blinkbox blog: Movie blog & reviews

For the casual follower the Terminator mythology can be quite difficult to keep up with, but in simple terms, to follow the TV show Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, just forget you saw Terminator 3 (should be easy) and Terminator Salvation.

Starring Lena Headey (300) and Thomas Dekker (Heroes), Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles picks up in 1999 after Terminator 2: Judgement Day. The show follows Sarah and John Connor as they try to stop the US military from creating the program that will ultimately kill off humanity, while trying to evade Skynet agents sent from the future to kill them. A T888 machine Cromartie has been sent back to kill John, but future-John has also sent back Cameron from 2007 to protect his younger self. They leap straight out of the 90s to 2007 and the action begins! Got it?

Episode 1 begins with Sarah rushing along the highway to pick up John from school while she briefly takes us through the back-story with a gloomy-voiceover – very handy. After grabbing John out of the library and bursting through the front doors of the school, they are confronted by an armed police squad and promptly handcuffed and thrown in the police cars. Not a good start! Sarah sees a terminator approaching, and knocks out her over-friendly accompanying officer with a knee to the face, escapes lock down, and frees John from his car. All the while the friendly Terminator is blowing up everyone, and everything, in sight. Good to see the TV budget still affords some full-on action!

With John now out of handcuffs he tries to run away while his mom feebly shoots a few bullets at the terminator that deflect off his metal face without so much as a flinch of discomfort. Surely by now she should know this kind of caper is useless against the mighty machines? Anyway, the terminator promptly shoots John in the back while he’s running off and it appears to be game over as Sarah cradles him in her arms and the world seems to be set alight…

Well, if that were so, it would be the shortest TV season ever, but I don’t want to spoil any of your fun, so I’m saying nothing more! However, as I’ve seen the whole season already I can say that I enjoyed it as much as the Terminator movies, and a hell lot more than T3!

The season starts with a bang, and gets better as it goes along. Look out for guest stars Brian Austin Green (90210), Shirley Manson (from Garbage!) and the wonderful Busy Phillips (Dawson’s Creek).

And when you’re done with Season 1, the good folks at Warner Bros have already made Season 2!