January 12th, 2008
by
Naamenblog
Strong ass-kicking woman plus homicidal robots should add up to action-explosion fun and in The Sarah Connor Chronicles all our hopes, prayers and our screams of pain from Bionic Woman are answered. Having the chance to view the first episode before it’s world premiere I thought it important that I share my views here. Basically, it rocked!
(Minor Spoilers follow, if you’ve read an article about the show there’s probably no worry but if you’re not sure then watch the show tomorrow night and come back after.)
If you don’t know the back story the series starts relatively soon after T2 and takes the question many a person has raised in action movies: Okay, what happens next? They’ve destroyed half the world/massive amounts of property, what can they do? The answer: They go on the run from the law.
I’ll be honest I was a little leery of Lena Headey as Sarah Connor because for me, as I’m sure with a lot of you, Linda Hamilton owns that role. She claimed Sarah Connor in T2 and anyone else would just be a pale imitation. But Lena manages to reinterpret Sarah for this version of the Terminator franchise very well. We get to see a reinvention of Sarah instead of version of her movie self, she’s not fighting for her life in the space of a few days with a determined endpoint to the action, this running and constant fear is her life and that makes a huge difference in how the character is written and acted. Headey’s Connor is in a different situation and plays the role with a subtler paranoia than Hamilton did but her Sarah is no less focused on the end result or less willing to protect the future of humanity.
The casting of Thomas Dekker and the characterization of John Connor really allow Sarah to shine because he’s not portrayed as men are traditionally in action ventures. He’s not macho or angry or ready to kill to survive, his mother takes those positions, instead he’s scared, sad, tired and mostly willing to follow whatever she says with little question. The times he does question or argue Sarah is quick to put her son in his place.
The other main woman in the show is Firefly‘s Summer Glau as Cameron, if you’ve seen the movie posters or heard any buzz on this movie you know she plays one of the new models of Terminator. I have less to say about Glau’s performance not only because her character seems to be a bit inconsistent but also because much of her role in the pilot episode isn’t that memorable. Sure she has some great scenes, mostly action, but by and large she seems to play the part of semi-nude eye-candy with vital information. I have hopes that her character will become more three dimensional in subsequent episodes based on their treatment of Sarah but who knows.
And while I have the usual complaints about such a show, being that women only exist in a certain body type/look and that the basic premise relies to closely on ‘everyone protect the man because he’s our only hope’, I will say that overall this show is one to watch plus I’m a little in love with Headey’s Sarah. She’s angry, she’s paranoid, she’s more than a little crazy and she’s ready to kick your ass, what more could you ask for?
Clips available here
Show premieres tomorrow night (Sunday on Fox after Prison Break)
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Filed under FSF, TV & Film, female characters | Comments (6)
They changed the name from The Sarah Connor Chronicles to Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles to better draw in casual fans of the franchise who wouldn’t necessarily remember the lead female character’s name, I guess.
I will definitely be tuning in to watch. I haven’t seen more than the trailers and a few online clips for this yet, but it looks like it could be better than the Bionic Woman remake. (It would have a difficult time being worse.)
One thing troubles me, though, is looking at the cast list on Wikipedia: there are five listed characters. Three of them are male, and two are female.
And half of those female characters are robots. That’s like the cast of Battlestar Galactica all over again. (The presence of a male Terminator making it slightly less tilted in breakdown, though, with a smaller ensemble, it seems like Sarah’s conversations with other female characters will mostly be with the female Terminator.)
[...] at the FeministSF Blog (since August in fact) and I’m finally getting back into it with Women & Robots: Review of Sarah Connor Chronicles. My goal is to post there once a week even if it’s only a little snippet and to have at least [...]
The ass-kicking and craziness sure sounds good!
Ide – It’s definitely better than the Bionic Woman remake judging by the pilot. All your points are good and I agree with them, although if Sarah remains the leader of her motley crew and takes them down when they get up in her face it’ll redeem some of my issues with the casting. As for the robotic angle yeah I’m not happy about that or the posters that showed Summer Glau disassembled in some ways I just thought that it was so sexualized and fucked up that it almost put me off the show entirely. There’s a part of me that wonders if the writers are allowing Sarah to be so in control and competent because she’s supposed to be slightly unhinged, as if there’s no other way for a woman to have agency. Only time will tell but for now I have some hope for the show.
Liz- It is so good, there are some scenes that are small yet entertain me to no end because of the way they portray Sarah’s competence and almost ruthlessness. I’m hoping it stays good and doesn’t slide so badly downhill as so many shows with lead women seem to do because the writers/directors/whoever doesn’t know how to write women without reducing them to caricatures.
[...] Feminist SF – The Blog! » Blog Archive » Women & Robots – Review of Sarah Connor Chronicles Send us a link! [...]
…after two episodes: the show’s much stronger than the Bionic Woman remake so far, but it’s even more like BSG, in that the female human leader potentially has cancer!