|
Milky Moor posted:Also, why did they never say the word Terminator in the series? It's always 'metal' or 'machine' or 'scary robot'. Licensing cost if I remember right. It's also why they don't use T-1000 or T-101, they use T-888 (tripleeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight is what they scream on occasion) and T-1001.
|
#
?
Feb 4, 2014 08:00
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 00:26 |
|
|
Davros1 posted:I'll go out and say, but I thought Lena Headey was a far better Sarah Conner than Linda Hamilton.
|
|
#
?
Feb 4, 2014 14:49
|
|
|
Man, I loved the "sleep" hospital episode everyone seems to hate. I do think it was poorly placed/timed in terms of viewership though but I loved it. Part of why I really dug the show was it's commitment to every side of the war. It gave you the action and the battlefield moments and it gave you the consequences short term and long term. PTSDs, having to constantly pack up your life, John not having any friends and leaning more on his protection etc etc.
|
|
#
?
Feb 4, 2014 23:18
|
|
|
Tokubetsu posted:Man, I loved the "sleep" hospital episode everyone seems to hate. I do think it was poorly placed/timed in terms of viewership though but I loved it. Yeah, I thought it was pretty sweet. The second season generally suffered from having its budget slashed, necessitating these kinds of episodes. These three came at a really awkward time as well -- right after the hiatus you expect to have a few episodes of explosive drama, then the low-budget, low-key stuff. But I guess they'd decided to do six episodes of that in a row to end the season (which I really love, what a fantastic arc), and that forced the low-key episodes forward. I didn't mind them though. Desert Cantos is a bit of a strange one, as much as I really liked the idea of an entire town who'd silently collaborated in the advent of Judgement Day (complete with an alterna-Connor family), the actual meat of the situation comes a little too late in the episode. That, and for the life of me I can't understand the stuff with the infra-titles. I guess they're meant to poetic, like each section is a little canto, but that's a bit silly/pretentious.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2014 06:26
|
|
|
Those 3 episodes were so bad they should have pulled and retooled them or just removed them entirely.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2014 11:06
|
|
Party Plane Jones posted:Those 3 episodes were so bad they should have pulled and retooled them or just removed them entirely. When I watched them I was thinking 'this could have been one or two episodes'.
|
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2014 12:19
|
|
|
I found it a pretty interesting show as a Terminator fan, did John ever have sex with the Terminator? It felt like that was pretty inevitably going to happen at some point. PS. the real name of the show is The Sarah Connicles
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2014 12:23
|
|
|
Bitter Mushroom posted:I found it a pretty interesting show as a Terminator fan, did John ever have sex with the Terminator? It felt like that was pretty inevitably going to happen at some point. From what I recall it was definitely a theory for the last couple episodes of the series in the SA thread. John would give massive sidelong looks (since what's-her-face was dead) to Cameron when she walked around in lingerie.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2014 12:29
|
|
|
John and Cameron's sex scene was when he was checking for damage to her power cell. The John and Cameron relationship was pretty cute, I felt.
|
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2014 13:00
|
|
|
Milky Moor posted:The John and Cameron relationship was pretty cute, I felt. Mostly that, yeah. Sometimes disturbing (like when Cameron intentionally took off some clothes to mess with John's head in that one episode) I watched this show and Firefly in a row. I think that's closest you can come to getting beat up and your assailant coming back to piss in your mouth a short while after. Why would you do this FOX 
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2014 14:47
|
|
DarkCrawler posted:Mostly that, yeah. Sometimes disturbing (like when Cameron intentionally took off some clothes to mess with John's head in that one episode) That's what I really liked about it. Was Cameron trying to manipulate him in a cold, clinical manner... or was she earnestly trying to express her burgeoning humanity in a strange, overly-aggressive way? Like, did she know what she was doing and what it could have led to and, if John had taken her bait, what would have happened? Was this something that she and Future John did? In a later episode, Riley gets very up in Cameron's face, reminding her that 'you're only his sister' which struck me as Riley basically mentally slapping Cameron as a line like that from two future characters implies that Cameron had a very different relationship with John in the future.
