Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles - The Complete First Season [Blu-ray]

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 08/19/2008 Run time: 405 minutes Rating: Nr

Customer Reviews: Read 31 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

One of the better new shows of 2008 July 12, 2008
17 out of 25 found this review helpful

Warning! Spoilers ahead.

The first season of TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES was a good one. Though fans are now brooding over whether the series will be picked up for a second season -- this is, after all, FOX, killer of shows -- the ratings overall were good, especially in the 18-49 demographic. While I would be the first to acknowledge that you should never underestimate FOX's ability to kill a good show, even FOX will hesitate to cancel a show doing this well in the most desired demographic. If the series is cancelled, it would definitely rank as the most dim-witted cancellation in FOX's history. At least some of the other very good shows that it cancelled were struggling with ratings. My guess is that they will bring it back in the fall and pair it with 24 on Monday nights.

A lot of fans of the original two TERMINATOR films (we can all pretty much ignore the third TERMINATOR film, which even the makers of the forthcoming Christian Bale-as-John Connor film is not going to treat as canonical) were bugged to no end with minor or (in their minds) major chronology issues. My response is: who cares? First, we are talking about two very good SF films, but they are not the cinematic equivalent of WAR AND PEACE. Second, fans of the TERMINATOR films need to learn the same sensibility that fans of comic superheroes have learned: change is good. I mean, what is canonical in Batman? What cannot be allowed in Iron Man? There have been so many variants in comics that if it weren't allowed, there would be no comics. Besides, in the history of story telling there have been an almost uncountable versions of various stories throughout history. If TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES plays around with thee films' chronology, this is the biggest "no big deal" of all time. The question is whether the adjustments lead to some great storytelling. I believe it does.

Casting is incredibly important in a series like this. Although by the end of the season more characters are introduced than one might have initially imagined, this is mainly a three-person show. Lena Headley, who is best known to mainstream American TV viewers from the film 300 (though she has been in a very large number of other films and TV series), does a great job in the title role, with one exception. She looks the role, acts the role, comes across as tough in the role. I completely buy her. But I really hope in Season Two that they decide to dispense with the opening narrations. Though she is a good actress, she doesn't sell the narration. Kristen Bell on VERONICA MARS and now on GOSSIP GIRL makes it seem so effortless, as does Jim Dale on PUSHING DAISIES. But it is an easy to underestimate skill. No doubt the writing hinders Headley in her narration. It comes across as too self-conscious, too aware of itself, too unnatural.

Thomas Dexter, who most know from a controversial character from early Season One HEROES (his character was initially Claire the cheerleader's gay best friend -- but when Christian groups started complaining about a gay character, they suddenly un-gayyed him -- I wonder if people who are so obsessed about saving America from gays and the dangers gays represent to marriage [though I've never quite grasped the connection between keeping two dudes getting married and how that is going to make heterosexual marriages healthier] spent more time working on their own marriages if the Bible Belt, which currently has the highest divorce rate in America, would have more successful marriages, heterosexual or otherwise), does a very creditable job as John Connor, the sixteen-year-old version. The challenge of playing John is that it has to be made creditable that this kid would sometime become the kind of leader who could lead a resistance. My major complaint with T2 is that this wasn't done. I think Dekker by the end of the season started doing that. Early in the season he seemed more rebellious, headstrong teenager. But by the end of the season he had started maturing.

The producers of the show say that they created the role of Cameron with Summer Glau in mind. To show how crucial she was in their conception of what they wanted to do, she was offered the role outright, instead of auditioning people for it. And it is obvious that they knew why they wanted her: they'd obviously seen FIREFLY and SERENITY and saw how she played the on-the-edge insane River Tam, who is simultaneously a genius, a psychic, a highly honed killing machine, and a crazy person. There is some legitimate complaint about her performance in the Pilot, but it is the fault of the writing and directing and not Glau. In the Pilot when we first see her, she is a super friendly, socially smooth, chipper, giggly high school girl in the first episode. But the rest of the season she seems to have the same social skills that Arnold did in his turn as your friendly neighborhood terminator. Once they got past the pilot, however, Cameron became one of the best things in the show. Most robots on TV are clearly persons, even if they are not human. Data, for instance, was clearly, for all his lack of emotion, a person. Sharon on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA clearly is, as is Caprica Six. Even the Doctor on STAR TREK: VOYAGER is clearly a person. There is a famous thought experiment known as The Turing Test, from a thought experiment proposed the famous Cambridge mathematician and super genius John Turing. He imagined a test in which a human being and a computer were separated from a questioner by a wall. A series of questions would then ensue. If the questioner couldn't, by the answers that were given, tell which respondent was the computer, then, Turing reasoned, that computer could be considered a person. Cameron is the first important TV cyborg, robot, or android since Robot on LOST IN SPACE who probably couldn't pass the Turing test.

