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post #151 of 876
9/29/08 at 4:51am

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeffery_H
In the current issue of Entertainment Weekly they have a blurb about TSCC and how bad the ratings are. They too say the show's producers are preparing for cancellation if nothing changes drastically and only have 13 episodes to work with with no more ordered or likely to be ordered.

The show it seems is on it's way out almost for sure unless there is a BIG ratings jump.

That's too Bad Season 1 was Fantastic, season 2 has been pretty decent so far I wonder why the same audience is staying away. I guess one possible reason is the writers strike of last year, remember Conner was done for quite awhile, they held onto it so they would have something to show, and the lack of anything new last year could've helped the series, still I would've thought it had done better, of course Monday night is pretty crowded with Chuck and Big Bang Theory on at the same time.
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post #152 of 876
9/29/08 at 10:05am

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

TV Guide's Matt Roush weighs in on the ratings for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles:

Quote:
Question: I was wondering what you thought about Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I love it. When I first saw the promos during the Super Bowl, I thought it was going to be cheesy as heck. But I gave it a chance and damn, I was impressed. When Monday comes rolling around, I'm glued to my TV as soon as TSCC starts. However, I've been hearing around that the show hasn't been getting off-the- chart ratings. Do you think Fox would cancel the show even though they have filmed about 10 episodes for this season already? Would they maybe consider moving to a different time slot? — Gzus

Matt Roush: Now this is a show (going back to the Bones discussion above) that would qualify for cult status. It's in one of the week's toughest time periods, and while its overall ratings aren't anything to cheer, here's where audience demographics factor in. Terminator's goal is to attract viewers exactly like this fan: sports nuts who don't watch a lot of regular prime-time TV, but enjoy this sort of high-octane entertainment. Terminator is also counting on doing well in downloads, website views and DVD sales, so if the show does survive to the end of this season and beyond, it will be about more than just how well it's doing on Mondays. I like the show a lot, and my main regret is that it hasn't yet been able to take advantage of airing alongside 24, which was the original idea before the strike screwed everything up last season. It certainly deserves better company than Prison Break. But as long as it stays in this too-early Monday time period, it's not likely to break out. I'm getting a lot of mail from nervous fans, but I'm not particularly concerned about this one. Yet.
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post #153 of 876
9/29/08 at 2:03pm

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

Next week, Cromartie gets a job at Whole Foods, figuring Sarah and John have got to go grocery shopping sometime.

Wired has an article up asking how to save the show:
What Can Save The Sarah Connor Chronicles? | The Underwire from Wired.com
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post #154 of 876
9/29/08 at 2:45pm

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

I really like this show and will be greatly disapointed if it gets cancelled. That seems to happen to a lot of the shows I get into. What's that say about me?

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to tonight's episode which

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
exlpores the origins of Cameron.
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post #155 of 876
9/29/08 at 2:54pm

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

Hey, it happens to me too Bryan. Today's TV landscape makes it hard to commit to a show when you are constantly worried about its fate. Thanks for the TV Guide quote Will. I hope he is right, but it is in a terrible time slot. Sort of by accident, we have two DVRs for a bit and it is the only thing that has allowed us to keep up with everything in that 8 EST time slot.
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post #156 of 876
9/29/08 at 3:05pm

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

Don't feel bad, afterall we are talking about FOX here, TV's #1 show killer.
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post #157 of 876
9/29/08 at 3:26pm

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

I just don't watch many TV series at all. In fact right now, TSCC is the only series I watch. So it's really disheartening to hear it's may not make it.
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post #158 of 876
9/29/08 at 6:43pm

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

What the hell was that?

It almost felt as if the writers didn't know how to fill an episode so they just wrote nonsense.

EDIT: My above statement was a tad IMDB-ish i'll admit. I'm sorry but I just flat-out didn't like this episode at all, Summer was great but I still don't understand how a machine can cry and Cameron's erratic behaviour is beginning to irk me to no end.

Don't know, the episode just seemed directionless to me and only served to showcase Summer's acting chops which like I said are considerable.

