the following is reposted with permission from “Kyle Brady: A Blog”
…maybe.
Potentially legitimate rumors have surfaced that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles will be returning to television, presumably with cries of joy from around the world, starting with a direct-to-DVD release prior to the next chapter in the Terminator movie saga, and a TV show potentially following – all starting some time in 2010 or 2011. The network sponsoring the direct-to-DVD process isn’t clear, although the WB was mentioned several times, not to mention the total silence on whether the TV show would appear on FOX. Either way, it seems that the important people in this dance listened to both the praise and wails of fans.
This news, if true, could prove to be a gamechanger for the future of television – TV networks that actually produce intelligent, thought-provoking, and deep shows that fans want, even if they don’t achieve the hyper-success of idiotic nonsense like American Idol. If the WB is the network for the future of Sarah Connor and her band of rebels, which includes one humanoid robot, FOX will be highly embarrassed should the show do well, but if FOX somehow manages to hold on to the baby they threw out the window, they will still have dirt on their face at the end of the day, and be subject to the emotionality of a rabid fanbase.
Even if the show continues thematically mostly on its own, despite rumors of being intertwined with the upcoming movies, TV as a whole will be all the better for it, and so will the Terminatorverse – Terminator: Salvation was a good action movie, and a halfway decent Terminator film, but it fell flat on the expectations of a smart and highly complex film that many hoped would have more in common with TTSCC than T3. The cast itself is critical component of the show’s brilliance: Lena Headey is a much better Sarah than Linda Hamilton ever was, and Thomas Dekker has evolved from a whiny “emo” teenager into a very believable and intensely brilliant John – not to mention the characters played by Summer Glau, Brian Austin Greene, Richard T. Jones, and Garret Dillahunt that make a beautiful small-screen ensemble and help set the tone of the show.
Regardless of the acting prowess of Christian Bale, the simple fact is that barring an extreme change of pace and tone in the upcoming T5 movie, the Terminatorverse is likely to have a longer, smarter, and better future on television. All of that changes if the network behind the TTSCC decides to place demands on the writers, restrict the show’s budget, or act in other stereotypically ignorant behavior that is so often seen at FOX. However, if the show returns in “same or better” form than when it was canceled, fans will flock in droves to any network that cares to finance the triumphant return of Sarah Connor.