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rusty_haloIn the midst of my John Simm fest, I managed to watch the first four episodes of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I like it, with reservations.
* It passes the Bechdel test! Times a million! Yay for three-dimensional female characters. I love that this is a real show, with action and plot and character development and big moral issues, and it just happens to be women grappling with these things. (Well, a woman and a machine, but you know what I mean.) It's not about OMG LOOK AT THE GIRL POWER; it just takes for granted that women would be competent and capable of dealing with these issues, and that the audience doesn't need some big manly father figure to latch onto.
One of the things that I always loved about Sarah Connor was that she wasn't imbued with superpowers from some kind of outside force, and she doesn't start out as some kind of innately amazing badass. She's a completely real, vulnerable woman of her time, and when she learns that it's up to her to save the world, she becomes who she needs to be. She creates herself; everything she is comes from her own hard work and dedication against incredible odds.
* I'm amused that John is the damsel in distress. Although, my god, is he an idiot. It was fine when he was ten; it's less sympathetic now that he's played by an actor who looks twenty.
* I like that the show grapples with big moral issues. I'm glad it continues the T2 tradition of complicated moral dilemmas and isn't just an action show about fighting the terminators.
* It gets major points just for continuing the Terminator mythology. I grew up with those movies, so every time the film music plays or they make a Cyberdyne reference, a chill runs through me. (Although, their last name is Reese? Sarah'd be more clever than that.)
* Dude, the femslash is off the charts!
* I'm not entirely sold on Lena Headey. Her Sarah is way toned down from Sarah's T2 hardness; she's more a combo of T1 and T2 Sarah. I can fanwank that Sarah was so shocked by her own behavior in T2 that she decided to tone herself down, and that she's had time to recover from the trauma of three years in an institution. But. Headey is no Linda Hamilton. Hamilton gave you a sense of incredibly depth, of exceptional heroism, intense darkness, and massive trauma. Headey doesn't come close, but I hope that she'll grow into the role.
* It drives me insane how skinny the actresses are. Sarah Connor is not supposed to look like a strong gust of wind would blow her over. Someone feed them, stat!
* Summer Glau is appropriately creepy as Cameron, although so far I still think "River!" every time I see her. I don't get why she seemed so normal in the premiere and is so robotic now. I also don't get why Sarah and John haven't immediately grilled her about all of her "mental" and physical capabilities; I suppose it's supposed to be a mystery and they want to avoid infodump, but it doesn't really make sense, and seems like an excuse for them to be able to pull more abilities out of their asses as the plot requires.
So overall, I'm a bit wary that it could go downhill, but I'll keep watching if the quality stays at this level.
In other news, my extra icon space on LiveJournal expired. And since I don't want to give LJ another cent, I didn't renew it. Trimming icons is hard. :( Maybe I'll figure out a way to fake-embed them in my LiveJournal posts and comments via InsaneJournal, where I have a permanent account with 300 icon spaces. Hmm...
[Cross-posted to InsaneJournal]
* It passes the Bechdel test! Times a million! Yay for three-dimensional female characters. I love that this is a real show, with action and plot and character development and big moral issues, and it just happens to be women grappling with these things. (Well, a woman and a machine, but you know what I mean.) It's not about OMG LOOK AT THE GIRL POWER; it just takes for granted that women would be competent and capable of dealing with these issues, and that the audience doesn't need some big manly father figure to latch onto.
One of the things that I always loved about Sarah Connor was that she wasn't imbued with superpowers from some kind of outside force, and she doesn't start out as some kind of innately amazing badass. She's a completely real, vulnerable woman of her time, and when she learns that it's up to her to save the world, she becomes who she needs to be. She creates herself; everything she is comes from her own hard work and dedication against incredible odds.
* I'm amused that John is the damsel in distress. Although, my god, is he an idiot. It was fine when he was ten; it's less sympathetic now that he's played by an actor who looks twenty.
* I like that the show grapples with big moral issues. I'm glad it continues the T2 tradition of complicated moral dilemmas and isn't just an action show about fighting the terminators.
* It gets major points just for continuing the Terminator mythology. I grew up with those movies, so every time the film music plays or they make a Cyberdyne reference, a chill runs through me. (Although, their last name is Reese? Sarah'd be more clever than that.)
* Dude, the femslash is off the charts!
* I'm not entirely sold on Lena Headey. Her Sarah is way toned down from Sarah's T2 hardness; she's more a combo of T1 and T2 Sarah. I can fanwank that Sarah was so shocked by her own behavior in T2 that she decided to tone herself down, and that she's had time to recover from the trauma of three years in an institution. But. Headey is no Linda Hamilton. Hamilton gave you a sense of incredibly depth, of exceptional heroism, intense darkness, and massive trauma. Headey doesn't come close, but I hope that she'll grow into the role.
* It drives me insane how skinny the actresses are. Sarah Connor is not supposed to look like a strong gust of wind would blow her over. Someone feed them, stat!
* Summer Glau is appropriately creepy as Cameron, although so far I still think "River!" every time I see her. I don't get why she seemed so normal in the premiere and is so robotic now. I also don't get why Sarah and John haven't immediately grilled her about all of her "mental" and physical capabilities; I suppose it's supposed to be a mystery and they want to avoid infodump, but it doesn't really make sense, and seems like an excuse for them to be able to pull more abilities out of their asses as the plot requires.
So overall, I'm a bit wary that it could go downhill, but I'll keep watching if the quality stays at this level.
In other news, my extra icon space on LiveJournal expired. And since I don't want to give LJ another cent, I didn't renew it. Trimming icons is hard. :( Maybe I'll figure out a way to fake-embed them in my LiveJournal posts and comments via InsaneJournal, where I have a permanent account with 300 icon spaces. Hmm...
[Cross-posted to InsaneJournal]
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2008-02-13 01:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-02-13 03:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-02-13 03:03 am (UTC)She creates herself; verything she is comes from her own hard work and dedication against incredible odds.
Yes indeedy. This is why she's one of my favorite fictional characters ever. Headey isn't Hamilton, but I'm coming to like her as her own aspect of the character.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-02-13 03:27 pm (UTC)