Terminator Season Finale

Well, this evening was the season finale for Terminator: The River is Crazy Freaking Hot Chronicles. I'm kind of surprised that Fox hasn't officially renewed it for another season yet. I don't know what it's numbers were, but I know they started out very high. Of course, I doubt they finished nearly that high, but I'm sure they were still quite strong. On the other hand, I bet it's a fair bit more expensive than that Moment of Truth show they have, which I think did significantly better numbers, so it's hard to judge. In any case, I would feel better if they would renew it. I think.

So, what are my thoughts on the series so far? I'm really enjoying it. I think it's starting to really find its stride. The addition of Derek "Asshat" Reese has been a lot better for the show than I had initially thought. I like that Sarah has another character to distrust and I also like Derek's flashbacks.

I don't like the color scheme in his flashbacks, though. I mean, seriously, James Cameron pretty clearly established that, in the future, everything is blue. So, why is it that in this version of the future, everything is brown? I mean, Derek was kept in a wood prison. Can you believe that? It's controlled by Skynet and it's made of wood! Why wasn't it cement and metal? I don't know. It doesn't make sense and it doesn't fit with the vision of James Cameron, either. In fact, the only part of the future that gets the blue filter is deep within John Connor's compound. In all fairness, this could be some sort of weird statement about the humans becoming more machine-like (what with reprogramming terminators for their service and all) while Skynet gets the browns to emphasize their focus on creating increasingly human-like terminators.

So, I guess, if I were really generous, I could assume that someone made the clear decision that they wanted to drop James Cameron's vision of the future in exchange for trying to make some stupid statement that already gets made so often it makes you want to puke in Battlestar Galactica. Or I could just conclude that some of the people involved in this show are purposely going out of their way to piss on James Cameron's vision.

I'm sorry, by the way. The above complaint was totally stupid and irrelevent to anyone who has even the barest semblance of self-respect, I'm sure. Obviously, I have no such thing, so this type of evil decision saddens me greatly, when I'm sure most people don't notice or care. But, it sure would be nice if the people who are getting paid to do this shit would care about the little things as much as I do. Anyways, moving on...That's right, I was talking about how I like the show.

I have to admit, though, the two episodes before this finale had me really worried. It really felt like the show was moving away from trying to get River and John to, um, experiment together. River was doing all these vaguely questionable things and totally not spending time making John feel uncomfortable, yet curious at the same time. Plus, there was this whole side plot with Agent Ellison finally starting to realize that maybe there really are dangerous robots out to get Sarah Connor, which was totally taking time away from River and John, not to mention that whole thing with developing Asshat Reese's character as fast as possible (I would hate him if he didn't provide Sarah with a distraction from River).

But, thankfully, the writer's knew that they had a carrot and they needed to put it back in front of me if they wanted me to tune in next season. And, oh man, did they ever put that carrot back. That first hour of the finale was just awesome. Here's the most important thing we learned: Terminators can totally do it. I mean, that terminator they killed was married! And, while we don't actually see him getting any, we do get to see him seducing her (his wife, while they're married, in case this is unclear). As a bonus, River is basically taking notes during this sequence. That's right: taking notes, filing the strategy in her dirty little mind for future reference. Oh, and chatting with John about it (if that doesn't make him uncomfortable, yet curious at the same time, I don't know what would). I like that John even called her on it (John, why does she say those things, indeed? I think you know).

Then, just to help John get more curious, he gets to cut her open and deactivate her. Now, personally, at this point I would have totally connected her to the computer and found all her old memories with future John Connor, just for kicks, but John didn't do that. I imagine the producers weren't ready to try to pick a thirty-year-old version of John Connor (it would be totally crazy if it was Edward Furlong, though...okay, obviously that would be totally stupid, but Nick Stahl would be cool). I also imagine that this wouldn't work very well because I bet future John Connor is smart enough to protect most of that stuff before sending her back anyways. But, it's still worth trying. You know, just in case?

Anyways, with River deactivated, John totally notices that she's rather cute (or outrageously hot, take your pick) when she's sleeping (so much for terminators never sleep). This made me happy, by the way. Especially when she woke up while he was still hunched over her, checking her out.

So, yeah, things are going well as far as I'm concerned. I'm a little nervous about that whole car exploding thing, but if the producers know what's good for them, they'll have River looking like the third hottest girl on the planet by at least midway through the second episode of next season. Also, John just had to be nice and have River agree to go to the prom with his friend (but, let's be honest here, it's not like John could take his "sister", so it's just as well).

In summary, the show finished very strong. I'm happy for that. This is probably because Sarah didn't have to play much of a role (John got to be the main character and man is the show better when it's focused on him). Of course, we could have done without Sarah lecturing us on Lord of the Flies, but, well, what can you do?

That is all.

Francis

PS - Did I mention that it was totally awesome to listen to Johnny Cash while the terminator took out, like, a dozen FBI agents? Yeah, that was pretty awesome.
PPS - I guess I'm going to have to start watching this New Amsterdam show that starts tomorrow, in the hopes that the main character is like House, only he lives forever (which I would consider to be a good reason to be an ass and hate humanity). It could have potential...maybe? Yeah, I doubt it, but you never know.