Animals are not Toys

Amidst the final crush of another holiday shopping season, pet shops are filled with kittens, puppies, and other animals. I was in Tunglowan in Hong Kong and passed a whole street of small pet shops, crammed with kittens,   puppies, some large dogs in cages unable to even stand up in, with inadequate access to water and proper hygiene.  The sad faces of puppies and kittens pressed listlessly or with the enthusiasm of lingering hope, against the metal wire, the desperate energy of puppies confined to a glass and metal fish tank size cage, was heartbreaking.

TC88 wrote to HKSPCA, HK Dog Rescue, Save HK’s cats and dogs . This kind of cruel, inhumane, and sad treatment of these animals needs to be stopped.  This situation is also feeding the problem of abandoned animals and adoption problems arising due to the traumatized history of these animals.  They may also be presenting health risks to humans given the disease breeding conditions they are kept in.

Here’s a gift to the animals:

- Write to your local animal protection societies and press them to take more aggressive action to investigate these shops, confiscate abused animals, and provide them the loving and responsible homes all animals deserve.

- Write to international animal protection groups such as Humane Society International--this problem exists in many parts of the world.

Don’t buy, Adopt! Support your local animal shelters, or pet stores that offer adoptions, like Petco that started an adoption program in 2004; its foundation also donates to support animal charities.

Support groups that are addressing the causes as well as rescuing, caring for animals, and helping them find good loving homes.

See my blogroll for links!

Support shopping sites that donate to animal rescues, such as The Animal Rescue Site store

LAST MINUTE HOLIDAY SHOPPING?

We have the choice to use the gift of our lives to make the world a better place. Jane Goodall

What can be more special?  Support the many organizations working to protect and save the other animals sharing our world. Some good shopping suggestions!  Send along your gift ideas too!

Support the  Jane Goodall Institute this holiday!  Give a Chimp Guardianship to support an orphan chimp.

You can also give a humane gift and support the critical work of Humane Society International. “HSI is creating a better future for animals and people through: providing disaster relief and hands-on care, fighting for new policies at all levels of government, inspiring and empowering animal advocates around the world, offering innovative solutions to complicated issues, and working with local communities to improve animal welfare.”

Donate to Animals Asia who are active in education and advocacy efforts on moon bear rescue and rehabilitation work.

Check out Defenders of Wild Life and its Wildlife Adoption Center and give a truly meaningful gift of survival and life –for that special friend or child in your life, instead of more unnecessary things that will be discarded like so many dead Christmas trees, why not adopt a penguin, beluga whale, polar bear, snow leopard, or any one of the magnificent animals on the Wildlife Adoption Center.

How should we relate to beings who look into mirrors and see themselves as individuals, who mourn companions and may die of grief, who have a consciousness of ‘self?’ Don’t they deserve to be treated with the same sort of consideration we accord to other highly sensitive beings: ourselves?

- Dr. Jane Goodall

Terminator: SCC really over?

Despite campaigns by Terminator: TSCC fans, and winning the E!Online save one show poll, with 53% of the votes in May 2009, Fox announced on May 18, 2009, that it was not renewing the show.   Like the smart, funny, and fun Firefly, living    though reruns, expanding its fan base, eventually, the producers came back with a smart, funny, and fun movie like–Serenity.

But now that Terminator Salvation (2009)– has come out, what to do now that we have Batman (Christian Bale) as John Conner in an alternate future universe?

Running from September 8, 2008 to April 10, 2009, Season 2 of Terminator: TSCC ended with an awesome finale– but one that boxed itself into a temporal mechanics mess:  Despite elder Spock (Spock Prime) (Leonard Nimoy) meeting young Spock (Zachary Quinto) in the new Startrek, it’s one of the dilemmas of time travel–can “you” or some version of you meet yourself in the past, present, or future?  (Frankly, watching Quinto, I couldn’t get young  Spock free of images of Sylar on Heroes, which created odd resonances of Spock’s struggling with his half human-half Vulcan self.)

With writing credit attributed to executive producer Josh Friedman, the TSCC Season finale was deeply immersed in the PAST–or more accurately — it was a deep dive –literally and narratively into memory. In a taut juxtaposition of multiple story lines cutting back, forward and across time–the future (or one future), the present (or one reality), and really complex–the future revisited as past memory in the present. Each narrative strand adds a layer of complexity and insight into the characters.

