T:TSCC, Back & On
So, where was I?
Oh yes. If you haven’t watched any of the Terminator TV series, don’t read on yet…
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles may have the most lumpy and ill-advised title ever to spew forth the creative machine that is the US TV system, but it is (surprise, surprise) damn good. It started a few weeks ago on Virgin 1 and I have been concientiously using SKY+ to record it. Unfortunately, at 10pm on a Thursday I am usually driving home through Plymouth’s dark streets with only Robin Lustig and Radio 4’s The World Tonight team to keep me company.
Regular readers will know that the first Terminator film ranks only second to Jaws in terms of cinematic excellence as far as I am concerned. A simple film, made with a small budget at a time when I was busy failing my O Levels. I watched it first in the 6th form common room after a school dance, completely wasted and only able to concentrate for 5 minutes at a time. Several months later, it arrived in Wolseley house and I watched it all the way through for the first of many, many times.
In an almost Phantom-Menace like moment, the sequel arrived in 1991 and after huge anticipation before and momentary excitement during, it faded away. Apart from the advancement of the mythos and ground-breaking special fx, I didn’t like it much. All of those “thumbs-up-hasta-la-vista-fake-smile-boy-and-his-terminator-I-promise-not-to-kill-anyone” moments didn’t sit well with me at all.
Almost predictably, I quite liked the third one.
So the TV series arrives. It completely ignores the third film (at least I think so, I am still not quite sure) and continues the story of a 16 year old John Connor and his mother still running from Skynet. As tradition dictates, the future John Connor sends a terminator (Summer Glau) back in time to protect his mother and younger self. Skynet has also sent back at least one Arnie-type evil terminator to kill John Connor. By the end of the first episode, the heroes have leapt forward in time from 1999 to 2007. At the beginning of the second, we learn that Skynet has been sending people back in time as far as the 1960s and that John Connor has been sending resistance fighters back for many tasks, not just protecting his younger self.
So far, this sounds pretty predictable and if you were not a fan of the film series, you are probably not converted. To be honest, I can’t see anyone being truly converted by the TV series alone. Apart from the issue with the third film, it is incredibly faithful to canon and will confuse the hell out of anyone who has not seen the films. I see from online episode guides that future installments in this 9 episode first series wil feature Dr. Silverman and Kyle Reese. So far, there have been previous few “friendly-terminator-becoming-human” moments, indeed Summer Glau’s character is written as far closer to Arnie’s character from the first film than anything else. You are left to wonder how this tale can be stretched over 6 or 7 years worth of episodes though.
On the plus side, the actors are all great, the budget seems to be huge and as far as I can tell from the interweb, seems to have been given at least one more series.
Back.
I hurt my back. Again. At almost exactly the same time as last year, I was reminded that I am no longer the lithe and agile I being I have never been. I was just bending down to switch off the PC before work when a shiver of pain shot up my right side from foot to armpit and I was frozen. After a few moments, it calmed down to a dull ache that only manifests itself after long periods of sitting or lying in the same position. Just the right thing for me then…
Its 4 days later now and it is much better. I finally got a few hours sleep last night and felt all the better for it.
On.
In hot dietting news, I had a disastrous few weeks. The graph in the sidebar of this blog died a few weeks ago when I installed Vista (long story) so I am going to sort it out later (update: Done!). Anyway, back to Slimming World. I put on ½ pound then stayed the same, then lost ½ pound then last week put on 1½ pounds. Perhaps not a disaster but damn demotivating. I have been so good this week and after Hayley returned from her holiday in the States and had a slight gain we have both promised to stay under 6 sins a day. This is hard but I have managed it so far. Don’t ever underestimate the value of having someone you see all day doing the Slimming World thing with you.
My sister Jo continues her journey to slimdom. After 8 weeks, she is now ½ pound away from her 2 stone award and has now been Slimmer of the Week for 4 of the last 5 weeks.
The end. There is no more..
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