Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles

[AngelBaby]

I am getting more and more excited every time I see an ad on FOX for this show. It looks really well done, I only hope the writing lives up to the eyecandy. I'm also happy with two of the casting choices, Lena Headey as Sarah Connor (she was great in 300) and Summer Glau (loved her in Firefly/Serenity) as Cameron, a Terminator sent to protect John Connor.

The two-night premiere kicks off a week from this Sunday, January 13.

[psyper]

**** SPOILER ALERT ****

The Preair that I saw last july lived up to the hype IMHO. I never saw anything that suggested that Glau was a terminator so to see her suddenly be the knightess in shining armour was a nice surprise; and the scene where she's topless and picking bullets out of her body was very amusing. Also without giving too much away for those who havent seen it - there is a scene where both Headey and Glau go through that time trip thing that made schwartzenegger walk around naked asking people for their boots and their motocycle - cant be missed!!
Although they will probably revamp the whole pilot!!

I love the posters though!!

[AngelBaby]

Okay, the 2-night premiere is in the bag and I'd be interested in hearing reactions.

I loved it. Summer is fantastic as a wide-eyed teenaged Terminatrix. Lena is a different Sarah than Linda Hamilton's, but I already like what she brings to the role. The only thing that would make this show better would be to have it air "uncut" on FX where it could maybe be a bit more R-rated, but that's a minor quibble.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the season. Especially since it doesn't appear there will be much in the way of new TV due to this dumb strike.

[efilflah]

The verdict is still way out on this one.

I just saw the eps back to back and tbh I was disappointed. I thought the premise was greatly suited to a TV adaptation, but after seeing the first two, I'm not so sure anymore.

On the one hand, the second episode was a lot better than the first and gives a glimmer of hope for the future, but on the other, the dumbed down script, questionable acting (or casting) and weak FX made this seem cheap/low budget compared to the production quality of a show like LOST/prison break.

I mean the first episode had moments where I was actually embarrassed for the writers. Like when Sarah Connor put a gun to her own head and the Terminator prevented her from pulling the trigger......would've been a fine little addition to the scene, only he then goes and says something along the lines of..."I know why you tried to do that, you are more valuable alive to me than dead" ...they may as well have had a narrator and been done with it.

And the Terminator twitching his neck ALL the time, in every scene. Yes we know he's a cyborg, stop beating us over the head with it. I didn't know the T in T-800 stood for tourettes.

I agree that if this had been uncut it would've been much better, allowing for a more adult themed show, but this looks set to be quite teen angsty, with John being of school age and Summer Glau learning about the trials of human life etc etc.

Despite all that, it's early days and I'm sufficiently curious about the mysterious nature of the new terminator and how I don't think she's telling the whole story as well as the story keeping with the themes of mankind's reliance on technology and how far we've come in such a short space of time, which is a good angle to play with characters missing 8 years of backstory.

Fingers crossed I guess.

[Full Nelson Reilly]

Awful show. Worse than the bionic woman re-launch.

[AngelBaby]

I liked the Bionic Woman too.





*sniff*

[smash]

I want anyone to tell me WHAT was wrong with the Bionic Woman. I can't see what was weak about it. I firmly believe it is a case of 'its hip to bash the show' bandwagon. The only critical thing that could be said was her, protecting her little sister story line was a bit 'tired'; but that is it.


As for Sarah Conner Chronicles, I have yet to watch, but TiVOed them. Reading interviews, the idea of flash forwarding in time to 2007 with the 'undead' Sarah sounds like it will piss me off. Why couldn't this show be set in the 1992-2003 time frame after Eddie Furlong and before Nick Stahl?

[AngelBaby]

Well, it does start off in that time frame...five years after T2, in 1999. We even get to revisit Miles Dyson's wife and kid for a scene. For the purposes of this show, the events of T3 are said to take place in "an alternate timeline" which makes sense as we are told in that movie that Sarah died of leukemia in 1997 and Judgment Day occurs in 2004.

They jump forward to 2007 (past Sarah's death from cancer in 2005) in an attempt (once again) to stop Skynet from carrying out Judgment Day, which is told to us now occurs in 2011, not 1997 as stated in T2 (nor 2004 as in T3). It raised some interesting questions in my mind, such as if Sarah had six years to live from 1999-2005, does she still have the same amount of time after the jump, from 2007-2013? And she now knows what kills her, could she perhaps be extra diligent about visiting the doctor and perhaps catch the cancer in an early stage and thus have it successfully treated? They do have a scene with her visiting a clinic. I also liked the scene where John is standing in an electronics store marveling at flat-screen TVs and the like, and also the scene where gangbangers have to explain the events of 9/11 to Sarah.

My guess as to why they really jumped the story to the present? Easier to shoot the show, since you don't have to worry about anachronisms like I mentioned above. Will they be time jumping a lot in the show? I somehow doubt it. But who knows?

