Mon, February 4, 2008

If you watched the Super Bowl, you may be aware that Fox has a new show called Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. (Also, pitching a talking-baby commercial is still not grounds for firing at some ad agencies. What a world.)

TTSCC was developed for TV by Josh Friedman, who happens to be among my most adored screenwriter-bloggers. He also wrote its pilot, which despite a few overwrought monologues from Sarah, was pretty good. The show picks up after Terminator 2, with Sarah and her son John on the run from authorities and various mechanical time-travelling assassins. Some have criticized the show for picking an arbitrary starting point and "branching" the story between T2 and T3, but Terminator 2 is the only Terminator movie with any real cultural staying power as far as my generation is concerned (or at least as far as I am concerned) so I don't see this as a drawback.

Really, though, you could cut Sarah and John right out of the show and it would remain just as awesome, because accompanying them is Summer Glau as Cameron, yet another cyborg who's been sent from the future to protect John on behalf of his future self.

(You have to ignore some aspects of the time travel situation. Considering the immediate feedback the future robots get from every attempt to assassinate John in their past [Did he just vanish? Nope.], you would think future robots would be arriving in our present much more often and in greater numbers. You would also guess that the future robots might send additional assassins into the more distant past – but I suppose from a storytelling perspective it's easier to keep things nice and linear.)

Summer Glau is attractive in a peculiar sort of way, and has a unique ability to sit very still. I was never a tremendous fan of her work on Firefly. (Although she was plenty good – I'm simply contrasting my regular enthusiasm with the mania she inspires in most Firefly fans.) As Cameron, she is perfectly cast. She steals every scene with her deadpan style, even in the face of gunplay and explosions. She underplays the "I'm not from here" moments much better than Schwarzenegger did, inserting a pause of puzzled nonchalance now and then amidst her feats of strength and tactical weaponry. Those humorous moments are the fun of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, although she doesn't play them "funny." (They appeal to the same part of me that enjoyed John Lithgow's fish-out-of-water scenes in 3rd Rock from the Sun, although obviously from a performance energy standpoint it's the difference between a hiccup and the explosion of the Death Star.)

So, recommendation: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I don't await it with the rapt anticipation of each week's Friday Night Lights (Just prove to me Landry and Tyra will be okay! Please!!) but it's fun to watch. Also, John Connor is played by the same kid who was in that hospital bed on Seinfeld, bartering with Kramer for the George Steinbrenner autographed baseball card. ("Do you think Paul O'Neill could hit TWO home runs tonight??") Try to tell me that's not awesome.

The fourth episode airs tonight and you haven't missed anything you can't guess. (Teenaged John rebelling against the controlling instincts of his crazy mom? Yep. Sarah gripped with constant fear, struggling to let up and just be a mom? Yep. Future robot assassins pursuing their programmed objectives relentlessly? Of course. S. Epatha Merkerson reprising her role as Joe Morton's widow? Sadly, no.) So, check it out if you aren't too busy obsessing over your Oscar ballots – you might like it.

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