Jesse dives into a pool and she is “back” in her past — her memory from a future that they are trying to prevent. Deep under that future sea, we see Jesse as the XO, and her power struggle with Queeg, the ‘metal’ captain of the nuclear submarine USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23) with a secret mission known only to the reprogrammed  terminator captain. It’s clear: Jesse has the leadership capacity to make hard judgment calls amidst crisis.

Sarah Conner watches teenage John sleep and she is back watching over young John– the fire flickering across his face –sweet and peaceful in sleep.  And we see a deep mother’s love for the fragile son she is training in that dark forest for his future mission to save the world.

Biblical and mythic stories underlie the last finale-  Cain, Abel, “good” and “evil” sons, a powerful image of all the prison cell locks opening– Catherine Weaver suggests to John Henry pondering what he is–perhaps he is neither–perhaps he is God.

And yet–the apocalypse–Judgment Day--still looms–and the season ends in in a future that John Conner, Cameron’s  computer chip, Cathrine Weaver, and John Henry has time traveled into. John wrapped in what turns out to be Kyle Reese’s coat, meets face-to-face- with Derek (alive still), with a pre-Cameron-Alison-from-Palmdale — still carrying her human memories,  and in the closing scene-Kyle, his father, except that it’s a future where no one knows a John Conner.  Sarah Conner is left in the ruins of the present left behind, her voice over — saying I love you too.

So TSCC ends with allot of unanswered questions: Did Derek kill Jesse?  Whose side is Catherine Weaver really on and what is her motive in reverse engineering the terminators or trying to teach one human “ethics”?  Was she building something to fight Skynet? What? Why? She asks Cameron will you join us echoing the question another future John has posed to the shape-shifting T-1001 in Jesse’s submarine. Is John Henry John Conner’s cyborg brother of salvation for both the machines and the humans? Catherine Weaver says to Sarah: Your son may save the world but he can’t do it without mine.

But one more question remains: HOW was it possible that the network ends such a terrific series?!!Or perhaps the rumors that there might be a TSCC straight to video movie might be true?  While we wait–read Thomas Dekker’s interview while at the Toronto FanExpo in August 2009. Or watch his Youtube video thanking fans for their support and asking for another year of TSCC.

Bobo eating corn!

Watch Bobo, the maine coon critic for Talking Cat’s restaurant reviews–Food Notes — enjoy his favorite treat–corn on the cobb!

BSG The Final Episodes: Daybreak (Part 2)

FINALLY–the final episode…ok, Talkingcat DID thumbs down season 4 and most of the Final Episodes, but the FINAL episode was exciting and well..surprisingly moving too.  Although Daybreak (Part 1) set up the series finale as just a heroic final mission against impossible odds to rescue a child, Daybreak (Part 2) actually presented three “endings” — running the risk of not one but two, anti-climatic story lines. But the inter-cutting between the reconstructed pasts of the characters, and the present action, and the bringing together of the myth-invoking images and dreams from the whole series oddly works — for the most part.  For loyal fans, it was worth the journey.

SPOILER ALERT! Not a full recap but still..

First “ending”–  the rescue mission complete with much saber rattling, heroics, and battle plans –well sort of battle plans–I mean ramming the Galactica “full steam ahead” INTO the Cylon colony is a PLAN??!!! There is allot of weapons fire, ships getting blown up, the Galactica under heavy attack and everyone is thrown violently around by the  explosions (like Star Trek, still NO seat belts or any restraining safety devices on these starships of the future!),  the Centurions clanking along in that cool metallic catwalk–the good guys marked with a slash of red on their chests– shooting it out with bad Centurions (no red slashes); Helo is seriously injured and bleeding profusely, but urges Athena to go after Hera who has maddeningly gone wandering off amidst a fierce firefight between Cylons, Centurions, and humans–mostly so that the recurring dream/nightmare bathed-in-golden-light sequence with Roslyn, Athena, Caprica, Baltar, all chasing that running child –Hera–into the opera house can be overlaid and cut into the present amidst the ferocious fighting  (hmmm…still WHY an opera house?? why not a TEMPLE given all the religious mumbo-jumbo??)  Predictably,  Hera is rescued by Sharon — we saw that coming way back in the detailed domestic fantasy she created so lovingly and projected to Galen– or so we thought.  She was also paying a debt to Adama as she said way back — when it really matters. Athena shoots her anyway-- no gratitude, no forgiveness. But Baltar manages to redeems himself and Caprica falls back in love with him.

