Robots in Disguise: It Must Suck to be Sarah Connor
It must suck to be Sarah Connor.
Not only has she endured a rash of killer cyborgs from the future, shes also saddled with knowing that her son is the only hope of mankind. Now she faces her greatest challenge yet: the jarring translation from Hollywood blockbuster to weeknight serial drama.
Foxs [Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles] pretends that the third Terminator flick never happened (if only God were so merciful) and jumps the ongoing saga to present day L.A. Sarah (now played by Lena Headey instead of Linda Hamilton) is still trying to protect her 15-year-old son John (Thomas Dekker), who will someday lead the rebellion against an all-powerful computer network. Robots keep coming back in time to kill John, prompting his future self to retaliate in kind. Enter Cameron (Summer Glau), his latest cyborg bodyguard, this time packaged as a Gilmore Girl.
Most film-to-TV retreads tend to stink, but The Sarah Connor Chronicles isnt a train wreck. The show suffers from occasionally stilted dialog and highly improbable plotting, but the trio of Sarah, John and Cameron form an intriguing TV family, made all the more watchable by weekly Buffy-styled butt-kicking. Theres also plenty of low-rent sci-fi effects, provided mainly by Cromarti (Garret Dillahunt, the yokel deputy from No Country For Old Men), a Terminator whos been stalking the Connors since the first episode.
Headeys take on Sarah feels more internalized than Hamiltons ever was. With her permanently clenched brow, its as if the character went from warrior to worrywart. Glau seems to be having more fun playing Cameron, whose matter-of-fact personality blends in well with typical teenage cuntiness.
Im not really sure why John and Cameron attend high school other than to give the writers fodder for endless fish-out-water storylines. If you knew that evil robots were about to conquer the world, would you really waste your days in Home Ec class? Though the series is off to a strong enough start, itll be interesting to see how long Chronicles can maintain momentum without resorting to a Terminator-of-the-week formula. The creators say theyve plotted out four seasons worth of material, and Beverly Hills 90210 alum Brian Austin Green just joined the cast for at least a multi-episode arc. Meanwhile, theyve also given the titular character one more thing to worry about: word from the future that she will die prematurelyof cancer. Poor Sarah Connor just cant catch a break.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Mondays at 9 p.m. on Fox.