Self:
“Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles” Finale Thoughts
April 13, 2009 by Kyle BradyTags: "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles", Season Finale, Terminator
As required by the FTC, a Full Disclosure is available - this piece adheres to the Code of Ethics
Anyways, I just finished watching the Season 2 Finale - full episode on Hulu. Even if you don't watch the show, I'd recommend it to anyone that's a fan of the Terminator series in general, and knows at least the cursory continuity of the Terminatorverse. I'm not going to give away anything about the plot, but wanted to share a few thoughts on both this episode, and the series overall.
Shellshocked
"Shellshocked" is a good way to describe how I'm feeling right now, and maybe even a little sad. So many things happened in the last episode that were "gamechangers", and I'll be extremely upset with FOX if Season 3 doesn't air. Extremely upset.
Anyone who's discounted the show previously for occasionally being slow or having tangential/semi-irrelevant plots have now been proven as unworthy critics. There were "moments" in Season 1, but Season 2 was building to a physical and emotional crescendo throughout, with one staggering plot twist after another. The last episode does not disappoint.
Show Value
The Terminatorverse is notoriously difficult to understand, follow, and, perhaps most importantly, sift through the continuity. The TV series has turned out to be truly no different, despite early criticisms and some individuals not including it as part of the canon. As it turns out, there is supposedly a connection between the show and the upcoming movie with Christian Bale... it remains to be seen how large or important this is.
But the takeaway is this: the TV series has allowed fans to become closer to the central characters in a way the movies could never allow, and made the universe seem that much more real. We see how their lives are wrapped in fear and constant vigilance, when in the movies we only had glimpses of this between the overarching plot.
We've seen the beginn
ings of how John Connor evolves into mankind's savior, a topic which the movies have left untouched (Salvation excluded for the moment). More importantly, we've seen why John Connor is the person that becomes a future savior for the whole race, and it's not just because he was raised that way. His personal connection with Cameron, the live-in robot defender, goes deeper than we could have imagined any robot-John relationship could have been without the show.Storyline
The show is not just gunfights and battle scenes, nor is it only about awesome computer graphics and life-like robots. These occur frequently, yes, but the overall story is one of the resilience of humanity and the will to survive, not just as a people, but individuals.
Do you see this in many other shows currently airing? House? America's Top Model? American Idol? Desperate Housewives? No. You can see it in shows like 24 and Lost, but that's a topic for another day.
Between the good-guy robot, mother-son duo, visiting future uncle, and the other wide cast of characters, a complex plot is woven that wholly ensnares you. The characters are believable, set in a universe close enough to our own that we can identify with them. And the silly robot shenanigans make you smile.
FOX
Claims were made recently that this show will live on FOX for awhile longer, hopefully meaning at least one more season. This is not a show that can be strung out indefinitely, because the timeframe in which they operate has a definitive beginning and end... it must. The nature of the continuity defines how things will begin, and how they will end, but now is the time to discover the middle pieces.
The upcoming movie trilogy is bound to cover much of that ground, albeit with an older post-Judgement Day John Connor. But the show has turned out to be invaluable in filling the holes in the timeline. If FOX were to cancel the show, without another episode airing, they will have done a great disservice to the world of fiction: it is a capital crime in worlds like these to begin a story and leave it without an end...
In this case, the end of the show would merely be the beginning of another chapter, but that transition should be smooth, flawless, and beautiful.
If you haven't taken the time to watch the show, do so before the movie. Your heart and soul will thank you.
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Update (4/15/2009): FOX apparently canceled the show, and I have some thoughts on what could happen next.
Update (4/15/2009 2:50pm PST): Apparently TSCC's producers are saying it isn't canceled yet, and that the information floating around the 'net is faulty... and the "reporter" has a history of bad-mouthing TSCC. Let's hope.
Update (5/5/2009 10:15am PST): Hmm. It appears as though Josh Levs over at CNN's blog read this and thought "hm, great idea!" More details, and updates as they come, over here.
Kyle can be found on Twitter and MySpace, or reached via email.
