Is anyone watching the Sarah Connor Chronicles on TV

http://blog.ugo.com/images/uploads/terminator-set-visit-1.jpg

Link to first trailer (you can download a zip file of the 720p and 1080p version)

http://rss.warnerbros.com/terminatorsalvation/

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@rosborne979,

rosborne wrote:

Really? Like what?

I remember a few religious references, but they seem to have more to do with the characters than with the basic premise of the plot.

I agree much of it is concentrated in the figure of James Ellison, whom I find annoying. But there are tiny catch phrases sprinkled all across the series. For example, take the video you posted. (By the way, I agree it's beautiful.) Speaking off-camera, Sarah Connor enumerates a list of things that makes machines inhuman, and would make them "be us" if they could do them. One of them is, "they can't believe in God."

I dislike this twice over: First, it distracts from, rather than contributing to the perfectly valid point Sarah makes. Second, and please feel free to call me a weenie if you want: As an atheist, it just annoys me when somebody proclaims that not believing in god distracts from my humanity.

There other religious conservative buzzwords sprinkled into the dialogue: "Sanctity of life" comes up a few times, "made in the image of god", and others that I can't remember off the top of my head right now.

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@Thomas,

In a lapse of his vocabulary, Thomas wrote:

... distracts from my humanity.

Too late to edit. In case it isn't clear, I meant to write "subtracts from my humanity". (See? It annoys me so much I can't write straight anymore.)

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I was amused by the John Henry/Ellison debate where John Henry wanted to ask God why he used hinge joints instead of ball-and-socket joints when he designed humans.

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@DrewDad,

That one was cute, yes.

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@Thomas,

Thomas wrote:

I agree much of it is concentrated in the figure of James Ellison, whom I find annoying. But there are tiny catch phrases sprinkled all across the series. For example, take the video you posted. (By the way, I agree it's beautiful.) Speaking off-camera, Sarah Connor enumerates a list of things that makes machines inhuman, and would make them "be us" if they could do them. One of them is, "they can't believe in God."

I dislike this twice over: First, it distracts from, rather than contributing to the perfectly valid point Sarah makes. Second, and please feel free to call me a weenie if you want: As an atheist, it just annoys me when somebody proclaims that not believing in god distracts from my humanity.

Ok, I see your point.

I'm not a big fan of the God club either, but for some reason, those types of comments in the show don't bother me very much. I don't interpret it as the show preaching to me so much as I feel it reflects the characters viewpoints. After all, the show as a whole is not relying on God or the supernatural as a driving force behind events. If anything, it's saying that we're responsible for our own future (except the time paradox may box them into a corner if they are not careful).

Or maybe I just like the show so much I'm willing to let the small things slid. I'm not sure.

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@DrewDad,

DrewDad wrote:

I was amused by the John Henry/Ellison debate where John Henry wanted to ask God why he used hinge joints instead of ball-and-socket joints when he designed humans.

I enjoyed that as well, and I think it's a good example of where the show is challenging the tenets of a "simple" creation model (as John Henry plays a child-like roll and asks child-like questions, but with somewhat ominous portents given what John Henry may become).

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In one of the episodes there is a flash-forward to the story of Derek Reese in the future, and he is captured by terminators and sent into a room where he recognizes someone, but we never see who it is. I'm still waiting for that mystery to unfold. Derek is eventually released but doesn't remember any of it. What happened to Derek in that room and who was in there that he recognized?

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@rosborne979,

rosborne979 wrote:

I don't interpret it as the show preaching to me so much as I feel it reflects the characters viewpoints.

I guess the issue for me isn't the preaching itself. The preaching is just part of (what I see as) an effort to endear the characters to a broader demographic than the films were catering to. I guess I miss Linda Hamilton's obsessiveness in Terminator II, young John Connor's juvenile delinquency, Ahnuld's machismo, his cynicism, and his dry one-liners: "Give me your clothes", "I'll pe pack", "Talk to the hand", "Hasta la vista, Paby". Not to mention the gratuitous violence, the explosions, and the full frontal nudity in Terminator I. (Yes, I'm that easy to entertain.)

All of this is ostentatiously not for everyone, not suitable for a broad TV audience. And I miss it.

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@Thomas,

PS: that concludes my ranting. The Sarah Connor Chronicles are actually a pretty good series, and I don't want to give the false impression that it sucks.

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@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

I generally don't watch tee-vee, but with Roswell's recommendation, i will probably check this out.

I have Season 1 on DVD. If you're interested, I'd be happy to mail it to you once I'm back home, or give it to ehBeth when she comes to New York. The offer extends to everyone else in this thread, too.

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@Thomas,

I love the first two Terminator movies as well (the third one was trash). But even though I miss Ahnold displaying his perfectly caster robotic acting style, I really like the new plot lines being developed in SCC. And I am hoping that Terminator Salvation (the upcoming movie) will continue to expand the franchise into new philosophical directions.

