Remember the days when The Terminator was just an action movie starring the future governor of California? Now, it’s an entire mythology based on the original film, two sequels (with a third in development), and — starting Sunday — a television series.
I never saw Terminator 3. At the end of the second film, Arnie himself promised that it was over, and, silly me, I believed him. I decided to pretty much ignore the story from that point on but, much like the robots on which the story is based, the damn thing will not stop coming. Denial obviously isn’t working, so perhaps it’s time to check back in and see how the tale of robots and future dystopia is coming along.
After watching the pilot for the new The Sarah Connor Chronicles, I can at least say that the idea has a bit of life left in it. Whether or not it has enough juice to power an entire television series is another matter.
The show begins several years after T2 left off but before the events of T3. John Connor, the future savior of everything, is in high school, waging battle against the school lunch and biology in preparation for his eventual role in the robot wars. His slightly obsessive mother, Sarah Connor, watches over him with the help of her extensive gun collection and deep-rooted desire to move towns every couple of years. Unfortunately, it’s that latter impulse that brings the pair to the attention of the latest Terminator when her ditched fiancée reports her missing to the police.
Fortunately, John’s new school also happens to contain a dainty, 16-year-old Terminator of its very own (how she knew to wait for him in a small hick town in New Mexico is never quite explained). When John is cornered at school in the first few minutes of the episode, she saves him and the chase is on, with a rather large robot and a pissed-off lawman in hot pursuit.
The first episode is impressive in a number of ways. The effects and action sequences are certainly more than we’ve come to expect from a weekly television program, though it’s impossible to say how much of their effects budget went into securing an impressive pilot. Perhaps, in coming weeks, the budget will dry up and we’ll be forced to watch the “John struggles with his SATs” episode.
The show’s greatest strength lies in its female leads. As the good Terminator, Summer Glau combines the otherworldly quality she first showed in Firefly and Serenity (as well as the impressive ass-kicking quality) with a deadpan delivery that is spot-on for the character. Lena Headey plays Sarah Connor in a far less deranged manner than Linda Hamilton did, but given that we’re supposed to like this character for at least thirteen episodes, that was probably a wise choice. Instead, she manages to be strong and ridiculously competent while still conveying an undercurrent of pain. It’s an extremely difficult role to play, this woman who is simultaneously powerful and broken, and she does a respectable job of it. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that both women are rather attractive, as well.
The show does a solid job of acknowledging the mythology, though there are a few too many winks at fans for my taste. Sure, “Come with me me if you want to live,” is now a required piece of Terminator dialog, but do all the robots have to deliver snappy one-liners while holding a gun? Is that part of their programming?
In the end, despite the promise of the pilot, the show may suffer from its own ambition. As Fergus recently pointed out, the television blockbuster has a built-in expiration date. This is the sort of show that could be brilliant for one season, then quickly fall off as the writers desperately struggle to extend what is, at its most basic, a cat-and-mouse story. Eventually, the chase needs to end, and it will be hard to keep watching if they don’t find an interesting way to prolong that inevitability. Considering that they brought in a young, pretty Terminator to protect John, there may even be some robot love on the horizon. Now, I’m no Terminator expert, but I’m pretty sure that would mess up the mythology a bit.
However, these are only problems that might pop up in the future, and for the moment the show has promise. Considering that I’m so desperate for fresh scripted programming I’m thinking about giving Moonlight a second chance, an interesting show with potential is more than I dared hope for. It’s a good place to start, at least.
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January 10th, 2008 at 1:55 am
Although my intial August review of the series was somewhat negative, I think time has resulted in a bit of a different perspective of any semblance of new drama. As a result, I’m willing to give the show a chance, especially since the critics have screened both episodes and seem to have the same opinion that I had after the pilot – promising ideas, great execution of action, concerns about longevity. Nice to see that it lasted two episodes with that being only a concern rather than a criticism, though – a step in the right direction.