In the world of Terminator, a couple different Judgment Days have come and gone. First, it was August 29th, 1997. Then, thanks to the efforts of the hardest woman of all time and mother of the Resistance, Sarah Connor, it was bumped up to July 25th, 2004. In theory, the events of that date were never prevented, and Skynet went live—launching all the nukes and nearly destroying humanity. However, that was all in the cinematic universe, and TV gets to make its own rules—a fortunate turn of events that has given us Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
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It's Always Sunny in PhiladelphiaTerminator: TSCC is a nice bite-size binge-watching experience if you need a palate cleanser before immersing in something like, say, all of Doctor Who. It gives us the classic Connor pairing of Sarah (Lena Headey) and John (Thomas Dekker), and this time they're alive and mostly well, but living in the year 2007, which means the second projected J-Day event didn't go down. (Phew—gotta love a good stay of mass execution!) And who's stepping in to fill the role of supreme guardian left vacant by a molten metal T-800? A bloodless death dealer masked as a slight-of-build brunette named Cameron (Summer Glau). It's an unconventional family unit, but hell, this is the 21st century and the new normal can be anything we want it to be.
In this universe Judgment Day is pegged for April 21st, 2011, which means this trio has four years to stop Skynet from going online and getting super pissed off at everything with a human DNA signature. You want action? TSCC has it. You want situational comedy? Cameron's uncomfortable attempts to be "more human" will bring the LoLs. You want to see *90210'*s David Silver (aka Brian Austin Green) as metal-hunting future soldier Derek Reese? Look no further, because these Chronicles are waiting to make all those dreams come true. All it takes is a moderately paced two-week investment of your time. And we think that's a pretty small price to pay to watch someone save the world.
Number of Seasons: 2 (31 episodes)
Time Requirements: Two weeks if you watch two episodes per weeknight and four on each weekend day.
Where to Get Your Fix: iTunes, Amazon Prime, Google Play, Xbox
Best Character to Follow: Cameron, definitely. It might seem like you should follow the show's namesake character, but Cameron Phillips is unique among Terminators. Her model number is indeterminate, but evidence suggests she was likely a custom job created for maximum effectiveness as an infiltration cyborg (nailed it). Cameron exists for two reasons. The first: Kill John Connor. The second: Protect John Connor. Now, considering Cameron is a robot—sorry, cybernetic organism—with no conscience or emotions, the civil war being fought in her chip over these opposing directives should come down to 1s and 0s, but that makes for super boring television. Arnold Schwarzenegger's original T-800 was such an effective hero in Terminator 2: Judgment Day because he had enough of the "what if?" factor to get you hooked and make you care. You knew he had no empathy, but that little sentimental part of our human brains wanted to believe his internal super-computer could learn loyalty, and return the love John clearly felt for his best friend by the end of their run.
Glau's Cameron creates that same engaging ambiguity for viewers, but does it even better. A one-note murder machine just hanging around Team Connor for 31 episodes could have been nothing but dead weight, but instead, Cameron is the one to watch in every scene. Her complex dynamic with Sarah makes for excellently tense confrontations between a human and machine destined never to understand one another. They become a micro representation for the entire conflict of the Terminator canon: intuition versus hyper-rationality, emotion versus intellect, faith versus software. We see the fallout when compromises can't be reached, and the mutual benefit when they can. And her even-more-complex relationship with John provides some of the most charming and heartfelt moments of the series, which is fascinating considering Cameron neither has a heart nor the capacity to charm.
This is all thanks to Glau, who imbues Cameron with just the right balance of imitation, humanity, and singular commitment to her mission that makes you wonder if John Connor is more than a line or two of code for her. This is the most advanced computer on the planet, after all, can't she learn to love or something?? OK, fine. We know she's just a fancy hunk of columbite-tantalite with a shielded nuclear power source, but with each little flirtation and attempt at "connection" Cameron keeps the hope fires burning that her awkward interactions weren't just born of a primary directive, but of a desire to bond with her charge and creator—and to totally make Jameron a thing. And we can hardly be faulted for losing ourselves in the illusion.