Of course others will think it's the most brilliant thing on television ever.
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post #159 of 876
9/29/08 at 7:09pm

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

After a weak first few episodes, they knocked it out of the park with tonight’s episode. I was getting so-so on the show before but Summer Glau’s performance tonight (as both Alyson and as her robot duplicate Cameron) was fantastic. Next week’s preview again looks like they suddenly found their traction. I’m a fan again and it’s about time.

Granted, the scenes at the doctor’s was just low-budget filler to pay for the rest of the episode, but wow, the rest of the episode? The battleship turned into Terminator prison? Genius on both an art department level and on sheer wow-ness! And so, after seeing how Alyson was studied, maybe Cameron doesn’t love John at all, she’s just parroting what she “studied” — which suddenly makes her creepy as heck! This is good writing. This is almost, dare I say, Whedon-quality writing. So suddenly! I am so glad!

Up until now I was hoping that the machines would develop real feelings and would eventually coexist with humankind. I was hoping John and Cameron would somehow start to date, despite one being a robot. But, after seeing how Alyson was tortured by Cameron, I see it is more likely that when Cameron told John that she loved him, she was only glitching back to when she first emulated Alyson. Cameron herself is now more fearsome because just like the characters around her, I do not know if she experiences real feelings. It is no longer an academic discussion, either. If she experiences feelings, she can be saved (”good” terminators can be allies and coexist). If she does not, then she is a tool that must be used towards the eventual elimination of all machines. John holds both the fate of mankind AND the fate of the “good” terminators in his hands, and he does not yet know (none of us do!) which course to choose.

This is suddenly a fantastic show again.
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post #160 of 876
9/29/08 at 7:51pm

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

I think the season as a whole has been really strong so far. It'll be a shame if they cancel it.
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post #161 of 876
9/29/08 at 8:37pm

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

[Slaps hand to forehead]

It just clicked what course Ellison is about to be set on. My opinion:

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
He's not being sent after a T-888. It isn't a T-888 that the Irish Terminator wants to take apart.

It's Cameron.
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post #162 of 876
9/30/08 at 5:10am

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

Fringe needs to go before they whack Sarah Conner , which is alot better show IMHO. I think they need to give the Terminators more dimension that just killing machines, some may start to question their role with Skynet ala Cameron and Cromarti, who just happened to let ellison live, but maybe that was for a reason.
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post #163 of 876
9/30/08 at 9:05am

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

It was a good hour of television, giving some insight into how flawed Cameron is. The flaw, in this case, is a little bit of humanity. The Allison personality taking over makes her a better "person," but a lousy Protecterminator, throwing John around like that.

In retrospect, the conversation between Ellison and Garbage could apply to what Cameron was going through. Is the problem with the machine or the human within the machine? This would have been a clearer parallel if the episode hadn't been structured as a "make them wonder what is going on" story.

The ship was cool.

Too bad this show is likely on its way out.
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post #164 of 876
9/30/08 at 11:03am

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

An interesting twist delivered by some great Summer Glau moments...

Clearly, the new part of the equation is the rogue section of the machines. Cameron is part of a group of machines (Skynet II?) that do NOT want to exterminate humans. Question now is, is Garbage loyal to Skynet or Skynet II? She waxed philosophically about how machines are imperfect - they NEED humans. And, she has a daughter (clone? machine? what?).

It's a great addition to the show's formula. Unfortunately, I don't think the show will last either.
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post #165 of 876
9/30/08 at 11:10am

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

I was rivited by this episode. I think it's the first one out of the entire series that reached excellent writitng level. Even the hospital scenes finally showed why we even have the pregnant landlord character in the show. Great way to have a reflection and sounding board for Sarah to relate to.

The Cameron/Allison stuff was really well done, and now has created a genuine distrust of where Camerons motives lie, without feeling shoehorned in just for the hell of it.

