NationStates Jolt Archive


We must promote Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Ifreann
01-03-2008, 22:40
Bribe the TV execs with hookers and blow?
Klonor
01-03-2008, 22:43
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is a live-action TV series which premiered in January and which, though it casts other actors in the roles, follows the lives of Sarah and John Connor after the events of Terminator 2: Judgement Day. The show disregards the continuity of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and, through an early use of time travel, takes place in the present day with Sarah still attempting to keep Skynet from ever existing.

Unfortunately, it's teetering on the edge of cancellation.

The two-hour season finale airs in two days (Monday, March 3) and, if the ratings are anything less than stellar, the odds of a second season are depressingly slim. Many interesting character arcs have been introduced, the acting is picking up to where I feel it needs to be, but it's still looking like it might go the way of Firefly, cancelled before it was ever given a chance.

I'm not going to gush and whine about how it is the best show ever, and that if it's cancelled I'll die and culture will forever be lost, because I am fully aware that it is not a perfect show, and there is room for improvement. However, I feel that it is a damn sight better than a lot of the dreck on TV now-a-days, and that if it was given a chance to really find itself that it might very well become one of my favorite TV shows.

To save this show, we must endeavor to create a ratings surge for the season finale on Monday, enough to at least get into season two, and hope against hope that people see its beauty and begin to watch regularly.

Anybody know how to improve a TV shows ratings in two days?
Cheese penguins
01-03-2008, 22:49
The show is starting to blossom a little, I have to admit I have enjoyed what I have seen so far, but it does need work. I am afraid to say I think it will be canceled. The worst part though is all the other good shows of the past few years are drawing to an end, e.g. Battlestar (s4 being the last), House (how much longer could they draw this out, its good but old), Prison Break (past its prime as far as I can see), Shameless (soon to be over and have a huge gap before another series, if there is another). You get my point.
Cannot think of a name
01-03-2008, 22:51
Make it suddenly compelling?

Settle on one way the 'companion terminator' acts? I said this in the T4 thread, in the opening episode she's able to blend and integrate into high school and befriend John Conner but after that she's suddenly wide-eyed poker faced comidically clumsy in social situations and completely stiff.

They seem to be hacking their way through the story with almost no intention of building suspense or interest or even curiosity. When it's canceled it will be because they approached telling the story like a terminator, just smashing through it.
Klonor
01-03-2008, 22:54
Bribe the TV execs with hookers and blow?

Tried and failed. Bastards snorted and then had security throw me out of the building anyway. Jackasses.
Cannot think of a name
01-03-2008, 23:18
Tried and failed. Bastards snorted and then had security throw me out of the building anyway. Jackasses.

You could try the Jericho tizzy. It managed to get that show another season.
Mirkana
01-03-2008, 23:41
OK, but what do we send?

They sent peanuts for Jericho and pencils for the Writer's Strike. We'll send death threats if they try to cancel Heroes. But what do we send for T:SCC?
Cannot think of a name
02-03-2008, 00:35
OK, but what do we send?

They sent peanuts for Jericho and pencils for the Writer's Strike. We'll send death threats if they try to cancel Heroes. But what do we send for T:SCC?
Toy robot arms?
Knights of Liberty
02-03-2008, 00:40
Let a crappy show die.
Mavenu
02-03-2008, 01:00
I think Real Life Comics (http://reallifecomics.com/archive/080226.html) explains the situation the best.

(don't watch the show, though)
Motofox
02-03-2008, 01:35
Yes, we must save this show! IDK, it is pretty good. I shudder to think what they may replace it with...
Crossman
02-03-2008, 01:53
Yes, we must save this show! IDK, it is pretty good. I shudder to think what they may replace it with...

Perhaps yet another brilliant "reality" show.
1010102
02-03-2008, 01:55
Yes, we must save this show! IDK, it is pretty good. I shudder to think what they may replace it with...

Another Family guy ripoff from the creaters of Family guy?:headbang:
OceanDrive2
02-03-2008, 04:52
Bribe the TV execs with hookers and blow?Tried and failed. Bastards snorted and then had security throw me out of the building anyway. Jackasses.Now try with the luxury hookers.. the $40 ones will not do it. ;)
Dododecapod
02-03-2008, 12:05
Sorry, I live in Australia. The TV execs don't listen to us.

Even the Australian TV execs don't listen to us.
Dryks Legacy
02-03-2008, 12:32
If it had more Summer Glau beating up everyone I'd like it more, as it is I'm about as indecisive about it as the writers.
Neu Leonstein
02-03-2008, 12:49
Refused to watch any of it so far. Just smacks of a complete lack of originality, as far as I'm concerned. In fact, give me House, Heroes and Lost and that's just about all the blockbuster TV stuff I can fit into a week.

And what do those three programs have in common? Oh, right - interesting and original characters experiencing interesting things.
Dododecapod
02-03-2008, 12:50
Refused to watch any of it so far. Just smacks of a complete lack of originality, as far as I'm concerned. In fact, give me House, Heroes and Lost and that's just about all the blockbuster TV stuff I can fit into a week.

And what do those three programs have in common? Oh, right - interesting and original characters experiencing interesting things.

