First things first:
Ratings.
Seriously people, if you’re a fan of the show but aren’t making time to watch it every week, please do find a way to remedy that. It astounds me that one of the best science fiction dramas on current network television still has ratings problems. What with all the praise the show received upon its premiere all the way up ’till now, it just doesn’t deserve to suffer like this.
Now, I’m mostly referring to today’s overnight ratings of last night’s episode, which is minorly flawed due to several blackouts, which include that of Houston, TX, one of the biggest markets in the country. But still, they could be better. And if I wanted to nitpick, I suppose I could also blame several satellite up-links that were unable to broadcast and — even pickier — the Stock Market dropping 500 points yesterday could have may well sent many people out to a bar for the night.
I’d continue on but this blog is mostly to discuss how things are for the show in terms of quality so far this season — that and anything else I would have said regarding ratings would have mostly been speculation.
So, we’re now two episodes in this season (Episode 2.1, “Samson and Delilah,” having aired last week and last night’s episode, 2.2, “Automatic for the People”) and things seem to be running smoothly — or at least as smoothly as things can go with these characters. Last week Cameron went haywire, John became a man (well, not in that way), Sarah was forced to kill a man in the presence of John (at least that’s the way I took the scene — there’s been some debate), Derek spent the majority of the episode searching for the Connors while Sarah’s ex, Charlie, and Agent Ellison both suffered from guilt issues. Oh, and Catherine Weaver (new cast member played by Shirley Manson) was discovered to be a T-1000 (or at least some form of that model).
A lot happened.
This week, however, saw less action and more character drama — something I can’t praise this show enough for. To me, this show is about relationships (well, I guess all shows are), and the effects that the character’s actions have on the story and their surrounding characters. Last week John made a choice not to destroy Cameron, and now this week everyone is having trouble trusting John’s actions, including Cameron herself, but last night John made it very clear that he is done explaining himself and doesn’t have to prove anything to anyone (his words, more or less).
Now I wasn’t sure about how well Ms. Manson was going to perform in her debut but I suppose she’s doing well enough. So far all her character really has had to do is deliver a little exposition and a couple of cheesy, terminator-esque one-liners so I’ll be interested to see how she develops. I’m actually more interested to see how Agent Ellison’s story pans out — viewers will note that not only did bad-guy-robot Cromartie spare his life during the infamous pool scene, but he also decided not to kill him again when the two met again at the end of last week’s episode.
So, so far so good for this season, IMO. John and Sarah’s dynamic is taking an interesting turn and now Cameron seems to have an intriguing new… flaw? She now seems more… emotional? about things that happen around her, not to mention that at one point in last night’s episode, when asked by Sarah about a current situation, Cameron replies, “I’m thinking about what to do.”
The way I interpret that is that due to last week’s malfunction, Cameron’s CPU isn’t processing normally — maybe even perhaps slower, causing…. I haven’t a clue (and I’d rather be surprised anyway). I will say this, though, Summer Glau definitely seems to get even sexier as each new episode airs (sorry, fan rant).
I do hope that Fox doesn’t decide to give this the boot, that it’ll be smart enough not to cancel such a great show with great characters that are ripe for years worth of developing. Seriously, it’s that good.
Watch it.