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Sarah Connor needs to stop strangling John with her apron strings, according to last night's Sarah Connor Chronicles. After all, the world ends in just four years, and weedy Thomas Dekker has to morph into Christian Bale by then. Never mind that Sarah's still the show's real bad-ass, as seen in this clip. Don't call her "Lady!" Anyway, the show's missing the point: FutureJohn isn't supposed to be an action hero, he's supposed to be a leader. And leaders make smart decisions.
Sarah Connor needs to stop strangling John with her apron strings, according to last night's Sarah Connor Chronicles. After all, the world ends in just four years, and weedy Thomas Dekker has to morph into Christian Bale by then. Never mind that Sarah's still the show's real bad-ass, as seen in this clip. Don't call her "Lady!" Anyway, the show's missing the point: FutureJohn isn't supposed to be an action hero, he's supposed to be a leader. And leaders make smart decisions.Would you believe John if he threatened to beat you to death? Maybe if he said he'd slap you sorta hard. Oh, and then they leave sideburn guy stranded in a minefield. Cold!
So there's a lot of talk in this episode about FutureJohn and what he would do. Sadly, we can only hope that FutureJohn is smarter than the present-day version, who decides that sneaking into a soon-to-be Terminator factory without any sort of plan is a great idea. He gets trapped in a bunker with the world's shittiest boss. And of course he has to call Mommy (on the super-convenient rotary dial phone in the airtight bunker) to come bail him out. It's all because John is mourning for the Suicide Girl in the previous episode.
So there's a lot of talk in this episode about FutureJohn and what he would do. Sadly, we can only hope that FutureJohn is smarter than the present-day version, who decides that sneaking into a soon-to-be Terminator factory without any sort of plan is a great idea. He gets trapped in a bunker with the world's shittiest boss. And of course he has to call Mommy (on the super-convenient rotary dial phone in the airtight bunker) to come bail him out. It's all because John is mourning for the Suicide Girl in the previous episode.Meanwhile, what was up with Summer Glau not being able to work the television? She's the most advanced robot in the universe and she can't get Video 2 to pop up? And then there's the weird moment where Sarah's sympathizing with John having to deal with mega-complicated science homework to do with ionic bonding. And John's like, "Bitch, it's not that hard."
Sarah ends the show with a horrendous voice-over comparing our children to evil cyborgs from the future. And golems, just to make it more psycho. Because just like Skynet, we create our children but then we can't control them. (Although to be fair, Sarah hasn't tried using a cattle prod on John yet.)
This was definitely the first hit of Sarah Connor Chronic that felt sub-standard. It wasn't just all of John's dumb decisions, which we're supposed to think were gutsy and cool. Also, there was the whole plastic surgeon plot. You know you're in trouble when the young FBI guy is pointing out all the flaws in the plot, and we're all nodding along at home. So the plastic surgeon transformed that one Terminator (who suddenly has a name, Cromartie?) into the exact duplicate of this other guy. Using magical surgery pixie dust. And the surgery healed up instantly, thanks to hyberbolicsyllabicsesquidalymistic...wha huh?
Comments
And why was John wearing eyeliner all of a sudden?
@Nicolars: He's the future leader of the Emo-Resistance.
no matter how intelligent one might be, human or machine, tv remotes will always be a pain in the ass
@Frozen-Tex: He commands the elite Terminator hunting brigade "The Fallout Boys"
@Pope John Peeps II: That's EXACTLY the band name that popped into my head last night when he was standing outside the humvee at the end!
@Frozen-Tex:
Where do I sign up to join the Anti-emo resistance? If I can't, I'm replacing Directv with Skynet right now.
@Plague: On April 19th, 2011, Skynet will become self-aware; 2 days later, it will realize emo sucks, and forcibly arrange haircuts, eyeliner removal, and install neck braces that restrict one's ability to shoe-gaze.
Wait. His name is Thomas Dekker? As in the Jacobean playwright Thomas Dekker? Weird.
"who suddenly has a name, Cromartie?"
This Terminator actually said his name in the pilot episode. When he enters the classroom he explains that the real teacher would be in that that his name was Cromartie and then begins taking attendance while cutting open his own leg.
For me this whole show is about waiting for Summer Blau to hit and or kill someone.
@narymary: And get naked again for some reason or other.
@Frozen-Tex: There doesn't have to be a reason.
Ahh Summer...
@braak:
he's really the american counter-part of Shinichi Mechazawa, who appears in the final episode.
@t7bros: Thanks for reminding me, I was puzzled by the name. Although I still wonder how he chose it: part chrome, part Marty McFly?
The voice-over narrations are the worst thing about this show.
I absolutely hate this show. It is lame, lame, lame. How did Sarah Connor go from kick ass Ellen Ripley clone to neurotic helicopter mom? And why, why, why is Cameron so lame? River Tam could kick her skinny robotic ass any day of the week. And what moron builds a robot that can't control the video 1/2 switch with its mind?
Between this dross and The Bionic Woman, I am ready to declare this the dark ages of women in sci-fi. Only Joss Whedon can save the future!
I saw this the other day. It's a total rip-off of Terminator.
Wait? What's that you say? No way! Really? I find that pretty hard to believe.
Oh. Yeah, you're right, I did see Terminator 3. That's a good point.
Couldn't the guy in the minefield just simply retrace Glau's footsteps?
Show sucks eh? Told you.
Charlie Anders on Jezebel? This makes my heart glow with pride + envy.
I was particularly impressed by Summer's ability to neutralise her inertia when stepping off the top of a truck zooming off a cliff at 40 miles an hour.
All they had to do was have her sprint off the truck and then drop straight down (or, you know, just jump out the door and roll...), but it looks as if they didn't have the stunt budget for that, so you got her exiting the truck in a very illogical way and then defying physics.
I did like the other Terminator closing the vault and just going to sleep, though. Presumably in four years he'd be an endoskeleton covered with shreds of rotten meat.
(But then they lock him in there and assume it'll be fine, because a superhuman robot couldn't possibly figure out a way to get out of a vault full of random army gear when he's got nothing else to do, day and night, from now on...)
What's this about the Smothers Brothers?
How can John ever lead Humanity if all Sarah ever does is teach him to run? This is exactly why we're not supposed to know our future. She's so worried about keeping him alive past Judgment Day, she's neglecting her own role in the future war: His teacher. Is she just gonna lecture John about being a good leader, then throw him into it, expecting history to magically imbue the needed skills into him? Let him lead, make mistakes, show him the flaws he's made, and what a good leader does. Teach him the difference between running and a tactful retreat to try again later with more intel. Or is John supposed to lecture Skynet to death?
no mention of the young FBI agent being Bow Wow himself?
@strider_mt2k: Don't be such a yo-yo; I, for one, am not "laugh-in." You and your cleverness; that's why mom liked you best.
At least I like THIS John than the one in that movie...
Ha, so Robot Girl can't press a button on a TV. If TVs were so advanced in the future, why doesn't she modify the one they have?
I took it a different way - that the future of artificial intelligence is scary because parenting is scary, and the reason we are less than confident that we can instill benevolence in powerful intelligences we may create is because we still have trouble figuring out how to pass on such values to the next generation of humans.
I've posted a couple of entries on my blog on this topic that you may find interesting.
[exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com]
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