Sarah Connor Chronicles — Why It Died 834
brumgrunt writes "Sarah Connor was a non-populist, meditative, complex piece of television on a smash-bang, show-me-the-ratings kind of network. The two were never going to get on. Plus: how the Terminator name proved more hindrance than aid."
Slow starter (Score:4, Informative)
As slow starters go, it's not really any suprise it's canned.
Here, I'll summarize. (Score:5, Informative)
Movie 1. Robot from the future comes back in time to kill someone but another human is also sent back in time to try to save them.
Movie 2. See 1 but there is another robot sent back instead of a human.
Movie 3. See 2.
TV series, see 3.
Will the killer robot kill the hero this week? Will the hero robot kill the killer robot this week? And the plot never changes. The killer robot doesn't take out the rest of humanity. It doesn't even try to kill his grandparents. Great-grandparents. Etc.
Re:Bawwwww a little harder please (Score:3, Informative)
WTB Blu-ray release of Farscape.
It's damn near impossible to find Farscape, outside of the Peacekeeper Wars for a reasonable price.
I nearly didn't watch it. (Score:4, Informative)
My assumption was that it was going to be a cheesy capitalization on the Terminator franchise to drum up attention for T4. Fortunately, episodes were on Hulu (take note network execs) and it quickly became my favorite television series.
I'm sure this was a pervasive problem. The movies are mostly generic action movies (although I think T2 stands out). The best selling points of the Sarah Connor Chronicles--intricate plot, interesting and well-developed characters, emotional conflict, etc.--are exactly what you would assume to be weak-points if you watched the movies. Even though I enjoyed the movies, I was ready to skip the series, because even if they kept up with blockbuster quality shooting, I just didn't think that I'd like to see the same kind of plot stretched over a season. But now I wish the movies had been more like the series.
I loved especially how they would often shoot episodes using different styles of storytelling. It is a nice break from formula-shows (another huge surprise coming from the Terminator franchise!) and shows a true mastery of skill.
I am alright with the series ending where it did, however. They tied up all the loose ends introduced previously despite popping a few new ones, and I'd rather have a great series come to a dignified close than have it devolve into some dumbed down marketing-droid version which would force me to start hating it.
I hope like other well-done film, which was not immediately popular, that the Sarah Connor Chronicles will gradually gain wide renown and inspire emulation.
Re:Missing the big picture here (Score:2, Informative)
There were plenty of filler episodes.
Cameron at the library for instance (that was good, but it was certainly filler).
The drugged up Sarah Conner interrogation episode was also filler and stupid.
Re:You never watched did you? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:The babe from Firefly? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:The Real Answer (Score:5, Informative)
Do you not remember television from 10 and 20 years ago? I grew up watching a lot of TV. When I try to watch a rerun of Knight Rider, Different Strokes, Dukes of Hazzard, Three's Company, or just about anything else I used to like, I can barely believe that these shows were actually successful.
Cripes, TV today is waaaay better than it has ever been. Yes, there is a lot of crap out there and some if it is very popular (and thus profitable), but I wouldn't write TV off just yet.
Re:The babe from Firefly? (Score:5, Informative)
I wasn't always a fan of Babylon 5, but you have to admire the coherency of the plot. Straczynski designed the plot for the first 4 seasons before he even started making the first.
He actually had the main plot threads laid out for all five seasons several years before the show started filming. The uncertainty of the show being picked up for a fifth season forced him to rush the end of the fourth season a bit, so he had to fill in a few episodes for the fifth season. If I remember correctly, the fourth season was supposed to end with what became episode 17 or 18, so most of the fifth season was part of the original plan.
I don't work at Fox but I can read (Score:3, Informative)
Compare the show to a show with worse ratings that did get renewed: Dollhouse. Dollhouse is produced by 20th Century Fox, so licensing fees stay within the Murdoch empire. The production company was willing to cut costs on what was already a relatively low budget production. (Ever notice how for a sci-fi show, the set is remarkably unglamorous? It's cheap!) So FOX figured that even with crap ratings, they could turn a profit once DVD sales and the like were figured in.
In both cases, it was entirely a business decision based on whether or not they thought that they could turn a profit.
Re:Here, I'll summarize. (Score:2, Informative)
Indeed, and IIRC, T1 has Reese explicitly saying that records were lost after the war, so all they had to go on was the mother's name.
Re:going out on a limb, here ... (Score:3, Informative)
I've painfully watched through S1, and it got worse with every episode.
Didn't bother to watch S2.
Re:The babe from Firefly? (Score:4, Informative)
What's even more amazing is that the 5 year arc had to adapt to the whims of actors - at least 2 called it quits. Claudia Christian (Susan Ivanova) made unreasonable demands for cash, so the character had to go away. Andrea Thompson (Talia Winters) wanted out to persue other non-sci-fi acting projects. The story arc still required a strong telepath as a super weapon so Patricia Tallman (Lyta Alexander) was brought in. Instead of the characters of Talia and her lover Jason Ironheart fulfilling the role, the character of Byron was brought in to play against Lyta. That's not the only case where actors forced a change to the plot but JMS managed to rework it and hold together the arc.
Unfortunately JMS succumbed and gave us Crusade which wasn't nearly as compelling. He also turned into an egomaniac that would break into tantrums about fans distributing work that never made it to screen. Pity, because B5 was one hell of a show, even if it had it's crap moments. It's the only show I have on VHS and DVD.
If so Fox isn't geting a dime on the DVD sales.. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Why it died (Score:5, Informative)
I observed that as the ratings went down, so did the amount of clothing she wore. There was a preview near the end where she strolled through the shot in a bra and panties.
(Do terminators even wear undies? Seems kinda pointless.)
Re:more plausible (Score:3, Informative)
The "This." doesn't seem to follow on from the previous post...
What? Yes, yes it does. The second post talks about how the first post was right. And the "This" is shorthand for "This is precisely ..." (in this case, Why It Died as per the summary title.)
Re:The babe from Firefly? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:I[t]'ll be back.. (Score:3, Informative)
I wish a few TV shows and movies would cast actresses who can actually act instead of "some hot girl".
Even within Dollhouse, Amy Acker seems to have both covered pretty well. Her character got a lot more prominent in the last couple of episodes, so I'm hoping we'll see more of her next season.
Olivia Williams, too.
Re:The babe from Firefly? (Score:3, Informative)
They have ships that can move from planet to planet with relative ease (and seemingly great speed) and yet they still used 6-shooters and shotguns as their weapon of choice. WTF Mate?
Maybe because 6-shooters and shotguns are easy to fix, easy to maintain, and ammo is cheap and easy to make? If you watch Heart of Gold the bad guy has a laser pistol. This guy owns like half the planet so he has the money and power to buy a high tech weapon like that. Alliance solders use what I can best describe as sonic blasters. They more or less just knock you on your ass but are non-lethal (see the episode Ariel).
The tech is available, but the main characters are not exactly on the flagship of the federation. In fact, Firefly and Star Trek are just about as far apart as you can get in space sci-fi.
Re:tired of... (Score:2, Informative)
IANYAUAFB
I am not yet another Uber-Aggressive Fight Babe