Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - Season 1 [Blu-ray]

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 fiancé 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.

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 fiancé 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.

AMAZING!! I have to admit..it's a blast! I'm really hooked to this series, now I'm so looking forward to watch the entire 2nd series (even if, to whet the apetite, I've already searched for pieces of the new episodes & more on the net, of course...)because it's just getting better and better! (someone,on an internet blog, once said it was close to the awesomeness of Battlestar Galactica series,but I can't compare because I don't know this other one). Mainly I'm a fan of fantasy & sci-fiction stories, from Dark Angel and Star Wars to darker ones like Hex or Supernatural, so I'm glad to follow this new one, that has a link to the Terminator movies of my childhood too.Plus I'm bored to watch series all set in closed space-ships with people with funny costumes (sorry Star Trekkers..it's not my cup of tea!)I prefer something more challenging,so to speak,like TSCC. Unfortunately, due to its cleverness and peculiarity, Fox network probably won't order another season (the 3rd) of it: SO IS REALLY VERY IMPORTANT THAT THE FANS CONTRIBUTE TO INCREASE THE SUCCESS OF IT EVERYWHERE, BUYING THE DVDS OUT NOW; WE CAN MAKE IT, THIS SERIES HAS TO CONTINUE BECAUSE IS SO FULL OF POTENTIAL, AND AT THE TOP OF ITS CREATIVITY CLIMAX!!Plus Terminator 4 movie is coming out on theatres in this period, starring Christian Bale, let's hope this could bring a larger base of fans to our fav show too! (I really hope that, fingers crossed, if, no matter what, it didn't make to come out of its tv viewers crisis, not critics'! Due to the tv-schedule problems and stuff like that, it could at least move on another more specific american network: like Sci-fi or the other cable ones...'cause I desperately want to see a proper ending to this fabulous series!! :'( )Ok, back to the specific story now: let me just tell you that this plot begins few years after Termiator 2 movie ended, (then the events of the film T3, which I didn't like, are supposed to be happened in another timeline, so no problem to understand it) the heroine is as usual the tough mummy Sarah Connor and the wannabe "emo"hero is John, her son.Soon they are reached by a teenage cyborg, Cameron (a tribute to director James Cameron, of course, by Friedman, the writer of TSCC ;-P): she claimed to come from a not-so-distant future, where the war of the machines against humanity, guided by the most advanced A.I.,called Skynet, is burst.She will be the good terminator, bodygard protector of young John, sent directly from the future John, to stop the creation of Skynet and prevent the next fatal war: therefore Cameron forces mother and son to jump over another couple of years to save them and succeed in doing the mission, so we find our story settled in the present time....But is she really all-goody? Because she seems to be ambiguous about more than one thing. Is she "more"than an average cyborg indeed: she said at one point of the story,'cause she is different, perhaps so unique to have developed the ability to have/simulate feelings...John is almost in love with her, even if it sounds crazy, but could her be fully trusted?!I leave you with the doubt...And she's not the only one to have secrets and problems of course! ;-)Naturally there will be other characters and flashbacks / forwards, to show the development of the story: like for example the bad terminator, whose mission is to kill John, and his uncle Derek, brother of Kylie Reeves (John's father come from the future in Terminator1, initially to save Sarah).Actors are perfect for their roles,(british Lena Headey alias Sarah, was in 300, Summer Glau who plays Cameron, was in Firefly series and Serenity, Thomas Dekker/ John in Heroes series) plus the story in general is smart, sensitive, deeper in meaning compared to the films: it gives the room "to breathe", to develop the franchising of the Terminator world.The special effects are of course linked to the budget of a tv-show, but a very good one indeed! Of course if you're just looking for the special effects go directly to see a major action film, but even here you won't be disappointed. It is a funny bumpy ride, full of questions ( some still unanswered in the finale of the 2nd season) and new directions to folllow; there's mistery, philosopy even religion in it! You can easily read the plot on multiple levels, there's something for everyone, and even rewatching it, you will find something you've missed out the first time.Besides there's a nice selection of evocative music in the background, the last episode of the (unluckily too short ) 1st season for example, has a great song from the epic Johnny Cash, and in the 2nd season even the Garbage music, represented in the person of the singer herself, who plays the part of a shady liquid antagonist terminator...but is she really what she looks like? To answer this you will have to watch the next season...Until then, just purchase this first season of TSCC and really enjoy it!! Bye-bye(NB_european format of the box set has just deleted scenes for extra, too bad! Instead the american version has got a lot more, commentaries, interviews, etc..what a pity).

This series follows on almost directly from the second film and while remaining faithful to all the films it also builds on many of the ideas and elements. (E.g, you get to see the captured time-displacement technology, you see how the rebels operate, there's an old 'rubber' terminator as mentioned in the first film, there are different terminators with different missions and specifications, e.t.c).The dialogue and scripts are excellent - you can go from the films direct to the series as the spoken word of the characters is identical with the characters spot-on.Although the actors are quite dissimilar to the appearance of the movie actors the performances are very convincing (I thought Sarah Connor was particularly good).As you'd expect with a series there's some good character development and some welcome humour - usually concerning the 'goodie' terminator.At first I was a little unsure of a young female terminator (possibly this is to boost ratings and appeal to the male audience ?!) but to be fair I think this works well and makes sense as she can pose as John Connors sister and accompany him everywhere.The only bad points as I see them, are firstly the budget restraints. (In a 'flashback' episode to the future terminator skeletons are seen from a distance pulling something along when it would have been nice to see more of them and see more action and effects in general).There did not seem to be many episodes in the first season, though possibly because I enjoyed each one there didn't seem to be enough.Also - and this may just me - is it realistic that a young teenage boy suddenly given an attractive female terminator (who likes wearing no clothes initially) and who has to obey his commands is never once tempted to `explore the relationship further' - shall we say ??That all been said, I don't think anyone who is a fan of the films would be disappointed with this series. Its very good !!

I've been a fan of Terminator for years, ever since it was first shown on UK TV in fact, I put up with the T3 travesty and thought no more of it.This series has taken me by as much surprise as the new Battleststar did however. The acting is brilliant and believable, the special effects are top notch, the camera work is emotive and moody - I can't say enough good things about this show.There have been some genuinely chilling moments, just as you start to feel that Cameron is taking on human qualities, she walks away from an innocent being murdered, but then we see her trying to Ballet dance and being watched by a hiding human.One good thing, in the cannon of the terminator stories, this carries on straight after T2, T3 never happened in this time line, a great blessing.I really cannot express what a pleasant thrill it was to sit down and watch something so good.5/5 - go get it now :)

Very good series. I thought it would be a bit cheesy, but it was pretty good. Although, some of the stories are a bit cheesy as well as repetitive, but overall it is worth enjoying. Although this is the review for the first season, the second is was getting better. A shame it was cancelled, as the plot became interesting. However, i would not say the series is a "must see", it is worth watching - especially if you like scifi. I must admit that my review is lame at best, with no details or explanation, with more a "take my word for it" than anything else, rather than write an informed opinion.

Lena Headey is one of many British actors who convincingly adopt an American accent when featuring in a US of A drama. So good it is you'd never guess she was from over here.She stars as Sarah Conner, along with a strong supporting cast. Cameron, an advanced robot in human form, sent to protect John Connor from a multitude of others from present and future, is convincing, as is Connor himself.I found myself hooked, and watched all episodes in season 1 in a couple of weeks, which is unusual for busy old me!Season 2 beckons....