you know, for weeks or probably months, i didn't think much about nor expect much of terminator: the sarah connor chronicles, perhaps because the third terminator film was so awful. but as the show's premiere approached, i realized that i really wanted to watch it. if there were no writers strike—that is, if it weren't one of the only new shows on tv—i might feel differently.

so on monday i set my dvr to record it, only to realize that the first episode had already aired sunday. so i watched it on the fox on demand website. watching it that way was a surprisingly pleasant experience, hands-down better than watching stuff on nbc.com, and i was impressed that the required player software (which seemed to function pretty well) was provided as a firefox add-in, so installation was super-smooth. then i watched the second part this morning on my dvr.

the show is actually pretty good. if anything, the terminator premise works better in an episodic tv format, where you have the time to explore what sarah and john's lives are like, constantly on the run both from police and from killer robots. i admit, at first i did miss arnold, but once i realized that different terminators are played by different actors and thus don't all have the same face and same inexplicable austrian accent, i came around pretty quickly.

in fact, this show is probably closer to what i had hoped bionic woman would be. bionic woman had its moments, but i've had to deal with the realization that it was never going to become the show i wanted it to be, and that if it gets cancelled, not only will i not be surprised but i won't even miss it. that's sad, considering that i was fully prepared for it to be my favorite show of the year. one of the show's major problems was that they only had rights to the name, and thus legally "couldn't depict mechanistic technology that involved parts being placed on the body". as a result, jamie just kind of became a generic action character who was fast and strong. she just wasn't very bionic.

so i'll just have to make do with terminator: the sarah connor chronicles, which isn't great but is quite watchable. plus, i have lots more death note to look forward to, along with a couple other adult swim shows, and american idol starts tonight. other than that, there's not much to watch on our big new tv this season. i can't even bring myself to watch a daily show anymore, which is a shadow of its former self without writers. hopefully, the studios will come to their senses soon and the strike will end in the next couple months. ¶

i had the same reaction to bionic woman, and i really enjoyed these terminator episodes, which i also expected to suck. i will definitely keep watching. ¶