This TV incarnation of James Cameron's tale takes place after "Terminator 2" and shows us Sarah Connor, played by British actress Lena Headley, struggling to raise and protect her son John, played by Thomas Dekker, who you'll remember as cheerleader Claire Bennet's gay and then, oops, suddenly not so gay friend Zach on "Heroes." As the story begins, a lean, mean, non-Schwarzennegger fighting machine is hunting down the Connors, retaining the typical terminator ability to shoot a gazillion bullets and still manage to miss the sides of several barns and, yes, all of his targets. Despite Mr. Terminator's inability to shoot straight, things are looking pretty grim for the Connors until the requisite good guy terminator -- or gal, in this case -- shows up, played by Summer Glau, formerly of "Firefly."
Let me just say right now: Summer Glau kicks ass, both literally and figuratively, and I think I may love her. She dominates every scene she's in, making you believe she has the innocence of a machine but also the worldliness of a machine that's seen a lot. She injects humor and subtle charm into her scenes yet also, seriously, just makes you want to watch her blow stuff up and pummel people all day long -- she does it so gracefully! With apologies to Governor Schwarzennegger, she's definitely my favorite terminator.
"The Sarah Connor Chronicles" makes its bread and butter off of explosions, pretty people running around a lot, chase scenes, more explosions and, because this is Fox, many scenes with a half-naked Summer Glau. And frankly, it all kind of works. This show is never going to win an Emmy, but at a time when all we're getting is reality TV and more reality TV, it's a welcome respite. It's a fun, solid show, and it's perfect when all you want to do is kick off your shoes, have a bowl of popcorn and be mindlessly and wonderfully entertained. And watch Summer Glau blow stuff up.
You can catch part two of the premiere tonight at 9 on Fox.
3 comments:
I, too, found T:TSCC surprisingly entertaining. After the clusterfuck that Bionic Woman turned into, I didn't have too much faith in another "decades old property headlined by a British actress playing American." Heady did fine, Dekker didn't get too teen-mopey/whiny and yes, Summer Glau kicks major ass.
The time travel shenanigans, and departures from the first two movies' plot threads (not to mention the third), make my head hurt. But time travel paradoxes do that anyway, so I just stopped trying to overthink it and went with the flow. I've read tonight's ep is even better.
One thing still bothered me though. If Cameron could be a flirty, normal seeming teen when trying to befriend John, then why does she slip back into "killing machine trying to understand human behavior" once the cyborg cat is out of the bag? Perhaps they'll explain why she is "different." Or, perhaps I'll just continue to forget about the "why" of it all, and enjoy pretty people blowing shit up.
Yeah, that part didn't make too much sense. I think it's best just to do as you say and enjoy pretty people blowing shit up. Life's always better that way.
This comic. *grin*
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