Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

By Fred Topel

This show is the movie that Terminator fans have been waiting for.  feels like the true continuation of James Cameron's story of robot killers, protectors and time travel. The pilot opens up with the passing road shot that ended T2 so you feel like you're right where you left off.

With her American accent, Lena Headey is totally Sarah Connor. She's rugged and glammed down but still totally hot. Sarah shows she's still a badass as she escapes from cops, and the show unloads its guns right away. She takes extreme actions with no hesitation. The terminator tactics and action rock. They demonstrate all their familiar powers and abilities. They have good one liners too.

To say it's movie level action would be an overstatement but we wouldn't want that anyway. The point of a TV show is to explore the smaller scale stories possible in this world, and the more intimate action totally holds up with the big budget spectacles. The story is as compelling as the action, so even if there's only one climax in the average weekly episode, this show will be addictive. The story begins in 1999, so thanks for actually respecting the film's continuity there. They find a cool way to bring it up to modern day but at least they didn't just say, "Yeah, 10 years later is going to have John be 23 now. Just give or take three years."

The dialogue sounds like Terminator dialogue. It's cold and matter of fact, believable that they're talking about extraordinary technology. It's not uber serious so that it's just stupid, just the reality of the world, not campy. The new characters fit in nicely. The FBI guy is cool. He doesn't take you out of Terminator land. There would be someone still pursuing the Connors. Summer Glau is the adorable dream girl and fights like a terminator. The terminator acting is good all around, for non-Arnold people. They must not have had the rights to Joe Morton's likeness because they show a picture of a different Myles Dyson. There's a classy reference to Reese. They don't specifically say "I'll be back" but there's a version of it.

Terminator: The Sarah Chronicles gave me everything I wanted in a terminator story. I'll definitely be tuning in every week. I think it's a smart move to just forget Terminator 3. It was what it was, it got Arnold back and it kind of undid the resolution of T2 so they could continue. But this story is truer to what could happen to the Connors and feels more fulfilling.