After a misunderstanding that the peace deal just brokered has gone bad (but actually was just Galen losing it when  too much truth about Cally’s death is revealed in the hybrid memory pool), Cavil curses what the frak, and puts a  gun to his mouth.  Having earned their freedom, the Centurions are freed to seek their own destiny, hopefully not to return seeking the destruction of the humans and Cylons in some distant future. Kara tearfully says good-bye and I love you to Anders, lying in his hybrid liquid tank and presses a dog tag into his submerged hand.  Wired into the Galactica’s bridge  and to the ships systems of the fleet, Anders pilots the battered Galactica and the rest of the rag-tag fleet of empty ships into the burning sun, to the thematic strains of the Original Battlestar Galactica series.  Nice touch. Silent except for his incoherent flood of words, we see Anders’ lips close-up and hear his last words whispered after Kara has gone–see you on the other side.

You expect the credits to come up, but wait, there still almost an hour to go! OK so where the frak did Kara jump the Galactica to after punching into the FTL drive–the numbers for the notes of the insistent tune she has been hearing and Hera was drawing ??? a blue planet with oceans, and lush green forests and grasslands…in another words..to what they will call EARTH. After the unrelenting nihilism, and visual, narrative, spirit darkness and claustrophic interior worlds of  the whole series, there is this odd huge breath of fresh air, a vertigious opening of the aperture suddenly to bright sunlight, blue skies, fields of waving green and golden grasses.

Then there is a Luddite moment when Lee persuades Adama and the survivors –human and Cylon–to give up everything–all the things, technology, weapons, ships, plans for rebuilding cities, and just take a few possessions, split up the food and supplies and head off in different groups to begin again–from the beginning without the baggage of the past. So each of the characters fans have loyally followed for 4 seasons and more, separately set off to find their futures—A bit disappointing that after all they endured together, that they all choose this separation of the ways to their mostly lonely final journeys.  Galen to someplace that sounds a bit like pre-druid Ireland; Admiral Adama takes his beloved Roslyn for a last sweeping view  of the vast beauty and rich life of Earth; Lee Adama a solitary figure in the lush landscape turns mid-sentence to find that his beloved Kara has vanished –literally–but her mission completed and at peace finally with what she was/is (an “angel”?  perhaps those new tattoos appearing on her buff exposed biceps after coming back from death were clues all along).

Across the vast grassy slopes that stretch to the horizons, straggly lines of humans and Cylons trailed by Tigh and Helen hand in hand; Baltar tearfully reassuring Caprica he knows “something about farming”  perhaps finally coming to peace with his farmboy past, and in the distance, the reunited family of a limping Helo (whew–he made it!) and Athena arguing about who was going to teach what (hunting, building a house) to Hera.  Adama talking to Roslyn about the beautiful view of their future little cabin on the bluff–with her grave, a mound of stones, silent behind him.

Now, you expect the credits to come up, but wait, it’s STILL not over.  150,000 years later…in a crowded city that looks suspiciously like New York City (er..remember New Caprica?) except that one of the BSG writers, Ron Moore, could not resist a walk-on cameo in front of the newstand.   Six and Angel/demon Baltar all cleaned up in smart suit, are debating–this has all happened before. Will the inhabitants of this planet learn or will they repeat out of fear, the diastrous destruction of the past?  Destiny, fate, or God’s plan? Angel/demon Baltar reminds Six he doesn’t like that name.  Hmmm…God as female prankster turning a cartwheel in Dogma oddly comes to mind.

Now, the credits SHOULD come up–but wait, there is a coda in the style of a Japanese toy commercial–of tiny robots hip-hop-like dancing and robotic androids projected on neon billboards. Oh nooooo. This is like drawing a snake and adding feet!

Despite that final don’t-know-when-to-stop misstep, was  it the greatest sci-fi show ever?  Post a comment!

For another review, see Richard Vine’s Guardian blog.

BSG:The Final Episodes –Daybreak (Part 1)

With only one episode left of the BSG saga,  Adama resolves to mount a mission to rescue Hera (daughter of the Cylon Sharon “Athena” Agathon, and human father Karl “Helo” Agathon) after getting the location of the Cylon colony   But this only after allot of narrative fillers—flashbacks to Caprica City right before the total destruction of Caprica, presumably to suggest that the cynical, hard, and embattled beings–human and Cylon– inhabiting the final chapter were not always cynical, hard, and embattled.  Once, Kara was happy  and in love, Roslyn had a family she cared about, Sam was all starry eyed about the perfection of creation even before he was turned on as a Cylon, and Number Six really understood more about the human condition than Baltar — right from the beginning of their relationship.

