Friday, September 14, 2007

Fall TV Preview - The Sarah Connor Chronicles - Pilot Training

The Sarah Connor Chronicles - Pilot - directed by David Nutter, written by Josh Friedman Premieres Sunday 9pm, January 2008 on FOX

So it's really a Winter TV Preview since Fox hasn't scheduled The Sarah Connor Chronicles until Midseason which is just as well, since it was a decently made pilot but there was nothing that really grabbed me enough to want to return to it. I'm sure it will make a splash because of it's Terminator roots but I don't think the show is good enough to secure a good following during the crowded fall premiere season. Then again, what do I know? I thought Scrubs was going to have a bigger audience.

So here's the gist of it:
Casting Lena Headey: +1
Lena Headey's Hair in the Pilot: -1
The fact that Sarah Connor's character is the most boring of them all, adding to yet more shows where the title character is the dullest of the bunch, much like Dawson's Creek or Everybody Loves Raymond: -2
Thomas Dekker's acting: +1
Thomas Dekker the actor, and his agent de-gaying him from Heroes to get this role: -2
Casting Summer Glau from Firefly: +3
Casting Owain Yeoman in the pilot as a Terminator: +1
Not letting Owain be funny like he was in Kitchen Confidential: -1
Letting Owain be half naked half the time: +1
Owain Yeoman's hair: +0.5
Having Owain Yeoman not smile at all: -0.5
Casting Richard T. Jones: +1
The amount of gun violence in the pilot (I know, it's the Terminator but it's become the lazy fallback for "action"): -1
The fact that the pilot still seemed slow with all the violence/action in it: -2
The fact that there seems to be no way to kill the Terminator so we will get endless chase scenes, glass breaking, metal being pounded in, before the good guys stall the bad for a little bit, and then the chase will continue in the next episode: -2
The nice character chemistry between Summer Glau and Thomas Dekker and the whole set up of Richart T. Jones' character chasing after Sarah Connor: +2
Casting Nick Wechsler in a small role (re-occurring?) of a cop, and basically unrecognizable from his Roswell days because of that moustache: +1
The cheesy "lighting ball" special effects which was totally laughable: -1
The fact that The Sarah Connor Chronicles is better suited for a movie: +0
Oh wait, it WAS a movie: -1
Oh wait, it was THREE movies: -3
Still, take this all with a grain of salt because I actually really liked T3, the one with Claire Danes in it!?!: +4

Grand Total: -1

Yeah, I just can't care enough. Not horrible, but should be more entertaining, and I hate to say it but at this point, the best reason to keep watching is to watch John Connor's development and Summer Glau and Richard T. Jones. 2.5 Stars (** 1/2) but I think I'm being nice here because I was nice to Big Shots and Bionic Woman and I don't completely write-off shows until at least 3 episodes in, when they really get their groove (or at least should).

Here is the promo video clip for The Sarah Connor Chronicles:

The Sarah Connor Chronicles on FOX

Lena Headey

Thomas Dekker

Summer Glau

Richard T. Jones
Video uploaded by SeriesBlog

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You actually think casting a waif like Summer Glau as a Terminator was a good thing? She looks like a gentle breeze could break her in half!

Anonymous said...

i'll wait until seeing this before making judgement. i actually am intrigued by the idea of a waif like looking robot that has super strength. sometimes the most unlikely character cast can be the most interesting? maybe because i hate the obvious character choices made by boardroom style management.
i like the idea that they took a risk.