Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Explosions here, hand to hand combat there

It’s been a good year for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Science fiction doesn’t necessarily have it easy when it comes to broadcast television. It plays to a particular audience (guys!), and much of that audience isn’t even watching, which is sad for them.

If you liked the movies, then this show is right up your alley. And even if you didn’t, the stories they choose to tell not only reinforms you of the things you may have missed if you didn’t watch the movies but also is its own narrative.

This season, the writers have focused on everything from character development to upping the action to providing compelling story arcs that kept me intrigued almost every week. Plus, it’s damn cool to look at. Explosion here. Chrome on chrome hand-to-hand combat there. A little bit of dangerous car chases for good measure and very, very big guns.

We’ve watched 13 episodes so far. The opening of “Samson and Delilah” was beautifully directed and oh so beautiful to watch. Last season, we left off with Cameron (Summer Glau) in the family Jeep, being blown to smithereens, and it’s also where we picked up. The Terminator picked herself up, and I’m sure, just like everyone else, I thought she would be Sarah (Lena Headey) and John’s (Thomas Dekker) savior. But this time was different. When she should have lent a hand, she, instead, turned on her mission and forced the two to run for their lives. With the explosion, Cameron’s programming got a little out of whack, and a fervent chase across the city ensued.

I knew from the first twenty minutes of the premiere that this would be a great season. And I feel that I was definitely right. The writers have introduced a new character, Catherine Weaver (Shirley Manson), who turned out to be a T-1001. (I mean, she morphed from a urinal and killed a man in 2.5 seconds!) We’ve also gotten more of Derek, played by Brian Austin Green (yummy yum mmmm). It seems like they’re setting him up to be more than just a guest star, and if that’s the case, I commend them.  Terminator: TSCC got a lot more interesting when he joined the cast.

Ellison also got something to do. He’d already been developed into an interesting character with the juxtaposition of his faith and the things he’s learned about the future. By putting him to work for Catherine Weaver, he’ll get a look into what and who a Terminator can be, and he doesn’t even know it yet. Though they haven’t done as much as I would like with the characters of Ellison and Weaver, the last few episodes, that have introduced Ellison to Cromartie 2.0, has crazy promise. (Weaver wants Ellison to teach him morality by basing his knowledge in faith.) Will this experiment work? I doubt it, but I’m intrigued to see how it plays out.

Another addition this season included Riley and Jesse, the two new female sidekicks to the tasty, metal-fighting men of ours. John fell in love at first sight with Riley and seems to have thrown everything he learned from his mother, Derek and Cameron out the window just to spend time with her. Jesse, on the other hand, has a past (more like a future) with Derek which has given us a lot of insight into what happened after D-day. We’ve recently found out that Riley and Jesse are in cahoots to get close to John.

We’ve also had some great episodes so far. “Allison from Palmdale” really sticks out to me. It genuinely surprised me, plus it gave Summer Glau the opportunity to play multiple versions of herself. It was different and completely out of the box. The Cameron we know has a meltdown. Not only does she forget who she was but when she started to discover herself again, she isn’t who we thought she’d be. This is when the audience learns that the Cameron model was based on a human resistance fighter name Allison. (Trés interesting!) Did Allison mean something to John before a model was created to her likeness? Is this why he has such an attachment to the chrome-version?

I never thought Terminator was broken and needed to be fixed, but the writers took everything great about a series which they really have made their own. They’ve incorporated stand alone stories this season. This involves saving people who would help John save the world in the future. They’ve developed characters more deeply. They’ve balanced emotion and action. And we all know ::cough::cough::Heroes:: that time travel can be tricky business but Terminator tackles this with ease.

Next year, the show moves to Friday where it will be paired with Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse. It’ll be a sci-fi Friday, but we all know how Friday shows turn out. I’m keep my hopes up for them, and I hope you’ll be watching along with me on the weekends. I swear the show is worth it!

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles returns to Fox on Friday, February 13, 2009.

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Photographs courtesy of Fox.