TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES: Automatic for the People - Mania.com



Televsion Review

Mania Grade: C+

21 Comments | Add

 

Rate & Share:

 

Related Links:

 

Info:

TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES: Automatic for the People

Sarah Gets Crapped Up This Week

By Stephen Lackey     September 17, 2008


TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES
© FOX
This season of Sarah Connor Chronicles started off strong. The hope is that the show maintains that level of quality throughout its run but that sets a high bar. So, of course this episode is of lesser quality overall than the previous episode, and even worse it sets up a writing crutch that we’re unfortunately going to see again and again in this series. What the episode does right is that it places Sarah and John in their proper positions in this universe. The show is called “Sarah Connor Chronicles” not the “John Connor Chronicles” so the show should be Sarah central with John’s evolution as a leader happening as a part of the story and a result of Sarah’s actions.
 
So, this week John is trying to go back to school, flip flopping from his dedication to the cause and back to “I wanna be a regular person”. He’s inconsistent as a character and needs to be developed in a way that makes sense from week to week. He meets a girl this week that is well portrayed by the actress but also takes a good bit of abuse from him before he finally opens up to her. At the same time, Sarah is setting up a new place for her, John, and the rest of her motley crew to live. Right after moving in a dying man from the future breaks through glass doors in their new place and gives them their mission of the week. This is the crutch I was speaking of. Now anytime the writers need a quick and easy set up, they can just send a soldier from the future to give instructions and then let him die from the trip. So, this red shirt appears from the future naked in an alley, grabs a coat from a homeless man, and runs right to Sarah’s new house. Sure, this is easy to explain away by saying that there are records in the future of where Sarah and John were at that exact time so it was easy for the man to find them. Problem is, if that were true why do the terminators have so much trouble finding Sarah and John? You’d think during the future war that SkyNet would be able to find whatever documentation that exist that details Sarah and John’s locations at various points in time. This kind of weak writing could be the death of this series.
 
Speaking of the future war – the brief scene from the future of the battle around the power plant was a great looking exciting scene. Hopefully there’ll be more scenes from the future like this one. The other great scene in the episode was the appearance of the Shirley Manson terminator. The intriguing part of this episode was the puzzle set up for Sarah; if she completes her mission SkyNet wins, if she doesn’t complete her mission, SkyNet could still win. Inevitably, Sarah didn’t contemplate the situation too deeply and the final moments of the episode show the true success or failure of Sarah and Cameron and a bit more of SkyNets more complex plan is revealed.
 
The story ends up being interesting and it offers some great potential for future story arcs but it’s also littered with inconsistencies and writing crutches. So, it basically balances itself out this week. Automatic for the People was a good installment but one of the weaker ones since the show found its footing.

COMMENTS AND RESPONSES

Showing items 1 - 10 of 21
1 2 3 >  >>  
hanso 9/17/2008 8:40:36 AM
Really? I thought the future scene looked like crap, that Machine plane looked fake as hell. Is the T100 now impersonating 2 high profile individuals? Shirley Manson and that dude at the end giving the press conference? How is the T100 gonna do that? Won't anyone notice that one of them is missing? My biggest problem with this episode was that John didn't try to bang that chic. I mean, she comes out of the blue to talk to you, goes to your home, lies on your bed. Hello!!?? John didn't make one damn move and he's supposed to save the humans!! Come on John u are better than that. This show is losing me, if it keeps up I'll switch over to Chuck when it starts again.
Hobbs 9/17/2008 8:55:34 AM
I agree hanso, I thought it looked like a bad special effect from Enterprise. I had my issues with this episode as well. That had to be the easiest death of a terminator I've ever seen...and at first I thought it was the T-1000 which would have made it more interesting. Though I don't agree with the future soldier setting up their mission of the week I can buy that "John Connor" sent the solider back in time and told him where they would be. However, on the next time loop John might want to tell him to wait till the time bubble goes away before he stands up so he doesn't get hurt. The character of John is a bit inconsistent but he is 16 and what kid at that age is consistent? When does the episode come up where John sends someone back to save the whales?
ponyboy76 9/17/2008 8:59:08 AM
I thought it was a good episode. Why the hell does there have to be documentation of where they lived? You are missing the obvious. John obviously knows where they lived so he told the soldier exactly where they would be at that point in time. Its that simple. Its not rocket science. The future scene was cool. And Hanso, you are really reaching. You damn well know that the T-1000 can impersonate anyone it touches. It obviously killed and replaced the dude. It was probably his company, she killed him and put herself in the dept. What I am most interested in, is Cameron. She seems to be acting more human ever since the explosion. Like, when she`s thinking about what to do instead of just doing it. She also seemed jealous of the other girl. You also see Sarah's weakness in this episode. She's scared of dying or at least scared of leaving John on his own.
thebeastwithtwobucks 9/17/2008 9:00:36 AM
"Sure, this is easy to explain away by saying that there are records in the future of where Sarah and John were at that exact time so it was easy for the man to find them." I assumed that since John leads the resistance in the future and sent the soldier back in time, he would be able to tell him where they lived. Still, the episode was definately a C .
joeybaloney 9/17/2008 9:02:10 AM
I thought this episode was better than last week. Extremely limited time for Shirley Manson was a help. Wasn’t too keen on how quickly whats-his-head was replaced by a Terminator. I hope they explain where and how that got done. As far as knowing or not knowing where and when Sarah and John are at any given time, having John personally send you back probably helps. I bet he doesn’t like to give SkyNet controlled Terminators that kind of information. As far as the dude from the future being a writing crutch, I agree that kinda thing needs to be VERY limited moving forward and seemed like kind of a waste in this particular instance. Keeping control of the power plant for the resistance is certainly important but using that particular device should have been saved for something a lot more life threatening and not for a mission that revolves around getting a job somewhere. Did that dude die? Or was he the guy writing all that happy crappy in blood and has now disappeared? I forget if that was explained. No real explanation for the gunshot wound but I guess we’re supposed to take it that that’s why he didn’t travel back a little further to give Sarah time to work on her resume. IMO the future scene looked good. Don’t think we’ve ever seen such a sunny clear day in the future like that. No complaints from me there. All in all I thought this was a decent ep. I found it to be an improvement from last week and I’m personally feeling better about this season now. I’m hooked for the foreseeable future.
hanso 9/17/2008 9:15:22 AM
I'm not reaching on anything my dear sir. I know the T100 can impersonate anyone. My question is how is he gonna keep impersonating 2 high profile people? He can't be at 2 places at once is where I'm getting at. <BR itxtvisited="1" /><BR itxtvisited="1" />If John keeps sending people back, who is left to fight the machines?
joeybaloney 9/17/2008 9:17:09 AM
If people from the future just keep coming back and having kids that problem will solve itself!
joeybaloney 9/17/2008 9:18:04 AM
Can a T-1000 take the shape of two short people?
joeybaloney 9/17/2008 9:27:47 AM
Oh. And I really liked the Ellis/ex-boyfriend sub-plot. More people understanding what's going on but unable to look anywhere for help sounds good. Maybe we could even see the start of an underground resistence pre-Judgement Day. And was that Penelope cheating on Desmond?
hanso 9/17/2008 9:32:49 AM
Penelope is a whore!! All Desmond has been through and look what she does. Baloney, you come up with all the great questions. I look foward to this TV show looking into the 2 short people shapeshifting ability of the T1000.
1 2 3 >  >>  

ADD A COMMENT

You must be logged in to leave a comment. Please click here to login.

POPULAR TOPICS