Come with me if you want to live
Published January 15, 2008
Terminator, The Sarah Conner Chronicles, didn’t suck. Remarkable, because suckage was likely.
Oh, don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t fantastic… this is television we’re talking about, and it’s not the most robust franchise in the world, but it was pretty darn good. Casting was almost universally excellent, with an terrific Lena Headley portraying the title character. She plays strong, ass-kicking women well. I enjoyed her in ‘300′ - as Sarah Conner in this Terminator series, she does just as well.
Sci-Fi goddess Summer Glau is also excellent as a new, softer (lets call it, “more advanced”) kind of robot sent from the future. After watching FireFly, I never really realized how smokin’ hot she is… either I had too strong an association of her with her character (I do that - ugly people look ugly to me, odd people… odd, etc.) or she’s gotten better looking in the last few years. At least I wouldn’t be robbing the cradle anymore. I like this progression of Terminator units… though it makes me wonder why the T2000 (the silver Terminator from Terminator 2 (the best of the movies) wasn’t set. He was clearly the most bad ass. I wonder if production values (or lack there of) of television played a role here.
A lot happened in the first episode, and it did what it needed to: set-up the series and left me wanting more. Pilots tend to be rough - the writers haven’t really found their groove yet, the director hasn’t had a chance to build the visual language of the show (for a laugh, check out the first episode of StarTrek:TNG - ugh!)… but given the strength of the movies upon which the series is based, the pilot started the show off on the right foot.
Tonight the second episode aired, and since there is pretty much nothing else on at this point, I suspect the series will do very well indeed.
[Added an additional Summer Glau image for the fan boys out there]
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