Guilty Pleasures

I'm not much of a TV watcher. Every once in a while, I get hooked on a show. M.A.S.H. Hill Street Blues. Star Trek. The West Wing. Those were all renowned shows in their own way. I wasn't hanging out there by my lonesome on those.

But now I seem to be obsessed with Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles. I'm not sure I can even tell you why. The reviews are so-so. The audience was never large and has supposedly been declining.

But the first season (last year) hooked me. There is some complexity, subtlety, mystery to the writing and to the plot line that is compelling. And though it is ostensibly a shoot-em-up show, I think there is rich and interesting development of the characters. I'm particularly fascinated by Summer Glau's interpretation of a Terminator android, which I think is fantastic.

It seems like this second season, in a fairly panicked attempt to add viewers (probably 17 year old boys), there is more shooting and car wrecks and dramatic violence, which was something that wasn't overdone last year. All the same, I am invested in the characters and will continue to watch. I hope they don't turn it into a cartoon about "bad robots". So far, it is about this interesting relationship between mother and son, with a little mayhem thrown in :-)

Anyway, I like it. Hope they manage to keep it on the air.

http://www.fox.com/terminator/

- till next time...