Sarah Connor thumbs nose at Nielsen ratings, goes to full season on Fox
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles will get a full second season on Fox despite having drawn only modest ratings this fall. After ordering additional two scripts last week, Fox has decided to add nine episodes to the existing 13 and give Sarah Connor the full 22 episode run that the show so richly deserves.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles, currently pitted against Monday night football and reality freakshow Dancing with the Stars, has been about a million live viewers short of staying in the game this season, but its DVR numbers indicate that it is a lot more popular than these numbers suggest. Worried that the show may get cancelled, the fans even started a petition to move it from its current death slot to Wednesday, after Bones.
There has been no word from Fox on a possible move or what this means for Dollhouse, Joss Whedon’s show scheduled to premiere in the Monday slot in January, but the network is probably counting on the overall boost in numbers once the new season of American Idol begins.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles has also been consistently placed among the five most downloaded shows on BitTorrent this season, which means that it has garnered a nice army of loyal pirates worldwide.
Fox people have explained the decision to order the back nine episodes citing the show’s critical acclaim, fan acceptance and the fact that it is a favourite among advertisers. (Thank you, trusty old Dodge.)
Whatever the reasons, good for Fox. The Sarah Connor Chronicles is a rare science fiction treat on network television. Spun off from Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the show follows Sarah Connor (Lena Headey), her son John (Thomas Dekker) and Cameron, the terminator (Summer Glau) as they put out one fire after another in an attempt to prevent Skynet from being born.
True to the spirit of T2, the series not only offers great action sequences, strong storylines and compelling characters, it also works as a meditation on the darker aspects of motherhood, with Sarah Connor trying to protect her son from the inevitable future and fighting the things that will eventually beat him into the leader of humankind.
The writers seem to have a fetish for L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and they’ve done an excellent job inserting little riffs throughout the series. The Tin Man metaphor, for instance, generally used with cyborgs that are striving to become more human, is updated here to reflect the contemporary fascination with machines and their potential in itself.
The show explores not only the extent to which cyborgs can blend in and function in today’s society, but also the degree to which they can use their experience to develop intuition (intuition basically being the sum of experience) and even an ability to emotionally manipulate people as they set out to accomplish their mission. On the other side, there is Sarah Connor, who must constantly deal with the limitations imposed on her choices by her own programming as a mother looking out for her son.
Headey, Dekker and Glau are supported by a fantastic bunch of actors: Garret Dillahunt as the terminator Cromartie (the rock star of the show), Richard Jones as Agent Ellison, Brian Austin Green as John’s uncle Derek Reese, Dean Winters as Sarah’s ex-fiance Charley. The newcomers this season include Stephanie Jacobsen (Battlestar Galactica: Razor), Leven Rambin, and Shirley Manson.
The next episode, The Tower is Tall But the Fall is Short, introducing Stephanie Jacobsen’s character, airs Monday, Oct. 20 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on Fox.
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