Let me expand a bit on this. Although Cameron can attend school, hang out with people, and basically pass for human, she constantly exposes the gap between her and humans. This is incredibly unusual for television. As a result, this could end up being one of the most important cyborg characters in the history of TV, at the very least the one that could inspire some interesting reflection. She is the first cyborg character on TV who truly seems to be completely devoid of compassion. Early in the season, when a girl she has "befriended" is about to jump off a roof in a public act of suicide, Cameron refuses John's entreaties that they do something to help her. Later in the season she promises a ballet instructor, from whom she seems genuinely interested in learning some ballet (it helps that Summer Glau is a real life prima ballerina -- her first acting job was on an episode of ANGEL as a ballerina and she and ANGEL creator Joss Whedon are reportedly working together on a ballet film), that she will save both her and her brother from the people seeking to kill them if they will give her information that she is seeking. They give her the information, but instead of helping them, she coldly (not cruelly -- Cameron does not seem capable of cruelty, just as she is incapable of compassion) exits the building. When asked later why she didn't help them, she replies that it wasn't part of the mission. When John asks her if she lies, she admits that she does, even to him. And the season is filled with some wonderful Cameron moments, such as when she one minute complains about their looking for the remains of a dead girl, because she a dead human is merely "meat and bones," and a few minutes later is found sitting beside John, talking with him, as she applies pink polish to her nails. Her character is filled with incongruities. Oh yeah, she is blown up at the end of Season Two, but no one really believes that she won't be back, do they?

I liked the patience of the show in Season One. They very gradually brought along three supporting characters. Dean Winters in the Pilot played Sarah's fiance Charly and I fully expected the guy I think of as The Beeper King (from his role as Liz Lemon's boyfriend on 30 ROCK) to immediately disappear from the show. Instead he has reappeared in several episodes. My guess is either that he will be killed off or he will end up as part of Sarah and John's little army of supporters. I'm guessing the same will be true of Richard T. Jones's Agent Ellison, who started off as someone after Sarah because he considered her a mere murdered, but as the season has gone alone has come to believe that she was not lying when she claimed to be chased by robots from the future. The finale saw Ellison and a substantial group of FBI agents attack and get mauled by the terminator after John. I would lay money on Charly in the first episode of Season 2 taking Ellison to meet Sarah and having him become another member of her cadre. The third character to emerge was Brian Austin Green as Derek Reese, the brother of Kyle Reese from the first TERMINATOR movie and therefore the uncle of John. I didn't much care for his character by the end of Season One, but that is mainly because he was so gruffly written. I also got tired of his endless suggestions that something needed to be done about Cameron, that she was a killing machine that couldn't be trusted, bladdy blah blah. I hope they either kill him off or deepen his character in Season Two. I suspect they will take the latter route.

My last comment is that this show managed to do what any good show need to: it got better as it went along. I enjoyed the first episode, but with each successive episode I liked the show more and more. I am very much looking forward to Season Two. And completely confidant that there will be one. Not even FOX would be so stupid as to cancel it.

4 out of 5 stars

They'll be Bock! May 16, 2008
15 out of 26 found this review helpful

So what went down with the characters in the Terminator movies between T2 and T3??? Well, to find out you can pick up Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles on DVD if you didn't catch the 9-episode premier season on FOX.

Fresh from the first season of the hit series Heroes, Thomas Dekker takes his turn in the role of John Connor, the future's lead guy in taking the Earth away from SkyNet and the machines. Summer Wow...er...um...I mean *Glau* is The Terminator; like Arnold in T2 she's sent to protect Connor. And like Kristanna Loken in T3, she's mega-hot! And as Sarah Connor you have Lena Headey who I had never even heard of until her recent role in 300.

Importantly, the entire cast of The Sarah Connor Chronicles take their roles seriously, and they preserve the integrity and the awesomeness of the movies that spawned the TV series. Sure, the producers of the TV show needed to take some liberties with the T 1 - 3 storyline that fans of the movies are so familiar with, but they keep a good story flow rolling that makes you anxious for the next episode. Just try not to think about why there's never any reference to all this TV show stuff in T3.

And they'll be bock! (I know, bad Arnold accent.) Everyone's signed on to bring season 2 to viewers...this time hopefully with more than just 9 episodes! Pick season 1 up and check it out before season 2 starts.