Except for some interesting recurring disjointed images–the blurred fluttering of the trapped pidgeon in Lee Adama’s house, the close-up of splashing water, most of the narrative flashbacks feels forced and feels inauthentic.  This also apparently not a good sci-fi season for poor pidgeons (see Cameron crushing one to death in Sarah Conner Chronicles).

Although the cannabalizing and dismantling of the Galactica has begun, with crew (the same crew that hates Cylons, “toasters,” machines) expressing sadness and love for the  “old girl”  of a battle star ship. But now it looks like the Galactica might go down in glory.  At the end of Daybreak (Part 1), the last shots of shuffling feet of Galactica’s crew, civilians, crossing the red line, as those volunteering amass on the Starboard side of the hanger bay for what will probably be a one way trip to rescue Hera — the special, unique, part human-part Cylon child, the key to the Cylon survival.  The closing of the religious circle — both the Cylons’ religious fundamentalism and Roslyn’s faith during the search for Earth –now converging on one child upon whom the future precariously hangs.

Hopefully, Daybreak, part 2 ( a two-hour finale  to air on March 20, 9/8c), will reward the loyalty of viewers who have stuck through all four seasons and the final episodes!

Battle Star Galactica: The Final Episodes (almost)

BSG, the powerful edgy space opera that grabbed viewers by the throat for almost three seasons started devolving disappointingly into well–simply--pedestrian soap opera. For a speed-racer 8 minute recap of Seasons 1-3 laced with funny tongue-in-cheek references, see What the Frak?

As viewers waited for the announced season five, (that turns out to be BSG-The Final Episodes) the 10-part webisodes, The Face of the Enemy, a claustrophic fever dream staring Grace Park (Number eight) and Alessandro Juliani (Felix Gaeta) was released. The mini-teasers kept viewers hooked and set the stage for Gaeta and Tom Zarek’s failed mutiny and attempt to execute Adama and exposed some back-story of Gaeta’s collaborationist role during the occupation of New Caprica.

The Final Episodes: There still is the gritty emotional and visual world presented through conscious –and obvious–choices that maintains the style and “look” that the series introduced: Close-ups of faces, generally harsh lighting exposing every line and swollen exhausted bloodshot eyes, Number Six wrapped in her signature skin-tight red/now black jumpsuit/low-cut white dress , and a directorial preference for intense in your face or suppressed emotions,  the dark grays and greens of the sets echoing the colonial uniforms.  But the somewhat cheesy neony light show that’s supposed to be the world of the cylon base ship mars the otherwise textured layered darkness of this world.

The story line and dialogue, not to mention credibility of the legal or political aspects, needs some serious help: The “trials” were not even convincing as kangeroo trials, they were ridiculous — as in just ridiculous. The “rules” invoked by the government council during their yelling around the little Mickey-Mouse conference table, and Lee Adama’s pathetic powerless speeches there — who writes this stuff??!!  And for all the political and moral angst of the series, has anyone noticed — aside from the shocked one eye surprise of Colonel Tigh when Roslyn parades around smugly wrapped in a bathrobe in Adama’s quarters–that the President is sleeping with the Commander-in-chief? Madame President, is all Tigh manages to stammer. What happened to the principled separation of military and civilian power now that they are literally in bed together??!!

In any case, the final fifth cylon is revealed– finally(!) — and turns out to be Helen Tigh, the alcoholic,  lusty wife of  Colonel Tigh– who vacillates between mother-creator of the other cylons and jealous out-of-control-wife of 2,ooo years returned from the dead with a vengeance.  Of course!  They left that clue when Helen mysteriously reappears after the total destruction of Caprica and Gaius Baltar, supposedly testing humans to see if they were Cylon, erases the results of her test…hmmm we thought, but the series moved on.  Or maybe they should have used the Cylon detector, using just an ipod touch or iphone listed on the sci-fi website!

