Chronicles Chronicle

It wasn't just the dwindling reserves of new television that made me check out tonight's premiere of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles"; I'd been planning to at least sample the show since when I first heard about it months ago. That was even before I'd learned that Summer Glau or Firefly fame was in it, never mind the fact she was playing a Terminator. I think I was predisposed to "probably like it."

And that's almost exactly what I got, sampling this pilot episode. In the end, "I probably liked it."

On the plus side, this felt like a much more worthy continuation of the Terminator universe than the pretty lousy movie Terminator 3. I hated the fact that that movie wiped Sarah Connor out of the story with a few casual keystrokes (much like other great characters James Cameron created were wiped out to start Alien 3). It's strange to say this, since Arnold Schwarzenegger played the title character in the films, but I think the story needs Sarah Connor a whole lot more than it needs him.

John Connor felt "back" as well. The version of his character in the third film (through no particular fault of actor Nick Stahl) didn't feel much connected with the teenager we saw in Terminator 2. Sure, it was a decade on, and "kids grow up," but there seemed to be no connective tissue between the two versions at all. This John Connor in the television series felt like the right progression of the character from the second movie; he was written well.

The writing was also commendable in other ways. It "name-checked" some classic Terminator moments in fun ways ("Come with me if you want to live"), but more than that, the entire action vibe of the movies felt present too -- a pretty impressive feat for a show that in its entire run won't cost as much to make as that second movie did.

But all this continuity and familiarity had a slight cost, too. You could say that not a lot of new ground was covered here. This first episode felt very similar to the plot of the second movie. Two Terminators sent back to find John Connor -- one to eliminate, one to protect. Sarah argues that running isn't enough, they have to go after the creator of Skynet instead. They even make a stop back at Miles Dyson's house in their search. I guess you could say, "of course it was pretty good." It was a faithful homage to a good movie, and didn't stray far enough from that to risk being bad. It didn't really risk anything at all.

So we'll see. What this series does as it moves on to subsequent episodes will really tell the tale. They got a decent start, but I think it will need to carve out its own territory -- and quickly -- to really start to shine. The question is, did they get to finish enough episodes before the writers' strike to get to that point?

And will FOX, of the notoriously itchy trigger fingers, leave it on long enough for us to find out?