What can I say about this new offering from FOX?. Well, the first words that come into my mind are thank you!.
Thank you for giving all t.v. watchers a breath of fresh air, a reprieve from the soon to be constant onslaught of reality programming.
As a long time fan of the Terminator franchise, I was extremely excited about this new series, but I will admit that I also had my doubts. Mainly because there are so many past examples of film turned t.v. shows that failed miserably.
But, Sarah Connor Chronicles is not one of those, it succeeds due to one simple fact. The creator, Josh Friedman stuck to what made the movies so good. Solid characters, a clear complex sci-fi story, and good action.
I was going to re-cap the 2 part pilot but as it turns out EW.com already did a much better job of that than I ever could, so you can head on over there for that. I will concentrate on my impressions of the show and it's actors instead.
Since I already mentioned some the principal reasons for loving this series, I will just gush about the most important part of any new show, the cast. Starting with the main character Sarah Connor played by Lena Heady (Imagine Me and You, 300).
Who in my opinion perfectly embodies the character's mental and physical strength as well as her vulnerability.
Sure, some people may complain and disagree with the physical part, since Lena doesn't have Linda Hamilton's muscular arms, to those people I say get over yourselves. The fact is that no one but Linda will ever have those same arms so you'll just have to learn to live without them;P.
Personally I think Lena is convincing enough, without the beefy arms, it's all in the facial expressions. In fact I want to thank whoever cast her in this role. I think Linda Hamilton would agree.
Next comes the female Terminator, aka Cameron played by Summer Glau (Firefly), who for many people has already proven herself as a favourite. And who interestingly enough unlike all the previous killing machines doesn't have a model number.
I've been reading a lot of reviews where people have said Summer Glau is all over the place interms of her acting. And I have to disagree I think she does a fine job with the character.
After all the Terminator is supposed to be half human and half robot, therefore you'd have to play her as such which is exactly what this actress has done. Very convincingly I might add.
Actually I think one of the most unique things about this Terminator is that she's the first model we know of that has most of the human qualities pre-installed.
Since I'm still on the subject of the female characters I feel I should mention how much I love the fact that there are 2 of them. Unless I'm sorely mistaken we haven't seen 2 female heroines since the mid 90's.
Thomas Dekker (Heroes) plays John Connor, the only character who isn't fully fleshed out yet. But the actor fits the character quite well. And I'm particularly interested in seeing how John will evolve should the series survive.
Especially since the creator entirely nixed the events of T3. But not being a big fan of T3 anyway, I was very happy about that fact.
It gives the writers more freedom to develop their version of a female Terminator. And since I really like what I've seen so far I would say they're doing a bang up job.
Aside from what I've already mentioned one of the other things I always loved about the Terminator movies was it's subtle humor. And I guess I wasn't the only one, because the dialogue in this show is filled with it. So a big kudos to Josh Friedman once again for staying true to that.
While it remains to be seen whether the show's writers and creators can maintain the quality and intensity of these first 2 episodes.
One thing is for sure, I finally found a show I can totally get engrossed in. And I want it to stay that way so please executives at the FOX Network I beg you do not terminate it (pun intended;).
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