Sarah Connor Chronicles - Terminator TV show for the fall

[boomhauertjs]

Re: Sarah Connor Chronicles - Terminator TV show for the fall

I'm a big fan of the movies and the story (I even thought T3 was decent), but when I first heard about the show I was skeptical. I found it to be a very entertaining show that stayed pretty true to the heart of the movies. I'm not a big fan of the time-travel to 2007 (though I understand why they did it), but I'm looking forward to seeing how the story unravels. I anticipate some good plot twists and turns. It's a "Save Until I Delete" on my DVR.

[Karlos05]

Re: Sarah Connor Chronicles - Terminator TV show for the fall

I thought it was pretty damn good. I'm a huge T2 fan (I still get teary-eyed at the end!).

That was the ultimate punch in the gut to John.

"I cannot self-terminate. You must lower me into the steel"

[Double Eights]

Re: Sarah Connor Chronicles - Terminator TV show for the fall

I've never seen any of the Terminator movies, so I really don't understand what the show is about.

I meant to watch this last night, but I didn't get home until it was halfway over. Is it worth my time to try to find the episode in "alternative" ways?

[CMH]

Re: Sarah Connor Chronicles - Terminator TV show for the fall

Maybe not an exact rehash of T2. Last nights episode was basically T2 with different actors portraying each character.

And why did the bad terminator always look pissed-off? I thought they had no emotions. I don't remember Arnold or the Dogget looking like someone stole something from them.

Bad acting, bad dialogue, bad script. I wanted to like this show, but it was pretty brutal.
When I saw them pull out one futuristic doo-hickey after another in the bank vault I just about fell out of my chair laughing.

But I guess there are some shows that are best for just eating popcorn and enjoying. This is definitely a show where you can shut your brain off and enjoy the hot T1, big explosions and bad special effects. At least it's better than the 1000 reality shows out there.

I get it. I'm just saying that I think I expected that so I wasn't disappointed. There's going to be a lot of running, Terminator's fighting, and Sarah getting shot in the arm. It's gonna happen because there really isn't much more you can do with the Terminator story. I'm sure they'll try to add little extras and plot twists here and there but it's always going to be based on the same thing because that's the story.

I understand why that may not entertain you. But like Flyboy and I said, I think the main theme of this is mother saving child. That will be consistent throughout. I'm not sure how long they can continue to push it without it getting boring but hey, I still watch Prison Break and they've already broken out of prison.

The reactions I think are meant to be new. Remember, the girl ate a chip after John asked her if she was different. I think she said "Yes" or something of that sort. So, we don't know. These could be new models with emotions, built to look and act like humans. Thing to keep in mind is that Artificial Intelligence was not as advanced as it is today back when Terminator 2 was produced. 1999 was supposed to be the year that the Machine War took place. Now it's been pushed forward to 2011. That's 12 years for technology to improve and with a new person running SkyNet, you don't know what new advances they made to technology. I bet there is a lot to learn about the girl and we'll figure that out in the coming weeks.

Finally, the time machine thing is the one thing that really bothered me. When they jumped into the vault and the female Terminator started pulling out crap I said, "If they travel in time I'm changing the channel." But when I saw that they moved it to 2007, I realized it wasn't just a stupid jump to get out of the vault. It was to push the story to our current time and I let it pass because I can understand the reasoning behind that.

[Money99]

Re: Sarah Connor Chronicles - Terminator TV show for the fall

I get it. I'm just saying that I think I expected that so I wasn't disappointed. There's going to be a lot of running, Terminator's fighting, and Sarah getting shot in the arm. It's gonna happen because there really isn't much more you can do with the Terminator story. I'm sure they'll try to add little extras and plot twists here and there but it's always going to be based on the same thing because that's the story.

I understand why that may not entertain you. But like Flyboy and I said, I think the main theme of this is mother saving child. That will be consistent throughout. I'm not sure how long they can continue to push it without it getting boring but hey, I still watch Prison Break and they've already broken out of prison.

The reactions I think are meant to be new. Remember, the girl ate a chip after John asked her if she was different. I think she said "Yes" or something of that sort. So, we don't know. These could be new models with emotions, built to look and act like humans. Thing to keep in mind is that Artificial Intelligence was not as advanced as it is today back when Terminator 2 was produced. 1999 was supposed to be the year that the Machine War took place. Now it's been pushed forward to 2011. That's 12 years for technology to improve and with a new person running SkyNet, you don't know what new advances they made to technology. I bet there is a lot to learn about the girl and we'll figure that out in the coming weeks.

Finally, the time machine thing is the one thing that really bothered me. When they jumped into the vault and the female Terminator started pulling out crap I said, "If they travel in time I'm changing the channel." But when I saw that they moved it to 2007, I realized it wasn't just a stupid jump to get out of the vault. It was to push the story to our current time and I let it pass because I can understand the reasoning behind that.

