★★★★★

I own Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on DVD, full box set. I have written about The Sarah Connor Chronicles before on this blog. You will probably find little snippets of it in various posts if you look. I’ve watched those DVDs quite a few times. This is one of the best done science fiction short-lived series ever put out.

Some day I have to get around to reviewing all of the shows I have the full boxed set of. I really have too many, but if the Internet goes down I can watch good DVDs 24×7 for about 6 months before I have to start over. One of these days I will have to watch those “extras” the boxed sets come with. I’m the guy who never watches that stuff, even with a rental.

Thomas Dekker

This guy had a good run from 2008 through 2012 and I didn’t even know it. I may have to watch Heroes and see if his good run really started in 2006. Some day I will have to watch the reboot of A Nightmare on Elm Street to see if he did a good job there. Whoever thought rebooting a ground breaking franchise like that would be a good idea just took too many drugs. In 1984 a monster that chased you in your dreams was groundbreaking. By 2010 the slasher franchises had completely run their course.

Dekker playing a teenager has a “watchable quality.” I mention that in many other posts for this blog. The reason I have so many DVDs isn’t because I buy them willy nilly, it’s because there is a watchable quality that lends itself to a re-watchable quality. Most of you won’t sit through a two DVD long movie like Gettysburg. I own it and try to watch it around the 4th of July each year. If you stayed awake in history class, you know how it ends, but the movie is still worth a watch.

Dekker really knew how to act. More importantly in this series and The Secret Circle, he has the same “core character.” A mostly honest, decent guy whose moral compass is pointed in the right direction even if his feet are not. Too many actors shoot for an Oscar when most of America just wants a reliable burger and fries.

Summer Glau

This girl is the reason I gave The Sarah Connor Chronicles a chance. Fell in love with her on Firefly (another short-lived series I have the full boxed set of and need to review here, sadly it lost a gifted actor.). Her role here was only slightly altered. Instead of being the disturbed mentally altered empathic killer she is a graceful Terminator sent to protect John Connor (Thomas Dekker). In her young graceful dancing days Summer could really play the well off-center kind of random unless you really look for it path girl. They even give her “the line.”

Come with me if you want to live.

Terminator

Summer’s professional dance/ballet training gives her a grace and presence in a scene. There is a poise and carriage to an actor that is still professionally dancing while acting.

I can’t even get into that pose let alone do it as part of an action sequence. If I try it filming will be halted a few days while the hospital puts me back together.

Lena Heady

This woman has become one of my favorite actresses. Honestly it was watching and re-watching this series that did it. You know her as Queen Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones. You really need to watch her in this series and The Red Baron. (I need to review Red Baron at some point too!)

It’s not just her acting ability. When they have her doing voice overs in this series she has that “Mother to the world” voice. It’s a bit different from “A Story Teller’s Voice” like Andreas Katsulas had. (Find the season of Babylon 5 where they had him doing voice overs for intros while Sheridan was missing.)

Summary

I own the full boxed set of The Sarah Conner Chronicles for a reason. It has some phenom acting or possibly more accurately, phenom actors, blending with chemistry on the screen. The special effects aren’t terribly overdone and more importantly aren’t terribly done. With all due respect to Arnold, without whom this franchise wouldn’t exist, this has got to be my most loved piece of the franchise. It knew it had a small but important story to tell and stopped without trying to bleed another season out of it.

For more movie rental ideas please see list one and list two.