The Chronic-What?-cles of Sarah Connor

There you go. Josh IS an evil, hate filled robot from the future after all.

Despite a slight climb in last week’s ratings, it is highly likely that “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” will get thrown into a vat of molten steel, only to give a final Fonzyesque thumbs up before liquefying into oblivion (by which I mean it’s probably getting canceled).

I’ll spare you the comparisons to every other quality sci-fi show Fox has canceled prematurely. It’s cliche at this point. The thing I really appreciate about T:SCC is that it’s a simple premise and it delivers every time. Unlike Heroes and LOST, Terminator isn’t trying to be all things to all geeks. It’s not setting it self up for disappointment. The formula is simple (must stop robot apocalypse), and it’s delivered with above average writing and acting. If you haven’t watched it yet, I implore to you check it out on Hulu. Despite the overlying arch, the episodes are fairly self contained so you can pick it up pretty much anywhere.

Season 1 only made it to 10 episodes before the writers strike, so the current season still feels like the end of the first. Unlike Heroes, Terminator didn’t drop everything and start a new story after the strike. Also, unlike Heroes, Terminator doesn’t infuriate me at every opportunity.

Fox either needs to stop cancelling all of it’s high quality sci-fi shows before they have a chance to find an audience or just stop making them all together. If you don’t know how to market them, or don’t have the patience to let them properly gestate then stick to your strengths: reality shows about skanks, gameshows about skanks, reality game shows about skanks and skanks on parade in all their glorious skankdom.

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61 Comments

  2. I think that's why he recused himself.
    BTW – only 9 episodes for season 1.
    Has anyone ever actually met a Nielsen family? Can anyone tell me why that method is still used in this day of DVR and the Internet?

  3. (Excuse the Firefly cliche) She can kill you with her brain. THAT should be enough to overcome anything. Having said that, as much as I support the writers and their striking (insert 'Newsies' montage here), it killed this show. By the time it came back for the second season, I'd lost interest.

  4. yeah, that was the (attempt at a) joke.

    I knew a neilsen family is highschool that had to write everything they watched in a little booklet and mail it back to the company. As far as I know they still hook a box to a your cable box and then to a phone line. Each family counts for 1000's of viewers in their demo. Tivo and DirecTV, etc dont report your habbits for ratings purposes, but they DO record the data. Since they are spying anyway, why not put the info to good use and get an accurate sampling of what people watch?

  7. Love the bonus objectives: Acquire bacon, be a dick, make joel cry……
    First: check, second:10 Checks, Third: Not Plausible, self destroy.
    seriously, unless josh can make BSGA get cancelled, i dont think there is any possible way to make Joel Watson cry

  8. lol, I think bacon acquisition would be one of the Joshinators primary objectives.
    I heard bad things about the show so I didnt get around to watching it until a week before the premier of season 2 and it much better than I expected, good in fact. Can Fox have their heads up their asses any farther?

  9. Yeah my one friend has been telling me to watch this show for awhile. Honestly, the only thing I'm interested in seeing is more Summer Gleau.

    Also Josh's objectives at the bottom killed me. Possible wallpaper of the Joshinator?

  10. Great Comic! I has no idea FOX was planning such nefariousness until I read 2day's strip! Those fiends!
    "Another classic science-fiction show cancelled before its time!"
    -Bender "Bending" Rodriguez

  11. I think it was Arbitron (the people who manage the radio ratings) who had the TV Diaries. My Mom and I got those a couple of times when I was in Elementary/Jr High. I just went through the TV Guide and found all of the cool shows for the next two weeks and filled it in, even if I wasn't going to be home.
    As long as I have heard, the Nielsens have used the boxes.
    I am in total agreement about the accurate sampling.

