I’ve been a strident critic of Fox and their pull the plug mentality on anything SF-related. So in the interests of fairness, I have to give props to Fox for giving a full season commitment to “Terminator.” Let’s hope that those who are reluctant to tune in figuring they don’t want to get too attached to yet another doomed Fox SF show will take that as incentive to come aboard.
Granted, the show’s been uneven, but there’s so much good stuff there that I’m hoping it finds its footing, and it’s nice that Fox is giving it the opportunity to do so.
PAD
• 
I just got the news of the season-long commitment through your site PAD, thanks for posting about it. Had no idea you were a SCC fan, and I find it to be welcomed news. You are officially the first person, aside from my deliciously geeky girlfriend, that I’ve found, appreciates the show.
Yes, I think it is flawed, yes there is something about it that keeps pulling me back to it. Could it be Summer Glau’s charm? The promise of John’s growth into a full-fledged bad ášš? *Shrugs* Thank God Fox is letting me find out.
Could you perhaps let me know what does the show do for you?
Thanks and keep up the good work sir. X-Factor is the pick me up I save for rainy days.
This also gives me more hope for Joss Whedon’s new show, Dollhouse. He keeps saying we can trust FOX, different people are in charge now. Maybe he’s right.
FOX needs to try putting Terminator on a different night. Their time slot has some very tough competition.
It’s a different economy in television today then even a few years ago.
DVD series sets. iTunes. hulu ad revenue. A renewed interest in product placement.
The upcoming Terminator 4 movie and shared marketing opportunities likely helped grease the wheels.
Now if Fox moves it (or NBC moves Chuck) over to the wasteland that is Wednesday night, we’ll have a ballgame!
I read on, ahem, AICN talkbacks (take that source for what it’s worth) that Fox barely puts much money into Terminator – it’s basically an independently financed show by the Terminator producers to sell to the international market and keep the brand alive in the public’s eyes. So thats why, even with declining ratings, Fox can afford to keep it rolling cause their investment is basically nil. Like I said, taken from an AICN talkback so you never know how accurate it all is, but sounds interesting.
I also agree with PAD that the show can be uneven, but it it is on, it is frickin’ ON. That episode that showed Cameron’s future history was crazy good (basically, anytime Summer Glau gets to do anything wacky is when the show pops – she delivered an impassioned monolouge while trapped between two cars which is a feat unto itself), and they seem to cast some pretty intimidating guys as Terminators, and they, for the most part, behave like Terminators (see the last episode when the Terminator started killing off people through a phoebook), which is really cool. I think the Sherley Manson T-1000 has potential, even if her plot does seem to be moving slowly (but I kind of like her).
The show does hit some crazy huge roadblocks multiple times in a single episode – Sarah Connor kidnapping the kid and becoming an instant mommy, John trying to be more independent but he still comes off stupid and whiny, the way that the Terminators keep. missing. John. Connor. Every. Time. the pregnant chick, John’s new girlfriend, the high-school suicide, practically everything involving Agent Ellis. When the show goes hard sci-fi and all-out Terminator / robot action, it pops. When things slow down, it has a tendency to get a bit wobbly. Not that character moments are bad, alot of the stuff with Cameron and John is great, but it could be better.
The only other thing is that Fox’s mideason slate is going to be overstuffed. Fringe, Prison Break, Terminator, 24, House and (maybe) Bones all have full season orders. And then there’s Dollhouse. And the 3 hours of American Idol Fox seems to air weekly. Maybe they’ll cut back on the AI hours a bit this year, that would be nice. All that being said, with Terminator and 24 and Prison Break and Simpsons and the (hopefully good) Dollhouse on the horizon (and the odd Family Guy episode), Fox is my favourite station out there. Too bad they cut newborn shows like buttah.
But, yeah, in summation: full Terminator and 24 in the fall = teh awesome.
I’m glad to see the show being given a full season. Still, I have the same problem with this show that I had with the Highlander series. It’s based on a movie that didn’t need a sequel.
Not to say that the Highlander series(and the third movie, sorta) didn’t have some really good stories in them….
I’ve seen a big improvement in this season’s Sarah Connor Chronicles eps. Last season started out with a few dumb shoot ’em ups. This year they’ve done some really interesting stuff. I loved the ep with Cameron’s flashbacks.
