The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Heavy Metal

Destined for cancellation.

Beside the obvious lack in understanding of common physics (I know I sound like the Comicbook Guy from The Simpsons), the characters are written to be shallow and cliched. One episode John Connor is a troubled angst filled teenager who doesn't want to be the leader of the human rebellion, and the next he jumps into the fray to destroy a shipment of material being stockpiled for future Terminators.

Rewriting the entire mythos of The Terminator movies was the first folly of the writers of this show. The second being the complete and utter lack of galvanizing motivation for any of the characters motivation. FBI Agent Ellison is the only character that has any clear motivation and all of his actions are dictated by that motivation. Sarah, John, and Cameron switch back and forth between their character's actions it really leaves their characters without any reason for the audience to get involved. Every one of their actions is a plot vehicle for a poorly written episode. John Connor is supposed to be the fulcrum for the entire human rebellion and yet he jumps into the warehouse full of the enemy and possibly more than one Terminator. Woefully written.

John Connor is the king in a game of chess. You don't use your king to attack your opponent. If the writers of this show want to include him in the action they should have him act as the home base guy with all the tech gadgets and direct Sarah and Cameron into the action.

The show has three main characters. One is an emotionless robot. You can't do a whole lot of character tension with that. The other two are mother and son. You can only do so much with the whole teenage rebellion thing before it becomes old hat. And apparently the current writers can barely handle the current teenaged rebellion plot vehicles. They should just stay away form them. The only resolution is to add another character.

Maybe they need to write in a rebel from the future as a love interest for Sarah? Maybe he trains John to be a fighter? Maybe John gets jealous of their relationship? Maybe he has more instructions for Cameron to make her ulterior motives even more mysterious? Maybe he isn't a rebel after all but a human traitor? Oops, did I just write an entire season?

I've got some really petty gripes:

1. The actor playing John is woefully miscast. OK, that's not so petty. But besides his acting being horrible, his appearance bothers me. Is he wearing a wig? Why does his hair always hang in his face? Does he ever bathe? Why does he always dress like he's homeless? Why is he so whiny?

2. The FBI man's voice annoys me. I can't put my finger on it, but there's a quality that just ... bugs me. Too deliberate? Too breathy? Too tongue smacky? Cotton mouth? I don't know.

Other than that, I love Summer. I wish she would go back to acting like a human as she did in the pilot. But I assume that someone gave her notes that she'd progressed the character along too quickly.

I think I'm also interested to see what Brian Green will bring to the show. I think he's gotten a bad rap. (Yes, that is an intentional pun.)

This is an interesting show, in that it doesn't follow a straightforward episodic format. It runs like a long movie, and the level of violence surprises me. But I cannot imagine this show getting renewed for another season. Hopefully, the strike will conclude soon, and Fox will allow this show to finish producing all 13 episodes it ordered. I think this would make for a nice DVD box set, especially if the major storylines are resolved in 13 episodes.

maybe i'm mixing up my scifi but its not that they cant bring clothes and other objects through its that it takes too much power and is therefore easier to do the less mass you have.

Ep 4 was better than the first 3. It's nice to see John become more involved.

Why were they so hot on getting John out immediately? Couldn't they leave, get some tools and C4, come back, work their way into the bunker and just blow the Terminator's butt up? Seriously, it's not that complicated.

I HATE Summer Glua's idiotic "I'm just a robot" shtick. She was convincing as a teen and then poof, she becomes a stereotype.

Really, really dig the idea of the Terminators who lose all skin needing to grow new skin and get surgery to create a face. That's more interesting than anything done by Cameron, John or Sarah.

Regarding the whole "Terminator traveling through time" drama: Well, I think they created this whole time travel thing specifically for Terminators, so, I'd assume a Terminator's body, skeleton and all, could transfer.

Hmm, no mention of Cameron swiping a bar of the metal from the truck. It seems she has an ulterior motive...not sure what, but the motive is not to stop the creation of Terminators apparently.

I'm no time warp/sci-fi fanatic, but as history changes, shouldn't Cameron disappear if the mission is accomplished? Shouldn't her mere existence remind Sarah and John that their mission is not complete? Or, will she remain simply because she is no longer in her present time? Someone help me here.

Did anyone else feel like they left last week's storyline hanging? Why did the girl kill herself? What did all the graffitti on the school walls mean?

Something has kinda been bothering me about the time travel aspect, with everyone traveling back and forward through time, shouldn't there actions they take change things in the future, or are they just doing things to get them to the future cause what will be just will be?

Sign painted on one of the trucks in the warehouse: "Testsuo Corporation", reference to the awesome Testsuo series of metal-man movies.