|
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2014 15:12
|
|
|
Milky Moor posted:That's what I really liked about it. Was Cameron trying to manipulate him in a cold, clinical manner... or was she earnestly trying to express her burgeoning humanity in a strange, overly-aggressive way? Like, did she know what she was doing and what it could have led to and, if John had taken her bait, what would have happened? Was this something that she and Future John did? In a later episode, Riley gets very up in Cameron's face, reminding her that 'you're only his sister' which struck me as Riley basically mentally slapping Cameron as a line like that from two future characters implies that Cameron had a very different relationship with John in the future. Slight side-bar, but that sequence with Riley is so painful (in a good way). That's the one where she's desperately insisting that Cameron's just a normal human girl and that Riley couldn't possibly know anything about anything at all, right? That sequence was great.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2014 15:19
|
|
|
I'm so glad others have been rewatching this great show ! Just finished season one that last episode of season 1 with Ellison's horrific encounter with Cromartie is what got me hooked.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2014 17:23
|
|
|
Manic Mailman posted:I'm so glad others have been rewatching this great show ! Just finished season one that last episode of season 1 with Ellison's horrific encounter with Cromartie is what got me hooked. Another character I loved, Ellison and one of the better black characters in recent genre media too imo. His whole journey is great and watching him have his values and beliefs shattered and then slowly build himself back was awesome.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2014 18:38
|
|
|
Read this thread, thinking it was schlocky and uninvolving due to the commercials.. You guys are making me rethink it. Once I've powered through the Hannibal blu-ray, gonna give this a looksee.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2014 19:40
|
|
SoroScrew
|
With regards to music and ballet(!), I'm wondering if there is a dangling plot-thread or if I've missed something: I seem to remember part of an episode set in the future where Derreck had been captured and was kept in the ruins of a house with some other resistance fighters. A battered T-600 was picking them out one by one and taking them down to the basement where there was some gentle music playing. What the heck was going on there?
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2014 20:27
|
|
|
Kin posted:I thought the ending was perfect as it closed the loop.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2014 20:46
|
|
|
Robert J. Omb posted:With regards to music and ballet(!), I'm wondering if there is a dangling plot-thread or if I've missed something: I seem to remember part of an episode set in the future where Derreck had been captured and was kept in the ruins of a house with some other resistance fighters. A battered T-600 was picking them out one by one and taking them down to the basement where there was some gentle music playing. What the heck was going on there? First seaon ep "Dungeons & Dragons." They were being tortured psychologically (music a big part of it I'm assuming). It's never explicit, only hinted because they never appear hurt physically but are shaken up when they go back upstairs.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2014 21:44
|
|
|
Ah, that makes sense! Thanks for clarifying.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2014 00:08
|
|
|
This show pretty much redefined "When The Man Comes Around" for me.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2014 04:46
|
|
|
Robert J. Omb posted:With regards to music and ballet(!), I'm wondering if there is a dangling plot-thread or if I've missed something: I seem to remember part of an episode set in the future where Derreck had been captured and was kept in the ruins of a house with some other resistance fighters. A battered T-600 was picking them out one by one and taking them down to the basement where there was some gentle music playing. What the heck was going on there? I'm fairly sure it was, at the time, to suggest that Derek had been turned (only to reveal that's where he found out about The Turk from the future version of Andy), and then reinforce the subtext of the torture's aftereffects in Derek's reaction to Cameron doing ballet after that subplot was resolved. Plus, chance to know what the lovely-looking rubber-skinned T-600s actually looked like! God drat was this show fantastic, especially with the ending.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2014 05:35
|
|
|
Party Plane Jones posted:Licensing cost if I remember right. It's also why they don't use T-1000 or T-101, they use T-888 (tripleeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight is what they scream on occasion) and T-1001. They said it at least once and muddied it with a random sound effect, which I laughed at when it happened: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pasV7PknKio
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2014 06:01
|
|
|
Absolutely only thing I didn't like about the show was that in the future scenes the Resistance is carrying scavenged plasma rifles that are made to look all beat-up with jury-rigged repairs...but every rifle has its barrel duct-taped in the exact same way. Kind of took me out of it, which was a shame because the acting and sets were otherwise awesome.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2014 06:29
|
|
|
I make jokes about Summer Glau being perfect in this show because she's great at acting like a robot ( ) but seriously she and the writers/director really did great things with Cameron.Also the often-mentioned THAT scene with Derek was loving amazing and horrifying all at once, it was just perfect. I still really love Linda Hamilton's acting in T2 but I think Lena Headey gives her a good run for the money. So many great moments like when she confronts her old buddy (the guy who played the chieftain dude in Stargate and is in every loving show but I can never remember his name) for selling them out to the feds and just blowing him away, or the way Sarah and Cameron had this series-long 'battle' over John going on, it was amazing I just can't say that enough. I also really, really wish we knew where they were going with the season 2 cliffhanger, everything about John Henry and the T-1000 lady had me on the edge of my seat. Especially seeing Cromartie's body being so peaceful and childlike, that was just loving creepy.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2014 07:56