I did come away with the impression that the "Skynet II" stuff was just a ruse and there weren't really any dissenting factions of robots. By the end of the episode, it seemed clear that the Cameron robot interrogating Allison was lying to her about the "Skynet II" and really was just looking for an angle to get to John Connor and kill him.
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post #166 of 876
9/30/08 at 11:43am

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Quentin
Cameron is part of a group of machines (Skynet II?) that do NOT want to exterminate humans.
Or she said she was. Once. When she had something to gain from it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Quentin
Question now is, is Garbage loyal to Skynet or Skynet II? She waxed philosophically about how machines are imperfect - they NEED humans. And, she has a daughter (clone? machine? what?).
Or she's impersonating the real (presumably deceased) Catherine Weaver, who had a daughter. Right now, it's very difficult to tell just what her motivations are.
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post #167 of 876
9/30/08 at 12:03pm

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

as an aside... did anyone else think that the woman who played the ambulance Driver's wife (can't think of his name right now) was an almost dead ringer for linda hamilton, I kept thinking hey.. there's sarah conner....
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post #168 of 876
9/30/08 at 1:00pm

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

Sigh - if the best this show can do is "meh", it's in sad shape.

I'm kind of getting tired of the:
*ring* *ring*
"How's things going, John?"
"We're ok, we're fine now. How are you?"

. . .as john covers up for some zany what-did-the-terminator-do-wrong-this-week antics. It was okay early on, but how stupid do you have to be to make the same mistake week after week?

And The Sexbot can cry? What the hell! Did no-one watch T2 with Ah-nold's "I know now why you cry, but it's something I can never do." line?

And five bucks says that little girl is a mini-terminator. But then again. . . she might not be, which would be interesting to see a T1000 taking care of a human child, which is even a bigger twist but far too subtle. However since this is Hollywood we're talking about, notorious with their inability to be subtle, they'll go for the obvious.

Sexbot's erratic behavior is really starting to piss me off. Hell, even Uncle Bob started to learn after just a couple of days contact with humans, but she's all back and forth and forth and back. What pissed me off with that episode was that she ended up thinking she was some human chick and all these emotions and things and was acting more like a human (smiling & laughing while playing foosball). If she can act like that on some level, she should be able to always act like that.

But then this has been a problem all the way back to the pilot and how when Sexbot first met John in the hall of the school she was all smiles and another girl in the hall, but as soon as the action starts, she was all deadpan serious "come with me. . .if you want to. . .live." Hell, even Cromartie has more emotional range than she does.

And enough with the filler - ditch the pointless pregnant woman subplot for petes' sake! The producers need to start moving the story forward STAT, with some big old steps here and not these tiny baby steps. But no, all the writers seem to be able to do are pad out the episodes with pointless filler or give us episodes that go like "John whines. Terminator of the Week tries to kill him. John whines some more. Sarah will get all angsty and try to protect him. John will whine."

Christ - if this is the fate of the human race, I'm rooting for Skynet to win.
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post #169 of 876
9/30/08 at 1:12pm

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tony J Case
Christ - if this is the fate of the human race, I'm rooting for Skynet to win.

Dude, your my hero!

What many people are seeing as deepening of theme's I see as ever increasing convolution and loss of sight on the original vision of the first two films with too many terminators acting and doing too many wierd things.

How can anyone look at that little girl (if she turns out to be a mini T-1000 I swear I will dump this thing faster than, well, something really fast) being taken care of by a T-1001 and not roll their eyes so far into their head that they could see their own brain!?
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post #170 of 876
9/30/08 at 4:00pm

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

I disagree with these last two chuckleheads.

To me, the show hasn't been "meh" since the early part of the first season. It's cool, though. Some people like Heroes more than I do. And, some don't hold Chuck in such high regard.

We don't know anything about Liquid Garbage's agenda or the deal with her "daughter," but I like the speculation that the woman was killed along with her husband in the helicopter crash, and the terminator has taken her place. Along with inheriting her position at the company, she's inherited her little girl. How this girl alters her endgame is something I hope we have time to see.

I don't particularly like the Sexbot epithet. I think it does both Summer and the show a disservice. She's been played with more depth than that would suggest, and perhaps more depth than any other terminator we've yet seen. This latest episode made her extremely interesting to me. They don't have human emotions and don't understand human emotions, but this one was made to look like a real girl and studied her intently to learn how to be the perfect infiltrator. Now, with her chip damaged, she's actually taking on the girl's persona. Short Circuit's tagline seems to fit: "Life is not a malfunction."
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post #171 of 876
9/30/08 at 4:04pm

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tony J Case
I'm kind of getting tired of the:
*ring* *ring*
"How's things going, John?"
"We're ok, we're fine now. How are you?"