I agree. Good post.

So what's the odds that before the 9 episodes are up the good T1 will fight another hot, bad T1? I hope it's in the rain and they're nude.

[mgoblue]

Re: Sarah Connor Chronicles - Terminator TV show for the fall

I agree. Good post.

So what's the odds that before the 9 episodes are up the good T1 will fight another hot, bad T1? I hope it's in the rain and they're nude.

Damn, that'd be hot!

I know I'm hoping that they can really add some of the Sarah/John interaction, along with other character development...if it does stay truly mindless with no development whatsoever it'll get old fast. Just need to give it a 4 episode-ish window to tell. It still has me wanting to watch the next one, for now.

[RockinDaMike]

Re: Sarah Connor Chronicles - Terminator TV show for the fall

I like Summer Glau so i'm letting some of the bad acting pass as the action is pretty good. A ton of explosions and guns blazing!! Hopefully they keep up with the action because I just plain out love gun battles. I have my other shows to keep up with me story wise like The Wire and Lost.

[Spectre]

Re: Sarah Connor Chronicles - Terminator TV show for the fall

"Come with me if you want to live!"

I'm sorry, I laughed when she said that. I did not like the casting for that role at all, the more I think about it. Personally, I find more believable (ha, funny word here) the relationship between a male robot and John Connor. Hope it doesn't come across as offensive to any of you folk, but I will get sick to my stomach if this becomes a romantic relationship.

[videobastard]

Re: Sarah Connor Chronicles - Terminator TV show for the fall

It was better then i expected. The acting is not that good, especially the male terminator. But i liked the action scenes and it gives me something to watch with 24 not being on. The terminator as the sub teacher scene was funny... Im looking forward to the next episode.

[MassNole]

Re: Sarah Connor Chronicles - Terminator TV show for the fall

Watching it now. The storyline is decent but the acting is just awful.

[MassNole]

Re: Sarah Connor Chronicles - Terminator TV show for the fall

Stupid question about the time traveling robots. Why don't they just go back in time and kill Sarah's parents or grandparents? That would seem to take care of their problem and give them the world. Clearly these are American made terminating robots because they certainly aren't that bright.

[Altimus]

Re: Sarah Connor Chronicles - Terminator TV show for the fall

"Come with me if you want to live!"

I'm sorry, I laughed when she said that. I did not like the casting for that role at all, the more I think about it. Personally, I find more believable (ha, funny word here) the relationship between a male robot and John Connor. Hope it doesn't come across as offensive to any of you folk, but I will get sick to my stomach if this becomes a romantic relationship.

The romantic part may be a sub plot. Funny, when he thought she was a human he didn't have any interest in her. Or little.

Now that he knows she is a killing machine, dude is making moves.

[Bornindamecca]

Re: Sarah Connor Chronicles - Terminator TV show for the fall

Yeah, because one of the things that made James Cameron's Terminator films so incredibly amazing and never to be equaled by anything ever was Arnold Schwarzenegger's immense thespian range while uttering such finely crafted lines as "Hasta la vista, baby" and "I'll be back."

Make no mistake, T2:Judgement Day is a very flawed movie, particularly on the level of the characterization of the Terminators. Where it is very successful is the action, pacing, the surrogate family allegory and the development of Sarah Conner.

With a television show, they just don't have the budget to compete with the action, even over a decade and a half later. The stunts in T2 were too expensive and too big. However, they can have superior characterization, because television gives you the opportunity to build with character over scenes for a long time. The audience can see characters experience dynamic change over the course of a season, and exposition can be either limited to plot, or be used to enhance the depth of passing events. That's a benefit that movies don't have because of the elapsed time from Fade in to Fade out.


This show may not be able to capitalize on this opportunity because of the sorry writing and sorrier acting. It is very early in the season, and as someone in this thread stated, the pilot is sometimes the worst episode of a series. The actors don't know each other, or the characters, and haven't yet found the rhythm of the dynamics of the show. At an early glance however, they are not building a foundation to platform character growth.

[ODogg]

Re: Sarah Connor Chronicles - Terminator TV show for the fall

Stupid question about the time traveling robots. Why don't they just go back in time and kill Sarah's parents or grandparents? That would seem to take care of their problem and give them the world. Clearly these are American made terminating robots because they certainly aren't that bright.

Because they just really hate that John Connor guy and killing his parents just wouldn't be as personal as killing him himself.

[CMH]

Re: Sarah Connor Chronicles - Terminator TV show for the fall

"Come with me if you want to live!"

I'm sorry, I laughed when she said that.

No one has mentioned how that's a line in Terminator 2.

Terminator (Arnold) to Sarah Connor: Come with me if you want to live.