Sara Conner Chronicles pilot available on tv.yahoo.com

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

But only until midnight EST tonight.  I'll try to watch this later today.

[kkhohoho]

But only until midnight EST tonight.  I'll try to watch this later today.

Sara who? She sounds vaugly familiar...

[stumpy]

She's the woman from The Terminator movies, formerly played by Linda Hamilton. There is now a  TV series based on her adventures set after the second movie. She is now played by Lena Headey, who you might recognize from several movies.

[kkhohoho]

She's the woman from The Terminator movies, formerly played by Linda Hamilton. There is now a  TV series based on her adventures set after the second movie. She is now played by Lena Headey, who you might recognize from several movies.

I never saw those movies, but I did hear of Sarah Connor before.

[GogglesPizanno]

I saw this a while a back when it was "leaked" with all the other new pilots.
Production wise Its ok... has a sorta low budget 24 feel to it.
The actors I thought were fine (Lena Headey I thought was a particularly good Sarah Connor), and it moves along nicely BUT...

My problems were that they tried to hard to be Terminator 2 the TV show and had too many "homage" moments that rip off the films. It never really seemed to find its own voice as a story and...
[spoiler]
The ending "time travel screw with the movie timeline" thing just totally didn't work for me at all. There was no reason to go through such stupid dumb hoops just to keep it in present day as opposed to the mid 90's. Plus by setting it in present day, the show just kind of throws out the whole existence of Terminator 3, which while many didn't like as well, I thought was pretty decent and had an awsome ending that is totally ignored by the show.[/spoiler]

[bredon7777]

I too saw it this summer, and found it to be pretty good.  It is very much a "setup" episode- there's a lot of exposition and yes, movie homages (Though cmon, who didn't think "Come with me if you want to live" was gonna make it in there at some point).

Honestly, the main thing that struck me was how hot Summer Glau is- I didn't find her all that attractive in Firefly (possibly because of the crazy) but here..wow.  If the strike wasn't happening I'm not sure I'd bother watching more, but given that it is- the show certainly beats reruns of anything else

Oh, and GP-
[spoiler]

I didn't see anything in there that contradicts Terminator 3.  If they ever completely destroy Skynet, then sure- but they won't, because then the show'd be over.  It seemed very clear that the show is supposed to take place between T2 and T3.

Moving it to the present day was probably done for budgetary reasons, I'd think.  I didn't have a problem with it.

[/spoiler]

[GogglesPizanno]

Oh I'm not saying its a bad show.
Its infinitely better (at least the pilot) than Bionic Woman was.
And you are totally right in that given the strike and the lack of anything else on, It definitely have moved up on the list of shows to watch. Im just saying that I think they relied too much on referencing dialogue and concepts from the movies, and as a result, it just felt kinda unoriginal and "been there done that".

It needed more cool original scenes -- like the one at the school, I wouldn't have been as hard on it in that case.

And to refute bredon's refute:

[spoiler]What was wrong for me is that the show broke the their own time travel rule by jumping forward in time. By jumping to present day, from the past, given the end of T3, they should have jumped into a nuclear apocalypse. They are now like 4 years since the missles launched. Time travel back is a nice trick cause it allows you to "change" things. Jumping forward means you are at the mercy of stuff that has happened...and according to T3, the war had started. I'm just saying, it kind of annoyed me. I dont care if the show takes place between the two movies... I just wish the logic of it took place there as wel.
[/spoiler]

[Conduit]

[spoiler]
I believe they intentionally went out of their way to contradict T3.  Sort of like how Superman Returns ignores the third and fourth Superman movies.
[/spoiler]

[bredon7777]

[spoiler]

I'd have to watch T3 again to be sure, but I dont recall anyone specifically going: "Hey! It's 2003!"  I mean, sure, you assumed it was set in the present day, but I don't think it was explicitly stated it was.

