Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles - The Complete First Season (2008)

The mother of all destiny. Her son, the future leader of mankind. Their protector, a terminator from the future. Together they must take back the future as Sarah Connor (300's Lena Headey) prepares her son to fight the war against machines determined to annihilate the human race. The clock is ticking. Can they stop Judgment Day? The man-vs.-machine tale that's thrilled millions gets a reboot in this series set after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Now the battlefield has shifted to the present. Will John Connor (Heroes's Thomas Dekker) seize his destiny? Will a cell phone salesman's chess program evolve into Skynet? Can the sweet but deadly cyborg (Summer Glau of Firefly) be trusted? Answers – and the fight for the future – are here and now. Studio description

An excellent program. Give us more!

This is a superbly-directly, excellently-produced program. Movie quality throughout... I was amazed at the quality and creativity of the show, which shows its high budget.

Lena Headey and Summer Glau are superb as thinking man's cheesecake, and not in a way that should turn women off from the show, even as it should drag men in. They bring genuine depth to their roles, in a way that's exceptionally rare in television. Even the supporting actors and actresses are well-cast and fleshed-out, balancing sci-fi action/danger with humanity and irony. It's hard to imagine the show without Summer Glau's elusive "humanity".

All that said, the mastering on the Blu-Ray collection is odd. The menus don't really work right, in the sense that you put a disk in, and it simply starts playing all 3-4 episodes from the beginning as if they're one big 3-hour thing. Yes, you can, if you try, find the top menu to select the individual episodes, but it's as if the folks creating the menus didn't understand the whole concept of separate episodes. The episodes are more like chapter stops.

The menus aren't really a problem.. as other reviewers have mentioned, the high-def picture is very good.. but you'll notice it. I don't really know what kind of person would resist buying a DVD collection because the episodes are somewhat difficult to navigate, but if that's you, you might want to think twice. August 30, 2008

Movie: 3.5/5 Picture Quality: 3.5~4.5/5 Sound Quality: 3.25/5

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - The Complete First Season / Region Free

Subtitles: English / French / Spanish
DD AC3 5.1 640Kbps English

Disc 1 - 3 Episodes
VC-1 BD-50
Running time: 2:14:32
Movie size: 20,932,804,608 bytes
Disc size: 27,129,033,560 bytes [22.8 GB space wasted but no lossless audio]
Average video bit rate: 18.87 Mbps
Number of chapters: 23

Disc 2 - 3 Episodes
VC-1 BD-25
Running time: 2:09:13
Movie size: 17,535,049,728 bytes
Disc size: 18,485,827,928 bytes [6.5 GB space wasted but no lossless audio]
Average video bit rate: 16.49 Mbps
Number of chapters: 24

Disc 3 - 4 Episodes
VC-1 BD-50
Running time: 3:01:13
Movie size: 28,325,652,480 bytes
Disc size: 28,742,753,464 bytes [21.1 GB space wasted but no lossless audio]
Average video bit rate: 19.18 Mbps
Number of chapters: 31 August 29, 2008

Lena Headey is perfect as Sarah

I must say I didn't expect too much at first. What is there to tell that hasn't been said before in the movies? And how do you create more than a couple of episodes about a mom trying to protect her son from human-like robots?
Man, was I wrong.
Of course there are Terminators all over the place and they are constantly being destroyed and get back up and what not again and again but that's what the story is about.

In short, for those who don't know: Sarah and her son want to destroy the computer network Skynet to avoid a future Armageddon. They get help from a sexy fem-bot: Cameron Phillips.
The trio is being chased by the FBI who doesn't know that the Connors are the good guys and by the machines whose existence is at stake.

It's fun to watch (if you keep in mind that most of the shot people are in fact robots...)
Lena Headey does a terrific job as Sarah. She is convincing as a caring mother, but she also manages the action very well and even looks convincing when others think she's insane. (Sorry fans, but I didn't think Linda Hamilton ever pulled that off. She looked insane all right but for the rest ...)
Summer Glau as the protective Terminator is funny. The way she moves and reacts to emotional (and other) outbreaks always make me laugh.
Some SciFi critics think Thomas Dekker too old for his role as John but I never had a problem with that. He is a terrific actor in his own right (as he already showed us in Heroes) and fits perfectly in the story.
Richard T. Jones is very good as the FBI agent who senses there is much more behind all this.

If you don't take this all too seriously (who does?) you're in for a ride.
Of course I would have wanted more episodes in this season but because of the writers strike there are none. Well, less is more. Better this way than having a few more but written by amateurs.
Blu-ray is state of the art. Also the extras are nice to watch. Of course there's a making of with interviews of the producers and writers etc. but what I really liked were the audition tapes of all the leading actors and the dance practice of Summer Glau. August 28, 2008

A Must See A Must Have

Terminator
The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Awesome, awesome, awesome, a DVD must for every good Sci-Fi home movie library. Sarah's Chronicles offer something old, something new and the missing links to thread the both together. Great sets, CGI and extraordinary acting, this first season is jam packed with intense riveting footage so believable it will quickly pull you in and capture you. Trained ballerina turned actress Summer Glau is powerful as Cameron, a female cyborg sent from the future to protect a computer prodigy from the evil intent of "Skynet."

I was first memorized by Glau's acting skills in Josh Whedon's "Firefly" series. Her offbeat character in "Firefly" makes Summer Glau the perfect cyborg choice to protect young John Connor who is destined to fight machines who will take over the world in the future.

A writers strike during the first season left only 9 episodes in the can but well worth the DVD purchase. If season two is anything like the first, hold on to your hats for an edge of you seat ride.

I again need to recommend a close watch of Summer Glau's gifted acting talents. Anyone who has seen a ballet knows a story unfolds through movement and expression. Danced trained in expression and movement since a child, Glau is a leg up over the acting skills of most actresses.

Great special bonus features in and on the Blu-Ray DVD's will provide hours of cyborg food for the hungry who just can't get enough of The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Couch Potato Review: 7 Potato More.
August 25, 2008

Even better the second time

I had enjoyed Sarah Connor during its initial run on Fox. I was disappointed that it, like many shows, had to cut down on episodes due to the writer's strike. However, upon a second viewing on Blu-Ray, the show seemed to get even better. Thomas Dekker takes over the reigns as John Connor, and Lena Headey replaces Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor. Both do well. Summer Glau is a real treat as Cameron Phillips. Upon first viewing, I thought that the writers had really screwed up writing Cameron, regressing her ability to act human quite a bit after the pilot episode. It didn't feel that way the second time through, so maybe this series gains some momentum on Blu-Ray that makes the inconsistencies less noticeable.

Blu-Ray is where this series belongs. The picture quality is quite good, and the sound is amazing. The extras here are quite nice - there are quite a few deleted scenes, some commentaries, auditions, and a few others.

The first season is only 9 episodes, but they are all engaging. August 24, 2008

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