Recently my brother accused me of being a fanboy for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I suppose I’m guilty, but I don’t feel like a fanboy; the show is just really good.
Some of you may still be skeptical. Perhaps you watched last season and you weren’t that impressed, perhaps you’re just a big fan of the movie franchise and can’t bring yourself to watch Terminator on the small screen. If you fit either of these categories I encourage you to give it another chance (it’s much improved over the super short first season), or check your preconceived notions at the door. Yes, this is just a TV show, it’s not going to have big budget special effects or the Governator. It does have a lot going for it, though. Here’s a list.
- Lena Heady and Summer Glau: Alright, the whole cast is pretty good, but the two leading ladies really stand out. Heady does an excellent job as Sarah Connor, a role that defined Linda Hamilton’s career. She is able to make the character different enough that the viewer isn’t thinking about Hamilton while watching, but she still has the over-protective-mother-former-insane-asylum-inmate intensity. Glau, previously of Firefly, plays an amazing terminator. I continue to be impressed with her detached, inhuman performance. It takes skills to stare blankly at nothing like she does.
- It knows how to deal with time travel: Unlike some other shows on Monday night (*cough* Heroes *cough*), Terminator knows how to deftly use time travel to aid the story. Unlike Heroes, it’s not overused and it usually adds something to the story other than confusion. Sorry for piling on, Heroes fans.
- It takes itself way too seriously: Yes, this is a good thing as long as you can play along. I’m usually fairly cynical about these things, but with Terminator I am able to go right along with the super serious tone of the show. Let’s face it, these folks are trying to stop Skynet and prevent Judgment day. The only problem is, every time they do stop it, it just pops up a few years later. So, yes, the show is relentlessly dark, but I like it that way.
- Sarah Connor kicks ass: It’s true. The woman is good with a gun, good with her fists, and not afraid to get dirty. The show doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to the action. Heck, I haven’t even mentioned the robotic killing machine.
- There are interesting supporting characters: With only 9 episodes last season there wasn’t a lot of time to flesh out the background. This season we’ve been introduced to more characters and it has helped bring a lot more to the show. Anyone who reads my reviews knows that I’m not a huge fan of Riley, John’s girlfriend, but some recent revelations about her character have me looking at her in a new light. Catherine Weaver and Jesse, Derek’s girlfriend from an alternate future have added a lot to this season too.
Perhaps I’m overstating things a bit calling it one of the best shows on TV, but I know it’s high on my list. It’s one of the few shows that I really look forward to every week and it just keeps getting better. Hopefully the upcoming move to Fridays won’t kill it completely. To all you Joss fanatics who will be tuning in for Dollhouse, please tune in an hour earlier and check out Terminator too.
Photo Credit: FOX
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Clacked by Bob Degon
on Dec 01, 2008 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
Recently my brother accused me of being a fanboy for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I suppose I’m guilty, but I don’t feel like a fanboy; the show is just really good.
You aren’t overstating it being one of the best. It’s good to see that I’m not the only one who things Lena Heady’s Sarah Connor is great. Most people seem to feel she’s not psycho enough, but I personally think the level of crazy is just right considering it’s a TV show and not a movie.
Good stuff, you’ve hit the nail on the head.
This post is a joke, right?
“It knows how to deal with time travel” – yeah right. Let me just paraphrase SCC’s take on time travel: If you need a cliffhanger: timetravel. If you need a setup: timetravel. If you need a beer: timetravel.
This show is a joke BECAUSE of the timetravel. Nothing is relevant. If they kill one turk there is another one because of TIMETRAVEL.
T3 aggregated it pretty neatly. No matter WHAT John Connor does, the ICBMs WILL fly, there will be nuclear winter and there’s nothing to stop Skynet. All in all the question is a big friggin WHAT’S THE POINT?! Even if this series was canceled you could easily pick up another season or even a whole nother show with the premise “A terminator jumped in half a second before (insert timeline changing event here) and prevented it. Now we have to fight the new (insert new Terminator model name here) and nobody knows whether we will be able to stop Skynet”.
Bla bla bla.
The dude above apparently hasn’t figured out that T3 doesn’t exist in the Sarah Connor Chronicles universe.
Great post. Totally agree.
Time Travel doesn’t make sense, there’s no getting around that, but at least Terminator doesn’t leave me instantly annoyed by it and the cop out answers it gives and confusion it causes – like with Heroes. In Terminator at least they try to justify it within their own internal logic, Heroes is just plain nonsense to try and give the illusion of depth to the story telling,
@katie: remind me again why T3 doesn’t exist in SCC?
Come on. You know the answer. It’s easy.
Has to do with time travel.
This has become one of my favorite shows. You hit it right on with all your reasons.
Neither does T2, based on how things have played out. I’ve written a rebuttal of sorts to this post on my site if anyone cares to read, my name should be linked to my site.
I’ve got so many creative problems with SCC that they wouldn’t have fit here practically, anyway.
Very nice rebuttal. I think, after reading it, the biggest difference seems to be the way we approach the show. While I enjoyed the two Terminator movies, I was never a huge fan. I was not married to any of the plot details or character portrayals from the movies. I completely understand how people could view the show as verging on sacrilege, and how that could affect their opinion.
Mostly, I wanted to throw my support behind a struggling show that I think is better than most of the crap on TV these days, even with it’s flaws.
Hi Bob,
Thanks for taking the time to read my rebuttal and leave a comment reply here. I think my biggest pet peeve is that I keep feeling like SCC isn’t living up to the possibilities it has, that it’s one of the very rare times when someone can walk in with an established, wildly popular franchise, and do basically whatever they want with it…and then not doing a whole lot.
As much as I railed on it today, I do still record it with the DVR and watch it after I have two or three saved up, so that must count for something.
And you’re right, compared to some of the other crap out there, it’s not that bad relatively speaking.
I think it’s better than some shows doing much better in the ratings, better than Fringe for one.
It is nice to see Fox giving it room to breath though, it’s too bad they didn’t do that with Firefly..