4 out of 5 stars

A nice follow up to the two classic Terminator films July 9, 2008
11 out of 14 found this review helpful

While this show isn't James Cameron calibur stuff, for television it is really well done with some nice acting and top notch visual effects. I was never a T3 hater, but after watching the first season of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, I prefer this storyline and will happily ignore everything in T3 (at least until the fourth movie comes out in 2009).

Lena Headey makes a good Sarah Connor, but the real star is Summer Glau, of Firefly and Serenity fame, who plays the cyborg protector named Cameron. She is cute, funny when trying not to be, and downright deadly when in combat. Not to mention the fact that this series shows off Brian Austin Green's acting skill and succeeds. What did I just say?

If your a fan of the movies, you will find much to enjoy here. It isn't up to par with shows like LOST or 24 just yet, but who knows what the future will hold?

5 out of 5 stars

Buy this blu-ray if you want to live August 19, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

When the idea for this show was being shopped around, I thought it would not see the light of day.

A movie spin-off, to TV, normally is not going to be any good. Luckily that is not the case here.

This show takes place after T2, and follows John and Sarah as they try and survive and keep a low profile, while avoiding terminators.

One day something happens, they are spotted, and they meet a new terminator, sent back in time by John. This terminator is to protect John, this terminator is played by the beautiful Summer Glau.

This show is explosive and pretty big budget. The special effects look really good, the fight scenes are amazing, and the show has a pretty good cast. The guest stars are really good too.

After you get to episode 4, the show starts getting even better, it settles into more of a series feel. The first 2-3 episodes feel more like a big movie, then it gets into series territory, and it does a good job.

What I did first was put in my terminator blu-ray and watched it, followed by T2. I forgot how good these movies were, and how awesome Arnold was. When I watched the first episode of SCC I wasn't sure how this show was going to play out, would it be John and Sarah on the run, trying to avoid Terminators, or would it be something else? Luckily it is something else, but also some running, the show surprised me, and went places I didn't think they would go, and they do a very good job doing it. This is a pretty good series, unlike the guy below me, please view more episodes, try and make it to at least episode 5, by then you should be hooked!

The video quality is really good. I'm impressed. The audio is fantastic. I love the menus, and the show has some pretty cool special features. I sat down and watched this in no time flat, took maybe 6-7 hours, it flows easily, and is worth watching no doubt.

It is sad the show only has 9 episodes this season, but the 9 episodes are pretty good. Some of the cast you will recognize from "The Shield", "The Wire", "90210 - The Original One" and "Firefly", "The Unit", "The 4400" and the movie "Serenity"

The acting is great, Summer will send chills down your spine when you view the episode where she is practicing ballerina lessons.

This is a great show, I highly recommend it, and cannot wait for season 2 to start airing!

5 out of 5 stars

Lena Headey is perfect as Sarah August 28, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

I must say I didn't expect too much at first. What is there to tell that hasn't been said before in the movies? And how do you create more than a couple of episodes about a mom trying to protect her son from human-like robots?
Man, was I wrong.
Of course there are Terminators all over the place and they are constantly being destroyed and get back up and what not again and again but that's what the story is about.

In short, for those who don't know: Sarah and her son want to destroy the computer network Skynet to avoid a future Armageddon. They get help from a sexy fem-bot: Cameron Phillips.
The trio is being chased by the FBI who doesn't know that the Connors are the good guys and by the machines whose existence is at stake.

It's fun to watch (if you keep in mind that most of the shot people are in fact robots...)
Lena Headey does a terrific job as Sarah. She is convincing as a caring mother, but she also manages the action very well and even looks convincing when others think she's insane. (Sorry fans, but I didn't think Linda Hamilton ever pulled that off. She looked insane all right but for the rest ...)
Summer Glau as the protective Terminator is funny. The way she moves and reacts to emotional (and other) outbreaks always make me laugh.
Some SciFi critics think Thomas Dekker too old for his role as John but I never had a problem with that. He is a terrific actor in his own right (as he already showed us in Heroes) and fits perfectly in the story.
Richard T. Jones is very good as the FBI agent who senses there is much more behind all this.

If you don't take this all too seriously (who does?) you're in for a ride.
Of course I would have wanted more episodes in this season but because of the writers strike there are none. Well, less is more. Better this way than having a few more but written by amateurs.
Blu-ray is state of the art. Also the extras are nice to watch. Of course there's a making of with interviews of the producers and writers etc. but what I really liked were the audition tapes of all the leading actors and the dance practice of Summer Glau.

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