[smash]

I finally watched it last night. So I understand what they did now, and I agree with your logic on why they made it 2007.

You already know my extreme annoyance with time continuity storylines and the frustration I feel.

That being said, if they knock off the time-jumping, I could probably enjoy this storyline. However, why don't the machine's just send an army of terminators to kill off the Connors?

Or an army of terminators to build skynet themselves in the past?

Or for that matter, an army of Terminators back to the dawn of time and kill off humanity?


Etc. etc. etc. etc. It just annoys me.

[AngelBaby]

Or for that matter, an army of Terminators back to the dawn of time and kill off humanity?

Because if they wipe out humanity in the distant past, they can never be created.

ZOMG TIME PARADOX

[smash]

Or for that matter, an army of Terminators back to the dawn of time and kill off humanity?

Because if they wipe out humanity in the distant past, they can never be created.

ZOMG TIME PARADOX

ZOMG TIME PARADOX WHEN THEY DESTROYED SKYNET.

[psyper]

Or for that matter, an army of Terminators back to the dawn of time and kill off humanity?

Because if they wipe out humanity in the distant past, they can never be created.

ZOMG TIME PARADOX

ZOMG TIME PARADOX WHEN THEY DESTROYED SKYNET.

But its not 'their' skynet that they destroyed - isn't this skynet like version 3? It seems to be a stop point for all humainity - once we reach a certain level of technology bam we get terminator or matrix - so each time the connors have to push the skynet date forward - it will still happen but further forward in time and at which point skynet sends the terminators back in time to try and kill the connors. Summer mentioned that the terminators in 2007 don't know that what the connors look like so they haven't caused an issue in the future yet to become a concern or something.

Anyway - Im loving it so far - mainly cos I'm falling in love with Summer and what her to have my babies but hey. I liked the subtle chemistry between her and John Connor - she touches him to check his temp and sweat and he thinks shes touching him for something else - then the scene at the end where he wants to stay at home all of a sudden instead of going to school and sarah does a sideways glance at summer in her sexy short skirt with a i-know-what-youre-thinking look on her. He probably sent that terminator back to headfuck with himself anyway - if I was gonna send back a terminator to protect myself I would make it hot like summer too - and probably with a few extra features to boot. Time will tell but I'm hoping it will turn out really good.
I like bionic woman too btw.

[Full Nelson Reilly]

I want anyone to tell me WHAT was wrong with the Bionic Woman. I can't see what was weak about it. I firmly believe it is a case of 'its hip to bash the show' bandwagon. The only critical thing that could be said was her, protecting her little sister story line was a bit 'tired'; but that is it.

Well, since you asked, I'll tell you what I think is wrong with Bionic Woman. I only watched the first episode but I didn't like the idea of the show since before it aired.

I remember NBC had the extended preview on line for a while and I was just floored by how bad it looked. It's like they took every theme and gimmick from every recent successful action drama and forced it together. You had hot chicks doing super karate, government shadow groups, conspiracies, science fiction, and they even hinted to the played out mysterious sub plot that would obviously be dragged out until the season finale.

And the writers really put the weight of the world on her shoulders didn't they? On top of trying to make ends meet working a supposed crappy job as a bartender while raising her deaf sister(they got rid of the deaf thing though right?) because her parents are dead, she's pregnant by her college professor boy friend. All of that before shes nearly killed by a semi and turned bionic by the boyfriend and a shadowy sort of government agency leading into goofy conspiracy nonsense and cat fights with the other bionic women.

I think all that is a little much but she can handle because she has girl power, and she can do it all in heels.

Thats the thing that I really dislike the most, like the part in the first show where the little girl is trying to get her mom to look at the bionic woman running faster than the car, the little girl says,"I just thought it was cool that a girl could do that.".....Holy shit.

Here is a show that is obviously working off female empowerment themes and the writers have such little faith in the audience that they literally take the time to say "girls rule" out loud.

Sorry man, I call shenanigans.

[smash]

You fall into the trap I always do... you judged it before watching it. A lot of your assumptions are wrong, unfortunately.

She was a struggling bartender before she became a bionic woman, after, that fell by the wayside (in fact finance never factors into the story).
There never was a government conspiracy storyline going on.
Her sister isn't deaf, I don't know if that was supposed to be an original plot point or not.
I took the girl watching her run thing as just cheesy, not some dramatic Women Power statement.

In a nutshell, I'm a sucker for the chick hero dramas (Alias, etc.) especially when they add in the personal dramas.

[Full Nelson Reilly]

I didn't like Alias either, I guess these sort of shows just aren't my cup of tea.

Come to think of it, other than The Office the only major network show I enjoyed this year was Journeyman but thats canceled.