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Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has all the ingredients for an awesome ride: Lena Headey's angry commando mom, widescreen action sequences — and naked Summer Glau kicking ass, in this clip. We won't know for a while if the show can sustain this level of excitement every week. For now, though, we're psyched — and we've done a comparison for you between the unaired pilot and the one that did air. You'll discover that Sarah Connor's character was seriously wimpified.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has all the ingredients for an awesome ride: Lena Headey's angry commando mom, widescreen action sequences — and naked Summer Glau kicking ass, in this clip. We won't know for a while if the show can sustain this level of excitement every week. For now, though, we're psyched — and we've done a comparison for you between the unaired pilot and the one that did air. You'll discover that Sarah Connor's character was seriously wimpified.One reason the pilot moves so fast is to haul us from the status quo at the end of Terminator 2 to the show's new status. At the start, Sarah and John Connor are still hiding out, but they think they've averted the creation of Skynet and the war against the machines. They find out differently when a Terminator shows up to kill John, and a nice Terminator (Glau) comes to the rescue. The Connors decide to try once again to prevent Skynet from ever happening. Several bad-ass action sequences later, they find a time machine and jump forward to 2007, the new start date for Skynet. (And that's why Glau ends up naked and kick-boxing.)
We also meet some new supporting cast members: the FBI agent who's chasing Sarah Connor, Tommy Lee Jones style, and the fiance she ran out on. So the Terminators, the Feds and the fiance will all be on her ass every week. The searching-for-Skynet plot is the show's best hope of not feeling like a weekly cat-and-mouse game.
There are a few bad signs: Summer Glau is great as a killing machine, but not so great when she's pretending to be a normal girl at first. So if it's true that future episodes will feature her character going to school with John and trying to act normal, that could be an issue. Thomas Dekker, as John Connor, has a bit of a mouth-breathing issue.
And then there's the wimpifying of Sarah Connor's character. It seems to be pretty deliberate, and is a major bad sign for the show. The original pilot which circulated nine months ago showed her character as a non-stop hardass. Her only weakness was an excess of paranoia and rage, which threatened to drive her son away. The televised pilot adds a new scene, where Summer Glau is stitching up Sarah Connor's wounds. Lena Headey, as Connor, whimpers and says that she can't keep running or she'll lose her mind. And her son will leave her. It feels as though the network wrote saying, "Have her show more weakness." And you can bet those moments of weakness will be written into future episodes as well.
And then there's the final monologue. Here's the original version. Note also the original actor playing Sarah's fiance:And then here's the televised version, with a nice outdoor swingset scene instead of the indoor gun-flexing:
And then here's the televised version, with a nice outdoor swingset scene instead of the indoor gun-flexing:
Comments
Ugh. Wuss!
I saw the pilot a few months back (bless you Bittorrent) and the hard-ass ending actually made me curious about the show. Well, that and naked Summer Glau.
it doesn't look good.
perhaps the fox geniuses in their infinite wisdom decided we the viewers could not handle two tough ladies on the screen at the same time
Wow... Sarah is SUPPOSED to be hard as nails and the terminator is supposed to be a freaking ROBOT! OMG when will the writers strike end so the scabs will stop writing our beloved crack!
I remember when Highlander: The Series first debuted and there were some seriously rough spots in the first season. I don't doubt that if the show is allowed to breathe a little bit and create its unique space, early missteps will be forgotten.
@Sam: Pilot not withstanding, I would be extremely surprised if this show turns out a season that's anything but rough spots.
Lena Headey is too young to playing his mom. She needs to be a little more "weathered."
Lena Headey is the best thing about the new show and it's a shame the network decided to make her weaker, but it makes sense because all the Terminators are wimps on this show and if she was too tough it wouldn't be plausible that they're even a problem for her.
I know it's just tv, but can't they find any bodybuilders or any imposing actors to play Terminators? All these guys look like extras from The Stand tv movie. Maybe they're going with James Cameron's original concept that the Terminators should blend in, but these Terminators are really boring.
I think they wimpified her to attract a larger audience. The mother looking out for her kid angle got my mom hooked on the show.
Actually, the second version of the monologue at the end works better (dramatically). It's understated and minimal.
That said, I'm not wasting my time watching this show.
Hmm what the hell. Why the effing scene change, the first clip is much more inline with the movie, why the freaking swing scene
Big disappointment. They should have scrapped the Connor storyline all together. Why create an alternate universe at all? I tried to watch but can't get past the idea that all of this has been answered...and better in the movies. This series looks to have no where to go. They could have easily created new characters, new problems, new backgrounds, new side stories of Skynet and the Terminators...etc. Why do networks suck at sci-fi? Why? Why? Why? Can't they just get over themselves and hire some real sci-fi authors who understand that STORIES make quality and success, not explosions and perceived demographic appeal (which changes with success anyway).
