A lot of beloved series have been canceled before their time on network television, especially in recent years, but the short-lived two-season Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is one that many fans still haven’t gotten over. It’s been over a decade since Fox unceremoniously canceled TSCC, and now that it’s finally made its way to streaming (check it out on Hulu), there’s a reason to celebrate it again.
The series continues the story that began in Terminator 2: Judgment Day into a then-contemporary 2007 Los Angeles where Sarah Connor (played by Game of Thrones star Lena Headey) and her son John (Thomas Dekker) work alongside a reprogrammed Terminator to stop Skynet from ever being born. A more unique take on a T2 continuation than the previous sequel, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (which TSCC fully ignores), the show delves into the complex dynamic of the Connor family, further exploring the relationship between tough-as-nails Sarah and her future-leader son who wants nothing to do with his destiny. While the series isn’t perfect (there are some occasionally questionable choices, including an ill-advised visit to a UFO convention), it does its absolute best to unravel the mess that is Sarah Connor. Headey’s portrayal of the titular tortured heroine is exceptional as she finds her footing in the role previously held by Linda Hamilton.
While Hamilton had some impressively big shoes, Headey managed to step confidently into them. Recent Terminator features like Terminator: Dark Fate have hardened Sarah even more so than she was in Terminator director James Cameron’s original sequel, but TSCC manages to lighten Sarah up without losing her edge. Instead, Sarah struggles with her emotions, specifically her maternal instincts and expressions toward John, and occasionally gives in to them. This is new for Sarah Connor, but it’s a much-needed change in a world that often feels so detached and cold.
In fact, The Sarah Connor Chronicles is the only Terminator installment to successfully prove that Sarah Connor is leading-character material. While many of the other Terminator films feature Arnold Schwarzenegger’s often heroic Terminator in the primary role, TSCC puts Sarah front and center, no matter how many Terminators are coming her way, something the post-TSCC installments could learn a thing or two from. While franchise reboot Terminator Genisys and recent T2-sequel Dark Fate kick Sarah to the sidelines in favor of new additions, The Sarah Connor Chronicles builds the entire show around Sarah’s journey. The series spends more time than any of the feature films exploring who Sarah Connor is and why. In fact, there’s an entire six-episode arc in season two where Sarah goes through a complete mental breakdown, further reminding us of the trauma she’s had to experience as she selflessly endures more. Episodes like “The Good Wound” delve sharply into her subconscious and show that she’s more than just the mother of John Connor -- she’s an action icon and leading lady herself.
Speaking of John Connor, the series does him total justice, which is great since the last two films have managed to screw him up royally. Dekker’s work as John is superb as he teeters the line between the punk kid we know from T2, the unfocused screw-up unsure of his destiny as seen in T3, and the future resistance leader that we would soon see in Terminator Salvation (which was released during the series’ second season). The Sarah Connor Chronicles manages to expertly combine these three iterations of John Connor into a single character with relatable motives and a compelling arc that slowly builds him into the man he is destined to be. Dekker’s John may be the definitive version of the character and is someone we could easily see one day becoming the leader of the human resistance. Episodes like “Mr. Ferguson Is Ill Today” and “Today Is The Day, Part 2” do well to highlight John’s desire for a normal life while not ignoring his future responsibilities.
The Connor family’s latest metal protector, Cameron (played masterfully by Summer Glau), proves to be an excellent foil to Sarah, though not in a villainous way. As Sarah's mechanical drive pushes her emotions further from the surface, the Terminator does her best to mimic human feeling, sometimes expertly (“Pilot”). Unlike Sarah, however, whose emotions can often get the best of her (“What He Beheld”), Cameron can turn off her emotive programming like a light switch, becoming one of the coldest machines you’d ever come to root for (“The Demon Hand”). Her odd relationship with John, which varies from sibling-like to master-servant to even vaguely romantic (“Samson and Delilah,” “Born to Run”), becomes a huge part of their dynamic and adds a layer to this machine that Schwarzenegger’s T-800 never had.
Besides Cameron, two other TSCC exclusive characters prove invaluable to the overall narrative. The first is FBI Agent James Ellison (Richard T. Jones), a “man of faith” on a mission towards the truth. As he learns more about Sarah and her seemingly-psychotic ramblings about the “End of Days,” Ellison begins to see that Judgment Day is truly coming. His encounters with the machines (“What He Beheld,” “Brothers of Nablus”) re-shape his entire worldview as he proves to be an important player on the board. He even spends time in the second season trying to explain the Bible to an artificial intelligence.
On the other end of the time-traveling spectrum is future resistance fighter Derek Reese (Brian Austin Green). If that name sounds familiar it’s because he’s the older brother of Kyle Reese (played in the series by Jonathan Jackson), the man who died to protect Sarah in The Terminator and John’s father. Derek provides a much-needed paternal connection that helps drastically shape John into the mythic “John Connor” that he’s supposed to be. And he’s a pretty great uncle too.
The series’ skilled juxtaposition of new and old characters, philosophical and practical implications, and fate versus freedom ideologies are what make it stand out among the shaky list of Terminator sequels and reboots. Episodes like “The Demon Hand” and “Earthlings Welcome Here” challenge our idea of what it means to be human, why human life is sacred, and how the prophesied “Judgment Day” might fit into the biblical apocalypse. These questions, which James Cameron began asking in his original 1984 film, prove paramount to our heroes’ journeys, setting some of them on a path that would have otherwise been untaken.
If none of this is convincing you, then let The Sarah Connor Chronicles complex time-traveling paradoxes pull you in. Throughout the series, Sarah, John, and Cameron are forced to face multiple T-888s, each with their own specific missions set to ensure Skynet’s survival and all of which could mean the end of mankind. From the “Pilot,” our heroes decide to take the fight to the machines, especially Cromartie (Garrett Dillahunt), time-traveling right over the events of Terminator 3 and branching into a completely new timeline. But don’t let the first episode fool you, this won’t be the last time that the Connors will change fate, nor will the series fall into the “Terminator-of-the-week” trap.
As other human resistance fighters arrive in the present, we learn of their tortured pasts. Derek’s compelling flashback story, as told in “Dungeons and Dragons,” largely takes place in the Future War we’ve mostly heard about, explaining why he was sent back in the first place. Likewise, the inclusion of Derek’s former lover Jesse Flores (Stephanie Jacobsen) and the secret T-1000 posing as Catherine Weaver (Shirley Manson) enhance the series’ mythology, serving as world-building catalysts who remind us just how terrible the future could be.
In a world full of bad sequels, it’s easy to write off a series like The Sarah Connor Chronicles as “Hollywood doing the same old thing,” yet the show proves time and again that it is more than just “another Terminator.” Rather, TSCC is a complex character study about trauma, faith, and the ability to persevere, even in the threat of a nuclear apocalypse that promises to wipe out all of humanity. If you’re a fan of Terminator 2: Judgment Day -- and seeing as how it’s the greatest action film of all time, who isn’t? -- and you’re sick of bad “run-of-the-mill” continuations of this beloved story, then you should really give Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles a try. It won’t let you down.