Okay, I think I’m sold on The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The follow-up maintained the punch of the pilot and then some. And the pilot had the largest debut of any scripted show this season, and last night’s episode held a fairly respectable 10.07 million viewers. The only thing I stand in opposition to is the freakin’ name…The Sarah Connor Chronicles is probably the hardest phrase in the world to say…you can almost hear the announcer…the professional announcer…pause and think “Okay, here we go” before he says it. It doesn’t exactly flow off the tongue.

Anyway, one of the greatest character actors out there is Garret Dillahunt. You’d recognize him from his parts on Deadwood, John From Cincinnati, Damages, ER, The 4400, The Book of Daniel, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and No Country for Old Men…to name a few. The dude just oozes coolness…and he’s coming to T:TSCC.

He told Kristin from eOnline, “Owain Yeoman and I are both Cromartie, which is all the same robot underneath—he just needs a new flesh suit. I show up in episode three, and I’ll be following them around for a while. When we got to where we stopped because of the strike…I actually haven’t even met them yet, but I do interact with a lot of people who get in my way, and the FBI guy Richard T. Jones is on my tail.”

This brings up an interesting aspect to the show…guest star Terminators! If there is a steady stream of robot killing machines coming back from the future to off John Connor, that presents the opportunity for unlimited “skin suits” that they can take over.

I say that’s flippin’ awesome.

I think it’s imperative when you read a review that you know the reviewer’s background, so let me give you some of mine.  I’ve watched the first two Terminator films one time, back when T2 was first released on video.  I was roughly in 8th grade at the time, I think, so I don’t remember much about them at all.  I pretty much remember that John Connor will become the leader of a resistance group against the machines, which had taken over the world in the future, and the Governator was sent back from the future, first to kill him, then protect him.  Or something like that.

Luckily, you don’t have to be a Terminator Saga aficionado to get Sarah Connor Chronicles.  The events pick up shortly after the events of T2 (I’m assuming it’s not taking the events of T3 into canon).  Sarah and John are on the run, doing their best to lay low and avoid the machines that are apparently still searching for John. 

Like all pilots, this served to set up exactly what’s in store for the rest of the season. Despite the fact that Miles Dyson, the guy who designed Skynet, which subsequently destroyed the world (Wikipedia is your friend), had been killed, Skynet still goes online in the future. So it becomes the responsibility of the Connors, with the help of the newest Terminator model, to stop it. After successfully evading the most recent Terminator sent to kill John, they make a quick jump into the “future” 2007, where they will begin their quest.

I heard some negative buzz about this one early on, but that came primarily from viewers who were probably huge Terminator fans back in the day. But as for me, a casual fan at best, I enjoyed it. The performances were all very solid. Lena Headey, in the title character, is a very convincing as a mother who has become hardened from the years of having to protect her child, and Thomas Dekker is great as a kid who has spent his life on the run.

I think that there are enough veins of story to really make this an entertaining watch. Besides the obvious Skynet takedown plot and the apparent endless stream of Terminator models coming to kill John, there’s also the FBI’s efforts to find and capture Sarah, who they perceive as a homicidal nutbag. We also have her former fiance, Charley Dixon, who will factor into future episodes. It’s interesting that this part has been recast and reinvisioned from the pilot. Originally, the fiance was Burke Daniels, played by Tim Guinee, and it was a much more docile role. But Dean Winters has a much harder edge…it’s obvious that there’s a direction they’re headed there.

Sarah Connor Chronicles is not revolutionary television. It’s nothing that will redefine the genre. But it is really entertaining and quite suspenseful. I’ll definitely be checking out tonight’s episode.

And, really, what else is there to watch?

Grade: B+

Just a reminder…FOX will be debuting the new drama Sarah Connor Chronicles this Sunday night.

Now, I had an opportunity to see the first hour a while back, and I was none too thrilled with it. However, rumors are that there were quote a few changes made between then and now, so I’ll hold off on my verdict until the official premiere.

So tune in this Sunday to check out some Terminator action!

Fox is “terminating” Suspense, and “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” is in the batters box, and ready to step up to the plate. The series is going to be paired with “24″ at launch, giving it the best possible chance Fox has of actually keeping it on the air. (If only they’d done something similar with “Firefly”). Zap 2 it reports that the first episode will launch on Jan. 14th, 2008.

We’ve seen the first episode of the show here at TV Jab and (Drew correct me if I’m wrong) we pretty much unanimously didn’t care for it. Having said that - it’s only a pilot, and lots of shows grow and get better over time (Star Trek: TNG is one that pops into my mind), so the show could still surprise us…we’re just not excited right now.