Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

[Skullz Crack'Em]

So, is anybody watching this show? If you are a Terminator fan than you should check it out because it is really good IMO. It started last week and it is now into it's 3rd episode since last night. It is based after the first two Terminator movies and is doing a good job keeping everything accurately close to the movies, like dogs being able to sense Terminators, acknowledging the fact that Sarah Connor was placed in a Mental Institution, and even the actor that plays John Connor has a slight resemblance to the actor that played Kyle Reese, his father. Most TV Shows that are based on movies(and vice-versa) usually turns everything upside-down and it is like a brand new concept, but this show isn't like that and that is a good thing IMO.

 

[X]

I like it as well. Only one problem---it's on Monday nights at 9PM. Can you think of anything else on Mondays at 9PM? I've only just recently started watching RAW again so I've ended up catching more RAW then I did this week's episode. The first two episodes were awesome though, I'd have to agree. I must admit though....the actress who plays Sarah is just terrible. I mean terrible. First of she has zero resemblance to Sarah Connor....whatsoever. Not even the right colored hair for god's sake. Second, well to put it bluntly, she's not a very good actress. I really don't get the sense of any feeling from her. Still though, the story and writing and the fact that I'm a big Terminator fan make this show worthwhile to watch for me definately.

 

[Shocky]

I'm actually obsessed with this show so far. I don't mind the lady that plays Sarah. I think she's channeling more of the first Terminator era Connor then the tough as nails bad ass Connor from T2.

I'm hooked on this show though. I'm used to watching 24 in this time slot, but thanks to the damn writer's strike, I don't have that option this year. I love the fact that there are multiple Terminators in the present, but they have other priorities and pretty much ignore Connor if they walk by him. Plus the Terminator growing it's skin back this week was pretty fucking awesome.

I'm hooked, and this is must see TV for me on Monday Nights.

 

[X]

True, I did catch the tub full of blood skin-growing and that was pretty badass. I get what you're saying about first Terminator Sarah. I can see that. I mean they're trying to push that image on us with all the waitressing jobs she gets, but the problem with her acting like that IMO is that this isn't T1 era Sarah Connor here, this show is set a couple of years after the events of T2. I just think they would've done much better at that role.

Still a great show though. Everytime I hear the original Terminator music, I get chills up my spine.

 

[Shocky]

Right on about the music. Seriously, The Terminator series is probably the most under appreciated movie series going. The first two were unbelievably good and proves just how great of a film maker James Cameron is. The movies are filled with such dread and despair, and that humanity has a destiny, and it's not a good one. Would I have loved to see the series end with the second movie, of course, but there is still money to be made. T3 certainly was a let down, but I think with Bale signing on to do T4 thru T6 as the older John Connor, and this TV Series bridging the gap, there is much to look forward to. The theme music is just bone chilling.

 

[X]

I'm in the vast minority when I say that I really liked T3. But I did. I thought it did a very good job of seemingly wrapping up the first half of the Terminator story, AKA before Skynet went live and took over the world. The ending was great, Nick Stahl as John Connor was also fuckin' awesome, maybe just because I think he's such a criminally underrated young actor (watch his role in the movie Bully or remember his awesome job in Disturbing Behavior?). Kristina Lokken was decent enough, and the way the T3 Terminator was designed was pretty badass as well I thought.

Of course the film was a letdown in terms of writing and direction, but that was the only logical direction this movie could have gone in after coming from 2 of the greatest Sci-Fi/Action movies ever created, by one of our times greatest movie-makers in John Cameron.

Plus, going to see it, was just like waves of nostalgia pouring over me. And nostalgia is one of my favorite feelings when the memories are good.

As for the upcoming films...I'd say they rank about third right now on the list of movies in my head that I am friggin' dying to see right now, behind the upcoming X-Files sequel (holy shit I can't wait) and the Dark Knight.

 

[Shocky]

Well the second season has started, and I must say, easily the best episode of this show yet. I'm not sure I'm liking the new 8 o clock start time. This show was safe at 9 for me. A, when it was on in the spring, it was something worth watching at 9 on Monday Nights. Since Raw isn't as terrible as it was earlier this year, I guess thats a good thing. However, I think the biggest reason for the move, is to stay away from Heroes at 9 (Honestly the most boring and over rated show I have ever had the misfortune of watching) and the key 18-35 year old Male demographic watching Monday Night Football later on.

Anyways...
This show was excellent. Great twist by having Cameron, the female Terminator played by the smoking hot Summer Glau, turn bad after the explosion that ended last season. Thomas Dekker's young John Connor is simply bad ass. This series has done an absolutely excellent job at casting John Connor in all of his incarnations. Connor is the reason this story works, and it's great that they've found a talented young actor that can fill that role nicely.

