I’m surprised it took this long to make television series out of one of the most successful movie franchises in history. So far it has spawned three movies, several video games and a governor.

Let me give the rundown for those of you who have been hiding in a fallout shelter for the past twenty five years. In the first movie, Sarah Connor is impregnated by a man from the future while being hunted by a killer robot. She moves around the country collecting weapons and preparing her child to become a great leader.

Because she is on this mission, her politics lean toward the NRA and Ted Nugent. Frankly Sarah gives a great talk about protecting herself and her child but she is a big loon. By the second movie, Sarah has been locked up and her kid put in foster care. Just knowing her is dangerous and anyone who listens to her winds up dead.

Despite her paranoia she continues her odd relationships with high tech companies, frequently wounding or killing their most talented employees. I guess they put up with it because they share the same politics.

Did I mention another plot twist? By the third movie, Sarah died of cancer before her child grew up. The TV series starts before that and the uses time travel to jump to the present day. Perhaps Sarah should be focusing on fighting inevitable cancer than a possible apocalypse.

Ironically, she uses the very technology she is trying to destroy. In the TV series, she is helped by a “friendly” robot from the future. In this case the robot is played by Summer Glau, last seen in her amazing role of River Tam in the series Firefly. It’s nice to see she found work but she risks being typecast.

The series is well done. There is lots of tension and quite a few explosions. There is evidence that the writers also read. They refer to Kurzweil’s Singularity and Mo Berg’s OSS work during WWII. There are the occasional funny bits. My favorite moment is when a group of commandos from the future is wiped out. The authorities run the fingerprints and get a match on one of them… to a four year old in Ohio. You just don’t see those odd twists in John Cheever stories.

Copyright 2008 DJ Cline All rights reserved.

Posted by dj in Reviews, Television [810 Views]