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Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
SERIES: FOX, Monday 9:00p (60 minutes)


8.5

based on 24 reviews
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based on 75 votes
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Starring Lena Headey, Thomas Dekker, Summer Glau, and Richard T. Jones

The Terminator franchise arrives on TV with this serial drama. The series picks up a year after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day with John and Sarah Connor hiding from the government. After two years in one place Sarah decides they need a change of scenery and in doing so they expose themselves to FBI Agent James Ellison and Skynet's army of Terminators including Cameron Phillips a reprogrammed Terminator sent to protect John. She informs them that Judgment Day was not stopped and will take place in 2011. John convinces Sarah to stop hiding and fight so Cameron takes them to a time machine the resistance has set up to take them to the year Skynet was created 2007.

GENRE(S):	Action / Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
CREATED BY:	Josh Friedman
FIRST AIR DATE:	January 13, 2008

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Chicago Sun-Times Doug Elfman

The Sarah Connor Chronicles" begins as an intense, thoughtful, exciting, fun spectacle. The first episode will kick your ass.

USA Today Robert Bianco

As much as the show recalls the movies, it also recalls some of the best work ever done in the genre for TV: the Buffy universe of Joss Whedon. Most every blast of portent and bombast is lightened by a throwaway joke; scenes of intense action and violence give way to equally well-realized scenes of domestic life that root the fantasy in emotional reality.

Christian Science Monitor Gloria Goodale

Lean and breathless, just like its all-business star (Lena Headey of "300" fame), this time-travel tale starts fast as bad robots from the future chase good humans in the past.

Hollywood Reporter Barry Garron

Director David Nutter gets the series off to a rousing start, practically packing every frame with suspense, special effects and an urgency that drives this show like an incessant drumbeat.

New York Magazine John Leonard

The Sarah Connor Chronicles is mostly chase scenes. And very nicely staged they are, by director–executive producer David Nutter (Supernatural, Smallville), an adrenaline junkie equally adept at terrorizing a classroom, blowing up a city, rebooting a cyborg, or time-warping a bank vault.

Philadelphia Daily News Ellen Gray

I was kind of jazzed by the estrogen-fueled drama of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which, when you set aside the robots from the future, is really just a story about a woman (Lena Headey) trying to protect her only son (Thomas Dekker).

Philadelphia Inquirer Jonathan Storm

Glau's the best part of Chronicles, playing the robot who seeks to understand human stuff with a beguiling bemusement reminiscent of Jeff Bridges in "Starman."

The New York Times Ginia Bellafante

One of the more humanizing adventures in science fiction to arrive in quite a while, the series is taut, haunting, relevant and an exploration of adolescent exceptionalism rendered without the cheerleading uniforms and parody of “Heroes.”

Newsday Diane Werts

Humans vs. cyborgs in a movie spin-off that's surprisingly effective for fans of both action and character drama.

San Jose Mercury News Charlie McCollum

Still, "Chronicles" is worth an early sampling, particularly given the current TV landscape where scripted drama and comedy is at a premium. Certainly, there is some promise to the opening episodes.

Los Angeles Times Mary McNamara

Although The Sarah Connor Chronicles has gadgets aplenty, it has what "Bionic Woman" never quite acquired: a brain and a heart.

Variety Brian Lowry

Under director David Nutter and show-runner Josh Friedman, the first two hours roll a slick brand extension off this profitable assembly line.

Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert

British actress Lena Headey makes Sarah into the heart and soul of this series. Without Headey and her maternal magnetism, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles would probably deteriorate into a nonstop series of effects-laden fight scenes that's as cold and grim as NBC's "Bionic Woman" remake.

TV Guide Matt Roush

This show lives up to its franchise's reputation for suspenseful action.

New York Daily News David Hinckley

Happily, viewers have less of a challenge in picking up the somewhat complex story line that continues from the "Terminator" movies. Newcomers won't be any more confused than they are by any time-travel adventure.

Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan

The show’s pace is brisk and efficient, and Headey (“300”) and Glau bring welcome intelligence and energy to their roles as very protective women.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen

Some die-hards may be frustrated by inconsistencies in the timeline with "Terminator 3," but unless you get overly wrapped up in the details of time travel, tonight's pilot is an intense adventure.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Melanie McFarland

While it's hard to predict how this new chapter will play among deeper fans of the "Terminator" mythology, the rest of us have to ask ourselves if watching reboots of robot battles once a week is worth our time.

Time James Poniewozik

So far, it's carried mostly on the scary-eyed charisma of Summer Glau as John's robo-protector. This grim Chronicles needs to put some flesh on its humans.

PopMatters Cynthia Fuchs

This effort to bring Sarah’s Chronicles both back and forward to our current moment is both awkward and smart.

Newark Star-Ledger Alan Sepinwall

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles happens to contain that show's most interesting character. It just ain't Sarah Connor.

LA Weekly Robert Abele

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is a serviceable enough addition to this particular pop-culture mosaic.

Slant Magazine Rob Humanick

Despite lacking the trashy allure of "House" or "24," its sporadic inventiveness within the realm of the Terminator universe makes it agonizingly interesting--moderately brilliant in spurts before reverting to the same old clichés.

San Francisco Chronicle Tim Goodman

By the time the second hour comes on Monday and tries to give these characters some dimension, you already know that the talent on both sides of the camera simply isn't there to make this a worthwhile trip.

The average user rating for this tv show is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 75 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Mas J. gave it a10:
Awesome show !!! A great action show that is well written and has interesting characters. Summer is so good at delivering funny lines with a straight face. What a gem this show is among the tired cycle of reality TV, crime solving shows and boring dramas. I hope it has many seasons ahead.

Shawn R. gave it an8:
i hate time travel in movies and TV. when i 1st heard about this show, i thought to myself...'oh gosh, here we go with another pretentious and lackluster show'. even when the show started i was watching and the eye rolling started, somewhere along the line, it picked up and caught my attention. that pick up was Summer Glau's entrance. what the show does is provide an interesting look into the terminator genre and timeline. these glimpses, conceptually are stimulating in execution, they lose a bit of shine but played nicely nonetheless, for the most part. the weakness of the show are, in my mind, Sarah Connor and her son john. the supporting characters have been far more interesting with their story arcs...the FBI agent, cromartie, even the paramedic, and Derek Reese. i hope to see more of this and watch the story line develop.

Espen S gave it a9:
Great show! Some problems with the story and the actors in the first two episodes, but now after 7 episodes both the story and the actors has found their roles. Can't wait for more :D

Susan L. gave it an8:
Great effects, characters and premise. Summer Glau is amazing as the robot trying to make sense of humanity. It could use a dose of well written humour, though.

Jim V. gave it a9:
The series started off slow, which turned out to be a good thing as the series continued on. The plot thickens each week, and more characters arise giving a good dimension and nice sub-plots to the whole story before Judgment Day. All in all, as the story moves forward, the intrigue and guessing "what's next", keeps the upcoming episodes on my list as 'must see', and hopefully nothing will spoil its flavor.

Adam W. gave it an8:
While it's not the best right now, the show still needs a little time to come on to its own. It's still pretty good so far. I was a little bored during the 1st episode but the action's picked up and so has the plot since. You should give it a try before condemning it or liking it.

The Swami gave it an8:
A good, solid entry into the action genre. If you like the Terminator movies, it goes without saying you'll probably like this. My only complaint is the issue that the plot of this series somewhat ignores the plot outline from the third Terminator movie. That being said, it is still more than worth watching, and certainly better than 99% of the reality show garbage on TV today.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles SERIES: FOX, Monday 9:00p (60 minutes)

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
SERIES: FOX, Monday 9:00p (60 minutes)