Product placement- You just had to laugh at the ep with very prominent Dodge Ram placement- long shots of the truck, and the scenes showing off the truck’s cargo compartments were silly, but if it helps the bottom line and keeps Fox from pulling the plug in time to add a second night of Hole In The Wall, I can deal with that.
I’m also enjoying The Cleaner on A&E but they have some crazy product placement stuff there, too. The scene where William is telling his daughter all about the capabilities of her new Sprint phone’s GPS while standing underneath a Sprint banner is hysterical.
I wonder if online revenue affects their decision.
I’ve watched a few episodes of Terminator at Hulu.com this season. I’d rather not, but there were 4 shows I wanted to see at the same time slot and I can only record two at once. Hulu has ads, but not as much as regular TV. I’m guessing they don’t make as much money from that as from TV viewership, but they make some. Maybe it’s enough to make up for the low ratings a little.
Peter, what aspects of it have you found uneven? I’ve been thoroughly enjoying it.
I’ve watched the show but agree it has been uneven. It’s been over-dependent on time travel, and doesn’t seem to have a goal.
I’m glad they’ve kept it, but they need to get out of the rut.
Uneven in that sometimes it bores me and sometimes it doesn’t.
PAD
Uneven in that sometimes it bores me and sometimes it doesn’t.
PAD
I want to watch this show, but Fox insists on putting it on Monday, which seems to be one of the busiest night for genre shows this year.
We DVR all our TV, and last year we had a technical (meaning my wife, who sometimes doesn’t notice that I’m recording something, will change the cable box channel) issue with the pilot, but I do have most of the rest of the season. But Fox was nice enough to repeat the entire run…but neglected to tell TV Guide, so I missed my chance to get the episodes I’d missed.
Then, this season, they put SCC up against Chuck, which both my wife and I enjoy a ton. Not to mention MNF. It’s no wonder SCC’s ratings have taken such a dive.
Any opinions on Fringe?
“Uneven in that sometimes it bores me and sometimes it doesn’t.”
That sounds about right. For me, the boring episodes outweighed the exciting ones, and the balance was overwhelmingly tipped to the boring side by the end of last season, so I haven’t even been watching it this season.
I’m happy it’s gotten the full season. Summer (le sigh) is definitely my favorite part, though I’m really liking Uncle Reese as well.
The uneven aspect (to me, anyway) is that it seems like every episode has some “Wait, huh?” plot hole that glares at the viewer.
I also question Sarah’s personality a bit. In T2 she was borderline psychotic, and that was one of my favorite features of the film. They toned her down a bit for the series.
Fringe is okay. The characters are compelling.
The thing that bothers me is the writers take a lazy approach to science. So many of the things they do are just blatantly wrong, yet science is supposed to be driving the plots. They’re not bothering to get science facts right and a lot of what happens is driven by coincidence. That makes me think they eventually won’t bother to keep their plot straight, either.
Monday’s at 8 are an interesting time at my house, especially since my wife works late that day. When everything it’s new, the general plan is that I watch Chuck, tape Sarah Conner for me (since I’m also taping Prison Break at 9), tape Gossip Girls for her, and tape Big Bang Theory/How I Met Your Mother for us.
Then I have 2 shows at 9 and 2 at 10.
Wednesdays is also a bad day for me, with the 8 pm shows being Pushing Dasies (my favorite), Bones, and Knight Rider (which I can drop if I have to)
David
Sean: agreed. The first film was fine. OK, the second had great moments. But starting with the third you learn the problem with time travel: nothing matters because another time jaunt can then undo whatever just happened.
As for the series, I caught part of a later episode and Sarah was grabbing a handgun and I couldn’t help wonder *WHY?* Unless it was a disguised heavy blaster, what the heck good would it be against a terminator? Based on what I saw in the movies, you’d need at least a bazooka, or a heavy machine gun with armour-piercing rounds.
Never watched the Terminator TV series. I have a sort of prejudice against TV shows that are based on popular movies. I always feel as if the TV show is just a lesser, more drawn-out version of the movie. Never watched Stargate either.
I’m not counting Buffy here, that I like, because no one really remembers the movie.
The first Terminator movie had a reasonable approach to time travel: Going back in time doesn’t change the past, it fulfils it.
The second movie said no, it doesn’t have to be that way, you can change things. That’s fine too, it’s still fairly straightforward and changing the rules once is okay.
