Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles-Own it on DVD August 19th, 2008
- Genre: Sci-Fi, Drama
- Price: $18.99 on Amazon
- Run Time: 394 Minutes
- Publisher: Warner Home Video
- Starring: Lena Headey, Thomas Dekker, Summer Glau, Richard T. Jones
- Special Features: Commentaries, Creating the Chronicles, Broadcast and Extended cut of episode 7 The Demon Hand, Cast Audition Tapes, Terminated Scenes: Unaired Moments, Storyboard Animatic, Summer Glau Dance Rehearsal, Gag Reel
One of my most anticipated new shows of last season was “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.” I have always been a huge fan of sci-fi and I also enjoyed all the Terminator movies. I thought the premise sounded good and I thought the show had a lot of potential. When the show aired on television I thought it was pretty good but I was still a little disappointed. If you missed it during it’s television run you can now catch up on the 9 episodes from the strike shortened first season.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the show or movies the show follows Sarah Connor and her son John. Sarah Connor has already faced two Terminators (the first two Terminator movies) that were sent back into time in order to try and kill John. The Terminators want John dead since he leads an uprising in the future that destroys all the robots. The Sarah Connor Chronicles take place between the second and third Terminator movies as Sarah tries to protect her son and teach him how to fend for himself. Joined by Cameron (The Terminator sent to protect him), and a man from John’s future they try to fight against the Terminators and stop them from ever being made in the first place.
As you can tell from the plot, Teminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles is definitely a sci-fi tv show. Since it is a sci-fi show that will turn some people off and I can understand since a lot of people don’t like sci-fi. People that like sci-fi or can at least tolerate it should really look into picking up this DVD set if they haven’t already tried the show.
Overall I thought the plots for the first season were a little hit or miss. The season starts off strong and then hits a roadblock. The season ends off with a few good episodes. So the season is pretty up and down. The premise for the show is very good in my opinion but the show doesn’t totally fulfill what it could have been. Since it was based on an action movie franchise you would think it would have a ton of action. It doesn’t have quite as much action as you would like but this is a TV show after all and the budget wouldn’t allow for non-stop action. The action sequences in Terminator are very good though.
Where the storyline fails to fulfill the potential of the premise is in these times where the action is taken out. The show kind of struggles with these character developing moments at least at the beginning of the season (they improve towards the end of the season). It was necessary to have these moments in the show but I think they could have been done better to keep up the action even during the slow points in the story.
As far as acting is concerned I thought Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has a good cast. Lena Headey does a good job as Sarah Connor even though she puts her own twist on the character. Thomas Dekker (sci-fi fans will know him as Zach from Heroes) does a good job as John as well. I think the star performer of the cast is Summer Glau though. For those of you who don’t know Summer Glau really made her name with her role as River on Firefly (a great sci-fi show by the way). I thought Summer Glau did a great job as Cameron the Terminator. It must be pretty hard to play a robot that has absolutely no emotions whatsoever. Summer Glau makes the character realistic though.
Before I wrap up this review I need to discuss the special features. I was genuinely surprised by the special features in this DVD set. You might not know this but I am usually not a huge fan of special features since most seemed to just be slapped on so there are some special features on the DVD set. I could tell that Terminator actually spent some time on their special features. The commentaries are pretty much what you would expect as well as the deleted scenes. The special feature I really liked was the three part look at how the Sarah Connor Chronicles was created. I thought it was interesting how the show was built off the movies and how some things were taken from the movies while others were uniquely created for the show.
While the show didn’t quite live up to my huge expectations I thought it was still a very entertaining show. Despite only having 9 episodes I thought the DVD set was very good. If you liked the show and want to revisit the first season or are a sci-fi fan that didn’t check it out when it aired on TV I would recommend that you pick up the first season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on DVD.
My Rating:
Non Sci Fi Fans: 
