Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles

I’m binge watching this now, having never seen it before.

I have to say I find Sarah Connor obnoxious. the way she pretends she is so tough when she is surrounded by actual tough people (like John’s uncle or the terminators) is just laughable.

And again, why does everyone use these weak ass weapons against terminators? At least in one scene they used a 50 caliber rifle against a terminator and killed it. But the other characters just use handguns and shotguns, which is like firing a 22 at a tank. The way Sarah Connor repeatedly uses a handgun against a terminator, like that makes a damn bit of difference, shows she knows nothing about tactics. You might as well spend years and years studying military strategy and then decide to throw rocks at a tank as your big, bold strategy. Use bombs, thermite or 50 caliber rifles.

Anyway, I just find Sarah obnoxious and stupid. They could have written her character better.

It took me a while to figure out the FBI agent was Cooper from Event Horizon.

The scene at the park was very touching.

Also why does John’s uncle use all these useless weapons too? He should carry thermite grenades and a 50 caliber rifle. Not handguns.

Not a great show, I’ll admit, but it had both Summer Glau and Shirley Manson, so it gets some coolness points for that.

Bad show, somewhat likeable only if you are REALLY into the Terminator universe and are willing to accept a lot of stupid. The reason for the low caliber weapons is simply that fans like to see those classic Terminator-human battles where the human is always the underdog and overcomes the odds.

As for Sarah, Lena Headey has a great reputation but she never really made that role work.

The problem wasn’t the actress, it was just the way her personality was written.

I agree with you as to why they were always using low caliber weapons, because it is good for the show. But in real life you’d need to use explosives, thermite, acid or anti-materiel rifles to kill one of those things. Small arms designed to kill people are useless.

The scene at the beginning of Terminator Genisys is the proper way for a human to kill a terminator.

That movie rocked, I don’t care what people say.

The pilot showed a lot of promise. The shootout at Sarah Connor’s apartment where she took cover behind the couch made me roll my eyes at the worn out bullet-proof furniture trope only to be pleasantly surprised in a later scene when the cops find out she had lined it with Kevlar.

The show did go needlessly complicated in the second season.

Huh, I must say I enjoyed the series a lot. I never really examined it as closely as you have.

This criticism reminds a lot of the Nitpicker’s Guides to Star Trek which as just the title suggested examined The Original Series and The Next Generation with a very critical eye.
I loved the books a lot and it made appreciate the series more. There used to a message board (Nitpickers Central http://www.nitcentral.com/index_legacy.htmI believe?) devoted to this kind of analysis but it hasn’t really been updated in a while.

I liked it. There were a few really interesting episodes, my favorite being one about what Cameron gets up to in the small hours when everyone is asleep.

…Sarah Connor didn’t “pretend” to be tough. Sarah Connor was a bad-ass. Can you expand on exactly why you found her to be obnoxious?

Outside of the first two Terminator movies (which were classics) the only other Terminator property I care about was the Chronicles. I thought it was brilliant. And Thomas Dekker’s John Connor is the only version of John in any of the Terminator franchise that would actually inspired me, and would follow into battle.

She was always threatening to kill people when she wasn’t willing to kill people. She talked a big talk but never followed through. Plus some of the people she threatened to kill were actual killers, not pretenders like her.

Also her obsession with small arms against terminators showed she knows nothing about military tactics and is unwilling to learn. Although again, John’s uncle behaved the same way. It’d be like someone whose only job it was to destroy tanks being obsessed with 22 revolvers. A 22 revolver is useless against a tank.

If I had to rate the terminator movies from best to worst I’d say T2, T1, T5, T3, T4. Not sure where Sarah Conner Chronicles come in, probably between T3 and T4.

Dean Winters, the Mayhem guy from All State played Sarah’s Ex. He was in a few episodes S1.

Sarah disappeared unexpectedly leaving him pretty upset. I guess because Sarah always reinvents a new life to avoid the Terminators.

I just thought of something may or may not be a nit or a plot hole?

Did they explain where they got the money to buy the firearms or weaponry they did have? Last I checked guns weren’t cheap. For that matter, how did they acquire the Kevlar they used to line the couch? I assume Kevlar isn’t cheap either.

Fanwank: She stole it. In T2 John learned the ATM hack from his mother. I don’t think Sarah has any compunction to stealing as it’s all going to be destroyed sooner or later.

If they stole the firearms and equipment, you think they would of had one episode showing that. It would have made for an interesting side story in their journey.

T2 also showed us that she had at least one survivalist friend.

A bunch of that stuff probably came from Enrique before he decided to turn on her.

He was in season two, also. They reconnected after Sarah, John, and Cameron jumped forward in time, and Charley had gotten married in the intervening eight years.

I watched regularly. I kept hoping they’d have episodes that featured one character and what ever story that played out.

This was common in many 1960’s shows. Bonanza for example, often sent one character on a trip. He or she had to overcome whatever danger occurred. Gunsmoke did it too. There were Festus episodes, Newly, even Doc had a few.

They did that a couple times in Sarah Chronicles. Sarah had a two part episode where she investigates a big company. Cameron had an episode at a library.

They should have done more of that. It helps flesh out every character. They aren’t just part of a group.

Is there a way to discuss how the series ends without giving things away?