Sarah Connor
Mar. 29th, 2009 12:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kilroyCaught up on the Terminator series, and give it a very high recommendation. Out of thirty episodes, the only complaint I had was about the overdone monologues in the first season. You'll note that there isn't a single Rule of Drama about it yet either.
So, why?
First, the feminist stuff. Let me start by saying that I deeply love Lena Headey's Sarah. Part of it is just the usual television advantage of having time to show multiple sides to a character, but jesus has she taken this role and run with it. She's at least twice as badass as she was in T2, and yet she makes it believable. Words cannot express the awesomeness of her performance. I'll take her over Linda Hamilton every single day of the week.
And the supporting cast has consistently had strong, well-developed female characters-- and women of color to boot! And three and a half girl terminators! I can think of exactly one female in the entire show who was a cowardly housewife, and that's when they've had female characters with lines every single week. It's refreshing to see so many women given so much depth in any show without resorting to relationship drama; the fact that it's action/scifi is just delicious icing on the cake.
Second, the writing. It reminds me of BSG in a lot of ways. The show philosophy is to resemble Sarah as much as possible: little to no unnecessary material, and willing to take on serious, emotional issues. Much of the time we're left to connect the dots for ourselves as an audience-- how did we get here? What's going on? Why did s/he just do that? To some people I'm sure that would be frustrating, but I love being challenged by a show. Plus the dialogue is absolutely fantastic-- there is more humor, pain, and humanity here than I ever would have expected, and they do it all without losing the hard edge you need to be a Terminator series.
Yes, they use a lot of fairly cliche devices: voiceovers, flashbacks, framing subtitles, dreams, visions of dead characters. Yes, they have had a few fairly out-there plots. But they never get the characters wrong-- and I'm okay with occasionally clunky stories as long as the characters stay interesting and true.
Third, the performances. The core cast is absolutely outstanding together. John, Derek, Cameron, and Sarah have a mutual chemistry across all combinations that you just have to see to understand. Most of the support characters, too-- Jesse, Riley, Charlie, the family therapist, all totally amazing. The Zeira contingent less so, but I would be flatly amazed by any actor who could take John Henry and make him real. And Summer Glau deserves a special mention... she just keeps knocking those lines out of the park, episode after episode. I'm sad to see her playing a role that's so close (in some ways) to River again, but she was absolutely the right choice for the part.
So in short: made of awesome. Check it out. If you're not in after the first two episodes, it's not for you-- but if you decide to stay come talk to me. I'd be happy to share a squee with anyone about this. :-)
So, why?
First, the feminist stuff. Let me start by saying that I deeply love Lena Headey's Sarah. Part of it is just the usual television advantage of having time to show multiple sides to a character, but jesus has she taken this role and run with it. She's at least twice as badass as she was in T2, and yet she makes it believable. Words cannot express the awesomeness of her performance. I'll take her over Linda Hamilton every single day of the week.
And the supporting cast has consistently had strong, well-developed female characters-- and women of color to boot! And three and a half girl terminators! I can think of exactly one female in the entire show who was a cowardly housewife, and that's when they've had female characters with lines every single week. It's refreshing to see so many women given so much depth in any show without resorting to relationship drama; the fact that it's action/scifi is just delicious icing on the cake.
Second, the writing. It reminds me of BSG in a lot of ways. The show philosophy is to resemble Sarah as much as possible: little to no unnecessary material, and willing to take on serious, emotional issues. Much of the time we're left to connect the dots for ourselves as an audience-- how did we get here? What's going on? Why did s/he just do that? To some people I'm sure that would be frustrating, but I love being challenged by a show. Plus the dialogue is absolutely fantastic-- there is more humor, pain, and humanity here than I ever would have expected, and they do it all without losing the hard edge you need to be a Terminator series.
Yes, they use a lot of fairly cliche devices: voiceovers, flashbacks, framing subtitles, dreams, visions of dead characters. Yes, they have had a few fairly out-there plots. But they never get the characters wrong-- and I'm okay with occasionally clunky stories as long as the characters stay interesting and true.
Third, the performances. The core cast is absolutely outstanding together. John, Derek, Cameron, and Sarah have a mutual chemistry across all combinations that you just have to see to understand. Most of the support characters, too-- Jesse, Riley, Charlie, the family therapist, all totally amazing. The Zeira contingent less so, but I would be flatly amazed by any actor who could take John Henry and make him real. And Summer Glau deserves a special mention... she just keeps knocking those lines out of the park, episode after episode. I'm sad to see her playing a role that's so close (in some ways) to River again, but she was absolutely the right choice for the part.
So in short: made of awesome. Check it out. If you're not in after the first two episodes, it's not for you-- but if you decide to stay come talk to me. I'd be happy to share a squee with anyone about this. :-)