If it dies, it's because I watched it: Sarah Connor Chronicles

I've seen this happen before-- Probe, Shadow Chasers, Misfits of Science, hell, I probably even killed Manimal.

There was a defnite period in my early adolescence when being interested in a show, and watching it for any length of time, meant its sure death. I even considered the possibility, with a degree of horror, that that might just be my mutant power--killing tv shows. I watched Happy Days,Laverne & Shirley, and that sort of thing as a youngster--and those shows lasted forever. But once I hit that magic age-- V: The Series didn't last at all as long as it should have--

And for years I hid this ability of mine to watch a show in its infancy, and thereby snuff it out. I refrained from watching Star Trek: The Next Generation from the beginning, and I never let myself get into Babylon Five. I let four seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and five seasons of Highlander: The Series go by without my viewing. Your welcome. But my avid concern with Angel and Spike--ah...might it have doomed the Angelseries? (I mean, um, more than an off- the-wall story-line with evil-Cordi and alien-Fred? And the Angel-Darla love child who was...well, annoying? That couldn't all be me, right?)

So if The Sarah Connor Chronicles snuffs it early--well, it could be me. Or it could be the fact that sometimes, a show has to find an audience, not look for it. That is to say, your demographic of young males who like to watch massive stuff blowing up--a reaaaallll big part of the enjoyment of the Terminator movies, and why I never enjoy them nearly so much on DVD later, as I did in the theater--isn't going to necessarily grasp the shift in tone of the lower-budget, small screen, and a little more girl power--tv show. We are going from that kick ass chase scene in T:2, to the monologue of Sarah Connor while looking at those swings, and it is a different pace--albeit jazzed up with "threat of the week"-type possibilities.

What the series can offer is the really interesting "fish out of water" moments we get from April Glau's Cameron in her role as a teenage cyborg. But also, there's the displacement in time they all more or less have--these touches can add up to really interesting tv. I'm planning on sticking with it--I think it's got real promise, and not just because the writer's strike has me pining for original programming.

Although (sorry)--I sure hope Reaper does well. It's kind of filled my "hip, with supernatural and sometimes creepy" slot. And it had some good, funny moments. I love me some Sock. And Ray Wise can really do sinister.