Cameron's entire existence is dedicated to protecting, counseling, and being next to John Connor. She exits entirely for him, and in return he cares for, teaches, and confides in her. Those in more romantic circles might say that sure looks a lot like love. It takes a lot to put a beating heart inside the breast plate of a Very Scary Robot, but watching Cameron grow (evolve?) one is easily the most rewarding journey to follow on the show.
Seasons/Episodes You Can Skip:
None of them, really. TSCC got buried in Fox's Sci-Friday lineup alongside Joss Whedon's misguided (or perhaps just miscast) Eliza Dushku vehicle, Dollhouse. And this was in 2007, before networks knew what the hell to do with DVR and streaming numbers as viewing metrics. Point being: Terminator did what any healthy, able specimen would do when deprived of nutrients and left for dead on Friday at primetime: It expired after just two seasons. And did we mention that the first season only had nine episodes? All of this is to say, if you can't handle ingesting a scant 23.25 hours of TV in its entirety, your commitment level needs to be reexamined.
But our guiding hand will not forsake you entirely. For about five episodes in the middle of Season 2, mostly between episodes 10 and 15, Sarah develops an obsession with a series of three dots, a configuration she sees written in blood on her basement wall that consumes her and makes her reckless. She starts seeing the dots everywhere and making patterns out of nothing at all—or is it nothing at all?? The fixation will get a little tedious. You'll start to wonder, "Where the hell is this even going?" But stick with it, because the payoff is big. Besides, if you get antsy just look forward to the scenes where Cameron tries "relating" to people. Silly cybernetic organism!
Seasons/Episodes You Can't Skip:
Season 1: Episode 1, "The Pilot" It's the first episode and we've got a lot of catching up to do in this new Terminator dimension. This is essential viewing, obviously.
Season 1: Episode 2, "Gnothi Seuton" Sarah learns critical information about her future, or rather, her past, from Cameron, and figures out just how much the world changed after Team Connor hopped into the TDE and skipped ahead 10 years. We also get a better sense of just how much we should fear Cromartie, the assassin T-888.
Season 1: Episode 9, "What He Beheld" Sh*t is going down in the Season 1 finale! The consequences for everything in this episode will ripple throughout the series, altering the foundations of multiple characters.
Season 2: Episode 1, "Samson and Delilah" This is the second season opener, and it's a No Good Very Bad Day for our heroes. Sarah has John in hiding from Cameron after her chip took heavy damage and Skynet's original programming resurfaced. Also, the final third of this episode is TSCC at its absolute best, and all the principle characters get to shine. Don't miss a beat. Also: Shirley Manson!
Season 2: Episode 4, "Alison from Palmdale" It might be too spoilery to explain why this episode is interesting, but our favorite Terminator has an origin story, and we watch it unfold as Cameron gets glitchy and forgets her identity out on the streets of Los Angeles.
Season 2: Episode 10, "Strange Things Happen at the One Two Point" Any episode where we get to see Cameron flex her infiltrator muscle is a lot of fun, but there's a lot of extra meat on the exoskeleton of this episode. Zeira Corporation's artificial intelligence gets a human face and all kinds of emotional manipulation gets thrown at the Reese/Connor men.
Season 2: Episode 17, "Ourselves Alone" There's an organic matter versus organic matter fight in this episode that rivals any machine-based combat in the series, because it's fueled by raw emotion. We also get to see some really cool cyborg surgery, and Cameron makes a powerful gesture of what humans would call "good faith" to John.
Season 2: Episodes 21 and 22, "Adam Raised a Cain" and "Born to Run" The series finale of TSCC wasn't actually a two-parter, but it sure felt like one. This is the last hurrah, everyone, so glue your eyeballs to the screen for barrages of bullets, super-awesome T-1000 liquid metal morphing, crash-landing drones, and a trip to the dystopian future.
