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Sarah Connor Chronicles — Why It Died

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."

9 of 834 comments (clear)

  1. I[t]'ll be back.. by Culture20 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...in some fashion. Fox has learned that geeks buy DVDs of TV shows they once loved. Sometimes they even make new content.

  2. Re:Complex? Non-populist? Meditative? by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think more to the point it was none of those things. He's using the terms to rationalize why the show was canceled. Basically saying the show was too good for FOX and that's what FOX canceled it but if it was on another network, it would have lived on...honestly, no, because it SUCKED!

    Bottom line: another Logon's Run.

  3. Missing the big picture here by SGDarkKnight · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The show was good, a handful of people here saying it sucked makes no difference in the big picture. What the article dosn't talk about was the change-over in corporate leadership and show time scheduling. As the studio leadership changed over, they had new people take over that wanted to push their perfered shows; the re-do the scheduleing and put Terminator: TSCC at a time slot that was certin to kill the show, just so they could take the better time slot and push their programming. Also, they never really announced when they changed from the orignal show day and time. The die hard fans picked up on this, but the regular viewers who enjoyed the show had no clue and figured, hey guess it got cancelled and never bothered to look into it further, so the ratings dropped, and the show finally did get cancelled. Too bad, it was a good story line, and they never had filler episodes, each episode was a continuation of the previous, which i liked very much.

    --

    ...A no smoking section in a restaurant is like having a no peeing section in a swimming pool...
  4. It dies because the Second Season was terrible by haplo21112 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I can understand trying to build a storyline to try to build a base to build the story on, but to spend an entire season doing so...not the way to make good TV. They spent the entire season moving towards something, but we never really got any idea of the something until the last 45 minutes of the season.

    let me spell out a basic point here: Terminator = Action there was little action this season.

    --
    Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
  5. You left off the second half of that. by khasim · · Score: 5, Interesting

    unfortunately all of that made to plot move slower than a glacier

    And none of them mattered.

    Once the killer robot gets a head shot on the boy (he's dead, no chance of resuscitation) the show is over. The "very complex plot with many main characters" collapses because there is nothing else to carry it.

    A well written series would not have that flaw.

  6. Re:Here, I'll summarize. by General+Melchett · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Skynet could end up ensuring that it never gets created.

    Funny you should mention that. Whilst watching T2 the other day with some friends, we were taking a little trip on the Time-Travel-Paradox line, and came up with this little nugget:

    If in the original film, the 1st Terminator sent back had indeed completed it's mission and killed Sarah Connor, then that would have ensured Skynet never gets/will be created.

    • Sarah Connor dies before crushing metal motherfucker #1.
    • Chip never gets found.
    • Cyberdyne in 1991 never get to perform their research.
    • Skynet doesn't get developed.
    • Obviously wont become Self-Aware, as it doesn't exist.
    • Judgement day doesnt occur.
    • Everyone lives happily ever after.
    • Profit?
  7. Re:You never watched did you? by COMON$ · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Im starting to wonder if Summer Glau is cursed. We will see with the next series she is in that is absolutely fantastic and get's canceled. Third time is the charm right?

    --
    CS: It is all sink or swim...oh and did I mention there are sharks in that water?
  8. Re:Here, I'll summarize. by Cornelius+the+Great · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That's a too circular, which wouldn't explain how the machines got created in the first place.

    T2 made a point to say that Cyberdyne expedited (but not originally responsible for) the development of skynet and the machines. T3 (as crappy as it was) drives this point by stating that no matter what, "Judgement Day" was inevitable (thus couldn't be stopped by simply destroying Cyberdyne), and that skynet would be created with or without Cyberdyne- this time the Air Force's Cyber Research division would be responsible.

    --
    Sigs are for losers
  9. Re:Here, I'll summarize. by Minwee · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If in the original film, the 1st Terminator sent back had indeed completed it's mission and killed Sarah Connor, then that would have ensured Skynet never gets/will be created.

    I don't agree. There were two possible endings to the story in Terminator 1 -- Either the T-800 is destroyed and pieces of it are recovered by Cyberdyne systems or it survives and, to quote a famous engineer from another movie about time travel, "How do we know he didn't invent the thing?" Cyberdyne systems could have found themselves with a new chief researcher with a few odd habits and a mean temper.

    The only way for the closed time loop which created Skynet to be broken is if the Terminator is completely destroyed such that no trace of its existance can be found. This happened in the last scene of Terminator 2, which is why the story ended there and no effort was made to make a second sequel, TV series, or anything else like that.

    Kind of like how there only needed to be one Highlander movie.