I'm leaning with X, i'm beginning to have my doubts about the title character and her acting ability. Lena Headey as Sarah Connor was okay, but she''s about as one dimensional as it gets. Her acting range is about as good as Batista's in ring ability. Every once in a while, she's great, but if she doesn't have a great story, she's terrible. I'm hoping they kill her off before too long, ( she does die somewhere between 2 and 3 anyway). With her out of the way, John can grow more as a character.

Brian Austin Greene better be thanking his role as Derrick Reese for saving what could be known as a career. Greene as a badass is simply shocking, considering all he was known for was being about the tenth most important character on the craptacular Beverly Hills 90210.

This season looks awesome, but I'm not going to spoil it for you, ahh bullshit on that.

[youtube]z-8L39x0POE[/youtube]

 

[Skullz Crack'Em]

I was just thinking about bringing this thread back from the dead Shocky lol, like you said, this season kicked off great and I cannot wait for next Monday's episode. I was disappointed with the new Catherine Weaver character because she didn't seem to fit the mold of the show, and her gibberish was a bit over-the-top, but at the end of the episode it all came together, let's just say that John Connor has a lot more than Cromartie to worry about. The part of the episode when Cameron told John she loved him sent goosebumps up my spine because it looks as if Terminators are now mastering the ability to toy with peoples' feelings, an eerie thought for John and Sarah.

This has to be one of the best shows on television, every character has a lot of depth to them, even Detective Ellison and Charlie Dixon, who are both starting to realize that Terminators are real and it is interesting to see where their characters go from here knowing this terrible truth. I doubt Sarah is going to die though Shocky, the show is named after her, but I agree that she is a one dimensional actor, she overplays the mean-spirited side of Sarah too much, to the point where you start to dislike the character.

 

[Shocky]

Pretty much this thread is the Skullmasters talking about Terminator. It's a shame that a ton of people are missing out on this show. Sure there were a few cringeworthy episodes from last season, but over all this show has been fantastic.

The scene with Cameron and John was badass, and like you said, it's eerie how the machines are learning more. I love how it stays true to the source material, Terminators can't cry, which was her ultimate downfall.

[youtube]8Py7DVRs6kM[/youtube]

They haven't explained what exactly she is yet at this point. She's obviously not a T-888 like the others and Arnold, but something else. She seems to be a lot stronger then the other machines so far. She took an explosion in a car and came out relatively unscatched, whereas Arnold was picking up the pieces.

 

[Dysturbed]

^^^She can also eat food and learn such things as ballet i(so far). The previous terminators were able to do such things as imitating voices but still seeming fairly robotic more often than not. She still has the robotic elements but is a tad more human than the movie terminators. She's definitely a pretty cool terminator model. I've seen people complaining on other boards about how she didn't lose the skin as if it wasn't clear by now that she wasn't the same model that they were accustomed to.

I love the show and it's one that I make sure to watch or tape and watch equally along with PB, Lost, Heroes, a few others and maybe now Fringe. I like how season one made so many references to the existing Terminator movies to explain that it was initially following from the same timeline and like how they went about making it so that they don't have to follow the t3 timeline anymore.

 

[Minor League Brian]

I think the one thing I have against this series, is that you know how its going to end...sorta. I mean, I do love the Terminator character here, but when the series is finally done it'll just be John...and that'll be it.

 

[Shocky]

I think the one thing I have against this series, is that you know how its going to end...sorta. I mean, I do love the Terminator character here, but when the series is finally done it'll just be John...and that'll be it.

To Klown first, I've read the criticism too, and it's simply blind fanboys that don't pay any attention at all to the show because they can't hear when they are typing so loud on the computer. She's said at least two, if not three times that she is something different. Hell, there was a whole episode dedicated to how they grow fucking skin. Plus she's said at least a half a dozen times that Terminators are programmed to heal themselves so they can blend in. I've seen the complaints too, and it's simply stupidity and ignorance. They've explained all of their gripes so many times at this point.

Brian, I get that, but it's no different then the Star Wars prequels. Everyone knew that the end result was, everyone was going to die, and Anakin was going to be Vader, but it didn't stop those movies from making Billions of dollars along the way. To quote an old saying, it's not about the destination, it's about the journey. In the end, we know that Cameron and Sarah will ultimately die, but to see the character growth of John Conner along the way is something I've been dying to see.

 

[Minor League Brian]

Aye, I get what you're saying but they do too good a job with making you (at least me) like the new Terminator. Knowing she's just going to end up gone in the end...well, just puts me off from wanting to finish it.

 

[Dysturbed]

it's not about the destination, it's about the journey.

