Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – The Complete First Season (Blu-Ray + DVD-Video/Warner Home Video)

 

Picture: B+/B-     Sound: B+/B-     Extras: B+     Episodes: B-

 

 

Due to the events of the writers strike in Hollywood many television series only had two options, sink or swim.  While many television series sank under the pressure of handling shortened series seasons, either canceling the show all together or just ending what ever season they were in abruptly, other series chose to make the best of what little time they had.  Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – The Complete First Season is a perfect example of a new series that made every moment count.  As a new edition to the FOX lineup, The Sarah Connor Chronicles blindsided viewers with stunning visuals, acting, and superb story arches.

 

The new Terminator series takes place shortly after the events of Terminator 2 as Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) and her clandestine hero son John (Thomas Dekker) attempt to establish some normalcy in their lives.  John begins to have a series of bad dreams relating to the terminator and Sarah decides it is time to pick up and go.  After relocating, John starts at a new school where he hopes to make some new friends and have some level of normalcy in his life; though he has seeming accepted his inevitable destiny as the human races sole savior.  At school he meets a girl named Cameron Phillips (Summer Glau) who seems overly interested in John, but liking the idea of any form of human contact John overlooks his new friend’s strong, forward nature.  Just as John thinks life might get better, reality sets in as John is pursued by a killer robot similar to that of the T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character in the films).  Before the T-800 can destroy John, Cameron swings into action and saves John; revealing herself as a Terminator sent from the future to covertly protect him.  Cameron has the ability to adapt with time to human thoughts and emotion, unlike the T-800 that was more of an emotionless guardian.  The new Terminator that has sworn to protect the John suggests that though the killer robots will stop at nothing to get him and can easily track where he goes; John has a better chance at survival if the robots don’t know when he has went.  The Connors pack their bags and head with Cameron to the year 2007.

 

Though this reviewer was not expecting it, Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles – the Complete First Season was surprisingly interesting and well done.  The series demonstrates a good degree of humanity while not disrupting or overdoing it on the science fiction front.  With a solid cast and riveting scripts that could rival most other series on television today The Sarah Connor Chronicles proves that the science fiction genre is always evolving with endless possibilities.  The series has a cornucopia of structural elements including drama, action, and sincerity to act as its glue and take it to the next level.  Most people, including this reviewer, were almost certain a new Terminator series would fall apart quicker than the majority mid-season replacement series do today, but The Sarah Connor Chronicles in the end squeezed through as a surprise hit.  The chemistry of the cast makes the series work.  By the actors feeding off each others emotions and taking the good elements of the characters from the film series and blending them with a new, creative force to make it their own the series may just have a chance.  This reviewer thoroughly enjoyed the abbreviated First Season and can’t wait to see what season two has in store.

 

Moving toward in an inevitable future, the Blu-Ray release is the way to go for this new Terminator release.  The DVD is adequate and nicely presented but it does not compare to the visuals and audio of the Blu-Ray.  The sound on the Blu-Ray release is presented in a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround (the special features are only in stereo) and has a much fuller and powerful sound than the DVD release [for whatever reason] though it is also presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround.  The DVD release does not seem to have the same ‘pop’ as the Blu-Ray and tends to have a lighter quality about it.  The picture on the Blu-Ray is a 1080p High Definition 1.78 X 1 Widescreen that is enhanced for 16 X 9 televisions and demonstrates a great color palate, crisp image, and solid blacks.  The DVD is adequate also in a 1.78 X 1 Widescreen, but does not have as vibrant of colors or the sharpness that the Blu-Ray has; especially visible in the pilot episode.

 

The extras on both the DVD and Blu-Ray releases are nicely spaced out across the 3-Disc sets and both versions contain all the same special features.  The extras are interesting as well as extensive for such a short season; once again proving that this series could definitely work.  The Special Features include:

 

Disc-1:

 

Commentaries

          - Episode 1: The Pilot and Episode 3: The Turk (both also feature deleted scenes)

 

Creating the Chronicles – 3 part look at the series’ production process

-          A very detailed featurette that does an excellent job in describing the creative, as well as the technical processes that went into bringing the series to life.

 

Gag Reel

 

Disc-2:

 

Cast Audition Tapes

Storyboard Animatic of the School Attack Sequence

Summer Glau Dance Rehearsal

 

Disc-3:

Commentary with Summer Glau, Brian Austin Green, Executive Producer Josh Friedman, and Writer Ian Goldberg

          - Episode 9: What He Beheld (Season Finale)

 

Episode 7 – Available to viewed as it was broadcast or with ‘Terminated Sequences’

-          The deleted scenes neither add nor detract from the episode, but do give fans of the series a few more minutes of a great series.

 

The 3-Disc sets also include a nice little, color pamphlet that describes each episode and lists the extra features that are available on each disc.

 

 

 

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – The Complete First Season was a surprise breakout hit that came through on all fronts.  It is an action packed dramatic series that will keep the viewer entertained on the edge of their seat from beginning to end by adding to the already established, popular and captivating Terminator story progression.  Join John Connor and his mom as he develops into the hero he is destined to become.

 

 

-   Michael P. Dougherty II