves the world from Skynet, a computerized intelligence. While a cyborg continues to hunt them down, another cyborg (Summer Glau), also sent from the future, is there to protect them.
The action in the show makes it interesting. The fact that they will try to locate and destroy Skynet is interesting. The problem with the show may be the repetitive “run from the cyborg” scenarios. While this is the whole excuse for the action in the show, it will lose its excitement and intensity if it happens the same way, week after week. Hopefully they will find a creative way to keep the hunt going without too many scenes of cyborg battles.
I plan on watching tonight, and unless it gets really awful – I don’t expect it to – I think this show will be a nice placeholder for the show 24, which is stalled due to the writers’ strike.
Prison Break fans will also be happy that the show returns tonight at 8:00 PM ET, immediately before the Terminator series. This is a series that I initially never thought would get past the first few episodes, but it continued to deliver exciting – yet sometimes gruesome – shows in the first two seasons. This year, however, they seem stalled in prison in Panama, with uninteresting characters and uninteresting scenarios. Hopefully they will pick up the pace and get out of that place, and deliver a story that is more on par with the complexity of previous seasons.
Check out my blog home page for the latest information,
HERE!
I watched the show out of sheer boredom, since not much else was on. I generally liked the Terminator movies. I saw Terminators 1 & 2, but I can’t recall ever seeing the third installment. Since Fox’s TV show is set between the movie installments 2 & 3, I don’t have any problems with how the story has progressed.
The TV show seems to be very action packed, like the movies, and follows a very similar theme: Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) and her son John (Thomas Dekker) on the run from cyborg terminators from the future, who are trying to kill John because he saves the world from Skynet, a computerized intelligence. While a cyborg continues to hunt them down, another cyborg (Summer Glau), also sent from the future, is there to protect them.
The action in the show makes it interesting. The fact that they will try to locate and destroy Skynet is interesting. The problem with the show may be the repetitive “run from the cyborg” scenarios. While this is the whole excuse for the action in the show, it will lose its excitement and intensity if it happens the same way, week after week. Hopefully they will find a creative way to keep the hunt going without too many scenes of cyborg battles.
I plan on watching tonight, and unless it gets really awful – I don’t expect it to – I think this show will be a nice placeholder for the show 24, which is stalled due to the writers’ strike.
Prison Break fans will also be happy that the show returns tonight at 8:00 PM ET, immediately before the Terminator series. This is a series that I initially never thought would get past the first few episodes, but it continued to deliver exciting – yet sometimes gruesome – shows in the first two seasons. This year, however, they seem stalled in prison in Panama, with uninteresting characters and uninteresting scenarios. Hopefully they will pick up the pace and get out of that place, and deliver a story that is more on par with the complexity of previous seasons.
Check out my blog home page for the latest information,
HERE!
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