| Rating: | ★★★★ |
| Category: | Other |
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is the television spin-off of the popular Terminator movie franchise. Although we're not gonna expect Arnold Schwarzenegger nor Linda Hamilton to appear in their respective roles in this series, the series follows an alternative timeline after the events that occured in T2. This would effectively ignore the culmination that was T3 in 2003.
Quick Summary: TTSCC is set in 1999, several years after the events of T2. The Connors are on the run from what they believe as Terminators sent back in time to kill John Connor, the one destined to become mankind's savior. The mother of destiny, tries her earnest to lead a normal life with her son but realized that they cannot lead such because of the impending Judgement Day.
It was when they met a young female-looking Terminator named Cameron Philips that decided to go to the future (present time) to prevent the development of Skynet, thus effectively prevent Judgement Day from ever taking place.
When I learn that there's going to be a television show based on the Terminator series, I know from that point on that I'll be hooked to this series once it airs on local TV. Unfortunately I wasn't able to watch episodes in succession so I'm making up for it by watching season 2 online.
Review Proper:
One thing's for sure, this show kick a$$! I like the dynamic shown by the actors portraying the Connors, John and Sarah, plus Cameron and surprisingly, John's uncle from the future, Derek Reese. They show a kind of family that may not be very typical (read: Brady Bunch) but are always there for each other despite ups and downs.
Drama-wise, this show has a lot of heavy scenes that could almost mistaken TTSCC as a daytime soap opera instead of being a sci fi drama. The pace is slow but not dragging. You have that feeling of dormancy within the show that at any given time it would explode. Just hoping it won't taken them too long during the remaining season 2 episodes to finally spur some active excitement.
In terms of action sequences, they tend to be passive. You have that feeling that you know that there ought to be more than what we're seeing right now. Satisfactory yes but based from a teaser for upcoming episodes, it seems that we, as viewers, are gonna get what we deserve.
Let's go to character development: Summer Glau's scenes are becoming increasingly weird, awkward and comedic all at the same time. There was one episode where she is seen entering John's room, wearing a bikini while walking.
Thomas Dekker shows too much angst as young John Connor. He's too much of an idiotic, disobedient boy. Unlike his counterpart in T3, this John so wants to embrace his destiny but not in a very logical way. Good thing he has one tough mom in the form of Sarah Connor, played by Lena Headey.
I'm all praises for Lena. She does an amazing job doing much justice to the role popularized by Linda Hamilton. She may not be able to fuse the same kind of energy that Linda Hamilton gave to the role, she was able to put little but of something from herself that makes TTSCC so much of a guilty pleasure as a whole.
Another guilty pleasure is the presence of seaosn 2 villainess, Catherine Weaver (2.0), portrayed by Shirley Manson. Her character is not exactly Catherine Weaver, but a Terminator T-1001 pretending to be like her (much like the antagonist in T3). She is quick with her wit, beautiful yet dangerous. One recent episode prove that she's a deadly vixen. One funny scene though was her shape-shifting into a men's urinal before killing off a guy about to pee into what he thought as a...urinal.
The idea of time-traveling shouldn't be expanded with the concept of alternate realities being given too much emphasis. IMHO, this would gravely affect the storytelling of the series as well compromising viewer interest due to the unnecessary confusion.
I'm hoping that there's going to be a season 3 since I'm curious if in the end they're going to finally provide a road towards T4: Salvation or stand out and do something fans of the franchise may not expect (like being able to thwart Judgement Day completely and successfully prevented the very existence of Skynet).
Here's the spoiler of upcoming episodes of TTSCC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya6ehFwbS4o
and a photo of Cameron wearing a bikini on what could be a very awkward moment: http://i43.tinypic.com/iqm1xi.jpg
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