Also, what happened to the code? Was this the show's way of showing that they are indeed done with it, because it was "cracked?"
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post #172 of 876
9/30/08 at 5:41pm

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

Yeah. That's over. They need to work out a new one.
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post #173 of 876
9/30/08 at 7:25pm

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

Fox poised to do what Skynet couldnt!

With ratings far below even the network's worst predictions, Fox could pull the plug on production for "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" as early as this week.

The network has been disappointed by "Sarah Connor's" numbers so far this season, and some executives feel that the show is dragging down numbers for "Prison Break," which airs as a lead-out.

"Audiences just aren't responding to the show," a Fox source tells SyFy Portal. "Our biggest surprise are the 18-to-49s [a key advertising demographic], those numbers are in the toilet."

This would be bad news for "Sarah Connor," which had a strong first season despite airing just nine episodes in light of the Writers Guild of America strike. The show debuted at mid-season with an 11.1 rating/16 share -- the highest premiere of any genre show last season -- following an NFL playoff game, but quickly lost a good portion of its audience. By the time it was all said and done, "Sarah Connor" overnights averaged a 5.6/9, half of the premiere audience, with ratings reaching as low as a 4.5/7 at once point.

Getting a 4.5/7 could almost be a lifesaver for "Sarah Connor" right now, as the show hasn't even come close to reaching that number. After four episodes, the highest "Sarah Connor" has reached is a 4.1/6, and is averaging a 3.7. That's 34 percent off its audience average from the previous year.

Audience stability has been slightly better than it was last year following the series premiere spike, but stability so far this year has been slipping for "Sarah Connor." Its Stability Index Rating, as determined by SyFy Portal using a comparison of its season high versus its average overnight rating, gave "Sarah Connor" a 50.5 -- by far the worst of any show last season. This year, however, it's at a much better 90.2 rating, but has been steadily becoming more and more unstable each week.

So what will happen?

"All I can say is that production will likely stop, and I would think that Fox might try to air some of the episodes already in the can," the source said. "But I don't know. They don't want to lose 'Prison Break,' so there could be some schedule shuffling in the future."

Of course, none of this has been confirmed by Fox, so treat this as rumor.


Nooo! They cant pull the plug on this! What will I complain about now?


****edit****
Not that I care about this show one way or the other, but America really needs to overhaul the ratings system. Perhaps adopting somthing like the BBC's Appreciation Index, which is way more important than ratings to the Beeb.
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post #174 of 876
9/30/08 at 9:32pm

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tony J Case
America really needs to overhaul the ratings system. Perhaps adopting somthing like the BBC's Appreciation Index, which is way more important than ratings to the Beeb.

Been saying the same thing for years.

Our rating system is outdated and needs to be rethought.

My best friend and I were talking about Nielsen families the other day and how it can't be an accurate reflection of how many people watch a show for the simple reason that not everyone participates in it.

If only 1000 people (I know it's more but for arguments sake) have a Nielsen box and only 500 of them watch a show what about the millions more who don't have a Nielsen box who ARE watching?

The show is then considered a failure when in reality it's a hit.

Maybe i'm naive about the whole thing and if someone can correct me i'd welcome it but it just doesn't seem to be working that well and many shows are getting canned when they don't necessarily deserve to be.

Of course TSCC isn't one of those, it deserves the axe.
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post #175 of 876
9/30/08 at 10:36pm

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

Quote:
If only 1000 people (I know it's more but for arguments sake) have a Nielsen box and only 500 of them watch a show what about the millions more who don't have a Nielsen box who ARE watching?

The 1,000 people would represent X number of people that are similar. Say X is 10,000. That means for each 1 Neilsen family watching a show, the ratings would consider that 10,000 people watched it. It's about statistics, and it isn't rocket science, but it isn't simple either. They've given it way more thought than your question gives them credit for.
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post #176 of 876
9/30/08 at 11:45pm
Thread Starter 