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@rosborne979,

They're both in the headed into territory of exploring the same material, although I don't believe a submarine is going to show up in "Terminator Salvation." The first two movies were still aimed at at the sci-fi action audience but II had more of a philosophical viewpoint and carved out deeper characterizations, not to mention the nearly perfect action sequences. In the third film, James Mostow with only the previous "U-571" being of any note, the actors were all directed like they were robots. It didn't help to have Ahnold literally bumbling around like a has-been movie star. Oh, well, he was a has been movie star, making nothing but box office failures since "True Lies," his best film. Why did studios keep bankrolling these potboiler stinker? Although I did like "The 6th Day" but only because of Tony Goldwin's deliciously evil villain and the theme around human cloning cleverly put to use.

Back to SCC, the series would never survive sticking to its before Skynet story -- they were running out of gas. Getting into the war against the machines in the future is a good tract and will either bolster the fourth movie or take some wind out of it.

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@Lightwizard,

Lightwizard wrote:

Back to SCC, the series would never survive sticking to its before Skynet story -- they were running out of gas. Getting into the war against the machines in the future is a good tract and will either bolster the fourth movie or take some wind out of it.

Interesting, but I think I disagree. The current "prevent Judgment Day" plot they are running could have quite a long line to it, especially if they continue to develop the espionage line they are taking with Catherine Weaver and ZeiraCorp and with the growth of John Henry.

I'm getting suspicious that there may be two "factions" of the future Skynet which may be in conflict with each other. If so, they could develop a whole new plot element to keep the pre-judgment day conflicts going.

The future Skynet plotline is something I expect will be exploited by the Terminator Salvation franchise (assuming it generates sequels as it probably will).

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@rosborne979,

Catherine Weaver has been, in my opinion, the weakest robot character of the series. I hope they can go somewhere with John Henry but quite frankly, I welcomed the shift to the future as the hunting of the protagonists and sabotage storyline was dangerously close to imitating itself and the films, becoming episodic with weak continuity. That's when it started losing me and I just recently picked it up with reruns but still missing some season episodes (without feeling I really missed that much). The personal stories such as John's romance were far more involving. I can see how the writers can "tie this up," but not without spending more time exploring the future of John Conner. I realize the story is "The Sarah Conner Chronicles," not "The John Conner Chronicles," but it's obvious which one is more important to the total concept of the story. What I am stating is that the series began with a big bang and now it seems to be going into a red shift.

"Termination Salvation" is really Terminator IV -- Hollywood has been doing that lately to revive a franchise, but it's still a continuing franchise.

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@Lightwizard,

I'm hoping that with a name like "Salvation" they'll wrap things up, but I doubt they will.

Of course, that's the beauty of movies with time travel....

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@DrewDad,

They'll hope for a blockbuster like "Batman Return" so they can inject new life in the franchise and carry it on for at least three more films. I don't believe they'll wind up the battle with the machines without an opening for future endeavors. After, all, the Batman franchise went downhill from the first film with the corniest bore being "Batman and Robin." The last film, "The Dark Knight" has established a new high goal for sci-fi and superhero films. TV has put a lot of the smartest writers to work on series (TV movies except HBO rarely have smart writers) and that creates a shortage for the movies.

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@Thomas,

That would be very cool, which means you must becoming less German and more American. I don't know when The Girl will next be travelling to my native city, but we can work something out.

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@Lightwizard,

Lightwizard wrote:

Catherine Weaver has been, in my opinion, the weakest robot character of the series.

I haven't been too thrilled with her either. The character seems to be lacking something, although I can't quite figure out what it is. It might be the skill of the actress, she seems "mechanical", even more than Summer Glau. But then again, she's portraying a robot, so maybe it's intentional. I haven't seen this actress in any other rolls so I can't really say. I think she was selected for the pizzazz of having a singer in the roll, and also because she's rumored to have lobbied for the part because of her love of the original movies and the series.

Lightwizard wrote:

I hope they can go somewhere with John Henry but quite frankly, I welcomed the shift to the future as the hunting of the protagonists and sabotage storyline was dangerously close to imitating itself and the films, becoming episodic with weak continuity.

I may be imagining plot lines which aren't really there, but I'm anticipating some type of conflict between John Henry and Catherine, possibly leading to a schism within the machine world. Maybe it's just my imagination.

Lightwizard wrote:

That's when it started losing me and I just recently picked it up with reruns but still missing some season episodes (without feeling I really missed that much). The personal stories such as John's romance were far more involving.

Ha, that's funny because I found John's romance fairly tedious. Interesting that everyone likes different things.

Lightwizard wrote:

"Termination Salvation" is really Terminator IV -- Hollywood has been doing that lately to revive a franchise, but it's still a continuing franchise.

I really hope Terminator IV does well and allows the inevitable sequels to command some decent production costs. T1 and T2 were classics in my mind, but T3 was a big disappointment. I think by T3 they had exhausted the "I'm chasing you/I'm protecting you" plot line, so T4 seems like a logical next step in the story.

The SCC because it's a series, can take the time to develop much more detailed sub-plot(s), so I see these as having a very different flavor than the movies. Different products. Different markets. But with some benefits from the overlap (I hope).

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@Setanta,

Definitely not more American. The offer is actually part of my Communist Muslim mission to spread the wealth around. (The Girl and I have tentative plans for early May. Would that be early enough?)

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Is anyone watching the Sarah Connor Chronicles on TV

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