|
The Sarah Connor Chronicles
on Fox
Television Review by Timothy Milton
Before I start, let me say that I am a big Terminator fan, so I was both interested and surprised that someone decided to take the franchise to the small screen. Overall, the pilot replicates the momentum that the first 2 movies had (I'm not going to talk about the third; it was just a giant car chase). In the movies, Sarah Connor was a tough woman who was a very scary mother from hell. In the TV show she seems too feminine and too soft to be the same woman (Lena Headly was awesome in 300, but this is a real step down for her; plus she just isn't tough-looking like Linda Hamilton). Most of the characters in the TV show are cardboard cutouts who lack any real depth and add little but cannon fodder to the show (which is good since most of them seem to last only the one episode). The main characters also suffer from this 2 dimensional feel, and this is a problem since they should be building on the pre-established characters while modifying them to make them their own. They don't; instead they do a bad reinvention of them and stumble along in the process.
Its no surprise that while watching the show I was constantly distracted by the bad writing—the writers are Andromeda alumni. (Science fiction that gave us sexy warships and silly names like Tyr Anasazi.) And the casting of a sexy lithe Terminator in the form of Summer Glau may be a way to get all the scifi geeks to watch and masturbate, but it doesn't add to the credibility of the show. Why, yes, I believe the 98 lb. Terminator can beat up the 250 lb. Terminator with such ease.....not. I love Glau, she was amazing in Serenity and Firefly, but she isn't a Terminator, she's the girl John Connor falls in love with while he is being chased by Terminators. If they use her to her potential, it will mean a predictable love interest that is so hideously transparent and stupid that the writers should be shot. This show will do the 3rd movie justice—it will be just as inane and uninventive as T3. Watch at your discretion and remember to have a tissue handy, so when your aneurysm ruptures from the stupidity you can soak up the blood leaking from your eyes, nose and ears.
______
|
 |
______
|
|
