Sneak Peek at Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
I went to Yahoo on Saturday and watched the season primer of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, or so I was lead to believe. Fox announced that they were releasing the primer a week early for 24 hours through the Yahoo player.
Before getting into reviewing what I saw, I thought that I should take some time talking about the yahoo event. The primer was only 43 minutes long and appeared to be an abridged version of what we can expect for Fox 2 night primer on Sunday January 13th at 8pm est and Monday 14th at 9pm est. There were several instances during the sneak peek where the show seemed to fast forward and skip ahead leaving out conversations like the explanation of what type of robot Cameron (played by Summer Glau) is since she was displaying some traits that were non-characteristic of a terminator robot. Although I appreciate fox for giving us an early preview of the primer I wished that they would have been up front with the fact that it was an abridged version and not promote it as the primer.
The tale picks up 2 years after Terminator 2 with Sarah and John Connor still on the run. They haven't seen any sign of another terminator robot but they still must stay hidden from the government. This is because Sarah is seen by the government as an escaped mental patient who assassinated a promising robotics scientist blew up Skynet Labs and killed many police officers. The police and a new terminator robot find them. They have to run with the help of a new bodyguard robot Cameron and figure out why the robots are back. They did a great job on the primer. I found it entertaining and fun to watch and would recommend everyone to check out the actual primer on Sunday and Monday you will not be disappointed.
Top 5 Likes
Picked up after T2: The story line picked up two years after terminator two allowing fans of the Terminator series to joyfully forget that T3 ever happened and maintaining continuity. This includes Sarah's confusion over why their efforts in T2 did not stop Skynet from being built.
The Acting and Directing was well done: One particular point that really stuck out was when the Terminator robot enters the room posing as a human. The acting was so well done that mannerism was that of a robot and not human.
Summer Glau was just awesome. For those who are eagerly awaiting the naked time travel cameo like Arnold's in T2 well... you just have to watch and see.
The show was entertaining, fun and exciting
They put in explanations for continuity stuff without slowing or stopping the flow of the story. A good example of this is at one point Sarah Connor ducks behind a reclining chair to avoid being shot by the terminator robot who fired multiple rounds into the chair, rounds that should have cut through the chair and into Sarah but they didn't. Latter when the police are investigating the scene they drop in conversation that the chair had kevlar stuffed into it, this took a fraction of a second and the story moved on but I was also happy because my mind didn't dwell on the improbability of a chair stopping bullets.
Top 4 Concerns / Dislikes
The Series could easily become formulaic (concern).
The Series could easily loose it's tension (concern). The writers have to strike a balance between attack and retreat from the robots if they allow the show to become all one or the other it would become boring and any tension would get lost as the audience would grow numb to their plight.
Weird fast forward parts
Streaming issues: lockups, interruption, and stuttering (typical streaming experience)