[/spoiler]

[Pyroclasm]

Saw it, and liked it.
One of the things that bothered me was how "weak" Sarah seems compared to T2.  She's not buff and is a bit soft mannered.  My wife thinks its because Sarah has gotten lax in the 2 years since.  I'm hoping this Sarah toughens back up quick.  John also seems a lot less street-smart and a bit more whiny.  I could do without Summer Glau.  Would have preferred a different actress, though I do appreciate the idea of having such a small, petite woman as his defender.
Don't get me wrong.  While there are definite issues that need addressing, you can see the potential.  I like that finally after three movies, we get to see non-Arnold 800's.  As a kid I used to wonder how the Terminators could infiltrate human camps if they all looked exactly the same.  I'm hoping they feature the Terminator dogs, and other new Terminator concepts, although I could see them falling for the "running from the law" trap.

In a June 20, 2007 interview, Friedman revealed that the writers and producers are going to avoid the "Terminator of the Week" plot device and that Sarah, John, and Cameron will have other threats than just Terminators. Skynet will also come into play as the series progresses. Furthermore, Friedman stated that the events of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines have no bearing on this timeline, but do occur in an alternate timeline. However, other websites are reporting that the series takes place between the second and third Terminator movies. In addition to having planned the entire story arc for the first season, Friedman has a rough idea for the plot of the following three seasons.

[stumpy]

I am pretty impressed by this pilot. I generally don't have problems with any of the cast, although neither Dekker nor Glau look high-school aged (and he seems significantly older now than he did last year in Heroes). Lena Headey is a favorite. I love Charlayne Woodard as Mrs. Dyson (and we all know her from Unbreakable). I hope she has more than the one appearance.

[spoiler]BTW, that time bubble that took them from 1997 to 2007, with the lightning effects and all was very cool. I would love to see that as an active defense or even area FX. :)[/spoiler]

If the upcoming episodes continue at this level, I am in.

---
"You might wanna put those back in the holster."  - Sarah Connor :D

[Zippo]

Wow, I'm somewhat surprised at how different most people's opinions of this show are from mine. Personally, I thought it was terrible. The writing... just... painful.

"You might wanna put those back in the holster."  - Sarah Connor :D

I actually cringed and hung my head after hearing that line :doh:. Also, "Come with me if you want to live" can really ONLY be pulled off my Arnie. There were just so many instances when I found myself wondering who would ever think what was happening at the moment was a good idea.

[spoiler]Shotgun in wall? La-Z-Boy back stopping bullets (of course, it must be full of shotguns too :wacko:)[/spoiler]

In my opinion the entire Terminator thing is based around Arnie; he really just holds it all together (he also has the uncanny ability to make even the most terribly written dialog bearable when it comes out of his mouth).
I dunno, maybe it'll get better, but from where I'm standing this show had no reason to be created.

[Pyroclasm]

Zippo:
[spoiler]They actually mention Kevlar being in the La-Z-Boy.  Hence, it stopping the bullets.[/spoiler]

[Conduit]

I saw the premiere for the first time tonight.  I have to say that I really liked it.  I really hope that they can keep this level of quality up.  The homages did get a little thick, but I thought that they were good at establishing continuity, and the sequels certainly had a lot of homages themselves.

[spoiler]
The opening dream sequence was just awesome.

Whoever played the T-800 did a good job playing the same sort of robotic character that Ahnold was so good at.  I could easily imagine the same character in those situations.

The idea of sending someone back to build weapons and a time machine was very cool.  I have to wonder how they accomplished that.  They obviously couldn't have sent plans back, so did the guy have to memorize everything, or did they tattoo/brand the plans to his skin Prison Break style?
[/spoiler]

[Zippo]

Zippo:
[spoiler]They actually mention Kevlar being in the La-Z-Boy.  Hence, it stopping the bullets.[/spoiler]

Haha, okay. Fair enough.

Still, stories based on time travel are always a little shaky. You've gotta wonder why they couldn't do something like kill Sarah Conner while she's pregnant, or like 3 years old or something and an easy target. I mean, obviously there wouldn't be much of a story if they did, but it's the kind of nagging question that would plague me throughout any sort of ongoing series.

[Conduit]

Well, every movie after the first (the first had the excuse that the time machine was blown up after Reese was sent back) has had that problem, too, I'm afraid.  It really couldn't be Terminator without that conceit.  And who knows, maybe there are rules that haven't been stated in the movies.

