TDL’s Sports, Wrestling, & Otherwise

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the role of 24 will be being played by The Terminator.

The Good

- As sci-fi shows go, this is the best of all worlds. You’re coming in with a established mythology tweaked to fit into a new timeline. The rules of this universe are already well established. This system seems to work out well for these type of shows. It’s kept Smallville on for like seven years.

- It has a chance to find an audience because of the lack of any other valid options. It’s got Monday to itself. Between that and the fact its got a built-in fanbase, it’s going to do pretty well.

- I’ll put this under good for now. The Terminator Goes To High School is kind of amusing. My one problem with her thus far: how is it in the first episode she could pull of human enough to fool John Conner… possibly the only guy in the world who would likely recognize her for what she is… however two episodes later they’re back in high school and she’s strange and can’t figure out how to act.

The Bad

- In the very first episode, they use the gaping Terminator plot-hole that everyone notices but the powers that be refuse to close. The evil terminator has Sarah Connor in his clutches, can kill her, but refuses to because he can use her. Then, he calls John and uses her voice. If any of the Terminators actually used this power as they should, the movies would have ended in like four seconds.

- Except for Summer Glau, the acting in the pilot was really, really bad. They were not convincing at all. In fairness, it got better in the later episodes.

- There is going to be a really creepy sub-plot with guy on robot love.

- Terminators are incredibly good movie monsters, but I don’t know if they make really good episodic television monsters. If you think about what it takes to kill a terminator — well-established in movie lore — think about having to kill them on a weekly basis. Arnold had to be crushed in a hydraulic press and melted in lava. Robert Patrick had to be melted in lava. The T-X was blown up by a mini Hydrogen bomb. Killing Terminators isn’t easy. How many Terminators can you possibly throw at two people before it’s just completely absurd that they’re still alive? I understand that giving them their own pet terminator helps, but I feel like this show is going to suffer from lack of action. I will be shocked if they can avoid the pattern of “introduce big bad terminator, confront, hide, hide, hide, confront, hide, destroy.”

The Verdict

I like it for now. As I said above, it’s a type of show that lends itself to becoming a television show. It has a deep but loosely defined mythology that can be exploited and there is one over-arcing goal that they can put off for as long as they can come up with storylines. The only problem is that, right now, they’re on a time-clock. Skynet is brought online in 2011… which would lead one to believe that the fourth season will be quite an adventure. On the other hand… what do they do after that?

They have me wanting to know more about Cameron, which is good. There are a lot of disparate storylines. There is the random “painting things on the wall of the high school to drive a girl to suicide”. There is the over-arcing “the Terminator that they blew up in the bank is now looking for them”. There is “why is Cameron eating food”. There is “guy they left in 1997 who John went to visit and now knows they’re back”.

In all, enough to keep me watching.