Very rarely do feature films that get adapted into television shows generate any sort of interest outside of novelty. In fact, the only successful movie-turned-TV-series I can recall is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which to this day continues to have loyal fans. Outside of Buffy, there are virtually none that make even the slightest blip on the pop culture radar. That is, until recently.
When I first heard they were turning Terminator into a television show, I brushed it off as another lame ploy to make money from a successful franchise. It starred virtual nobodies playing characters that were last seen more than a decade ago and it involved the same plot line that has been tackled by the previous three movies.
But since the only decent thing available due to this recently-resolved writer’s strike was Lost, and that only comes out once a week, I figured I’d give Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles a chance. And wouldn’t you know it, it’s actually a damn good, well-written series with lots of potential. The Sarah Connor Chronicles is not the testosterone-drenched, guns-a-blazing Terminator story that one would expect. Instead, it blends the Terminator mythos with a vulnerable sense of humanity and the chaos of impending apocalypse.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles weaves the plot of all three Terminator movies into one engaging story. The narrative begins somewhere after Terminator 2 and before Terminator 3, but it references the events of the first James Cameron Terminator movie all throughout. As the title suggests, the series revolves around Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) trying to protect her son and future resistance leader John Connor (Thomas Dekker) with the help of a new (and surprisingly hot) Terminator (Summer Glau). The trio fights, in present time, to prevent judgment day from ever happening. Somewhere amid the running and fighting, Connor attracts the attention of an FBI agent (James Ellison) who’s slowly uncovering the truth about the existence of evil robots from the future that are trying to eliminate all mankind.
The most surprising aspect of this show is how the Terminator mythos is narrated. The story that we saw in all the Arnold Schwarzenegger movies is retold in such a way that this tale of robots and machines and rebels and resistance almost seems biblical. The Terminator narrative draws a lot of parallels to the Messianic prophecy of the Christian doctrine. The themes of the apocalypse, of destiny, of prophecy, of a guardian, of a savior all have biblical implications. A lot of the mythos that is deconstructed in the show involves more than just the divide between man and machine; it also tackles the moral ethics between man and man, specifically the justification of killing for the sake of common good or a higher power. The Sarah Connor Chronicles still packs a lot of the action that we’ve come to expect from all the movies, but, surprisingly, it’s the human side of the story that is most appealing.
Overall, it’s a solid debut for a show that I didn’t expect to go anywhere. The plot, though rehashed, is rich and well crafted. The characters lack obvious star power but do a decent job playing their parts in telling the Terminator story. But what ultimately will save The Sarah Connor Chronicles from being just another failed adaptation (at least for its maiden season) is the how the narrative incorporates the epic scale of the Terminator story and all its symbolic and allegorical value into the intimate story of a single mother fighting tooth and nail to protect her son and save the world.
This time around, you come with her if you want to live.
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For questions, comments or corrections please e-mail me at carlfrancisramirez@gmail.com.