Despite the distractions of people walking around in Terminator make-up and bulky blokes dressed in camouflage, ski masks and armed with assault rifles, I remained glued to the screen. Lena Headey has all the things that made Linda Hamilton so good on the big screen. She is intense and expressive and looked suitably good with a pump action shotgun to make you wonder why the American press started complaining a while back that she is too skinny. She plays the woman on the edge and ready to run perfectly, over slightly prickly and protective.
It packed an awful lot in with classroom shootouts, bank break-ins, numerous cars written off as the search to find and destroy the SkyNet computer system gets under way anew. It's a nice touch having the Arnie protecting Terminator role go to a woman in Summer Glau, giving a new dynamic to story. It ignores everything that happened in the not all that great Terminator 3 movie (the one that James Cameron/Linda Hamilton were not involved in) and gives plenty of nods to 'T2 Judgement Day'.The classic lines are there from "Come with me if you want to live" and a few Terminator one-liners -- although it must be said that none quite carry the same weight or impact uttered as they are in Standard American English rather than English with a deep Austrian accent. Small gripe.It has in its DNA the makings of high-quality science fiction, which means it could win a wide audience, which it achieved in its first outing on Fox in the US where it pulled in 18m, stretching beyond geeks and fan boys to the general TV watching audience.The numbers will be interesting for Virgin Media and its newish entertainment channel, and Sky One rival, Virgin 1, which could do with some must -watch programming.It has had shows that have drawn critical praise in 'The Riches', which didn't do anything for me, but other than that it seems to have lots of programming that previously appeared on sister Virgin Media channel Bravo. Things like the David Mamet created 'The Unit' and loads of 'Star Trek', which all used to live on Sky One (not sure about that, it doesn't really help to distinguish the channel in the minds of media buyers).The only problem 'Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles' that I can see, having seen its first episode, is going to be keeping up the quality.
Gordon Macmillan
Blogging for:
Member since: 03 Jun 2008
Last login: 23 Nov 2009
Total Posts: 1,617