  13. oh what the fuck ever you guys, TerminatorSCC will get canceled and i will *NOT* mourn it's passing. It's such a fucking pale imitation of the beauty and majesty that was James Cameron's epic vision. The show doesn't have any fucking balls whatsoever and a terrible writing staff. Seriously it's painful to watch. Why can't I stop? 🙁

  18. You wouldn't understand. In all actually it probably should be cancelled. But Summer Glau looks great and does a damn fine job with what she's given (or at least in the episode before last).

  28. Neither. I took a better job with the Evil Empire (that is, MTV Networks).

    My best explanation for why the ratings always seem so WRONG is that all the processing is done in FLORIDA. It's a sign.

    But also, it's only indirectly Nielsen's fault that shows get canceled… they just provide the ratings, networks decide what to do with them.

  35. Didn't want to reply to that huge comment, so instead made a new one. I have a friend who is part of the 'Nielsen family'. They have this box that is like a mini cable box that gets plugged in (wall->cablebox->nielsenbox->tv) with a remote that is programmed to each person in the house + guests (each person, like 'grandma' has their age, race, gender programmed in). Essentially, when the tv is on, you have to hit at least 1 button, to tell it who is watching, and periodically, you have to hit 'ok' to let it know you didn't leave it on.

    That's it. So in his house, all the cnn/msnbc junk gets done for the grandparents, and all the heroes/lost/american idol is done by him (he's weird).

    It's not really a bad system… but it would be a WHOLE lot easier if they could offer it through cable companies for your box to report what you watch. As creepy and invasive as that sounds, I wouldn't mind if my cable box told directv what I watch and they reported it as ratings.

  36. Yeah, she really plays the whole 'emotionless sexpot' well. The scenes of the 'flashbacks' though… not so much. She could use a coach on crying or being sad.

  46. We can't see the bottom of that pyramid. He's actually holding up a poster that's like 10 ft long that includes things like "new technology."

  47. I just got into big bang theory recently thanks to my roommate. I love all the geek references but the constant use of the laugh track makes it feel so cheap but I still love it. It is really hard having to pick which to watch, a real "Sophie's choice".

  49. By the way, I loved the Lazy Sunday reference. Now I have that stuck in my head. So actually I kind of hate you a little bit now.

  50. You need another objective after "acquire bacon" and "be a dick": "Acquire dicks. The dicks are other men's penises."

    Yeah, it doesn't quite work, but I thought I'd launch it into the ether anyway…

  52. Then you used the wrong acronym. Will Smallville's cancelation make Joel cry? Scrubs? Family Guy?
    Then the Joshinator's mission is complete

  53. I know! It's like they're from a mirror-mirror universe where if a show is a runaway hit, it's dead!
    Can you name ALL the hit shows FOX cancelled in the last decade?

  54. I figured it had something to do with that, but I *was* genuinely wondering what the A meant, which is why I googled it on a whim – which came up with the aforementioned Association 😉

    The wife suggested it could be some sort of upcoming miniseries or tv movie like "BattleStar Galactica: Apocalypse". This is why I love her, even if that did not turn out to be the case.

  56. I'm hoping Sarah Connors ratings will be passable with this season's diminished expectations.
    That said… Monday night is a clusterfuck. They have, Sarah Connor, Heroes, Prison Break, Chuck, HIMYM, Big Bang Theory and they have Monday Night Football. Maybe they need to spread out the love a bit.

  58. Funny, the writer's strike actually helped this show for me. If you'll recall, the show didn't start until January or February. By that time, nearly everything else had run out of new episodes. If there had been other stuff to watch I probably wouldn't have started watching this show.

  59. It's not so much a Sci Fi show, but FOX also canceled "Wonderfalls", which was a great series. They have a habit of putting on decent shows, then canceling them when they don't meet the low standards for low-common denominator FOX watcher. Of course I am surprised that ABC holds onto "Pushing Dasies" – a great show, but certainly one that doesn't appeal to your average CSI viewer.

    FOX can't keep a live-action sit-com going either, but they can do a show with people in silver suits that show off their junk going through styrofoam.

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