Terminator-214 "The Good Wound" - Discuss/Grade <SPOILERS>

Trailer for The Good Wound

Posting it a little early to remind people of the new episode this week.

 

Yeah, I noticed that we'll be getting a new episode on Friday.

 

Hot damn! I was wondering when Terminator would be returning.

 

Yep new episode this week. I wonder how bad product placement will be this week?

 

It's about time...

 

^ ...travel.

 

That too.

 

Reese: "They've sent another terminator back. The Quizno-1000 is the most advanced terminator yet!"

 

Since I returned my Ram - yes I know this is the second time and it had the same damned defect as the first - all I'm seeing are 09 Ram's and Ram product placement.

 

Ya know, done properly, product placement doesn't really bother me, and sometimes even adds to a production. The presence of real brand names, as opposed to bullsh!t made up names, lend a greater aire of realism. The established names and logos that appeared in 2001:A Space Odyssey and Bladerunner made those worlds seem much more believable to me. By the same token, when a character drinks a soda (for instance), and it's clear that they've gone out of their way to obscure the real label, or to replace the real label with an obviously fake one, it almost always takes me out of the scene.

 

^ Oh I agree at times it's fine but when you have cases like (case in point) Knight Rider being essentially an hour long Ford commercial and even Terminator's focus on Chrysler LLC products (earlier this season they kept the camera on the RAM HEMI logo of the truck for fifteen seconds while dialogue played, long tracking shots of Sarah's Jeep Liberty were shown in the midseason finale) it can be jarring.

 

I don't have a problem with real products being used instead of having the lead drinking Cool Cola. But when they have lingering shots on things, like James Bond staring at his GPS for a long period of time even though his destination is right in front of him, that's noticable.

I was flipping through stations one day, and on a soap opera one character gave another Midol and then they had a discussion about it. A commercial within the dialog!!!!!!

 

Well, it's the only way they can make the show.
That said, I can't imagine anyone buying a car based on a TV show.

"According to this show, I can outrun robots in this truck!"

 

^ Sorry, that just tickled me.

It takes a lot for product placement to bother me. As long as they don't get all Truman Show about it, I'm fine.

 

Which is why Chuck is basically a genius show... and any show that's set in a store/mall. Hell, I'm surprised they don't just get Best Buy to co-sponsor it and have the Buy More become a Best Buy.

 

Actually you would be surprised. When I was car shopping over the last few days (I did have an 09 Ram but returned it due to the payments and I had constant problems with it) the saleswoman told me that they sell about three a week and at least one person a week tells them they saw it on Terminator and liked it.

In the 80's it was widely reported that Pontiac asked the producers of Knight Rider to remove all references to the Trans Am from KITT because they had people coming into dealerships asking for Trans Ams and not buying them when they realized that they didn't have KITT's features.

 

That was something that I hated in Casino Royale for example.

Sure it wasn't Smallville?

 

Oh wow, thank you for reminding me it will be back! I hope people will notice it has changed days. I imagine this episode is going to have low ratings tomorrow cause everyone forgot when it comes back on and that it will be on a different day.

Any info on a third season?

 

^ Nothing concrete. From what I've been reading Fox says that ratings will decide (because of the revenue), but Warner Brothers has been buying up the ad space to heavily promote Terminator: Salvation and taken on an enhanced role in production (namely they're paying more). They may also shop it around to another network if Fox teminates it (pun intended).

I honestly wonder if part of the Advertising Budget for T4 may be going into this. In short they can't take the negative press of the show getting cancelled exactly one month before the new movie comes out.

 

I'm sure the show is off of the chopping block until next season, because of the impending movie in May. This COULD be the last season, unfortunately, if the network is not satisfied with the show following the release of T4.

I really hope it survives, because the first season was good, but the second season has been amazing so far. Now it's going to get even more interesting, since we will see Kyle Reese again (not sure for how long).