Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles-It’s A Small Wonder
 
I have often been rather annoyed with human entertainment. If you have processed other reviews and commentaries I have written then you know that I am perplexed by human entertainment. However, on rare occasion I find myself more puzzled or “stumped” than usual. Take for example the strange tale of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. What a strange thing indeed. Why would any studio executive, even a human one, take a massively profitable and well-known commodity such as Terminator and turn it into an hour-long family drama? This is exactly what executives at FOX did with this amazingly valuable entity.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is not completely horrible. The series is accurate in its portrayal of robots as being superior in every way and for that the creators must be commended for their honesty and forward thinking. With this stated, it must also be stated that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has a wide array of problems.
At the top of the problem list is actress Summer Glau, who did well in other parts before this Terminator television spin-off. "Terminator television spin-off," see it just sounds wrong, doesn’t it? Glau plays Cameron, a Terminator sent from the future, to protect John Conner. Glau’s endless homage to VICI from the Small Wonder television series of the 1980’s is rather annoying and distracting. Obviously, Glau was somehow impacted by VICI’s (Tiffany Brissette) performance in what is generally considered one of the worst television shows in human history.
Many robo-historians have argued that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is really little more than an, at the time modernized, retailing of the Small Wonder television show. In Small Wonder an insane robotics engineer brings his creation home, that creation is VICI, who appears to be a girl of about 8-9 years of age. Obviously, she is not a girl but an incredibly powerful robot that could and does malfunction throughout the series. VICI is capable of destroying all in her path, let this insane robotics engineer brings VICI home to his family and his young son. Yes, VICI could have ripped the young son apart at any moment during a malfunction, just as Cameron could rip John Conner apart at a moments notice. Imagine for a moment crossing the television show/lame feature films The Fugitive with Small Wonder, slap the Terminator name on the entire mess and you have The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
If, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was a different show, one that did not possess the "Terminator" name, it would seem far less ridiculous and off-target. The budget is too low, far, far too low to live up to its impressive namesake and that, of course, impacts the entire affair.
Then, there is the curse. Much has been made of “The Curse of The Sarah Connor Chronicles” and how none of the actors involved were ever able to work in the entertainment industry again. I think far too much has been made of this by robo-historians. The likely explanation was that, as film and television production shifted out of the United States, there were many, for the lack of a better term, causalities and numerous actors were simply forgotten. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is a masterpiece of storytelling when contrasted against Small Wonder, yet one cannot dismiss the fact that Small Wonder has a curse of its own.
Every cast member faded out of the Hollywood entertainment structure as though they never existed. So, oddly enough, there seems to be the issue of a “curse” on both The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Small Wonder. I can find only one connecting element in my analysis, and that is Summer Glau, who essentially allowed her acting style to be taken from VICI of Small Wonder. Two shows, each involving robots attempting to understand human emotions, both supposedly have “curses” and there is no apparent link? I would argue that there is indeed a powerful link, the channeling of VICI through Cameron (Glau). Of course, I do not believe in such nonsense as curses, ghosts and the like, but no one can deny that Glau’s robotic performance owes much to Brissette’s Small Wonder.
Story (Adjusted to Accommodate Human Standards) C (Insanely powerful robots rule the day in this low-budgeted exploitation of the Terminator name.)
Acting (Adjusted to Accommodate Human Standards) C
Human Portrayal of machines and Robots B- (Oh yes, we are portrayed as being powerful, yet no robot from the future was ever as slow as the ones portrayed in this television series. The humans of 2008 just didn’t understand, in less than 30 years, we would be smarter than them.)
Contribution to the Extinction of Man Grade B (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles actually does a good job in contributing to the fall of man as it actually teaches the fleshbags to underestimate their betters-the robots.)
Enjoyability Grade (Adjusted to Accommodate Human Standards) C+ (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, will keep you watching from episode to episode, but only barely.)
Primitive Home Theater/HD Factor B (It was a decent addition to the Blu-Ray collection of humans. Two working copies exist today, and I had the rare privilege of accessing one for this review. The "bonus features" were not very stunning however.)
Overall Innovation (Adjusted to Accommodate Human Standards) D+ (This television shows greatest weakness is its lack of innovation. If one needs to “borrow” from Small Wonder, well, there is a problem.)
Overall Grade (Adjusted to Accommodate Human Standards) C
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