Terminator Zero: Season 1 (Netflix Anime)

It's difficult to judge a series by its Pilot sometimes, but I will say that this debut episode did absolutely nothing for me. 1 star.

Okay, so I have a better feel for this now.

This is fucking annoying.

The annoying kid Kenta wants to torture the robot cat for who the fuck knows why. It's clearly upsetting his younger sister but the little shit can't take the hint because the show needs the kids to run away at the worst possible moment so it decided on the stupidest damn thing ever.

If I wind up liking this after the 8th episode, I'll be shocked. That legit sucked. 1 star.

God, this show sucks.

Malcolm isn't a scientist. He's a dumbass. After hearing the things Kokoro says, if he thinks she the solution instead of the problem, he's an idiot. The worst-written, stupidest part of all this is him telling her if she knew the whole truth he's afraid she'd turn against him. Well, gee, good idea activating an A.I. after telling it THAT. Surely, she'll never find out, much less be curious what the secret is.

The dumbest most fucking unforgivable thing about Malcolm is that he is the most shitty advocate for the human race possible. When Kokoro asks him to name a single purely good thing humanity put into the world Malcolm is such a dumbass he can't come up with anything. How about music? Art? Fiction? Love? Imagination? This is all obvious shit off the top of my head. He's trying to convince this A.I. who is saying completely shady and evil things to save humanity and music never ONCE fucking crosses his mind?

This is a first for The Terminator for me. Some Terminator stuff is good, some is bad. This is the first project in the franchise that has infuriated me. Because it's stupid and badly written. 0 stars.

Misaki is a robot? That could be interesting.

Unfortunately Malcolm Lee is the worst protagonist in the history of the franchise. He's not just useless. He's not just annoying. He's not just whiny. He's an asshole. The show is tough to take precisely because of him.

Still not loving this. 2 1/2 stars.

Kokoro's heel-turn is SO predictable which is why I think Malcolm is an idiot. Her keeping humanity alive because they may be the key to defeating Skynet is a good angle though.

Kenta is SUCH a little shit. Can't stand that kid.

I liked both T2 and Genisys because the tone was measured in each project. The GrimDark super depressing Terminator stuff is something I don't respond to. The anime has an heavy dose of that and that is probably the main reason I dislike it. 1 1/2 stars.

The most interesting episode so far.

First off I wanna give a shout-out to Hiro for simply beating the shit out of Kenta. Why? Because Kenta committed the gravest sin you can commit in a life-or-death situation. He was being stupid and stupidity would get them all killed. Hiro beating his older brother and calling him stupid is the appropriate reaction and a pretty mild rebuke considering how angry I have been at the character.

This is the first episode Malcolm did an all right job of relating to Kokoro. I'm not giving him big props for it because if he didn't suck so much he'd be doing it all along.

Who the Prophet is matters less to me than the fact that she laid out the time-travel rules in the franchise better than anyone else. I'm not dumb enough to believe this project is canon, and will be anything but ignored if and when there's a new live-action movie, but the time travel rules have always been Multiverse rules. But for most Multiverse Rules time travel stories it's hinted the new Universe you create is separate from your own Universe and the new tangent doesn't effect it. Which in my mind makes time travel to "fix" things feel pointless. The episode had a good idea than the new timeline doesn't simply go off on a different track leaving the original timeline as is. It rewrites it. If that's so, it actually makes both the good guys and bad guys traveling back in time make sense when it really shouldn't.

The prophet also correctly notes the Terminators in particular don't seem to understand the nuance or the subtext to the time travel. I like that idea.

First episode I liked. I need to see Kenta get the shit beat out of him more often. 3 1/2 stars.

Holy shit. Really?

The ending is gutsy but I must crossly point out it might have landed harder and worse, and been a worse betrayal for the viewer if it was the kid the audience already hated. Maybe that's a way to make it okay in the audience's mind. But it really shouldn't be. It should be a genuine controversy. I've seen Kenta as nothing a hindrance to that entire family, and Malcolm essentially telling his kid he loved him but tough shit that he got captured. He's not opening the door. I should feel worse about this and madder at Malcolm. I shouldn't feel it half serves Kenta right.

I think the franchise needed to explore philosophy. The Sarah Conner Chronicles was a TV show and would have been perfect for that, but it never used the long storytelling format to its full potential.

Malcolm being from the future might make sense if he were smarter. That being said, him being an outcast for his radical ideas, and the time travel being done solely to save his and Misaki's life was a good twist. I didn't predict it.

I do have to point out he should have explained all this to Kokoro sooner and she might not have bothered to go on that killing spree. But he held back explaining this necessary thing because the producers wanted to keep it from the viewer and make it a surprise near the end of the season. That is actually bad writing.

Yeah, we'll see how the finale goes, but the first five episodes sucked and the last one and this one did not. 4 stars.

Okay, so this is not a limited series, it's aiming to be a multiple-season affair. Afraid I didn't like the finale much. Mostly because buying back Kenta's apparent death is gonna cause more problems than him dying would have created.

Was the Terminator right? Did future Kenta send him back with these instructions after creating an alliance with Skynet? It's a totally stupid idea which makes it in character. Also explains why the Terminator doesn't kill him. The thing is if it's true, his future self is still stupid because he just KNOWS he'll set off the EMP. Except he doesn't.

I think my main problem with the episode was how slowly Malcolm died. People who die violently in real life are not allowed 20 minutes of wrap-up to say goodbye to their loved ones. I was very aware I was watching a TV show as that nonsense was happening.

Do I even WANT future seasons? I suppose if they happen I'd probably watch them, but them not happening won't break my heart. There are plenty of other shows on Netflix currently on the bubble (like Star Trek: Prodigy) I'd prefer to see renewed over this. 2 1/2 stars.