Sex With A Robot – Summer Glau As Terminator

I wouldn’t call myself much of a fan of the televised series Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles, but I have faithfully watched most of the episodes spanning its last two seasons, including the latest finale, which aired just recently. The problem with the show is that its producers decided to switch the brilliant cliff-hanger saga format of the first season, for a more episodic, standalone product for the second. I found much of latter’s content boring and non-crucial to the main story arc, which greatly lowered my expectations for the show.

Concerning season two’s finale, one point of interest that the show’s creators finally give some attention to is the obvious sexual tension between teenage John Connor and his fembot bodyguard. Although often referred to as siblings in the storyline (to disguise their identities from outsiders) many implicit hints are dropped that either or both characters have feelings for each other. This moment is captured in a preposterous scene where the android Cameron asks John to climb on top of her, while she’s half-naked on a bed, to inspect some of her hardware. Uh-huh. The scene ends with John failing to get his disk into her floppy drive, or something like that.

Filling the cast’s roster with Lena Headey, Shirley Manson, Stephanie Jacobsen and other sexy actresses reveals the producers’ ostensible approach to attract a bigger audience – sex appeal. In fact, I bet many followers of the show simply tune in just to catch another glimpse of Summer Glau in her underwear. And hey, I’m all for seeing Summer Glau in her panties, but it’s a shame that they’re now ignoring the story’s original draw: badass sci-fi action.

Oh, and they’ve somehow outlawed the great comedic moments of the first season. Does anyone remember Cameron being called a bitch-whore in the girl’s washroom in high school? These hilarious terminator moments have seemingly disappeared.

So back to season two’s finale – without giving away any spoilers, I’ll just say that it ends with a sudden shift of events, no doubt fueling anticipation for a third season. But I won’t empathize if the show eventually gets shit-canned. In my opinion, they simply lost what good they had in the series, with the exception of maintaining a sexy cast. But even then, these one-dimensional characters do little more than just play out their simple roles, teasing us with sex, presumably because the show’s ammo and SFX budget got slashed with the rest of economy.

Is it fair to the Terminator legacy to let the show continue?