guy44

I just finished watching the first two episodes of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on Fox. The basic premise is that Sarah and John Connor are on the lam from the law following the conclusion of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In the pilot episode, they discover that they did not, in fact, end the Skynet threat when a Terminator shows up guns-a-blazin'. Luckily for them, a "good" Terminator was sent back to protect them in the form of Summer Glau (from Firefly/Serenity).

The pilot episode was shot like it was forty minutes of the middle third of Terminator 2 or 3: various Connors on the run, big explosions, gun play, Terminators duking it out by destroying the insides of whatever building they happen to occupy. Unfortunately, the episode lacks the parts of the Terminator movies where characters are established and they bond and Arnold gets catch phrases wrong and stuff. I guess the producers just got too caught up with their big budget and assumed we'd remember the characters from the movies.

The second episode is much better. It's essentially about establishing what it is like to constantly be on the run, forging your own identity, and never trusting anybody. There's also a very effective reference to 9/11, which makes sense considering the apocalyptic tone found in so much pop culture these days (BSG, Jericho, etc.).

The best part of the show - by far - is Summer Glau as the "good" Terminator. Glau always played bizarrely detached, naive, and emotionless well (see: Firefly), which makes for a perfect combination in this role. As a "new" model, she's also far more attuned to human nature and interpersonal subtleties than Arnold's Terminator ever was, which I imagine was a concession to the fact that we're going to have to like her character for 22 episodes a year instead of a couple of hours at a time.

I'm really unsure of how good this show will be. On the one hand, I'm afraid that every episode will follow the basic plot structure of "run from the law/Terminator fight/catch breath/minor fight/conclusion." Plus, the voice overs are painfully bad and need to stop ASAP. On the other hand, this is a sci-fi show that comes from good stock and has actually been given a major budget - something I thought I wouldn't see again for years after the disaster that is Bionic Woman. I just hope the writers can keep the show fresh, or at least good enough until Battlestar Galactica returns in a few months (what I like to call "Heroes Quality").

And maybe finally one of the great actors from Firefly will become a major star...

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Willravel

So far, I'm loving it. More after the ep is finished. Bear Mcreary (from Battlestar) does the music!

Reese

Wait, There was a second episode? There was only the pilot on my TV.

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dirtyrascal7

This is exactly what I thought when I saw the previews for this show. I can't imagine there being a deep, intricate plot that continues developing indefinitely. Maybe the big-budget action will produce enough staying-power for a full season, but I can't see this show lasting multiple seasons, especially without Arnold.

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Fotzlid

damn. missed it. i was going to set the DVR but forgot.
oh well.

Plan9

"Phased plasma rifle in 40 watt range."

"Hey, buddy... just what ya see."

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Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

ASU2003

If I ever buy a gun, I'm going to say that line.

I think this is my favorite TV show of the year. I'll be getting the DVD if they come out.

We had this debate at lunch today. Which do you think will happen first; a hot female sex-robot(sorry ladies, you know the female model will be first), or a realistic military terminator robot soldier? The porn industry vs the military-industrial complex...

Zotz

Not a bad show so far....hope they synch the voice with the actors lips better in future episodes. The 2nd episode was out of sych so bad, it looked like a Godzilla movie.

Cynthetiq

2nd episode wasn't out of sync for me. Maybe it was your cable headend?

anyways, it was okay. It was Terminator for TV like the series Planet of the Apes was Planet of the Apes for TV. It has enough flavor, look and feel.

We'll see how it develops and the universe we get to explore.

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DonnieBoy

I liked this too. I had these tvo'ed and watch both tonight. I want to see how they deal with the whole Sarah Connor dying of cancer thing. I wonder if she will have it during the show?

I wonder if this show is to gear up the public for the next terminator movie due out in 09'

Datalyss

I loved it, and now I have a reason to watch FOX again.

I guess "Summer" came early this year.

Willravel

Ohhh... Summer jokes..
"I'd make Summer come more than once a year. "
"Summer-time is my favorite time of year."
"I'll be offering her my Summer-sausage, made special for her."

Datalyss

Shoulda spelled it cum. The innuendo woulda worked better.

ASU2003

I think Sarah is going to hunt me down and either kill me, or destroy what I am programming in my spare time.

Willravel

This series is surprisingly exciting and engaging.

guy44

I don't know that the show has quite reached "great shakes" status, but I like that it at least tries very hard to include complex moral questions. Sure, the whole "kill Hitler as a baby?" question isn't new, but I doubted a big-budget action show would carry over any of the ethical issues present in T2. I mean, the standard is 24, which is achieves snuff film status on a regular basis.

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Frosstbyte

Exactly my thoughts. Really surprised that it's so, but quite happy that it is. I'll keep watching!

