"Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" A Mom Who Can Kick Butt
There's nothing I like more than TV women who can kick butt. Sydney Bristow in "Alias," Buffy in "Buffy The Vampire Slayer," and of course the mother of all butt kicking TV women, Emma Peel of "The Avengers."
Sarah Connor of the new Fox show "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" doesn't kick butt in the classic hand to hand, Buffy, Sydney or Mrs. Peel kind of way, but she's got paramilitary training, a lifetime subscription to Jane's, and a knowledge of covert ops that would rival any CIA agent. All this from a woman who started out as a mild mannered waitress only to discover she was destined to give birth to the savior of humanity: her son, John.
Ask someone why 1984's "The Terminator" movie was such a big hit and they'll probably tell you it was because of Governor Ah-nold as the terminator: an unstoppable, super-cyborg killing machine from the future sent to kill Sarah to prevent her giving birth to John.
It's true, the terminator was and still is a fabulous villain, all dark glasses, leather jacket and one liners. Remember, "I'll be back?"
But the secret weapon that elevated "The Terminator" from just run of the mill sci fi was it's tragic love story. Freedom fighter, Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) whose job it is to protect Sarah (Linda Hamilton), falls in love with her and becomes John's father. I know, I know...don't ask. Just go with me.
The movie's also very female-centric. Though it starts off with Reese doing all the saving, by the end of the movie Sarah is the one taking charge of her own survival. The jaw dropping, non-stop action, the love story, and the compelling performances, especially Linda Hamilton's, are why the movie's still a classic. And I'm happy to say the TV show maintains the best of the original movie's qualities.
The human factor, Sarah's wounded character and the relationship between Sarah and John is what holds it all together. British actress, Lena Headey is a worthy successor to Linda Hamilton and Thomas Dekker brings a maturity to the role of John while still keeping the charm of a likable, teenage kid. Yes, I know. Remember, this is fiction.
There were two sequels to the original movie and the end of the second one, "Terminator 2: Judgement Day," had Sarah and John thinking they'd changed enough of the past so they, and the future of mankind was safe.
Well they were wrong, and this new Fox series takes place not long after the end of "T2."
The pilot kicks off with John once again in the red-eyed cross hairs of a terminator. Sarah's decision to ditch her wannabe fiance for more life on the run ironically sets off the chain of events that allows the terminator to locate her and John's whereabouts. At a new school, John is befriended by a pretty brown haired teen with a Breck girl smile. When their substitute teacher turns out have a deadly assignment for John, if you know what I mean, the Breck girl (Summer Glau) is revealed to be "Cameron Phillips" a reprogrammed terminator sent back from the future to keep John safe.
Glau does a lot of neat mano a mano, terminator a terminator butt kicking in the pilot, and all the fun terminator touches, the stilted, monosyllabic speech and the quirky, almost childlike robotic view of the world, she delivers convincingly.
One of the terminator's talents is to perfectly mimic anyone's voice. So in one otherwise tense scene it's a cool touch to discover the terminator imitating Sarah's voice while he thinks he's talking to John, when he's really talking to "Cameron" imitating John's voice.
As if Sarah didn't have enough trouble, there's also an FBI agent James Ellison (Richard T. Jones) tracking her down to arrest her for a murder she didn't commit.
"The Sarah Connor Chronicles" has been heavily promoted by Fox and highly anticipated in the blogosphere with free online screenings of the pilot.
In anticipation of the premiere, Melissa at Pink Raygun, gives us the hilarious twin posts, "The Top Ten Reasons It's Good To Be Sarah Connor" and "The Top Ten Reasons It Sucks To Be Sarah Connor." If you're a fan of the movies definitely check them out.
Marcia at Pop Vultures wrote in her post "The Terminator Lives On In The Sarah Connor Chronicles," though she like the pilot, she was uncertain whether the show could keep up the quality level throughout an entire season:
The first episode is impressive in a number of ways. The effects and action sequences are certainly more than we’ve come to expect from a weekly television program, though it’s impossible to say how much of their effects budget went into securing an impressive pilot.
Cynthia at SF Universe wrote in her post: "Everybody Wants To Be Sarah Connor:"
The true joy of the series is that you don’t have to understand the previous films or even wrestle with the conundrums of time travel because this incarnation is more about people than technology.
Cynthia's right about that. Sarah Connor's still a Mom, trying to do the Mom-thing the best she can. Her Mom-thing just involves hand grenades and plastic explosives. She's less likely to bake John chocolate chip cookies than she is to teach him how to make field survival splints from toothpicks. If John comes home with a homework problem, she's less likely to offer a sympathetic ear than she is to tell him to put the homework away and memorize the background of his newly purchased identity.
Even though the time travel and sci fi elements might sound intimidating to the sci fi-phobe, the acting and the characters are worth the effort. Not to mention the butt kicking.
Photo Credit: Jill Greenberg/FOX
Cross Posted At BlogHer