|
|
|
Tokubetsu posted:First seaon ep "Dungeons & Dragons." They were being tortured psychologically (music a big part of it I'm assuming). It's never explicit, only hinted because they never appear hurt physically but are shaken up when they go back upstairs. I also think it was part of the "future arc" backstory we were going to get later. There was a greater story with that to be revealed, along with the Shirley Manson 3rd faction and I think it would have been great. I also loved the way the future people called them "metal."  "I'm not gonna be the one to bring Metal down on the Connors!"  Tiggum posted:Wow, what a contrast. It got better as a general show, but when the pure mindfuck of the unaired first season finale and then the second season finale came at you with the jump to the future, and you find out the REAL story is that the reprogramming tech causes a worldwide apocalypse the entire nature of the show becomes amazing. It was so out of left field. Changed the whole thing. Edit to say too I loved the way Summer Glau played Cameron. She had some hilarious fish out of water moments. "That's a window, bird." And any interaction she had with Sarah was gold. Astroman fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Feb 8, 2014 |
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2014 23:42
|
|
|
This is also one of my favorite tv scores along with one of Bear's best. He added a LOT to the show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iZfeGsMz4I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt8G4MBcMnE I can just hear a Lena Heady narration with short shots of Derek, John and Cameron all do something meaningul reflection alone.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2014 02:11
|
|
|
Tokubetsu posted:This is also one of my favorite tv scores along with one of Bear's best. He added a LOT to the show: A McCreary score is goldust. (Unless it's his work for Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., which is inexplicably crap, and nowhere near his contemporary work on Black Sails nor Da Vinci's Demons). I'm absolutely gutted that a suite from Ourselves Alone has never been released. The music that plays during the Riley scenes is gorgeous, and a big part of why that episode was so loving good. (I kind of want to check out The Cape, because I heard he did the score to that. )
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2014 03:45
|
|
|
Open Source Idiom posted:A McCreary score is goldust. (Unless it's his work for Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., which is inexplicably crap, and nowhere near his contemporary work on Black Sails nor Da Vinci's Demons). You've also heard his work for the soundtrack of Battlestar Galactica, right? Because if you haven't, it's probably worth watching that show purely for the music and sound direction.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2014 05:28
|
|
|
Coca Koala posted:You've also heard his work for the soundtrack of Battlestar Galactica, right? Because if you haven't, it's probably worth watching that show purely for the music and sound direction. McReary's version of All Along the Watchtower in that one episode was magical.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2014 05:54
|
|
|
Open Source Idiom posted:A McCreary score is goldust. (Unless it's his work for Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., which is inexplicably crap How dare you, he works very hard on that!
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2014 20:16
|
|
|
Astroman posted:[Dollhouse] got better as a general show, but when the pure mindfuck of the unaired first season finale and then the second season finale came at you with the jump to the future, and you find out the REAL story is that the reprogramming tech causes a worldwide apocalypse the entire nature of the show becomes amazing. It was so out of left field. Changed the whole thing. It certainly changed it, but not in a good way. It made no sense at all. How did brain reprogramming lead to the end of civilisation? It made no sense.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2014 04:07
|
|
|
Tiggum posted:It certainly changed it, but not in a good way. It made no sense at all. How did brain reprogramming lead to the end of civilisation? It made no sense. It was weaponized reprogramming. Think of it like terrorist bombings, only instead of killing people the bomb turns everyone who hears it into slavering madmen that attack anything that moves. Then imagine the escalation as more and more nations/factions start using this technology.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2014 04:37
|
|
|
WarLocke posted:It was weaponized reprogramming. Think of it like terrorist bombings, only instead of killing people the bomb turns everyone who hears it into slavering madmen that attack anything that moves. Then imagine the escalation as more and more nations/factions start using this technology. Yeah, I'm not seeing how this causes the end of civilisation. How is this any worse than a bomb? Mindlessly aggressive mobs would do more damage to themselves than to anyone not effected and wouldn't exactly have the presence of mind to be a real threat to society. It's just more efficient to blow poo poo up.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2014 09:17
|
|
|
Tiggum posted:Yeah, I'm not seeing how this causes the end of civilisation. How is this any worse than a bomb? Mindlessly aggressive mobs would do more damage to themselves than to anyone not effected and wouldn't exactly have the presence of mind to be a real threat to society. It's just more efficient to blow poo poo up. The second future episode has the tech guy spouting off ideas where the Dollhouse tech could go. Apparently what happened is that they (US/Chinese) reprogrammed people to be a fifth column army inside each nation causing havoc. Eventually the Chinese just set up repeaters inside the US to switch people via any available radio signal. quote:TOPHER BRINK: An entire army... in an instant... just from a phone call... that is genius! Why didn't I think of that... [to DeWitt] Did I think of that?... Oh God...