Then the third movie, which just wasn’t as good in general, had to change the rules again and it all became a mess. The problem is that time travel is magic, anything is possible. It only makes sense if you’re consistent with the rules, so the more you change the rules the cheaper the plots feel.
I think the show has done a little better job, but they’re in a tough place. They’re kinda saying that the future can change, they just haven’t changed it enough yet. They need to say that they future can change to give the show a point, but it can’t *really* change or the show ends.
Doctor Who really nailed how to handle time travel in a series: Don’t handle it at all. The vast majority of episodes just treat different “times” as different destinations, so Ancient Greece is just a place where this weeks’ episode happens. They’ve even said that once the Doctor goes somewhere he’s locked into events, so he has limitations on getting fancy with time travel tricks.
Doctor Who occasionally messes with time travel in a more specific way, but they’ve usually managed to avoid doing anything that would change the status quo. Right at the end of the adventure the Doctor will decide that wiping out the Daleks before they’re even created is a bad idea and won’t do it. Lately they’ve had some *very* tricky time travel episodes, but luckily they were written by Stephen Moffat, who is extremely good at that stuff.
Terminator just needs to avoid time travel as much as possible. They’re sending too many people back, as if the future is constantly changing, but every version of it has a line of people and terminators ready to step into a time machine. If they’d establish that a bunch have already been sent back and then leave it at that, I think that would help.
Fringe is just awful. I saw the first three episodes. The pilot was just plain ridiculous. I watched it because J.J. ABrams’ name was on it, though I harbored some caution because the writers of Transformers were credited too, and sure enough, from watching that mindless pilot, it’s clear that the latter wrote it. Joshua Jackson’s character is annoying, his existence on the show is questionable, that main character’s believability as an FBI agent is about as flimsy as Sarah Palin’s qualifications to be Vice President, and the script was just plain awful.
Rene: I have a sort of prejudice against TV shows that are based on popular movies. I always feel as if the TV show is just a lesser, more drawn-out version of the movie. Never watched Stargate either.
Ah, but Stargate: SG-1 was an exception to the rule. It was a significant improvement on the movie. I liked the movie well enough when it came out, but after watching the series I tried to watch the movie again and quit after a half hour. The show fixed so many of the problems with the movie that all the plot holes really stood out.
Jason, I’ve heard only good things of Stargate, but like I’ve said, it’s a prejudice I have. I still wasn’t able to get past it and watch the show.
I have a lot of stuff in my to-watch list, anyway.
If anyone wants to watch a real science show (looooots of science), I’d like to suggest Regenisis. It’s a Canadian show, but I’ve watched the first two seasons on Hulu.com. I highly recommend it.
Jason – I avoid Hulu because of the restrictions they keep putting on their streams. As for REGENESIS, I caught the first episode and half of the second, if I recall correctly, and then the lead’s bratty daughter just got more annoying than I could stand.
Luigi – Agreed. FRINGE is indeed awful. I only took in the first episode and it was more than enough. Bad as the female lead was, I found the male lead a lot worse by episode’s end. He’d had a major deal trashed by her, his reputation in that market was probably gone, he’d been virtually kidnapped and then she’d gone Darth “I am altering the deal. Pray that I do not alter it further” Vader on him. Yet, “Sure, what the heck, I’ll join you.” What? He can’t want to get laid that badly.
For those who missed any of the first season of SCC, it is out on DVD.
Jason,
I’m an SG-1 fan myself, as well as being happily surprised to enjoy Sarah Connor Chronicals, and also not disliking Highlander: The Series. Or we can go real old school and I’ll say I enjoy a bit of the ol’ Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea now and then. But if you don’t like ’em, then, ah well. To each his or her own, and such.
But I just have to ask… M*A*S*H? Don’t get me wrong, I like the film. But while the first season or so does sometimes play out like the movie watered down, over time it blows the movie away!
Rene – I felt the same way about STARGATE as you did. I don’t know about down there (n the US?), but in Canada there were so many repeats, pre-emptions, episodes apparently shown out of sequence(?) that I gave up early on. It wasn’t until a few years later when a friend twisted my arm into buying the first season set that I was able to see them as they were meant to be seen and it made all the difference. I now have all ten seasons (plus the movies) and it’s become one of my favourites.
Yotsuya, I’m not sure what you’re saying. I didn’t say that I dislike those shows.
