Months Behind

Had you asked me nine months ago, my answer would most certainly not have been "Take one aging movie franchise, throw out a ton of established continuity, add copious time-travel goofiness, and sprinkle in sexual tension (not to mention a heavily foreshadowed consumation) between a human and robot character, and voila!"

But hey, what the hell do I know?

Fact is, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is simply the best show on television right now.  First and foremost, it would be enough to earn high praise that the producers and writers resisted the temptation to turn this show into bad fan fiction; Lord knows it has all the elements necessary to devolve into random_basement_dwellerhk745's terribly slash-fic, but not only does the show not go that route, but characters are actually presented with depth and an opportunity for growth.  We could have just seen a non-stop cavalcade of "Terminator-of-the-week" episodes piled high with explosions (and the show probably wouldn't be in the bind it's in now if that's the route the writers took), but thank God the creators took the care to make a solid show.

The actors certainly deserve their fair share of praise as well.  I probably can't add much to the heaps of praise Summer Glau has gotten, but seriously, some producer needs to put her in a major movie role soon.  I'm reminded of Audrey Hepburn, that charm she had that even something as simple as watching her descend down a staircase or recline against a sofa is just a pure treat.  Whatever "it" is, Summer has it, in spades. 

Her costars don't disappoint either.  While filling Linda Hamilton' shoes in the role of Sarah Connor certainly could not have been anything less than daunting, but she has more than measured up to the task.  Thomas Dekker also contributes a lot to his role as John Connor.  Again, it probably would have been very tempting to simply play him straight as future superhero, but the viewer really gets the sense that this is a real teenager, who already has the normal stresses and hormones to deal with, who also has to deal with the expectations that come with who he is, but the awkward relationship he has with Cameron, and doesn't deal with any of it very well, it's a very refreshing take.

Sadly, it now appears that Fox is ready to pull the plug on the whole thing.  Apparantly, going head-to-head with Monday Night Football, not to mention Dancing With the (washed-up) Stars, doesn't work wonders for your ratings.  The show still pulls great numbers in DVR and Internet Downloads, and the DVD set sold respectably well, but not being an in-house production means Fox doesn't see a cut in non-advertising monies, which doesn't help calm Fox's notoriously trigger-happy execs from canning it all.  The sensible thing to do would be to move it to a different day (I hear Wednsdays are available), but in all likelihood, unless Warner Bros is willing to shop the show around to some minor cable networks, this magnificent show will be lucky to make it through the rest of the 13 episodes ordered.  

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America today needs strong, conservative leadership, brought by a tough individual not afraid to stand up and defend conservative principles.  What America needs right now is Fred Thompson, and we here at months behind are more than happy to throw our full support behind him.

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