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2014 09:29
|
|
|
Yeah, these people aren't mindlessly aggressive, they wouldn't attack just anything. They're no longer capable of reasonable thought, and they'e hyper-violent, but they don't attack each other. They're pretty much the zombies from Stephen King's Cellular, only without some of the perks.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2014 12:47
|
|
|
Tiggum posted:Yeah, I'm not seeing how this causes the end of civilisation. How is this any worse than a bomb? Mindlessly aggressive mobs would do more damage to themselves than to anyone not effected and wouldn't exactly have the presence of mind to be a real threat to society. It's just more efficient to blow poo poo up. It wasn't just mindlessly aggressive mobs. I haven't seen the show for years but I think the apocalypse came when millions of people just suddenly stopped functioning and stood there while a small number who wandered or were caught in certain zones were turned into zombies. The elite escaped by seeking immortality and living in their ivory towers.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2014 13:00
|
|
|
So, you know how I said I'd do a re-cap of the series? I appear to have misplaced by Season 1 DVDs somewhere. I'm still planning on doing it, but the first season won't be as thorough as I would've liked. Oh well.
|
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2014 10:06
|
|
|
Episode 1: Pilot "There are those who believe that a child in the womb shares his mother’s dreams; her love for him. Her hopes for his future. As told to him in pictures as he sleeps inside her. Is that why he reaches for her in that first moment and cries for her touch? But what if you’ve known since he was inside you what his life held for him? That he would be hunted. That his fate was tied to the fate of millions. That every moment of your life would be spent keeping him alive. Would he understand why you were so hard? Why you held on so tight? Would he still reach for you if the only dream you ever shared with him were a nightmare?" Remember what I said about motherhood? Bam, there we go, the first words of the new TV series are about it and child birth. The first thing that immediately struck me about the episode was how good the casting choices were for Terminator's two main characters. Lena Headey makes a fantastic Sarah and Thomas Dekker does really well as John. Lena Headey looks close enough to Linda Hamilton to make it work and Thomas Dekker, strangely enough, really does resemble a younger Nick Stahl (who was the actor who portrayed John Connor in Terminator 3). As I'd come to the series just after watching Terminator 1 and 2, my initial worry was that the actors weren't going to make it work. Headey doesn't have the same energetic anger that Connor displays in T2 but that makes sense - it's been several years since then. She's more cool and calm and collected but she suffers under the surface. So, we open with the nightmare scene that establishes all the major points of the franchise if you happened to be watching this with no knowledge of Terminator. Sarah needs to protect John from robots that wear human disguises (the use of the term 'cyborg' has always seemed strange to me) because he is important to the future which involves a nuclear apocalypse. Okay, good. There's not much else you really need to know about Terminator. It even opens with the close up of a moving highway and Sarah wears what looks like a waitress uniform through the nightmare sequence. From there we get our first meeting with Charley Dixon. The thing is, it doesn't seem like you're supposed to like him at all. Sarah comes off as very closed and standoffish in this scene and Charley goes off like a smirking rear end in a top hat - a noted contrast to how compassionate and empathetic he is later in the series. "You think I'm a jackass, don't you?" Yeah, Charley, you do come across as one. The whole scene seems like Charley likes Sarah far more than she likes him which makes sense but it makes the scene incredibly uncomfortable. I like that we see Sarah in a fairly utilitarian singlet - no cleavage, no fanservice. John's bedroom. Sarah tells him they need to leave. John has a 'rage against the machine' poster against his bedhead. The contrast of Sarah's pragmatism against John's idealism - something we see throughout the series relating to Derek, Cameron, etc - is immediately apparent. I think the line 'Bring the guns, I'll make pancakes' wonderfully sums up just how dysfunctional they are. Charley at the police station. This is probably the first scene that demonstrates that Terminator does interesting things with gender stereotypes. All throughout the series, we see men get bamboozled by relationships. Here, Charley goes to the police because Sarah suddenly left him. Later, we'll see John's confusion with Cameron and his strange relationship with Riley. Derek and Jesse are the big one of this idea. Anyways, SkyNet, Cyberdyne, Miles Dyson... I like how they recreate old photos instead