TSCC - Reasons to be Grateful...
May. 26th, 2009 08:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cj2017It’s been just over a week now since our very own Judgement Day brought forth our very own televisual apocalypse. The little show that defied the odds and fought on for as long as it possibly could finally succumbed to Fox’s still inexplicable whims (fucking Dollhouse, seriously?!). The tears are drying, the dust is settling, the Resistance plans are being drawn up, and the fic is being scribbled… We’re all still very pissed off at Fox, but I thought I’d look on the bright side and remember exactly why this show grabbed me, shook me about, threw me headfirst into a fandom and kept me deep in adoration until its untimely and deplorably handled demise… YMMV, so feel free to add…
Sarah…
It took an awful lot of guts to bring back a much-loved movie legend, recast her and give her a whole new lease of life (quite literally, seeing as she was dead in T3.) But one thing Team TSCC certainly did have was guts, and they managed quite effortlessly to give us 31 episodes of a beautifully written Sarah Connor. They took the icon and made her a fully rounded character, complete with flaws, strengths, weaknesses, doubts, fears, hopes and more bloody-minded determination than you could shake a stick at. They beat her up, shot her, throttled her, had her chew a hole in her own wrist and pop her own thumb out, had her son treat her like shit, made her lose weight, made her lose everyone she could call an ally, eventually made her lose her son and still left her unbowed and fighting on. “I’ll stop it.” And you really believe that she will too.
Lena…
For taking on an impossible role amidst a whole shit-storm of derision, and making it her own. Thanks to a girl-crush that seemingly knows no bounds, I would happily watch this actress read from a telephone directory (and would probably prefer to do just that than sit through The Cave or The Contractor again…) but it’s probably just as well that she’s made a few decent movies to sit alongside TSCC on her CV. Anyone doubting just how bloody fabulous Lena is as Sarah, go and watch her interview on Brunch with Bridget (http://www.afterellen.com/taxonomy/term/3016, scroll down to episode 59) then rewatch The Good Wound… Yes, they really are the same woman. I rest my case.
“You meet any pretty girls?”
At which point, Caroline falls utterly in love with Sarah Connor all over again, and doesn’t stop grinning for a month.
Uncle Derek/Brian Austin Green…
Yeah, yeah, the squeaky one from 90210. My eyebrows rose so high when that particular piece of casting was announced that they kinda disappeared into my hairline, but I was happily and completely wrong. Uncle Derek was everything an uncle from the future should be: sneaky, unpredictable, trigger-happy, dangerous, a surrogate father to John when necessary, and – especially when smouldering up the screen with Sarah – sexy as hell.
Derek’s death…
“WhatTheFuck?!” Followed by the sound of my jaw hitting the floor. I then spent the next ten minutes missing everything that happened in the episode as I waited for Derek to get up and continue to live. Because this was TV, and much-loved characters who are an asset to the show don’t just die in a random, out-of-the-blue shooting that the rest of the characters barely even have a chance to acknowledge. But he stayed dead.
“I call 9-millimeter”
Cameron may have been all about the deception, the seduction, the arbitrary killing and the hiding of endo body parts, but she had a wicked way with one-liners, and – for a cyborg – an incredible sense of deadpan comic timing. And thank you TSCC for keeping the Jameronian squick largely side-lined for the duration, until that last-gasp, last-ditch effort to get us all a third season. It didn’t work, so it’s a shame that my eyes had to witness that motel scene, but still, if you’d gone along with the demands of the Wiki, it could’ve been so very much worse.
Ballet-dancing cyborgs…
Because it was beautiful and eerie and, put into context with the voice-over, quite scary. And because you’d never be asked to consider an image like that on American Idol’s Got Talent Dancing With the Celebrity Dumbfucks on Ice, or whatever shit the viewing masses are tuning into these days.
“I might have oversold that a little…” Season one Sarah and John…
For the sake of creating a rift, the relationship between the two Connors was sacrificed in season two, and we were all worse off as a result. Season one scattered lovely breadcrumbs of mother-son bonding throughout, creating a real sense that these two had been to hell and back together and come out okay on the other side. After Sarkissian, things were never the same, and season two lacked consistency in the writing of their relationship – hugs and tears one minute and snarking the next. So thank goodness for the little glimpses of light a la the end of Mr Ferguson and…
Bug slug…
The perfect way to entertain myself and my ambo mate during a 12 hour shift. I can unequivocally state that playing said game whilst driving on blues is a) a lot of fun b) ever so slightly dangerous… In the show, it was just a lovely, unexpected scene where Sarah got to smile, John got to act like a dork, then smile, and everyone was happy just for a few minutes before normal service was resumed for the Connors and it all went to shit.