On what’s left of of a devasted Earth and the discovery that the 13th colony was CYLON, Kara discovers her own crashed plane–and her decomposed body –and rips the dog tag from it/her.  She struggles for the next few episodes with Sam’s coma and trying to figure out who or what she is. Perhaps neither cylon or human, she is something else-once referred to as the harbinger of death, but for all practical purposes,  she acts just like an angry, bitter, and cynical human. Not a pretty picture. Until Gaius discloses at a funeral service for cylons and humans, Kara may be living proof there is life after death–as someone who has “crossed over” beyond death and returned–Kara may be both cylons and humans future– that there is something beyond this life–and without a resurrection ship.  Yikes!  Rewind that last supper tableau of the BSG cast!

So with only two episodes to go: Roslyn is dying–again. Sam comes out of his coma when plugged in but is spewing gibberish — like the hybrid.  Kara places a photo of herself–or the old Kara on the wall of those who died and appears to be coming to terms and peace with who or what she may be now.  Hera has been kidnapped by Boomer and delivered to an uncertain fate at the cylon colony, but predictably has developed some feelings for the child. Adama painfully accepts that Galactica, the “old girl,” is dying, her very guts, her “soul” fading as the layers of cylon biomatter spread, and decides to order everyone to abandon the ship. Will the captain go down with it?

The writers appear to have run out of steam–and imagination.

At the end of the last BSG season, Talkingcat asked can BSG deliver the future we need and not the future we fear? Flashback to the Cold War in the 50′s when aliens projected in sci-fi movies were all intent on planetary or cosmic domination and the destruction of the human race. Certainly in post- ET, post-Kubrick’s 2001, post Star-Trek first generation when space was just another final frontier to explore (but Captain Kirk still manages to find a “colony” that reveres the American flag far out in space not to mention nubile women of all species to get romantically involved with)– certainly, BSG can do better than ending with the destruction of the Galactica, and cylons and humans playing out all the deadly prejudices that will ensure the mutual destruction of both species.  Is the only other life forms we can imagine just limited, bickering, jealous, fearful, destructive beings that er..well  in the end seem just human–and human at our worst.

It’s time to call in someone like Octavia E. Butler–now that’s someone who could powerfully re-imagine an established  mythology, as she did in Fledgling-re-envisioning the vampire’s survival dilemma–the impossibility of living without feeding on death–into a story about interdependence and love–and the survival of both vampires and humans.  So say we all.

Terminator: Sarah Conner Chronicles Season 2 back on track:)

With episode 17, Ourselves Alone, TSCC season 2, is getting back on track,  someone must have told the writers to get back to juggling more effectively the multiple story lines and human/cyborg relationships that made season 1 so interesting and complex.  See the spoiler trailer of the last 6 episodes of season 2 released at Wondercom.

The first three episodes of Season 2 resumed (episodes 14,15, and 16: The Good Wound; Desert Cantos; and Some Must watch while Some must Sleep), dragged the series down the rabbit hole of Crazy Sarah’sincreasingly intense isolation and slipping grip on reality.  Sarah, John, Reese, and Cameron– all trapped in their own isolated struggles– frustrated, disconnected to each other and to anyone else, except for John’s unfathomable attraction to and relationship with Riley. The show was  in danger of being overrun by too many characters pulling  in too many underdeveloped narrative arcs.   Riley slits her wrists and survives but is thankfully absent from episode 15.  Jessee, an intense,slightly pyscho, tough, and sexy addition earlier in season 2, added some human back story layers to  the show’s resistance fighter hottie — Derek Reese, but  her own back story lurks suspiciously unexplained; Cameron is given very little to do but stare and deliver cryptic or bluntly obvious short lines before retreating back inside her cyborg self. Ellison is beginning to look bored by the ludicrous assignment of talking ethics into John Henry, the child-like —and dangerous –cyborg in the resurrected body of Cromartie. Cyborg Catherine Weaver tries to assume an awkward maternal role with the young daughter of the human Catherine Weaver and is told “your lap is cold.”

So after the Terminator hell version of am I a butterfly dreaming I am human or a human dreaming I am a butterfly of Some Must Watch (episode 16), Ourselves Alone (episode 17) comes crashing back–right on target!  Perhaps it was all a fan loyalty test.  Quick–sign onto the Sarah Conner Society! Crazy Sarah is gone and Badass Sarah is back.  See “The Idiot’s Guide to Sarah’s Transformation“ for funny tongue-in-cheek unpacking of Sarah’s trajectory from waitress/mom/badass protector of her son –future savior of mankind — back to just badass Sarah Conner ready to resume the battle to track and destroy SkyNet.