I agree with House and Heroes - Lost never really grew on me. Do you really support it?
Neu Leonstein
02-03-2008, 13:04
I agree with House and Heroes - Lost never really grew on me. Do you really support it?
The first season was pure awesome. These days it's really about the skill of the writers in not letting me leave...they keep giving you *just* enough of a hint of something important every episode so that you need to figure things out next time. So I don't see myself stop watching, even if I fear it might disappoint me at the very end.
Cannot think of a name
02-03-2008, 13:33
Refused to watch any of it so far. Just smacks of a complete lack of originality, as far as I'm concerned. In fact, give me House, Heroes and Lost and that's just about all the blockbuster TV stuff I can fit into a week.

And what do those three programs have in common? Oh, right - interesting and original characters experiencing interesting things.

Wait, is your criteria for 'original characters' just that they aren't based on characters already extant? Are you just apposed to continuing a story?

I mean, just taking Heroes, the compromising ambitious brother and the wide-eyed idealistic brother, you haven't seen that before? Or even emergent super hero characters? And House...really? I don't know about Australian TV but at least a third if not more of narrative television is taken up by procedural shows and snappy sarcastic doctor, that's not new either. There's still another show on that has one on of those and that only counts ones I've seen.

It seems premature to give those shows the stamp of 'original' just because they gave the characters new names.

I'm not really saying there's anything wrong with any of those shows as such. I think fetishizing novelty is a ridiculous and limiting way to approach entertainment. Especially when it's such a slippery thing to apply. Here it seems that it's just because it's based on characters that already exist. That seems a pretty limited way of looking at things.

I'm not defending the show, either, I already listed my complaints about it.
Tagmatium
02-03-2008, 13:40
It looked kind of crappy when I saw it, to be honest. The terminator guy managed to pull a Desert Eagle, a shotgun and a brace of MP5s out of only what I could presume must have been his arse.
Dododecapod
02-03-2008, 15:04
The first season was pure awesome. These days it's really about the skill of the writers in not letting me leave...they keep giving you *just* enough of a hint of something important every episode so that you need to figure things out next time. So I don't see myself stop watching, even if I fear it might disappoint me at the very end.

Might see if I can get the first season on DVD then.
Intangelon
02-03-2008, 19:20
The good die young, but this show isn't a shadow of Firefly. FOX oughta be utterly pimp-slapped for canceling both that and Arrested Development.

After a couple of years of listening to friends go on and on about Firefly, I rented the movie, Serenity. I was hooked. Aside from Jewel Staite being the absolute cutest woman on TV, the writing was smooth without being cheesy, and the plots were refreshingly un-stale. Thanks to Netflix (this is North Dakota, no stores carry Firefly here), I can now agree that Joss Whedon can bloody well WRITE. I MAY -- MAY -- even try to get over my inherent dislike for Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan and the whole angsty load of teenage dreck that I originally saw in Buffy and rent those, too. Sometimes a show's fans can be more of a detriment than a help.

As for T:SCC, I was never that much of a Terminator fan to begin with. Too much time travel and Schwarzen-cheese. T2 was a decent film that managed to survive the casting of the Furlong kid. T3 was incredibly bad, and proof that even good actresses need money (right, Claire?).

If you like it enough and get organized with those who already feel the same way, you can certainly save it. However, FOX is notoriously thick-skinned when it comes to audience outcry -- they need to see money. Why else would they get Family Guy back when Adult Swim cashed in on it?
Anti-Social Darwinism
02-03-2008, 19:20
I watched a couple of episodes since nothing else was on. It's hopelessly lost in itself. Let it die. Then, if you must, start over again.
Laerod
02-03-2008, 19:24
Refused to watch any of it so far. Just smacks of a complete lack of originality, as far as I'm concerned. In fact, give me House, Heroes and Lost and that's just about all the blockbuster TV stuff I can fit into a week.

And what do those three programs have in common? Oh, right - interesting and original characters experiencing interesting things.Heroes is hardly an original idea. Having people with mutations pop up amongst the general population has been around since X-Men, and it's been adapted for live action since Mutant X. Heroes is a good adaptation of an old theme, including a good deal of the abilities (Rogue/Peter Petrelli - copy abilities, Wolverine/Claire - regeneration, etc.), and hence about as original as the Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Laerod
02-03-2008, 19:24
The good die young, but this show isn't a shadow of Firefly. FOX oughta be utterly pimp-slapped for canceling both that and Arrested Development.And Dark Angel. :mad:
The_pantless_hero
02-03-2008, 20:21
Refused to watch any of it so far. Just smacks of a complete lack of originality, as far as I'm concerned. In fact, give me House, Heroes and Lost and that's just about all the blockbuster TV stuff I can fit into a week.

And what do those three programs have in common? Oh, right - interesting and original characters experiencing interesting things.
Oh yeah, those are so original. Heroes? It's like a live action version of every superhero franchise! Lost? Been there, done there. Take Gilligan's Island, mix in a pint of drama, get Lost. And with House they just took the smartass solves crazy crimes and applied it to medicine.
Intangelon
02-03-2008, 22:45
And Dark Angel. :mad:

Uh...not in my estimation. That was eye candy as much as Alias was.
Honsria
03-03-2008, 00:22
I think if we can convince them that it's really a reality show they'll give it a second chance. That's sad though, this could've been a decent series, as long as the budget for abnormally large explosions doesn't run out.
Laerod
03-03-2008, 15:08
Uh...not in my estimation. That was eye candy as much as Alias was.I wasn't watching that show because of Jessica Alba, but primarily for the social dynamic between the Manticore creations and the rest of humanity. And Lydecker. Lydecker was an awesome character.

Incidentally, Dark Angel is why I never got into Alias. They ran at the same time of day, and I'd already been watching Dark Angel.