That's how I see it too. I personally couldn't care less about knowing certain things whether it's leaked endings to a wrestling match, the end of a movie, a tv show, etc. Sure I'd definitely prefer surprises more often than not but I'm more concerned with enjoying how entertaining it is to get to an outcome than to let my knowledge of the outcome or an outcome ruin things. That's how I view things at least. It's something that makes other shows fascinating as well (like Lost) as we know some things but then see how they got there. Some great shows and movies use that kind of thing including Star Wars like you said.

 

[relik]

I love this show. Thomas Dekker, was a great casting choice. I remember finding out he was gonna be John thinking, yeah this works. I thought he was great on Hero's on his brief stint and thought he'd do a good job. Summer Glau; wow, just wow. Great actress, goes from playing very robotic to extreme emotion like in season 2's premiere was phenominal. Even I felt convinced that she meant no harm even though I knew she did. Brian Austin Green, the dude that played keyboards from 90210? When I first saw his name on the credits from the one episode in season 1 my initial reaction was the above. Boy did he prove me wrong fast. Fantastic I love this show and hope it stays on for many seasons and I can't wait to watch it tonight.

 

[AnthonyMango/NoFate007]

As I stated in the other thread about Terminator: Salvation, being a big fan of Terminator for pretty much my entire life (I think I saw Terminator when I was 4 and I know I've seen T2 over 200 times, enough that I've memorized the entire film and little details about it to a ridiculous level lol), with all that behind me and how badly T3 turned out to be, I was really hesitant about this show: especially how it was rumored to focus almost entirely on Sarah, and not John.

But they've proven me wrong. I'm a big fan of the show. Its a much better "alternate path" than having to accept T3 as canon. I'm still not too keen on having a hot teenage female as a terminator, but she's done a better job than I had predicted. Plus, the nod to James Cameron by naming her simply "Cameron" was nice. That's one of the things I like about this show - they've done their research. I also like the addition of Derrick Reese. There are some things that I'm hoping we get to see in future episodes, though, that we haven't really seen yet. Last episode, they showed us an HK for what I believe is the first time in the series, but we still don't know how they were built. The tanks.......shit, their names escape me....you know what tanks I'm talking about....I'd love to see a model version of that in the show at some point. But really, I have a feeling they'll be dealing with all of that soon enough. I'd also love to see some references to T-600s being made with rubbery skin. And, of course, I'm missing the line "There is no fate but what we make for ourselves", but I don't think I had to point that out lol.

Anyway, I'm a big fan of the show and it looks like they're on the right track...minus Shirley Manson's horrible acting skills, haha.

 

[Dysturbed]

I enjoyed tonight's episode and really like how the show isn't non stop action yet still has a nice enough pace to keep it exciting, for me at least. Season 2 picked up at a nice point, right after season one of course but I wonder how the rest of season one would have gone if they had completed the remaining episodes for it. The ratings weren't good at all last week but hopefully they're considered decent enough by Fox's criteria to keep the show on for awhile.

 

[Shocky]

Good to see this thread starting to get some legs on it. Shocking that NoFate is a Terminator fan, no way I saw that one coming...

No Fate, I get your trepidation when it comes to Shirley Manson as the T-1000, but that's simple. She's going to see probably minimal air time. The T-1000 or T-1001 as some are saying it is, is a shape shifter, so Manson is simply being the host form. I would imagine that if Fox or the produces see her doing poorly, it's really easy to recast a shape shifter.

As for Summer Glau's Cameron, the producers of the show did a great interview that I'll try to dig up. Someone brought up that very point.There response was, James Camerons original vision was that of the Terminators Being able to blend in. They should be able to infiltrate with no problem. Hence the rubber skins for the T-600, then the ultimate Terminators with the T-800 models. The Terminators in the show are now advanced T-800 models being T-888. As far as Cameron, they have never explained what model she is. The producers said, there are only so many times a giant muscle bound man can infiltrate the resistance before they catch on. What better way to be able to infiltrate then in the guise of a teenage girl. I like that explanation.

As far as this episode. Fucking amazing. This season has been solid. The pacing was great and it left you wanting more. We found out that Terminators indeed, can not swim. That was one helluva sequence though with the T-888 trying to drown John. Next weeks episode should be something amazing with the origin of Cameron. My early guess, she's going to be a terminator model based on someone close to John. Cameron the human is going to be John Connor's younger sister or something similar.

 

[relik]

Great episode again. The only part that confused me was why just blow up the cell tower and not the house too? It was great to see John on his own again to defend himself against Cromartie and how he improvised on that situation. Anyone else getting annoyed with Riley? The actress seems like she's trying way to hard and overacting. And I agree with Shirley Manson, terrible. Great season so far and I can't wait to see the rest.