Terminator (episode) 3
Discussion. Spoilers.
Saw the third episode of Terminator. I got nuthin against this series. I wanna bang Sarah and the terminator. I think Sarah is good, but she’s not as unhinged as Cameron’s sarah, which is maybe appropriate to the series, being so far after the events of T2, but it makes her less interesting and I don’t like seeing John have to give her pep talks. I do like John more than I thought, and at least he’s not just being dragged around by his jacket — but I also don’t really buy him having to go to school and act normal. Fuck that. Build a bunker in the desert, read some textbooks and learn to make bombs, kid. Mix it up in the underworld, don’t hang on the fringes of suburbia.
His character’s desire for a normal life and the surrogate dad they had to leave behind is an interesting thread, especially if he were forced to upkeep a secret relationship with the guy behind his Mom’s back — leading ultimately to him becoming a threat to their security and having to stare down the barrel of the Terminator (or Sarah’s) gun, but is that where things are heading???
I am starting to like Summer Glau, though Arnold was better at the awkward attempts at being human, mostly because he didn’t use conjunctions. “I’m looking at you” was a good moment but would have been better as, “I am looking at you.” But she has that weird face, which helps matters. I like the interplay between the three characters, but the overall softening of Sarah Connor makes no sense to me. If anything, her problem should be that she’s too cold and hard, too much like a Terminator herself.
And speaking of Terminators…
I do like the Terminator running around with a ski mask to cover his robot face, wearing a dead corpse’s head, etc. I like him having to regenerate skin, I just wish he wasn’t gonna look like some kid’s Karate teacher when all was said and done.
It doesn’t seem like enough is happening. Nothing is really hooking me. Terminator is all about the unyielding pressure, the never feeling safe, the nowhere to go — AND THE BASTARD(S) KEEP COMING. But on this series they seem like they’re all taking their sweet-ass time.
This is not bad, but it ain’t good.
And why do they not own a dog?
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OpenCritic
I watched the first three episodes of this and I’ll probably be watching the rest casually, if at all.
Summer Glau is playing the same character from Firefly, she’s just a robot.
Apparently Sarah is the master of changing her identity but it hasn’t occurred to her to change her appearance. She looks exactly like her photo from the loony bin in the FBI man’s files. Dumb.
Also, major problems with the Humpty Dumpty Terminator:
1) How did the head make it through the time field? They established that non-living things can’t use it, that’s why they arrived naked and weaponless in 2007.
2) You mean to tell me that the authorities just dumped the robot’s body in the garbage?
3) If the body could do all of that stuff without any eyes or ears, why did it need the head?
Also, the look of this show is pretty simplistic, not much more visually compelling than early X-Files episodes.
I too have been watching the Sarah Connor Chronicles and I have to admit I’m a little gay for Lena Headey. I was catching up on my House episodes on Fox on Demand when I noticed this was available for viewing (I recommend catching up this way). The moment I saw Lena in 300, I thought she was excellent and wanted to see her again in another modern role but I liked her strength in 300 and am glad to see it carry over to this role.
I too want to see more action in the way of shooting at the Terminator (the bad one not the hot one) and hope it’s not going to focus on the high-school aspect too much. Hearing Summer say teenage slang phrases like “tight” are going to get old pretty soon.
I was thinking the same thing about the dog too, Junktape until the scene where the dogs reacted to Summer and I realized that having a dog wouldn’t serve to warn them of an approaching bad T if the good T was setting off the dog. I didn’t catch Roger’s reference to the head coming through the time field though which is a definate goof in my opinion.
To sum up – too much filler not enough sex! (by sex I mean shooting and blood) By the way – is anyone beside me hoping for an awkward Terminator/John sex scene somewhere down the road? I think a “no” on NBC but a “maybe” on Fox.
I’ve got another question: why is it so important that John goes to school? Wouldn’t he have a much easier time “staying off the grid” if he didn’t?
BTW, did anyone find it interesting that the scene that they said they would cut after the Virginia Tech shooting – the one where the Terminator poses as a teacher and opens fire on John in class – wasn’t cut?