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Inspector Hammer!
Don't feel bad, afterall we are talking about FOX here, TV's #1 show killer.
The only reason Fox has a bad rap as a show killer is because it's the only network that greenlights a high number of risky, smart genre fare. And there was nothing about that episode that was nonsense for anyone paying attention.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Will_B
After a weak first few episodes, they knocked it out of the park with tonight’s episode. I was getting so-so on the show before but Summer Glau’s performance tonight (as both Alyson and as her robot duplicate Cameron) was fantastic.
I loved it mainly because it's the first time I've seen Summer play a quote-unquote "normal" character. She proved to her doubters that her flat, monotone performance as Cameron is indeed a choice, and not a lack of talent.
Quote:
And so, after seeing how Alyson was studied, maybe Cameron doesn’t love John at all, she’s just parroting what she “studied” — which suddenly makes her creepy as heck!
It absolutely made her creepy as hell, but it also made her even more complicated. It also clarified that the terminators are modeled off real people, not unique custom creations.
Cameron is a damaged model of terminator built be a pacificist enclave of machines, captured and reprogrammed by John Connor into a savior, with the assumed memories of a teenage girl from Parkdale who was inside Connor's inner circle. That's quite a mess swirling around inside her. Was she asking those questions of Alyson to better emulate her when infultrating John Connor's inner circle? Or was she genuinely trying to learn what it is to be human?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quentin
Clearly, the new part of the equation is the rogue section of the machines. Cameron is part of a group of machines (Skynet II?) that do NOT want to exterminate humans.
That's what made the use of the air craft carrier even more appropriate. Filled with imprisoned humans and animals, it's essentially Skynet II's version of Noah's Ark.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg_S_H
We don't know anything about Liquid Garbage's agenda or the deal with her "daughter," but I like the speculation that the woman was killed along with her husband in the helicopter crash, and the terminator has taken her place. Along with inheriting her position at the company, she's inherited her little girl. How this girl alters her endgame is something I hope we have time to see.
Which in my mind is the saddest thing possible. Can you imagine not only losing your mother and father in one fell swoop, but having your "mother" come back as someone who is clearly not your mother? If I was five, I don't think anything could possibly feel so lonely. Even if the bedtime kisses and morning hugs continued, the T-1001 couldn't inject any of the warm a real mother could.

As much as I don't want this show cancelled period, I'll be especially pissed if the reason for the cancellation is that "Prison Break" needs a better lead-in. That show is awful, and its ratings detoriation likely have nothing to do with TSCC. Tell me how "Prison Break" gets 3.6/5 last week and Fox execs are scrambling to find a better lead in, while TSCC gets a 3.5/6 and it's on the chopping block? The budget can't be any worse than "Battlestar Galactica", which would be thrilled with half those ratiings.
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post #177 of 876
10/1/08 at 4:55am

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

Yeah I'm thru with starting new series on Fox, I wonder how TSCC is doing anyworse than Fronge which has had a dreadful start but picks up now only because House is on Before it, speaking of which how can anyone watch that show? I Mean thats what I want a Smart Alec Doctor with no Bedside manner, who tells a patient they are going to operate with a cleaver, yeah I can see that happenning. Fring is dull and boring and will probably live long on Fox. Prison Break has been streadily getting worse year by year, I still watch cause despite the plotlines there are some good actors on the show like William Fitchner, he can turn an uninteresting show into an interesting one.

Still I'd like Fox to have the Balls to at least stick with the airing of the 13 episodes, then they can pull the plug when their darling, the also declining 24 returns.
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post #178 of 876
10/1/08 at 7:10am

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Scarpa
Yeah I'm thru with starting new series on Fox, I wonder how TSCC is doing anyworse than Fronge which has had a dreadful start but picks up now only because House is on Before it, speaking of which how can anyone watch that show? I Mean thats what I want a Smart Alec Doctor with no Bedside manner, who tells a patient they are going to operate with a cleaver, yeah I can see that happenning.

Don't hold back, tell us how you really feel

Seriously though, House rocks.
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post #179 of 876
10/1/08 at 9:32am

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Scarpa
Fringe needs to go before they whack Sarah Conner , which is alot better show IMHO.
However, people appear to be actually watching Fringe, but not SCC. You expect Fox to axe the higher rated show?
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post #180 of 876
10/1/08 at 10:36am

Re: "TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Season 2 Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Josh Dial
Seriously though, House rocks.

As does Prison Break.
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Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - The Complete Second Season [Blu-ray]
$26.48 at
See it »
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - The Complete Second Season
$16.99 at
See it »
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