Well, at least Bear McCreary's music is on point. I'm kind of waiting to see where this show is going (if anywhere). I'm willing to give it a chance, but not for too long.
I read the "I can't keep running line" as setting her up to go after Skynet...again. I didn't think it made her weak, but rather showed a determination to (yet again) take care of busines, go after the machines, and save John.
Only time will tell...
Those Terminators sure are bad shots.
Booooo!
As much as I like seeing Summer Glau again, I'd wish Fox would keep their hands of Terminator.
Fucking lame.
@T-man: Just wait for the Terminator 20,000, which comes with a special aiming matrix. It's coming, they're just patching the beta version now.
I'm not sold on Headey. She seems too soccer mommish - which is, I imagine, precisely the demographic Fox is trying to more appeal to.
Oh, and didn't the end of the pilot create the same dang problem that we had at the end of The Terminator...
*Possible Spoiler*
...itty bitty bits of blowed up Terminator laying around for some enterpising minds to pick up and develop. I don't know, maybe it'll be a plot point.
Who keeps bringing these promising shows to -Fox- for development? It's like giving your girlfriend to a biker gang as a "toy" in exchange for a beer and whatever's left over when they get bored with her. Did these people learn nothing from Firefly?
@ChaosRob: i am afraid " no " is the obvious answer
@charliejane: Man, this is all stupid, anyway. If Skynet can send all these fucking Terminators back to blow up the Conners, why in the hell does it send them one at a time? Why doesn't it just send ALL THE TERMINATORS back at them?
They should make this show like Power Rangers, and just have a different Terminator every week, with strange new powers, that can only be defeated when Summer Glau combines her Terminator powers with her newfound knowledge of what it means to be human.
Boring. Summer is naked sure, but not in any way that we can enjoy her. It won't be long before they are doing good deeds for the oppressed and solving crimes. T-Man is a dead aim with the observation that the TV Termies are bad shots. I would like to have heard Summer say: "Your clothes; Give them to me...now." It would have been a hoot.
*Spoiler Alert?*
Wow you guys. Try to find something to complain about why don't you. I haven't seen the pilot, and I'm sure it's better with a stronger Sarah Connor, not that she's anything to scoff at in what I saw last night, but come on: shooting some nutso ion pulse gun that resistance fighters sent a guy back in time to build into a safe deposit box at the exact moment a time machine is sucking you into the future to destroy something that you thought you already destroyed but you can't destroy because if you do the robots will just figure out a way to time travel and make it not destroyed - Talk about awesome. I'm stoked to see this play out.
Oh and also . . . Summer Glau, she may not be the best at playing a normal girl, but she's GREAT at playing a robot trying to pretend to be a normal girl.
I mean I never thought it'd be great, but, fuck's sake, "dogfight" line with her hiding a loaded shotgun and "dogfight" line with Summer Glau staring at the camera. LAME. Ah well, makes me glad I don't have a TV.
Great. Now I have to go find something to get the taste of that treacle out of my mouth. Anyone have any battery acid I can gargle with?
no wonder i can't watch tv anymore. I enjoyed watching summer in Firefly but this show is beneath her.
My only question is....are we gonna get a little John conner/female terminator action?
Worked OK for me on tape with the fast forward button. You just skip past the wimpy and silly stuff. Most TV works best this way, actually.
pax, smn
@ meneye: Soon, when ratings drop off, I'm sure.
If they wanted to do it right, they would have used the time-travel tech to go back to 1996 so they could retrieve Lucy Lawless at the peak of "Xena: Warrior Princess" and then cast her as Sarah Connor.
Sorry - but Xena trumps Sarah Connor. (Similarly, River Tam in a space bar trumps a pair of female Terminatrixes, though a snotty Alderaanian princess beats a pair of Tams)
Yes, I'm sure we're all glad to see Summer back on the tube again. However, if this (sorry Summer, you're awesome and all, but truth be told) POS series makes it through the first season (god forbid it gets a 2nd year as well) then Fox will truly be the assholes of all assholes forever and ever, amen. Firefly was the shiznit of all time, and now THIS BS?? Whoever's making decisions at Fox needs canning NOW and hire me, ffs.
I am i the only one thinking this ? The new terminator is a teenage girl because by the middle of this season there will be a twisted love story between her and john.
How anatomically correct are terminators?
@enolraic: Considering they have been hinting at it during the show I wouldn't be surprised if that's what they have in mind.