[TheMarvell]

why is T3 ripped on so much? Personally, I thought it was a highly enjoyable summer blockbuster. It wasn't as good as T2, but it was a worthy third entry in my book, and I enjoyed it better than T1.

[Conduit]

The second episode was good.  A bit slow moving, but it did introduce a lot of plots.  This series has definite potential.

[spoiler]
I hope they explain how the head managed to get caught in the time bubble.  I guess some of the skin might have been left on it after getting shot by the laser gun, but we never saw any.  I also wonder how the headless body managed to walk all the way to that guy's house.  I suppose that it's plausible that the Terminator had backup eyes somewhere on its torso, as well as a tracking device in the head.

Cameron mimicking the tough girl was priceless.

The 9/11 reference was handled more tastefully than it could have been.

I was a little annoyed at how Sarah's fiance didn't say anything about the fact that John wasn't any older.  I suppose that he could have been too shocked to really think about it at that moment, but still.

I like the idea of multiple resistance fighters and terminators running around LA.  Nice callback to the movie with the barcode, but wasn't the one in the movie more of a burn than a tattoo?
[/spoiler]

[Mr. Hamrick]

I liked what I saw.

I may be biased because I am acquainted with the girl who plays Cameron.  That scene with her mimicking the tough girl WAS priceless, though.

[Conduit]

This episode was also pretty good.  There is a general sense of direction.  No real "arc" yet, but that's to be expected.

[spoiler]
I really like how they're using the time travel thing.  Getting the prints of the young resistance fighter was pretty cool, though I wonder what a 4 year old has to do to get his prints into the system.

The idea of Cromartie getting a scientist to recreate the synth flesh is really cool.  "He took his eyes!"  :blink:

The high school drama went a lot better than it could have.  Finding a parallel to John's destiny is a really good angle.

I really liked the metal detector scene, but since Sarah studied the school so closely, they probably should have thought of that earlier.

Summer Glau has some good comedic timing.  "Does this dress make me look fat?"  "Yes." :lol:
[/spoiler]

[Silver Shocker]

I saw this one tonight and I thought it was good. I found the writing to be a step up from the pilot. The creepy bathtub scene reminded me of a scene straight out of the first Resident Evil game.

[spoiler]
Summer Glau has some good comedic timing.  "Does this dress make me look fat?"  "Yes." :lol:
[/spoiler]

I agree. My favourite such line though, was the repeated reply of "I don't sleep." Which seemed positively Whedon-esque.

[Mr. Hamrick]

I saw this one tonight and I thought it was good. I found the writing to be a step up from the pilot. The creepy bathtub scene reminded me of a scene straight out of the first Resident Evil game.

[spoiler]
Summer Glau has some good comedic timing.  "Does this dress make me look fat?"  "Yes." :lol:
[/spoiler]

I agree. My favourite such line though, was the repeated reply of "I don't sleep." Which seemed positively Whedon-esque.

[spoiler]She's pretty funny in person too.  [/spoiler]

[Conduit]

Wow, this episode was really good.  A lot of plot threads came together nicely, and it went into some cool new directions.

[spoiler]
Cameron's great.  "I call nine-millimeter."  "I was busy doing John's homework."  And the whole note thing was nice too.

Meeting John's uncle was very unexpected.  Nice continuity with the picture and such.  Though it was a little odd to hear that Sarah and Kyle had spent two days together.  I recall the movie taking place over a single night.  I guess that technically they might have spent the last few hours of one day and the early morning of the next, but it still doesn't sound right.

The future slang was really good.  "Triple-8" and "bring metal down."  From the looks of the previews, we'll see some flashbacks to the future next episode.  That should be really good.
[/spoiler]

EDIT: The show creater recently made a blog post that answered a nagging question of mine.

[spoiler]
Apparently Cromartie's head still had flesh on it when it went through the time bubble, but it was burning very quickly, and what was left of it burn off before we saw it.  That's a stretch, but I guess I can buy it.  Of course, the real reason, as I suspected, was that the network censors didn't like the idea of the second episode opening with a flaming severed human head flying out at the screen.
[/spoiler]