Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete First Season marathon, a review by Dragonfire
1. Pilot
No one is ever safe, least of all Sarah Connor and her son, John. Tired of running from the machines, Sarah decides to stand and fight.
My ThoughtsI thought this was a good start to the series. Certain things were like the first two movies, but I thought that still worked. It made sense to me that Sarah and John would still basically be living on the run even though they thought they had stopped Skynet and Judgment Day in the second movie. Sarah was tied to the explosion at Cyberdine and Dyson's death, so it was believable to me that the police and even FBI would be looking for her. It didn't seem as...believable that Sarah would have gotten in the situation she was at the beginning of the episode though. And I thought something else just didn't work right either.
It just seemed really ..odd to me that she would have gotten so involved with a man that she agreed to marry him even though she still was thinking that she was being hunted and that another Terminator from the future might show up. I would have believed that more if she'd know the guy longer and had actually told him more and gotten him to believe her about Skynet and everything. But from what was said after she left, he had no clue about any of that. That makes me think she didn't fully trust him, and if she didn't fully trust him, why in the world did she accept his proposal??
Also, I had issues with Sarah using the same last name once she and John had moved to the place where Cameron and the Terminator ultimately found them. Sarah is not a stupid woman and she'd been avoiding being found for a few years at that point. Given how she left things and that she was engaged to the one guy - I forgot his name - I would have thought that she would have realized that he'd probably try to do something to find her. It wasn't like she faked a fight with him..she just vanished, so it was logical that he would try to find her despite what she said in her note. So it was very stupid for her to still use the last name Reese after that point. I get that she may have used the name to begin with as a way to stay connected to Kyle, but once she ...abandoned that life, she should have abandoned the name too. And then she got ticked when Cameron pointed that out to her later. Ok..that's all my issues. I think.
Despite the few..issues I had with the episode, I still really enjoyed it. I loved seeing Summer Glau again. Some of her expressions did remind me a bit of River, but it was still a different character.
2. Gnothi Seauton
New future, new identity. Cromartie, the battered but relentless Terminator programmed to kill John Connor, resurfaces.
My ThoughtsI enjoyed this episode as well. It worked well to follow what was set up in the first episode with them getting settled in a different time and everything.
I would have liked if there had been a bit more explanation for a few things though.
When Sarah used that special gun before they jumped into the future, I didn't know if that just hurt the Terminator or if it caused the bank to be destroyed too. I think there was something said later that claimed that Sarah and John had been killed in an explosion in a bank. If that gun caused an explosion, I could see it severely damaging the bank..and even knocking the head off of the Terminator. However, I have other issues. I thought that when people traveled through time that way, they would end up in the same spot they left from, just in a different time. When they went to 2007, they were in the middle of a road. Which I could accept if the bank had been demolished or whatever. Then the head of the Terminator was just laying sort of near the road, out in the open. Why would it still be there like 8 years later? And how in the world could the body of the Terminator start working without the head where the CPU thingy was? If the rubble that it came up out of when it some how was reactivated was from the bank vault, then why hadn't that been cleaned up earlier and the body found before then? It just seemed like that could have been handled getter in a way that made more sense without leaving all these..plot holes.
I still liked the episode, but the few things I mentioned in the spoiler did bug me..and the more I think about them the more they bug me. Hopefully those sort of things won't be happening all the time..if they do, I see myself getting really irritated at times.
3. The Turk
He's just a geek with a hobby. But is the computer chess program Andy Goode developed the beginning of the end?
My ThoughtsI did enjoy this episode as well. It was interesting to see John and Cameron going to school and the explanation they came up with to explain why she was setting off the metal detector. I also liked how this episode set up a new potential way for Skynet to possible start. I didn't notice any issues that irked me in this one.
I think the cast is doing well. I think I like Sarah from the movies a little better..but that doesn't mean this version of the character is bad..just different.
So far, even though I was irked by a few things, I still really enjoyed these episodes and am ready to watch the next disc.
(From Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete First Season marathon on January 15th, 2009)
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May 18, 2024, 03:53:10 PM