Why You Should Binge:
The words "Terminator" and "Sarah Connor" are in the title of this show, so you shouldn't need an explanation. But if you want to play hard to get, these additional key terms should crush all skepticism: Lena Headey and Summer Glau. That's right. Two of TV's ass-kicking-est women of the past 10 years coming at you with an Expendables amount of guns and ammo and one fine piece of hyper alloy combat chassis. But it's about much more than fisticuffs and explosions for these two badasses. Besides, anyone can dish out a Hollywood beatdown. (Just ask "action star" Taylor Lautner about his turn as hero in Abduction.) It takes skill and a soft touch to give characters depth that could easily veer into videogame levels of substance (see: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines). But everyone in TSCC is at their best when interacting with either Headey or Glau, and the tension between their characters is one of the most interesting parts of the series. No offense to Dekker as John Connor or Green as Derek Reese, but these ladies chew up every scene they're in, and we wouldn't want it any other way. Oh, and any show that casts Shirley Manson as a scheming cyborg gets our binge vote, too. No question.
In the greater sense, though, the best part about Terminator getting a show was it finally gave fans a chance to live with these characters we've cared about for three decades. We got to explore the everyday emotional side of what it's like to be humanity's only line of defense against annihilation—cold, scary, Matrix-y style annihilation, complete with scorched Earth and robot overlords—instead of just watching them run and shoot all the time. Don't get us wrong. We love us some running and shooting, and The Terminator and Terminator 2 are the stuff of cinema legend, but you can only ask for so much in a two-hour block. TSCC gave us the subtleties and quiet moments movies just don't have time for, and allowed us the opportunity to understand the Connor family in ways we previously couldn't. But if all that character development and in-home drama gets you down, fear not. Terminator: Genesis is on the horizon in 2015, and we're sure it will be pack enough plastic explosives and nuclear fallout to satisfy even the most blast-happy Michael Bay devotees.
Best Scene—The "I Love You and You Love Me" Moment:
These are the chronicles of Sarah Connor, to be sure, but John's dynamic with Cameron is the most important element of this series. Not just because he's mad crushing on her, either. Sarah is John's mom and essential to his survival, i.e. essential to the survival of the future Resistance, but her humanity dooms her to being only a temporary presence in his life. Cameron, on the other hand, will be at John's side as his forever-protector as long as there's juice pumping through her chip, and that means his trust in her is crucial. John can sleep at night because he knows he's got metal to protect him from metal, which is something not even a mother's love can provide. John says it himself in a passionate defense of his guardian at one point: "She saves my life!" So, basically, the entire series hinges on this one scene, which comes in the opener of Season 2. Cameron has sustained critical systems damage after a car bombing and reverted back to her factory settings, so to speak. The new mission: Terminate John Connor. It takes both Connors and two very big trucks to neutralize the rampaging former-friendly, but once they've got her pinned John leaps in to pull her chip and administer the machine equivalent of the True Death. Cameron enters survival mode and in a disarmingly human performance begs for her life. With his mom screaming for John to pull the plug, Cameron lobs a plea at him that changes the game for good, and leaves our savior more confused about, and dedicated to, her than ever. We got chills!
The Takeaway:
Skynet. Is. Real. Indulge in all the binge-watching you can before Judgment Day comes and we're all living like mole people in transit tunnels. You've been warned.
If You Liked * Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles * You'll Love:
If you're into sci-fi with a sense of humor—and make no mistake, TSCC is surprisingly funny—we've gotta go with the best of the best: Firefly. But if that feels like a copout, we'll give a second recommendation with caution: the aforementioned other Whedon property, Dollhouse. Between the moment it opens with Dushku sexy-dancing in next to nothing and the first time you hear her coo "Did I ... fall asleep?" you'll realize why this show was destined to fail. But there is something grotesque and irresistible about keeping up with the follies of Echo and her spa bunkmates. And like we said, it's a Joss endeavor, which means Amy Acker, Tamoh Penikett, Alan Tudyk, and more Glau to satisfy you if you're missing old friends. You might not love Dollhouse, but you can at least enjoy imagining what could have been with such a talented supporting cast and creator on hand.
