The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2007)

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REVIEW: TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES

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by Tom McLean

Full of action and attractive actors, the debut episodes of Fox’s new series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles do their best to evoke the intensity of the film franchise that inspired it, but ultimately fall short of both living up that legacy and staking out satisfyingly fresh territory.

Picking up after the events of 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the series begins with Sarah Connor (played by Lena Headey of 300) and her son, John (Thomas Dekker of Heroes fame) living under fake identities in America’s heartland in 1999. When yet another cybernetic Terminator from the future shoots up John’s school in an attempt to stop him from leading a future, post-nuclear war rebellion against intelligent machines, the Connors are forced to run. Aiding them is Cameron (Summer Glau of Firefly) — another “good” Terminator sent to protect John — who shows up to take the Connors into the supposedly safe time period of 2007 so they can renew their efforts to prevent the coming apocalypse. (Just to clarify, this series is ignoring the events of the 2003 sequel Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, in which Sarah Connor is said to have died, and the planned fourth Terminator film now in development.)

These episodes borrow heavily from the feature films’ iconic imagery and action, which should be a good thing and is, in a limited way. Watching a classic, metal-skulled Terminator in a full-blown action sequence is pretty cool and it’s been a long time since machine guns, explosions and car chases of this type were seen on TV. Both hours are packed with lots of this sort of thing, as well as real stunts that see characters fall from buildings and throw each other through walls in fistfights. Fun as it is, there’s a retro feeling to it that lacks the some of the polish and a lot of the intensity that fans have come to expect from the Terminator franchise.

There are areas where the series is trying to establish its own identity as a weekly TV series that have potential to pay off. Among them are plots involving the return of Sarah’s ex-boyfriend, who once proposed to her and was a father figure to John. There’s also John’s attraction to Cameron and the question of whether this Terminator’s rudimentary emotions are capable of returning his affection; an FBI agent, played by Richard T. Jones, on the Connors’ mysterious trail; and the re-awakening of a once-destroyed Terminator determined to accomplish its mission of killing John.

But cramming all this into two episodes makes for choppy viewing that also gets in the way of getting to know these characters, which do deviate from the film versions. Headey, for example, lacks the tough-as-nails physical presence of Linda Hamilton, making up for it by playing up Connor’s intelligence. Unfortunately, in these episodes, her character is shunted to the side a lot, reacting to events more than shaping them. Similarly, Glau’s portrayal of Cameron is excessively normal – the sense that she’s a dangerous weapon primed to kill to protect John fails to come through. Dekker has perhaps the easiest role to adapt to TV, though his John Connor also is a bit too mundane for having grown up in such extreme circumstances.

The result is two episodes of TV that are a big old mess: There is potential here for a cool series, but the diamonds in the rough need to found and polished quickly to avoid degenerating into a boring footnote to the history of the film franchise.

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Op maandag 14 januari 2008 15:40 schreef DarkChylde het volgende:
die female terminator chick is wel sexy
gingen ze vandaag nou beginnen met uitzenden in US?

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Op maandag 14 januari 2008 12:50 schreef Tokus het volgende:
en de promoplaatjes had ik in dit topic nog niet gezien:

[ afbeelding ]

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Op maandag 14 januari 2008 20:01 schreef s0k het volgende:
1x02 promo, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3MbL1SKtvg

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Talk about "I'll be back." Fox's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on Sunday night premiered to 18.3 million total viewers and was broadcast television's highest-rated scripted series debut in three years among adults 18-49 and adults 18-34. (Among total viewers it was the highest in almost two years.) It was also Fox's highest-rated scripted series debut in over seven years among 18- to 49-year-olds (since Dark Angel, Oct. 2000) and in eight years in total viewers.

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Op maandag 14 januari 2008 20:04 schreef Mr.Noodle het volgende:

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Wat nou promo, komende nacht kun je de hele aflevering al vinden..

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Op maandag 14 januari 2008 17:32 schreef Pek het volgende:

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Summer Glau
Wat een bizarre rollen speelt dat kind toch: van labiele moordmachine in Firefly en labiele 4400, nu een redelijk stabiele moordmachine

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Op maandag 14 januari 2008 22:14 schreef Rock-shocker het volgende:

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Niets ten nadele van Firefly en Serenity, want die waren fucking cool.

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Op dinsdag 15 januari 2008 13:29 schreef BlackSheep het volgende:
Kvind het wel wat hebben deze serie. Het is nog even afwachten waar het precies naar toe gaat natuurlijk, maar na de 1e en 2e film (ik laat 3 even buiten beschouwing) is het bij voorbaat al gaaf om weer eens wat van terminator te zien. En Summer Glau natuurlijk!

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Op dinsdag 15 januari 2008 13:59 schreef BlackSheep het volgende:
Vergeleken met Terminator 3 issie Chuck Norris

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Op woensdag 16 januari 2008 01:03 schreef franske19 het volgende:
Wel een geinige start en gelukkig wordt T3 genegeerd. Wat een fiasco was dat.

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