Drinker's Extra Shots - Terminator Zero

You know, up until recently I considered the Terminator franchise to be as dead as Brie Larson's movie career. Apart from Salvation, which was a bold but flawed attempt to expand the series into new territory, the Terminator has been stuck recycling the same tired formula with the same characters since 1991, with increasingly disastrous and hilarious results. I'm reliable, I'm a very good listener, and I'm extremely funny. Oh come on! Well, that is until Terminator Zero strode into the bar in the middle of the night, butt naked and demanding your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle. I've got to admit, the concept of an anime Terminator series made with distinctly Japanese sensibilities with none of the franchise's iconic characters or even Arnold's T-800 making an appearance doesn't exactly sound like a winner, and I'd be lying if I said I went into it with high expectations, but damn man, this show really turned things around for me. Combine in strong character work, excellent voice acting and gorgeous animation with a creative new storyline that finally moves the Terminator franchise outside of LA, Terminator Zero is one of those surprise hits that proves it actually can be done. The Terminator series can be more than just a tired retread of previous ground, wheeling out increasingly old and saggy looking actors for pure nostalgia value, and it can open up exciting possibilities for new storylines that aren't handcuffed to the convoluted mess that came before. Anyway, grab your Ray-Bans and your biker jacket and let's talk about the story. Zero is set mostly in Tokyo on August 29th, 1997, where a brilliant engineer named Malcolm Lee is struggling to complete his work on Kokoro, an advanced AI theoretically powerful enough to defeat Skynet and prevent Judgment Day. But how exactly does Malcolm know how and when Judgment Day is going to happen? And even if he is able to finish Kokoro in time, will she ultimately decide to protect or destroy humanity? Needless to say, Skynet isn't taking this shit lying down and does what it does best, sends a Terminator back through time to kill Malcolm and stop Kokoro. But the Resistance are one step ahead this time and send their own warrior Ico back through time to protect Malcolm and his family. But is there another reason for sending this particular woman back? And what's the T-800's true mission here? Now I'm being intentionally vague about the plot because I don't want to spoil what is, for the most part, a pretty well developed story that opens up a lot of new possibilities by the end. And this is one of the most valuable aspects of Terminator Zero for me, allowing the writers to break free of all the convoluted crap that's come before and forge a new narrative without all the baggage these movies are usually saddled with. See, the more the Terminator series has relied on time travel as a plot device rather than just a jumping off point to facilitate the narrative, the more it's gotten tangled up in all the paradoxes and complexities that come with it. Zero neatly sidesteps this problem with the good old multiple timelines approach, where actions in one timeline have no real impact on the others and vice versa. And if this seems like a rewrite of the Terminator rules, keep in mind that this very concept was hinted at way back in the very first Terminator movie. Now, it doesn't always stick rigidly to this idea, and there's moments where the old Kyle Reese predestination paradox starts to bleed into the narrative, but generally speaking, the new approach is able to free up the writers to do new things and explore new ideas. Speaking of new things, the Japanese setting is a welcome departure from the predictable old Southern California of, well, virtually every other entry in the series, and it brings up some interesting new possibilities like, in a country where gun ownership is basically non-existent, how the hell do you even fight something like a Terminator? And on the flip side of that, how does the Terminator take down its targets without access to firearms? The Terminator movies were very much focused on how human beings could survive Judgment Day, either by preventing it or making sure the right people are in place to rebuild in the wake of it, but Zero focuses more on whether we deserve to survive as a species. It's all a bit existential at times, but I think it makes sense in a show whose goal is to expand beyond the usual tropes of the franchise. Most of Malcolm's arc is centred around his interactions with Kokoro, where he's charged with justifying humanity's existence and arguing for their survival. Which is nice and all, but it does lead into one of my few criticisms of the show. I get that these scenes are spun out to set up the big emotional payoff at the end, but it would have been nice to see him argue a little more forcefully on behalf of humanity, maybe pointing out that our aspirations to better ourselves and reach for something higher has ultimately made us the dominant species on our planet, including creating the very machine that now presumes to pass judgement on us. Character wise, Zero is mostly solid. Despite a few frustrations with his scenes with Kokoro, Malcolm's generally a noble and likeable character, struggling under the weight of responsibility but doing his best to shoulder it, not just to protect humanity in general, but also his three children. He's a father and he takes that role very seriously. Imagine that in a modern TV show. Even if he can't always be there to protect them in person. The kids themselves are a bit of a mixed bag. Only one of them is particularly relevant to the story, and the other two are kind of whiney and annoying at times, so it might have been better to cut them down and focus on the one who actually matters. Aiko could easily have come across as just another tedious girl boss, but to the writer's credit you can understand how she's been moulded into the hyper-focused soldier she's become. And I think they managed to invest her with enough humanity and vulnerability to keep her sympathetic. The more I got to know her, the more I found myself caring about her and hoping that she pulled through. Yeah, she definitely benefits from the old plot armour at times, which undermines what's otherwise a pretty intimidating Terminator, but she's definitely not invincible and does get pretty fucked up as the season progresses. And there's one particular scene towards the end that'll definitely make you squirm. Speaking of the ending, the conclusion of the narrative leaves the story wide open for a second season, and having binge-watched Season 1, I can honestly say that I'm pretty excited to see where Terminator Zero goes next. It might not be a flawless experience by any measure, and it's not exactly a return to the glory days of T1 and T2, but it's a solid addition to a faltering franchise that might just have injected some energy back into the lumbering old exoskeleton. And if you're looking for a slightly different perspective on the world of Terminator, then I think you could do a lot worse than Terminator Zero. Anyway, that's all I've got for today. Go away now.