Multiple narrative strands exploring choice, emotional connection, trust, and what it is to be human get picked up again: Cameron starts to go “bad” again and lose control of her actions, beginning with her unintentional killing of the poor pidgeon she tries to release. There are exchanges with John about future John and her relationship with him, there is a brief wonderful image of her hand closing on John’s hand, while her arm rests — cut open exposed down to the exoskeleton– as John’ works on repairing her. She later gives John a “present” — the ability to terminate her when the time comes.  Will he have to?  can he bring himself do it?  Jessee states she’s not here to destroy the future, but to win the battle…so whose side is she on?  and what are the sides?  In the intense life and death struggle between her and Riley, Riley is shot, and last image we see of her is her lying there eyes open, not moving.   Is she dead?

Meanwhile, what are Catherine Weaver, Ellison, and Cromartie/John Henry up to??  Episode 18– Friday, March 13! In the meantime, catch up on the actors TV Guide interviews with Matt Mitovitch! and get interesting tidbits like why Richard T. Jones is so believable as a man of faith (he’s a real life minister!);how Garrett Dilahunt wasn’t sure about the survival of his character; and that Shirley Manson never acted before!

El Mektoub in Geneva

rue Chaponnière 5 1201 Genève, Switzerland  +41 22 738 70 31   www.elmektoub.com

Nestled discretely on one of the side streets off the Rue du Mont Blanc across from the train station, El Mektoub ,   offers delicious North African cooking in a warm ambience.  Excellent couscous and a wealth of tajines are Fr.30–35, with a handful of veggie options too. Closed Sun.  Although listed as an inexpensive and mid-range restaurant by Swiss tourist sites,  TC would rate it in the higher end of mid-range restaurants though everything is so expensive in Geneva.

TC’s recommendations: the bricka avec thon ( a cripsy thin shell wrapped around egg and tuna inside); couscous végetarien (26 Fr.); badenjal aasida (puree of eggplant with garlic and olive dressing) served with hot triangles of fresh pita bread (10 Fr.); salade variée (chopped marinated cucumbers and tomatoes) (10 Fr.); bourek aux crevettes (maghrébien spring roll with shrimps) (14 Fr.); and finish with thé à la menthe (MINT TEA) (fragrant, hot, sweet!) (5 Fr.)and for dessert– patisserie maghrébien (plate of assorted little squares of nuts, honey, and sugar) (10Fr.).

The owner has a very friendly and cute terrier that once visited with me during the whole dinner.  On another trip, I did not see the little dog and was told he was vacationing in the Mediterranean and would come back to Geneva later in the year.  On this trip, there was a beautiful labrador patiently lounging under the table at the feet of his person.

Talkingcat gives El Mektoub— Three Paws!

delicious food, friendly service and comfortable ambiance!

The dogs are wonderful, but El Mektoub needs a cat in residence-like The Algonquin in New York.  The current feline in charge at the Algonguin is Matilda, a ragdoll cat (females are named Matilda, males are named Hamlet).

Terminator: Sarah Conner Chronicles Season one and two

Season one reruns completed, and now season two resumed.  See Official Fox (urgh) SCC wiki for updates.  In this media space between sci-fi futures, the world outside the TV screen is collapsing into global crisis.

The last episodes of SCC season one were terrific–The Demon Hand and Season Finale What he Beheld with the massacre of Agent Ellison’s SWAT team — viewed from beneath the water’s surface as each body crashes to death, bloody clouds blossoming to the rocking tune of  Johnny Cash — “When the Man Comes Around” – Voices callin’, voices cryin’/Some are born an’ some are dyin’/It’s Alpha and Omega’s kingdom come. The visual and aural dissonance working in perfect irony.  Later, much later in season two, Ellison still lost but not abandoning the search says to Sarah, “I just want to know my role.”   She responds with perhaps a tinge of sympathy, “this is it–I’m sorry for what you lost, but I can’t help you get it back.”

The voices of SCC season one — the biblical resonances, Lena Headey’s distinctive gravelly voice of authority narrating beginnings and ends of episodes, invoking a range of literary resonances.  She is still the tough Spartan Queen Gorgo from 300 — facing the inevitable final battle and prepared for the inevitable costs.  Agent Ellison’s intoning– And I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder. And I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, “come and see”. And I looked and behold, a pale horse. And his name that sat on him was death. And hell followed with him…The Book of Revelation. Sarah Connor [Monologue]: In Lord of the Flies, a group of boys slaughter a pig in the jungle. They torture it and place its head on a sharpened stake as an offering to the beast that hovers, god-like, over the island. Black blood drips down the pig’s teeth. And the boys run away.