of using ones of Linda Hamilton. James Ellison is a cool guy, too, although there isn't much to talk about with him at this point. Watching him go from disparaging and sarcastic about Sarah's beliefs to fearful and bewildered throughout the episode is great. I like that they don't drag out Ellison's scepticism. So, the episode continues. This is going to make me sound like such a goon here, but Summer Glau is actually pretty stunning. I had only seen her before in Serenity and the difference between her role there and Cameron in TSCC is like night and day. Cameron is very human here, a stark contrast to how she appears later in the series and a good reminder that Terminators can be pretty decent infiltrators! Still, regardless, John immediately dances to her tune. I wish I had the ability to get screen captures. What's interesting about John and Sarah in this episode is how they aren't usually in the same shot and, if they are, they're not facing each other. When you get a POV shot from Sarah, John always seems distant. The episode is really, really good at establishing the divide between mother and son. While they do end up smiling in the wake of Sarah's 'are you hacking?!' outburst, the audience knows that John isn't being honest when he mentions he didn't meet any pretty girls. And yet you already know why he doesn't tell the truth - because Sarah would have a bad reaction to it. And you know who John does tend to sit side by side with or tends to face throughout the episode? It's Cameron. The Cameron and John dynamic is one of my favorite elements in the series. While John hides things from his mother, he is immediately open and honest with Cameron (re: his dead father). When the three of them are together? John is always literally in the middle. In this episode, Sarah and John are rarely included in the same shot whereas John and Cameron are frequently shot together. It's an interesting way of demonstrating the issues that will crop up between the three later in the series. In fact, it's only near the end of the episode - where both Sarah and John tell Cameron 'no one is ever safe' - that mother and son occupy the same shot, I think. Even then, Sarah is not in focus. So, then Cromartie shows up. You instantly know he's a weird dude - he doesn't introduce himself as 'Mister Cromartie' as a teacher would, nor does he recognise the name Madonna, and Cameron stares at him throughout the entire scene. But you also know that he's a different, more advanced Terminator, one better at blending in. Cromartie - and Cameron later on - also have those little bird-like head tilts every so often, a mannerism that Robert Patrick borrowed when he played the T-1000. Despite it being a tv series, TSCC does a great job of keeping Terminators threatening and establishing that - without heavy weapons or another Terminator - your only real hope is to run the heck away. The show is also good at keeping track of what Terminators can do and, as we see, both Cameron and Cromartie utilise those tools. The phone scene also serves as the catalyst for the complicated passcode thing which is used throughout most of the show's run. I'm going to go pretty generally from here on out because I don't have as much time as I would like. People give John a lot of hassle for being 'whiny' but literally every single character treats the appearance of Cameron and Cromartie like a miniature apocalypse - it means everything they went through in Terminator 2 was for naught. John is literally fifteen years old, of course he's going to break down over it. "You destroyed everything" is what Miles Dyson's widow says to Sarah and it's an accusation as much as it is a statement - you destroyed everything and it was all for nothing. The bank vault scene happens, Cromartie is blown up, the trio teleport into the future and our first glimpse of the people from this new future are all ogling naked bodies - the boy in the car, the three frat bros who try to pick up Cameron. It's dark and ominous compared to the bright blue skies of the years they jumped from. So on and so forth. The episode closes with showing us the supporting characters we met through the episode - Charley and James - and making it clear that time has passed. And, unlike many shows, Charley has moved on. The episode is a really good pilot and makes it pretty clear what the series will be dealing with. Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 15:19 on Feb 28, 2014 |
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2014 15:17
|
|
|
Thanks for the recap and making this thread. I was really into this show despite its occasional dips in quality. It was the best most, recent Terminator-related thing around.
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2014 16:08
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 00:26 |
|
|
This was a great show and I wish Netflix was making shows around this time so they could've saved it Special mention to Garret Dillahunt as an utterly fantastic Terminator.
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2014 16:31
|
|
