The Resident Engineer loves the Terminator movies, and was most anxious to see this series when it came out on television. When I received it to review, he offered to do the review for me. How could I refuse? He watched each episode and the special features attached to the series, made notes and then presented me with this wonderful review. I share it with you.
Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles represents a good transition from the well know movie blockbuster to the TV screen. TV series require an on-going storyline and this is amply provided through Sarah’s (Lena Heady) committed training of her son for his future, her persistent efforts to thwart the need for that training, and “flash forwards” to show how and why help is being sent from the future.
The deleted scenes from the pilot episode reveal the true motivation behind Sarah’s seemingly cold-hearted actions, making the viewer really understand her point of view, as well as her fears.
With the need to appeal to a younger demographic, the robot in the TV series is a young female called Cameron, played by Summer Glau (Firefly and Serenity) whom we get to watch adapt to the challenges of the mission.
In her time period (the future) everything is focused on defeating SKYNET, there are few social interactions that don’t include a battle for survival. This puts her in awkward positions in the present day, not understanding how to relate in a human manner.
She grows to understand by watching television and reading, and there is a defining scene where John (Thomas Dekker) tells her not to act like a nerd, and she quickly defines nerd. John asks her how she knows that, and she tells him she has been reading the dictionary at night. She doesn’t sleep.
The special effects are judiciously used to carry the story, which is rightly more focused on the characters and story development; things that are needed to maintain extended viewing interest. The science behind the story is believable with even this engineer finding it satisfyingly plausible.
Due to the writers strike, the series had only 11 episodes and had to be completed without knowing if it would return for a second season. In spite of this drawback, the series began with well developed characters and maintained an interesting level of storytelling.
If you are a terminator fan, being able to watch the series on DVD allows you to pick up on nuances and details that were lost when having to watch and wait a week between episodes.
For example when they zap forward from 1999 to current day, the robot Cameron reveals that SKYNET comes on line several years from now, but Sarah would not have been able to stop it, had they not zapped forward.
Staying in their own time Sarah would have died of cancer in just a year or two. She visits a doctor, and not finding any trace of the disease in the present day, we notice her proactively taking supplements to prevent it.
Another understated but important part of the drama occurs as we watch FBI agent James Ellison (Richard T. Jones), peeling back the layers of the mystery surrounding Sarah Conner.
Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles Season One is presented on three discs with a playing time of 394 minutes in widescreen format.
Special Features include commentaries on three episodes by Producer Josh Friedman and the Cast and Crew, “Creating the Chronicles” a three part look at production of the series, the broadcast version and the extended cut of Episode 7 “The Demon Hand,” Cast audition tapes, Summer Glau’s dance rehearsal, Terminated scenes, a storyboard animatic, and a gag reel.
Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles - The Complete First Season is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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