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But let Brian Austin Green force me to the ground, shove dirt in my
mouth, and ask me to repeat the words "Ok, it works! It works!" because
to my surprise (and I’m guessing a lot of other Terminator fans) Sarah Connor Chronicles does work…. and without the producers even bringing on in anyone else from West Beverly High.
I
know! Shocker! You’d think they’d have had to resort pretty quickly to
bringing in Luke Perry to play an unstoppable Cyborg. Thankfully, it
never resorted to that. And for what it’s worth, Green's turn on the
show has almost erased any memory of his 90210 character. If that’s possible.
Despite the unfortunate timing of hitting screens after Terminator 3 : Rise of the Machines
(the shittiest of the film series, and one that obliterated a lot of
the possibilities for this show, least of which was killing off the
lead character) Sarah Connor Chronicles picks up just after the events of Terminator 2 : Judgement Day and for the most part, doesn’t seem to give much of a hoot about what went on in Jonathan Mostow’s ill-fated sequel.
It merely builds on what was set up in Jim Cameron’s 1991 blockbuster – following Sarah Connor (played here by 300 beauty Lena Headey) and her son, John (Heroes star Thomas Dekker) as they move onto post-Schwarzenegger adventures.
It’s
a good idea they’ve come up with too – a time-travel piece – much more
effective than the originally rumoured idea of a workplace comedy set
at Skynet.
Sarah Connor and son John decide to stop running and
seek out a way to destroy SkyNet (that’s SkyNet not SkyNews). With the
aid of Cameron Phillips (Summer Glau), a beautiful girl who has a
mysterious past also linked to the future, the robot-battling threesome
head into the future - beginning their quest to stop the United States
military and Cyberdyne Corporation from creating the program that will
bring humanity to an end.
You won’t like the show initially – if
only because the low-budget stands out like a wart on an ear-lobe, and
as a consequence, nothing in those first couple of episodes (speaking
mainly of the action sequences) comes close to knocking your socks off
like the terrifically-choreographed sequences of T1 and T2.
Thankfully,
the producers recognize this pretty early and make up for the lack of
expensive explosions with a storyline that really starts to grab. By
mid-season, you’ll be close to hooked. And if you’re not, you're not
going to be.
The show does lack of a good unstoppable evil
Terminator – Schwarzenegger was just so good in the role, Robert
Patrick too – but thankfully Headey (especially good as Connor), Dekker
and Summer Glau (Serenity) are all good in their roles, so it’s not too noticeable a blemish.
The
show likes to have a few different actors playing Terminators
throughout the series, and though that's a brave and creative move, it
doesn’t always work. If they are doing that as a ways to find which one
works best, then good, but I’m thinking the producers are actually
thinking this is an audience-pleaser.
It ain’t.
Stick to the one guy (later on they use Garrett Dillahunt, of Deadwood
fame, and he sticks around for a while) and you’ll find it works
better. We need to get to know the flesh-covered robot on the Connors’
trail. We need a dangerous, unstoppable robot like we’ve seen in the
originals. We need to know that when we see 'this guy' it spells
trouble. Skip an episode of the show, and you’ll be hard-pressed
knowing who the Terminator even is – that’s how often they change the
robots flesh.
Brian Austin Green enters the series about the
three-quarter-way mark. He plays Derek Reese, the brother of Kyle
Reese, the chap who came back to protect Sarah Connor from the
Terminator in the original film (and later fathered her son).
Derek’s
a rough-around-the-edges rebel, not quite as outwardly likeable as his
late brother, who’s convinced 'Cameron' is up to no good. It’s an
interesting character and – by golly, I can’t believe I’m saying this –
one that ultimately helps turn the show into the intriguing series it
became.
DVD EXTRAS
Extras on the DVD are pretty light actually - only a selection of deleted scenes.
Conclusion:
Movie 70% Extras: 60%
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