First let me say this. I enjoy Terminator and didn't hate the pilot episode. I don't worship it, but I enjoy it as much as most fans. When I heard that Terminator was coming to television as a weekly series I was instantly curious of the storyline and quality as the movies and mythos are such that a series is a very tall order. Well if I had to phrase things then I'd say that the pilot, while good, fell several inches short of being tall.
First the cast. Lena Headley and Thomas Dekker are good enough as Sarah and John Connor. I've got no trouble with them. Lena Headley brings a believable routine of life but also caution to Sarah. While Thomas Dekker brings a believable portrayal of John having moved from T2's almost enjoying the excitement to years later the weight of his predestined life overbearing him. The reluctant hero as they'd say. I love Summer Glau, I'm an avid fan, and think that she's an interesting choice to actually be a terminator. Understanding that terminators likely come in different shapes and sizes to avoid being instantly singled out, I still can't be bias and so I feel that she's perhaps to small against the beefy bad terminator played by Owain Yeoman the way she's thrown around like a doll. I also had trouble with how she acts to human, not enough monotone in my opinion, to make you initially curious. Regardless of how advance she may be she needs to deepen her voice and no longer apologize like she did to John in the pilot for "lieing" to him. She lied in order to get close to him, it's what she does. However I remain open minded, and knowing her range of abilities as an actress from Firefly and Serenity, I'm more than willing to give her a chance, cause it was only the pilot episode and I gave that same chance to Sarah Michelle Gellar, whom I had never heard of before, as Buffy Summers and Katherine Heigl in Roswell whom I thought would just be T&A after a few episodes, and Shiri Appleby also in Roswell whom I had only ever seen before in two episodes of Xena Warrior Princess!
Owain Yeoman I don't like. He needs to be more cold, more machine. Right now he's trying to hard. Robert Patrick as the T-1000 exuded both those attributes in spades while having a lot more wicked fun. He needs to take some lessons and get some memorable lines of which I only heard one while he was shooting up the school.
Understand me when I say I did like the pilot overall. It could have been better, but hey it's only the pilot episode. I already do like how the writers and producers acknowledge that they intend to stay away from the terminator of the week, meaning we'll see other stories and developments. I also like how Summer as Cameron Phillips uses her computerized brain as much as her indisputable brawn. And this time around, it looks as if future John Connor has sent back what could amount to caches of materials that can be used in their fight and flight in future episodes. As the series develops it'll be interesting to watch how things coalesce and what the writers can come up with. Let's just hope that they can stay original, stay away from the mundane, and that the fans are willing to give this show a chance and not savage it because it may not be T2 in quality on a weekly basis.
KB
First the cast. Lena Headley and Thomas Dekker are good enough as Sarah and John Connor. I've got no trouble with them. Lena Headley brings a believable routine of life but also caution to Sarah. While Thomas Dekker brings a believable portrayal of John having moved from T2's almost enjoying the excitement to years later the weight of his predestined life overbearing him. The reluctant hero as they'd say. I love Summer Glau, I'm an avid fan, and think that she's an interesting choice to actually be a terminator. Understanding that terminators likely come in different shapes and sizes to avoid being instantly singled out, I still can't be bias and so I feel that she's perhaps to small against the beefy bad terminator played by Owain Yeoman the way she's thrown around like a doll. I also had trouble with how she acts to human, not enough monotone in my opinion, to make you initially curious. Regardless of how advance she may be she needs to deepen her voice and no longer apologize like she did to John in the pilot for "lieing" to him. She lied in order to get close to him, it's what she does. However I remain open minded, and knowing her range of abilities as an actress from Firefly and Serenity, I'm more than willing to give her a chance, cause it was only the pilot episode and I gave that same chance to Sarah Michelle Gellar, whom I had never heard of before, as Buffy Summers and Katherine Heigl in Roswell whom I thought would just be T&A after a few episodes, and Shiri Appleby also in Roswell whom I had only ever seen before in two episodes of Xena Warrior Princess!
Owain Yeoman I don't like. He needs to be more cold, more machine. Right now he's trying to hard. Robert Patrick as the T-1000 exuded both those attributes in spades while having a lot more wicked fun. He needs to take some lessons and get some memorable lines of which I only heard one while he was shooting up the school.
Understand me when I say I did like the pilot overall. It could have been better, but hey it's only the pilot episode. I already do like how the writers and producers acknowledge that they intend to stay away from the terminator of the week, meaning we'll see other stories and developments. I also like how Summer as Cameron Phillips uses her computerized brain as much as her indisputable brawn. And this time around, it looks as if future John Connor has sent back what could amount to caches of materials that can be used in their fight and flight in future episodes. As the series develops it'll be interesting to watch how things coalesce and what the writers can come up with. Let's just hope that they can stay original, stay away from the mundane, and that the fans are willing to give this show a chance and not savage it because it may not be T2 in quality on a weekly basis.
KB