Amnesia620

I recently started watching Firefly on DVD, thanks to Seer666. I also watch Sarah Conner Chronicles every week.
Summer Glau is awesome in both Firefly and Sarah Conner Chronicles. I hope to see her succeed in her acting. She's really awesome.

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noodle

Okay, I'm in the middle of the first and have the other two episodes I could find waiting.

You guys promise this is going to get better?!

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Martian

God, I hope so. The first three episodes have plot holes you could drive a Mack truck through and the acting is pretty sub-par to boot.

Terminator : TSC producer says:

"We don't need plot, tension or logical consistency. We have Summer Glau! The Firefly fanboys are going to love it!"

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I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said

- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame

Plan9

No plot? Oh, I can't watch it. Pfft, and I was really hoping they'd do a Total Recall miniseries. Maybe call it "Total Recall: Revelations" or something pretentious. That way I'd "Get [my] ass to Mars!" every Tuesday night at 9 EST for a hooker with three tits and that nasty Cohagen guy cramping everybody's O2 intake.

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Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

Baraka_Guru

What, do you think Kuatos grow on trees?! It'd be a casting nightmare!!



Maybe I'll check out the Terminator series once it's on DVD....

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Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
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Plan9

__________________
Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

Baraka_Guru

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

PonyPotato

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Can't.Breathe. OMG.

You just made my day.

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Plan9

Baraka... I want you to speak at my funeral.

I'M NOT WORTHY!

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Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

SecretMethod70

I have to agree with both of you. I just don't know what's so good about this show.

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Le temps détruit tout

"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

levite

I've seen worse things on TV. And yes, I would watch anything-- ANYTHING-- if it meant that I got to spend 45 minutes staring at Summer Glau. She drives me wild!

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Whose soul is sense, cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
That thing which elemented it.

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Tully Mars

I noticed her in "The Unit." I that role shows she has more depth then the emotionless vacant roles she seems to be known for.

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noodle

Well, being both a chick and someone who doesn't find Summer Glau attractive, I'm trying to find a reason to keep watching them. I loved the Terminator movies.

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m0rpheus

Well it's better than Terminator 3.
It has so far fallen into the not great but not bad category for me.

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guy44

The last episode was a step in the right direction: less voiceover narration, less terrible dialog, more black humor, and the effectively creepy "powered down" Terminator. Hopefully it keeps getting better...

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noodle

I sooooo had the hots for Brian Bloom as a kid. Thank goodness we're adding a reason for the girls to watch other than catering to our need for violence.

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Cynthetiq

so I'm caught up on the series, and I have to say it is slow in getting started.

I believe that the series is setting up enough foundation to create a believeable space to work within. Right now, the terminator lore is very simple, 2 terminators go back in time, one protects, one hunts. But now they are establishing more background and exploring the rest of the lore and letting ways of stopping skynet happen in ways like a chess game.

They killed the guy who does the CPU in T2, but as they said in one of the teasers "didn't alter the time enough."

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Martian

What really bothers me, though, is that Spoiler: Cromartie shouldn't even be there. The series builds on the world established in The Terminator and Terminator 2. Right from the original film with Kyle Reese it's been stated that only organic material can go through the time portals. This is reinforced in the show itself when Sarah, John and Cameron jump ahead to 2007 - they all show up naked. Cromartie's head shouldn't have been able to go through. This isn't a minor issue, it's a glaring inconsistency and given that they seem to be setting up Cromartie as a major villain it seems like kind of a big problem to me. This is the largest of many plot holes that I've spotted in the first four episodes, and I think it's pretty telling. If the writers can't even maintain a consistent mythos in the same bloody scene, it would seem to me that they're not trying very hard.

I truly believe what I said above; this show is a vehicle to cash in on all the Summer Glau fanboys more than anything else.

__________________
I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said

- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame

levite

I find myself being okay with that....

__________________
Dull sublunary lovers love,
Whose soul is sense, cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
That thing which elemented it.

(From "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" by John Donne)

Hain

Sorry, but Glau doesn't pull off the "Come with me if you want to live" routine. The show does get better, right?

And since when does household furniture stop bullets?! It sure doesn't stop the flaming metal shrapnel from some explosive device I build.

OH!!! There's Kevlar in the chair.

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ShaniFaye

I've never seen the movies, but Im really enjoying the show a lot

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noodle

I'm still a little weirded out by David Silver killing people.
I keep waiting for Dylan and Brenda to come crawling out of a tunnel and Brandon waiting to kick their asses.

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DonnieBoy

Bah the season finale is already here next week? Hope this series returns, It has given me something to watch sense heroes is off.

I am enjoying the show alot. I like Brian Austin Green's character nice twist to the plotline.

DB