Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6981 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-11-16
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Formats: Box set, PAL
• Original language: English
• Running time: 1300 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The pressure was really on The Sarah Connor Chronicles right from the start. The first spin-off from the extraordinary Terminator franchise, it picks up after the events of the second film, and finds Lena Headey in the title role, who--along with her 15-year old son, John--sets about trying to save the world from the impending threat of Skynet. Along the way too, they encounter Summer Glau (whom there’s a strong chance you’ll know from Firefly), who steps into the shoes of Cameron, a bodyguard Terminator who helps fight off the many threats they face. She’s some piece of work.

Very deliberately paced, and intricately woven to make sure it safely fits within the Terminator universe, The Sarah Connor Chronicles works a great deal better than you’d have any right to expect. Tightly scripted, and with a terrific performance by Headey in the central role, the show packs plenty of action and narrative into the nine episodes of its maiden season, and it certainly whets the appetite for more.

Perhaps the biggest compliment to be paid, though, is that The Sarah Connor Chronicles is a worthy companion and follow-up to the first two Terminator films, and one that genuinely expands and deepens the franchise. It’ll be fascinating to see where the show goes next. --Jon Foster

DVD Description
Season 1:
At the end of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Sarah Connor vanquished the Terminator sent from the future to kill her 15-year-old son, John. Sarah and John now find themselves alone in a very dangerous, complicated world. Fugitives from the law, they are confronted with the reality that still more enemies from the future and the present could attack at any moment. Sarah stops running and goes on the offensive against an ever-evolving technological enemy bent on destroying her life, and perhaps the world. John knows that he may be the future savior of mankind, but he is not yet ready to take on the mantle of leadership that he's told is his destiny. The Sarah Connor Chronicles represents an exciting reinvention of the Terminator franchise, in which the strong and intrepid Sarah discovers that protecting her son and stopping the rise of the machines is more difficult than she had ever imagined.

Season 2:
The blockbuster Terminator movie franchise moves to television in this intense, action-adventure drama series which takes place after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Sarah Connor and her teenage son, John, find themselves alone in a very dangerous, complicated world. Fugitives from the law, they must evade pursuers from the future, and the present, in today's Los Angeles, relentlessly battling to save themselves and the world.

Customer Reviews

One of the best recent sf series
I watched the first episode of this show with some trepidation and with no particular feeling that I would become hooked. As the third Terminator movie had been a struggle to watch all the way through, I felt that the franchise was doomed to suffer diminishing returns, and it was hard to see how a tv spin-off might work. Such concerns disappeared quickly as the show makes the breathtakingly brilliant decision to ignore the third movie (effectively creating a new time-line where it never happened) and so it becomes a direct sequel to the events of the second film. Having got this set-up right the show then proceeds in a logical way that doesn't contradict the movies, but also moves the story on in an entertaining way. In fact it never lets up the excitement through its short (due to the writers' strike) first season and even if the second season slows the pace, the innovation is still continual.

The show neatly creates a situation in which Sarah, played by a new actress who rapidly makes the role her own, and her son John are transported to 2007 where they continue to run from the bad terminators who are sent back in time to kill them. They are aided in their fight by the best character in the series of good terminator Cameron, and so slowly they start to tire of running and they seek to turn the tables on Skynet...

Initially the show has something of a monster of the week format (with terminators). But before that can become repetitive the second series creates a mythology of its own with new characters and complex time-travel scenarios that build on the concepts of predestined fate that were at the heart of the original film (and the Outer Limits stories on which it was based). With growing arc stories and subtle references such as the characters Cameron and Ellison, the show has the confident feel of one that could run for years. It didn't, being cut off just as the format was showing intriguing hints of an ever-evolving direction. But then again most of the best sf shows get cancelled before their time and so this one never had to run the risk that the format would run out of steam, and what we're left with is a show with no poor episodes that holds up to repeated viewing.