Sarah Connor Chronicles

[TwilightEL]

And her whole human-pretend thing isn't yr typical "Why can't I cry? Where is my heart and my soul?" schtick. She's not learning how to be human because she has some secret desire to be human, she's doing it because she's genuinely intrigued and curious on a very rationalist level.

I know! She has an intellectual fascination with humans, rather than an emotional one.

Edit: Oh, and another thing. She's not trying to become human. I've never gotten the sense that she wants that. She wants to understand humans as part of understanding herself, a robot.

The comedy is different too. Most wannabe-human robos make the funny by speaking coldly or being callous. But Summeron makes the funny by trying to cleverly incorporate human behavior to FAIL effect. I think my favorite example of this is in the first season when Sarah picks her and John up to go on another fight:

JOHN: I call shotgun.

SUMMERON: I call nine millimeter.

Exactly. And I love how she uses "tight". She learned it, assigned it a meaning, and now she'll never stop using it, even though it isn't exactly the right word.

The actor they chose to play Cromartie/John Henry is great. I love how in "Brothers of Nablus," halfway-house hobo-girl tries to teach him the value of being sociable to get along with people. And he proceeds to make the most awkward looking smile ever and parroting, "Thank you for your time," all over the episode.

And then he clearly got fed up with that crap and kicked her out of the ******* car.

Also, Myron Stark was hilarious.

SUMMER GLAU WITH A TOMMY GUN.

Also, Myron Stark explains so much about the world. Clearly, Skynet requires a communist dictatorship in Cuba.

And Agent Ellison's attempt to convert John Henry to Christianity is doomed to fail. Unless he keeps all scientific knowledge from John Henry and refuses to give him a copy of the Bible (which JH and Weaver-1001 both would find unacceptable--growing minds need stimulation), JH will quickly find the flaws and contradictions in the Bible. Can he really explain the entire concept of "metaphors" and "fables" to a robot? Either JH takes it super-literally and starts trying to convert everyone, or Ellison is going to have to convince JH that a) you can pick and choose which parts of the Bible to believe, b) there are infinite ways to interpret the Bible, many of which are valid and c) JH should interpret it the same way Ellison does.

 

[ourchair]

I know! She has an intellectual fascination with humans, rather than an emotional one.

Edit: Oh, and another thing. She's not trying to become human. I've never gotten the sense that she wants that. She wants to understand humans as part of understanding herself, a robot.

Wholly agreed.

And then he clearly got fed up with that crap and kicked her out of the ******* car.

In the future, Skynet has also waged war on hobo-girls. And hobo-robos.

And Agent Ellison's attempt to convert John Henry to Christianity is doomed to fail. Unless he keeps all scientific knowledge from John Henry and refuses to give him a copy of the Bible (which JH and Weaver-1001 both would find unacceptable--growing minds need stimulation), JH will quickly find the flaws and contradictions in the Bible. Can he really explain the entire concept of "metaphors" and "fables" to a robot? Either JH takes it super-literally and starts trying to convert everyone, or Ellison is going to have to convince JH that a) you can pick and choose which parts of the Bible to believe, b) there are infinite ways to interpret the Bible, many of which are valid and c) JH should interpret it the same way Ellison does.

... "We'll see."

I think what's likely to happen is that John Henry, or a similar machine, is going to realize that any race which deems itself God's creation has a superiority complex. If humans are "God's children" but machines are not, if human life has value, but machines are disposable, then John Henry is apt to conclude that his existence is not, in the eyes of humankind, valued.

 

[ourchair]

FOX unveiled a new spot on TV that promotes their Friday science fiction block of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Dollhouse as a sort of Grindhouse feature.

[youtube]_y8K7u-7Kx0[/youtube]

It's kinda strange.

 

[Random]

FOX unveiled a new spot on TV that promotes their Friday science fiction block of Dollhouse and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles as a sort of Grindhouse feature.

[youtube]_y8K7u-7Kx0[/youtube]

It's kinda strange.

Post Whore







+1

 

[TwilightEL]

So I was thinking about Cameron turning Ellison onto his back. I think that represents a sympathy win but empathy fail. She's capable of understanding his distress and feeling that she should do something about it, but she doesn't understand what she should do. If she could think like a human, she'd understand that he might like to be moved to the couch or for her to call an ambulance. But at this point in time (as her conversations with the library guy demonstrated so well), she isn't capable of putting herself in a human's (or a turtle's) shoes. She's acting almost like a member of a cargo cult--trying to mimic the behavior of humans to get the result those actions got, but without understanding the chain of cause and effect.