Season one finale: What he beheld --SPOILER ALERT – stop reading if you have not yet hooked into SCC or STILL have not caught up on season one or two!!!   Cliffhanger ending: Season one with its end of days vision and probing exploration of violence, what is human, and the costs of violence, ends with the T-888 Kester walking away from Agent Ellison, eyes closed prepared to die; Cameron leaving John and Sarah to get John’s  birthday cake, and as she climbs into the car,  she notices Sarkissian walking away in the rear view mirror–and then the car’s fiery explosion.

Although the NYT (September 2008), described SCC as “one of the most resplendently grim hours on television,”  and it was unrelentingly grim–with a few grab you by the throat episodes, Season two up to episode 13 broadcast in December 2008, was generally a big disappointment and seemed to veer offtrack.  Beginning with the male movie soundbox voice narration delivering the tagline for each character in a kind of post-apocalypse mod-squad line-up –Sarah Conner, teacher and protector–huh? what happened to Sarah Conner narrating her own story?? After all, it is the Sarah Conner Chronicles..OK… she does come back back later in season but that opening is off in tone, style, and presentation.

In the interval since season one’s explosive ending, it also appears that the IQs of some of the key characters has taken a nose-dive.  Season two introduces Catherine Weaver (Shirley Manson), the head of Zeira, a high-tech firm working on a secret project–not too subtlely named BABYLON– from her first appearance on screen, with her chalky white android face and artificial flaming red hair pulled back tightly–and severe futuristic couture…er…why can’t Agent Ellison –now former agent — sense something cyborg-like, smell that something is amiss here??? In any case, Shirley Manson, with her clipped Scottish accent exuding a kind of slowly circling in shark-like danger is pretty cool. In her off-screen life–she is the lead singer of the rock band Garbage; she also sings the Blind Willie Johnson song heard in the opening scene of “Samson and Delilah,” the first episode of SCC two.

Riley (Levin Rambin), the “teenager” who appears at John Conner’s high school and makes a targeted campaign to insinuate herself into his life.  She is also miscast; despite actually being a teenager, she looks much older than John, and physically seems to overpower his slim frame next to her.   In Season two episode 13, Earthlings Welcomed here, the female “blogger” that Sarah meets at the UFO Convention, is clearly neither a woman nor a blogger. Who would NOT know these “people” were not who they present themselves to be?

Well, Cameron (Summer Glau) suspects Riley and recognizes she’s a security risk– hence the tension between Riley and herself which is more than jealousy or vying for John’s attention.  We do learn more about Cameron in season two,  and she remains one of my favorite characters–a cyborg, built upon the memories of a human resistance fighter, a cyborg, who in a terrific tense scene desperately appeals to John to not destroy her, who urgently pleads I love you, you love me, erasing any certainty we might have about the line between human and machine.  In 2008, Summer Glau received the Best Supporting Television Actress award at the 34th Saturn Awards and was nominated for the Spike TV Scream Awards in the category Best Actress in a Science Fiction Movie or TV Show, both for for her performance as Cameron.  

In season one, we see John Conner (Thomas Dekker)  the teenager becoming the future resistance leader; in season two, we see the future leader becoming more and more a petulant teenager, taking risks, and endangering the save the future mission with dumb actions, like taking an impromptu trip with Riley to Mexico, where he would of course be recognized. Suspense needs the viewers to be at the edge holding our breath as we wait for the story to unfold; but instead, it was frustrating to be subjected to the endless cluelessness and incredibly stupid choices and actions–which may advance the story but loss the viewers’ support.

SCC two also lost the key foundation of the Terminator story–we need to care about the survival of the human species.  At the end of season one, Sarah reminds John it is important to celebrate his birthday, that is, the importance of taking time for these human markers of our existence.  SPOILER ALERT But at the end of episode 13, not only is Sarah shot and  injured at the end of her nightmarish search for the meaning of the three dots initially written in blood on the walls of the house, but she appears to have also lost her way, her cold-blooded reactions to the shootings and deaths, makes us wonder, is this the humanity we need to save?