The Terminator is Back

Critics may have warned us that the Terminator franchise could not possibly survive without Arnold Schwartzenegger. But after viewing Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, one can see the franchise still has legs – sexy, bionic legs.

Spoilers below:

The Sarah Connor Chronicles begins in 1999 with Sarah (Lena Heady) and John Connor (Thomas Dekker) living under aliases, enjoying a semi-normal life…until Sarah’s boyfriend proposes to her, forcing both Sarah and John to skip town (visions of Runaway Bride). When her boyfriend files a missing person’s report, an FBI agent named James Ellison (Richard T. Jones) informs him that Sarah is a wanted terrorist – and so the manhunt begins.

Unfortunately, something else was plugged into the FBI network: a terminator posing as a teacher in John’s new school. Needless to say, the teachernator attempts to assassinate him. In an extreme turn of luck another disguised terminator (this time as a high school student) named Cameron (sci-fi alumni Summer Glau) rescues John from certain death. With Cameron’s help the Connor’s learn that resistance fighters from the future have built a time machine beneath a bank and use it to jump forward to the year 2007. (Really. I swear I’m not making this up.)

Now they are on a mission to elude the FBI, more terminators and stop Skynet before it triggers the nuclear war, known as Judgment Day. Whew!

Judging from the first two episodes, The Sarah Connor Chronicles shows a lot of potential, unlike Fox’s other attempts at an action series. When the terminator sent to kill John opens fire on him in the middle of English class, it’s clear the series isn’t pulling any punches in terms of highly-caffeinated action. The show also does a good job revisiting the Terminator movie plots (it even acknowledges the much maligned T3), as characters from the films make appearances.

As for the actors, Lena Heady replaces Linda Hamilton in the role that made her famous, and so far is doing a decent job portraying the literally ‘tough mother.’ The only glaring flaw in her performance are the heavy-handed voiceovers that close out each episode, which are very melodramatic and tend to be a bit repetitive, with all the talk about the future.

Thomas Dekker slides into the role of John Connor pretty smoothly, playing the Future Leader of the World/Confused Boy Wants to Live a Normal Life without any major problems. So far, so-so.

As for Summer Glau: she channels her inner Arnold kinda-sorta convincingly when she speaks the famous line “Come with me, if you want to live,” sans the Austrian accent. However, if the references to the Wizard of Oz’s Tin Man are any indication, it looks like she will be doing more then portraying a monotone killing machine. This is especially indicated by the inflections in her voice during a private conversation with Sarah about John.

Overall, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was a strong opening salvo to a series that could become a “must see,” rather then a WGA strike replacement series. The show clearly has a natural beginning, middle, and an end. If the producers don’t muck around with the series and try to stretch it out for more ratings and ad revenue there could be a good two or three seasons out of it that will make a fine addition to the Terminator story.

Let’s all hold out hope that the “governator” will make a special appearance in a future episode.