Here’s a question for Cowboy Pete. Has Cowboy Pete (or anyone else here) found Life on Mars yet? I was really iffy on the idea of the show myself, but I’ve actually enjoyed the first two eps more than I did the original series.
I’m amazed at how good the hair is on the actress playing Sarah Connor is at critical moments.
If a mechanical unstoppable killing machine were after me, I’d be too unstable to contact a hair dresser during explosions. 🙂
Jason, I think he was refering to me. I was the one that said I had a prejudice against movie-based TV shows.
StarWolf, I have a friend that has the Stargate DVD sets, so maybe I’ll borrow them someday. Sometimes I’m very late in starting watching shows that are required of every geek. I just started watching Buffy, for instance.
Jerry – Saw the first few minutes of LIFE ON MARS (US) and I couldn’t watch more. Police detectives are supposed to be reasonably intelligent, yet this guy is so dim that, when he sees the World Trade Center towers in the last stages of construction, he still acts as though he’s on a movie set and everyone are extras on that set. You’d think going to the nearest hospital and having himself checked out for a possible concussion (or other cerebral damage) would be at the top of his to-do list, especially what with waking up face down in the middle of the road and all, but no, let’s try to report in to work as though nothing had happened. Idiot.
Agreed, the Life on Mars pilot was pretty bad, as was the Fringe pilot. In fact, there isn’t a single new show this season that I’ve responded to positively. I’m down to just five shows that I watch, and all five are on Sunday or Thursday nights.
I also agree that the Terminator depiction of time travel is frustratingly flawed and inconsistent, but that’s true of just about every movie and TV show ever made on the subject. Still, I’d take the Terminator brand of time travel logic over that generally found in DC comics, especially the current Booster Gold series, which doesn’t make a lick of sense.
Just need something on ABC to fail so we can get the final season ( 🙁 ) of Scrubs going…
I’m actually okay with not having any more Scrubs. It’s been going downhill over the years. It’s not really that they’ve done anything wrong, I just don’t think there’s anywhere left to go with the characters. There’s nothing that could happen with JD and Elliot’s relationship that hasn’t happened before, and that’s true of almost everything in the show.
Unless major stuff changes in a show, like with all the character changes in MASH, I think any show is just treading water after 6 years. Beyond that, viewers get so familiar with the characters that anything new is considered an unreasonable change and more of the same is considered stagnation.
Rene,
Make sure your viewing includes Firefly and BSG
The very first season, I think, was made worse by all his brooding and whininess.
The second season usually flips between drop dead awesome and boring.
I do like Agent Ellis, but they don’t do much useful with him.
Also: the retcons that Stargate SG-1 were quite welcome when put upon the original Stargate movie.
Stargate SG-1 is awesome and I’m sad that its spin-offs are no longer aired locally for me.
Terminator 2 is credibly convincing that is set in the same canon as the first movie. The third movie, even with the notion of altering time and alternate timelines and splits of stuff, does not quite convince me that it is set in the same continuity or canon as the first two movies. Although I do enjoy some of the plot/conflict, including the notion that the next Evil Terminator is a robot built for a firefight.
As for the Terminator TV series, it clearly takes places in a separate continuity to start with, and it does make cute references to the third movie. (I hate calling it the Sarah Connor Chronicles because I never get the sense that there is any literal chronicle here in this series, nor do I get the sense that the show is really Sarah-centric, so it seems to me that the name of the series is a misnomer, unless Sarah’s voiceovers start to resemble a “chronicle” more strongly… or the episodes feature John and Cameron and Reese even less… I’ll just call it “Terminator TV” and leave it at that).
Highlander: the Series, to me, works as an acceptable retcon to the end of the first movie.
I never saw the original Buffy and I only saw the TV series after I saw the last season of Angel, which was my first season of the Buffyverse in general. I loved the idea of a buddy cop vampire show, with Spike and Angel hating one another and still fighting evil magic stuff because it’s the right thing to do according to their consciences. Then the show was canceled. I believe that Joss Whedon didn’t see “vampire buddy cop” the same way I did. If anyone wants to use the idea, it’s not mine. No one can claim ownership to any idea that involves vampire as cop, or any crimefighter buddy duo thing… frankly I wish Star Wars Episode II was what the first thirty minutes of Star Wars Episode III resembled… “Jedi Buddy Cop”.
That could lead me to rip on the latest Clone Wars theatrical… the only rip I’ll use is if my student gave me a cute nickname on the very first day I’d fire him or her.