@enolraic: That's definitely going to happen. Either that or John will fall for her but she can't return the feelings. I also thought they might try and do something like saying she's programmed to act like John's girlfriend/wife in the future.
That said, I actually enjoyed the pilot and I have the Monday episode recorded to watch later.
Watch both clips 5 times and tell me the as-aired one doesn't grow on you. The unaired one just seems, well, predictable, expected, boring.
Plus the music in the as-aired version is superior.
About the possible affair between John Connors and the teenage Terminator, well let's put it in perspective. If you were the leader of mankind and had to send back someone in time to protect yourself during your teenage years remembering that you were not getting laid because mom kept moving me around all the time, wouldn't you send back a hot Terminator to get some noogy during these critical adolescent years. After all he sent Kyle Reese to do his mom so he can be born after all.
I am so glad to see that others have taken offense with the wimpification of Sara Connor! I couldn't figure out what the hell I was watching. I have a serious girl crush on Lena Headey, but they have written her wildly out of character with the Sara Conner we know and love (ie. driven round the bend to protect her son and the future).
I am going to give this a chance to breathe over the course of the episodes that are already in the can, but I, too, am not hopeful. As anyone who knew (and adored) Firely knows, Fox has a terrible track record with letting a sci-fi show find it legs (and its audience). We can expect them to tinker and advice, demand changes and air the episodes out of order. They will rely on demographic and polling data instead of sticking with an interesting and potentially innovative concept.
Here are my questions (and my apologies for coming off as a total geek ass):
1. The tv T-1000s are no longer molten and can't repair themselves?
2. The Terminators are now phenomenally terrible shots?
3. A Terminator body, completely separated from its head (ie. computer) can now, you know, get around?!?
4. So now it's not public knowledge in the future who built skynet?
I saw it last night - it's great. Sarah still comes across as tough and a little scary to be honest. I think of it as a small period of changing gears between the T2 Sarah and the TV Series' Sarah - she's a little older and John is a little more responsible now.
The pilot is 10x better that T3... I've still got my fingers crossed this will be awesome.
Oh, and let's not do the "What if" Terminator Time Travel thing. It's like a bubble - beautiful, but it'll go pop if you play with it.
"Why didn't they just go back a little way and tell themselves not to invent time travel?"
*pop*
The show pissed me off. I loved Sarah Connor's character in Terminator 2. The TV show is a sad result of Fox's blatant male chauvinism. "Dude, naked chics!"
T3 was also a waste of film.
And then there's the wimpifying of Sarah Connor's character...The televised pilot adds a new scene, where Summer Glau is stitching up Sarah Connor's wounds. Lena Headey, as Connor, whimpers and says that she can't keep running or she'll lose her mind.
Um, did you miss the bit in where Sarah is having her frickin' bullet wounds sewed up without the benefit of anesthesia? I think, given the circumstances, she's entitled to bitch a bit.
Also, what is this feelings = wimpiness bullshit? It's easy to carry on if you aren't scared. If you're afraid and you do the job anyway, that shows real guts.
I'm still unsure on this. I enjoyed the episodes and even had a few moments of guilt after laughing at the obvious set ups, but it hasn't clicked in that Terminator way yet. I love the first two films so dearly for being all-out action films but still being reasonably intelligent and with a message to drive it, and this doesn't have the same tone yet.
Summer Glau, as awesome as she is (and she is) is actually too human for me - the way she moves and talks when it's not a blatantly called for "robot moment" doesn't strike as quite right. The big bad Terminator sent back is cheesy as all hell too - "class dismissed", seriously?
I think John is being played well, certainly, given that he's 15 years old in the story, and Lena Heady is fine so far. As much as I miss the utterly crazy Sarah Connor of T2 that dragged her son around Mexico to pick up guns stashes, I'm not sure it would be sustainable for even one season.
I do, however, really miss Arnie. I'm also wondering what the hell happened to T3 in their timeline. No-one was a huge fan, but are we doing a Highlander 2 and pretending it doesn't exist?
@sonofsanta: T3 hasn't happened yet, in the time line of the show. It's after T2, and before T3.
And, while I love the Back to the Future trilogy, and Heroes, and I enjoy the Terminator collection, time travel has logic problems and always will So you have to not think about them. Ignore them and enjoy.
And I think Summer's character is modeled after John's wife. Just a theory.
@sneggleblech: By 'collection' are you including that piece of shit after T2?
I am hoping the show does not suck, but it is Fox, after all.
While they did bring us Jack Bauer, they also foisted Paula Abdul back on us.
I did see T3, and I enjoyed watching it, but I agree that it was not as good as the other two. Well, the second one anyway. I haven't seen the first one all the way through.
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