“Half an hour. One bag, plus the guns. I’ll make pancakes…”
To all intents, Sarah’s a crappy mom. She incinerates the roast, gets pizza day wrong, doesn’t cut the crusts off sandwiches, fills her son’s head with paranoid maxims, and doesn’t even think to add vanilla to her pancakes. She does, however, throw herself in front of bullets on a daily basis, look awesome in a tank top, perform gratuitous pull-ups (in a tank top!), and rock with all shapes and sizes of weaponry. So I’m gonna cut her some slack…
On a side note, TSCC has inspired more impromptu frying up of pancake batches in our little household than can possibly be good for my waistline… and I’m not complaining at all.
Domestic bliss…
TSCC was all about the details. About taking our everyday norms and subverting them to depict life with the Connors and their looming apocalypse. Kevlar in the chair, C-4 under the towels, a shotgun in lieu of an umbrella, first dates leading to conversations about murdering said date, an uncle bleeding to death on the kitchen table… They never made a big, clever point out of it, you either noticed or you didn’t. This was just the way life rolled for the Connors, and you believed that, utterly.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles…
It was and still is a crappy title. But, after Lena revealed in an interview that they took the piss out of it on set and pronounced it with a terrible lisp, in our household it was never less than amusing. Every single episode, every single week, without fail and in perfect synch: “pweeviouthly on Therminator: The Tharah Connor Cwonikelth…”
The Good Wound/Some Must Watch
I know we all hate Fox. I do too. Passionately, fervently and occasionally, quite creatively. But without Fox taking a leap of faith and signing up for the S2 back nine, my two favourite episodes wouldn’t exist. And oh how I love these two episodes. I’ve watched them countless times since they aired, and I’m still finding new things to love about them even now. I can’t help it. I can’t even really explain it (although this is a really good place to start for Some Must Watch… http://roxybisquaint.livejournal.com/54214.html) I’m a lost cause. They even made me write fic, and I love them for that too.
Pay Attention at the Back!
One of the most painful things about TSCC’s premature demise was the very real sense that Friedman and his gang actually did have a long-term plan. While some fans stomped their tiny feet and whined that things weren’t happening fast enough, or obviously enough, Friedman and Co laid out their clues, took their time and duly rewarded everyone who stuck around for the duration. Maybe it’s a blessing that – unlike The X-Files, Alias or Battlestar Galactica to name but a few – TSCC never had the chance to disappear up the arse of its own Mythology… But – even though I really didn’t like the way the finale panned out – it never actually looked like that was going to happen.
Fans, Fandom, and Fan Fic, Oh my!
A final thank you, round of applause and small bouquet of roses to TSCC for putting me back in touch with my latent geek. It’s a side of me that had been dormant for some time; always there lurking in the background but never really getting interested enough in anything to want to get online and get involved. Well, eventually all geeks fall hard and fall absolutely and I did instantly with TSCC. Look beyond the official Blog and the Wiki, and TSCC has a bright, funny and diverse bunch of fans who I very much hope will stick around, continue to play out with these characters in fic, and fight for the chance to see them on the small screen once again. It’s been and continues to be, an absolute blast.
No fate…
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-27 04:38 am (UTC)Not that I mind them off... but integrity is sexy too. XD
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-28 10:52 am (UTC)OMG, yes. A million times yes. I haven't even seen Dollhouse (it airs on a subscription channel only over here) and it annoys me. Every time Fox ran that ad of Eliza lounging with no clothes on over an episode of TSCC, it annoyed me. The fact that they renewed that and sacrificed a show that they didn't have a fucking clue how to advertise precisely because it wasn't about some skin-flick chick getting naked, really fucking annoys me... *takes deep breath* *here endeth the rant*.
*LOL.* I can't believe I'd never seen Imagine Me and You before I watched TSCC. I'd never actually seen her in anything but how IMAY slipped through the net *hands in Lesbian Membership card*... I'm so ashamed! BTW, if you've not seen her in Band of Gold, some kind soul is currently posting most of her scenes on youtube at the moment. She has some killer lines and um... let's say outfits in that!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-27 06:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-28 10:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-28 10:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2009-05-29 04:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-30 12:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-30 05:41 pm (UTC)Indeed.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-14 12:04 am (UTC)Derek's death made me feel cheated too, big time. I didn't know him prior to TSCC, but his moment with John, watching himself and Kyle play ball, his command and mentoring at Presidio Alto. That was a guy I'd trust *my* life to, and there aren't many.
Cameron was a predator, masquerading as teenaged hottie. She was trying so hard to learn to be a better infiltrator, and her mistakes made her comical. When she got better at it, she started being scary. I found her dangerously attractive, after the model of Madonna or Angelina Jolie. The squick didn't hit me until the knife scene.
Bug Slug - the woman brought this from the Midwest. A Bale quote comes to mind.
"One bag, plus the guns, etc." Sarah sweats awesomeness. John can read and follow directions... he should cook, or better yet Cameron, with her built-in oven timer. Her shortcomings only endear her to us: cooking, driving, shooting with her eyes closed.
In the final analysis, these episodes were some of the best Science Fiction drama ever made. It would be so great if Josh Friedman eventually shares his grand arc, and folks like you are motivated to flesh it out. While it's entertaining to go back and watch again the places that we've been, the real reward is figuring out where we might be going.