 

[TwilightEL]

Weaver did the same thing that Cameron was doing--understanding that a human was in distress and something should be done, but completely unable to figure out what that action should be. Her attempts to comfort her "daughter", as awkward and fail-tastic as they were, seemed way more genuine--more like Cameron's worry for John than her previous "the fleshy ones are suspicious" comforting that led her to Dr. Sherman.

HAHAHAHAHA YES. Ever since Cameron's caloric calculations in the supermarket, I've wanted her to lecture John about his eating habits and it finally happened. Hee! I also like that those two are getting along better--he even thanked her for the chips instead of sneering disdainfully and making a *****y comment about her artificiality.

The shift from the revelation of the latest episode to the heavy psychology of the sleep episode was jarring. I liked it, though. I think it helped set the stage of Sarah's mental state for upcoming, more plot-heavy episodes.

I might be overanalyzing due to the upcoming movie, but this seriously reminded me a lot of Watchmen. The quick flashbacks in the sleep episode and the heavy self referencing phrasing and imagery were really reminiscent of Watchmen.

 

[ourchair]

I WILL REPLY TO ALL OF THIS... as soon as I catch up, I'm only up to "Today Is The Day, Part One."

Which was awesome.

 

[ourchair]

So I was thinking about Cameron turning Ellison onto his back. I think that represents a sympathy win but empathy fail. She's capable of understanding his distress and feeling that she should do something about it, but she doesn't understand what she should do. If she could think like a human, she'd understand that he might like to be moved to the couch or for her to call an ambulance. But at this point in time (as her conversations with the library guy demonstrated so well), she isn't capable of putting herself in a human's (or a turtle's) shoes. She's acting almost like a member of a cargo cult--trying to mimic the behavior of humans to get the result those actions got, but without understanding the chain of cause and effect.

Plus points for the cargo cult reference.

Also, I've finally caught up to everything up to the "Adam Raised A Cain." This series is great and has reached all levels of crazy awesomeness. I'm still struggling to put together the reasons why this hasn't reached the level of buzz as Fringe, but I think part of it has to do with how beholden people seem to be with the first two Terminator movies.

It's not entirely surprising, I mean people are more flexible with their attitudes towards Star Trek since the franchise has constantly had output for the better part of the late 20th century, and as such, not many people have their attachments set in stone. But with Terminator, the franchise saw output so infrequently that the movies have had time to sink in.

So everyone just wants the elegiac stuff --- a machine learned the value of human life, a soldier traveled across time to fall in love and mankind's self destruction is inevitable --- that they've learned to love about the films, rather than being interested in seeing any of the other ideas that this series is trying to put forward like the complexities of John's personal growth intertwines with the knowledge of his future self, or the idea that the machines aren't unanimous in the desire to exterminate humanity.

 

[ourchair]

[youtube]kzcTJVx2ibE[/youtube]

 

[Victor Von Doom]

Haha!! Urinal.

I've only got 2 more episodes left in Season 1....and despite having another season to the series---this image makes me wanna stop watching the show right now.......

I just saw season 2, episode 4, "Allison from Palmdale," which was terribly awesome. I think this series is really under-rated. There's a lot going on in the series, thematically, that I think it really extends the Terminator mythology in a very meaningful fashion.

My brain is so overloaded that I really don't have much brainy things to say about the whole series at the moment, so don't expect a Heroes' HRG and 24's Jack Bauer: A Binary Theory of Bad-*** or a Functional Deconstruction of Jericho just yet until I can process it all.

Also, who ever thought that Brian Austin Green would suddenly become an MVP on a sci fi TV show? He didn't do much in that episode, but he was definitely one of the coolest parts of the first season.

I love that everyone talks about Summer Glau. It took me forever to learn Cameron's name.

Summer Glau completely dominates this show. She doesn't just act like a robot, she acts like a robot acting like a human. All the Terminators are really well cast, actually. Cromartie (and now John Henry) is great, I wasn't sure about Garbage singer but she's rockin' as Weaver-1001, and most of the one-shot Terminators work well. I loved the crappy Terminator that was sent after the child psychologist, just because she was so visibly inferior. The hair! It's all about the hair! But none of the Terminators are as good as Summer Glau.

I want to see Summer Glau play someone peppy, well-adjusted and stupid. It would blow all our minds.

But then all this makes me wanna keep going.....

 

[Victor Von Doom]

Also, who ever thought that Brian Austin Green would suddenly become an MVP on a sci fi TV show?

I concur.

This is the biggest shocker of them all.



I now am racking my brain for other things I could dreamcast Brian Austin Green in.

I'm serious.