Terminated? Sarah Connor doesn’t have much of a future
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- February
- 25
I logged on to blog about NBC’s announcement that Andy Richter has been named announcer for the new Conan O’Brien-led Tonight Show when it debuts in June.
But as great, and deserving, as that news is, there’s not much else to say about it other than it’ll be great to see Richter on TV again with a regular gig. He’s too funny and likeable not to have around.
So while I’m here, I might as well go with the fate of a show I’ve watched from the start and blogged about regularly until recently.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is no longer.
The spring move to Friday nights was the first sign, but the pairing with Joss Whedon’s new Dollhouse in a new “sci-fi Fridays” lineup gave pause for hope. With Dollhouse getting disappointing reviews and Terminator still delivering anemic ratings, TVbytheNumbers.com is making the call that the show is deader than the real Katherine Weaver.
There’s no official word from Fox and no guarantees the remaining episodes will air. But I, like anyone paying attention, saw this coming for a while.
The show started with a good concept—chronicling the sequence of events between the end of Terminator II: Judgment Day and the actual Judgment Day—and mostly excellent casting. I say mostly because Summer Glau, Lena Headey and, later, Brian Austin Greene couldn’t quite offset Thomas Dekker, who I never bought as the future John Connor. (I hope Christian Bale does better, because I didn’t think much of Edward Furlong or Nick Stahl, either.)
But from there, it went downhill with mopey writing, too much inaction for an action show, melodramatic family squabbles and a muddy mythology.
Now I’ll tell you what I didn’t like…
Seriously, though, there was a lot I did like. Otherwise I wouldn’t have kept tuning in. Many episodes were compelling, chock full of good action and suspense. The good casting I mentioned contributed to quality turns by Glau as an inscrutable but intriguingly curious cyborg and Greene as the quintissential bad-ass who put David Silver to rest forever, in my opinion. Headey was a mixed bag, too often unsympathetic or downright unbelievable in a role that perhaps never has had a shred of plausibility. But often she was great, hard-edged but visibly conflicted about the uncertain but bleak future that is the franchise’s main character.
I won’t really miss it, and it doesn’t temper my enthusiasm for Terminator: Salvation (though Bale’s recent rant kind of does). But it’s a shame to see a show die after starting with high hopes and big ambitions.
I’ll keep watching as long as it lasts, though, because I really want to know where Weaver came from, what’s to become of Cromartie/The Turk and other decent mysteries that have been set up.
(Photos: Fox Broadcasting)
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 10:29 am by Brian Howard.
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I like your article, but I’m just curious…why would Bale’s recent rant deter your enthusiasm from Terminator Salvation? Don’t get me wrong, not trying to discredit you or anything, but it’s a fictitional movie. Bale is a very creditable actor according to movie sources, directors, producers and the like who have “actually worked” with him. ie, Charles Roven and Harry Knapp. I’m not talking about gossip sites. And let’s face it, he can pull in the bucks. People may say the rant goes against his character (I personally don’t think so, but that’s just my opinion, it was a one time thing), but that should have nothing to do with his acting ability and this movie. He may have been an angry little boy, but that was his and his family’s personal demons to deal with, as long as he didn’t hurt anyone physically, which he didn’t. He definitely has been ridiculed enough. That has been his punishment. I hope this movie will do well.
It’s a fair question. I am looking forward to the movie, in spite of the rant, and the movie will sink or swim on its own merits rather than any lingering perceptions among viewers about its star. Still, the rant was so over the top and went on so long, it really makes me wonder about the guy. One-time thing or not, he was pretty cruel to that DP. I, too, hope the movie does well because that would mean they did justice to a great franchise. But I find it hard to root for the guy right now.
Thanks for the reply, I respect your opinion.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is an excellent show with innovative ideas and great acting.
The scifi channel should pick up the show. The ratings would be fly upwards off the chart. The Show would be another hit like Stagate SG1.
Dollhouse is an excellent show too. It too needs to go to the SciFi Channel. The SciFi Channel knows how to get the potential out of a show.
Who cares about Actor Bales rants, his talent always delivers. The fact that he is invovled in the new Terminator movie excited everybody. He’s got to be the perfect person you would think to cast as John Connor.