Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – Heavy Metal
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- February
- 5
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is at its best when it carefully skirts the line between insightful, expository dialogue and Dawson’s Creek-esque melodrama.
How’s that for a pseudo-intellectual appraisal of a TV show based on an action movie? But I seriously begin to cringe every time Sarah confronts John about his typical teenage problems: homework, the loss of a classmate, rising up and becoming the leader of the human resistance against the self-aware army of unstoppable machines.
“Heavy Metal”, last night’s episode, was a return to the form of sorts, if that’s possible for a show only four episodes into its run.
A shipment of Koltan is coming into port, enough of the rare element to construct an army of 530 terminators. Sarah, John and Cameron don’t know that yet, but they do know it might be their best chance to catch up with the reborn Cromartie before he catches up with them.
The essential conflict here is John’s uneasy growth as he becomes that future leader we can’t see behind the wisps of dreamy locks hanging over his eyes. He’s like watching a Fall Out Boy video. Still, it was a relief to see him ditch Cameron and Sarah and climb into the warehouse where he planned to set explosives around the Koltan. That isn’t like the John that Sarah knows but it is like the future John that Cameron knows.
The unknown terminator they encounter was made even scarier by the fact that he was emotionless, dispatching his numbskull cronies (who seemed straight from Central Casting’s henchmen department, by the way) with a monotone “Thank you for your service.” Cameron handled him fairly easily, I thought, but then she only had to incapacitate him long enough to close the blast doors around him. I wonder if I’m the only one who finds the very site of a fallout shelter eery and uncomfortable.
Here’s what we know about our future resistance leader and his sworn robotic protectress: He can’t drive a stick shift, and she can’t work a remote control. The former is telling. John Connor has a lot of growing to do. The latter is a silly example of the kind of flip, lighthearted humor that infects this show and undermines the tension and bleak tone that should be its trademark.
I don’t want to see the terminator’s funny side. I want grim, macabre desperation. They’re spiraling towards a nuclear war and the inevitable deaths of three billion people. Where’s the funny in that? The only exception I might add was when Sarah released the gunmen she’d subdued and told him he could leave if he could get by Cameron. It was so much better that we never see what Cameron did to him, but rather we see the terror in his face as he takes them to the Koltan storage site. Leaving him in a minefield was also a nice touch.
Things get back on track with exchanges like the one between Sarah and Cameron when Sarah says it’s too soon for John to start taking chances like he did. Cameron questions that, pointing out that Judgment day is only four years away.
Adding greatly to the show’s balance and appeal is the development of Ellison’s character. He’s past his prime, no longer the FBI’s star on the rise but rather a mid-career agent of whom little is expected by his superiors. He could give up his pursuit of Sarah’s and Cromartie’s blood trail, but there’s a connection he can almost see.
It was chilling to see him inside Cromartie’s apartment, thinking he’s talking to the out-of-work actor whose face Cromartie stole. I’m convinced Ellison will become an ally eventually. And getting to that point should be a fun ride.
As the previews showed, next week marks the appearance of ex-90210er Brian Austin Green, aka The Bag as I’ve seen him called online.
Also, if that bloodbath Cromartie took a few weeks ago in order to grew new skin seemed far fetched, check out this article about a recent scientific breakthrough in that very field. Chilling.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 at 12:38 pm by Brian Howard.
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