TVSquad

(S02E05) The game of time-travel chess continues. It seems that whenever Sarah and the gang foil one Terminator plot, another two crop up in its place (or they fulfill some sort of objective from Skynet and bring things one step closer to Judgement Day).

Observations from tonight's episode:

How did Reese get the credentials to teach at the military school? I know being from the future gives one access to certain information, but it seems a stretch.

You know the one I'm talking about. After the writers strike ended last year in February, most of the networks made the interesting decision to just go ahead and shelve most of their freshmen series for the season, even if they'd picked up their "back nine" orders. Instead, they thought they'd launch the shows to big fanfare this fall, almost as if they were new again. Unfortunately, it looks like this plan backfired on them tremendously.

Across the board, those sophomore series that went on hiatus for more than six months are way down in the ratings. Apparently, absence doesn't make the heart grow fonder when it comes to the television landscape. It makes the instant gratification generation forget you existed. And stop caring.

Remember all of the interest over the summer about whether or not FOX was going to keep The Sarah Connor Chronicles or cancel it after one season like they do with so many fan favorites? Well, how come you're not watching the show?

There are reports swirling around that the network is going to cancel the Monday night show because of bad ratings, ratings that worse than FOX expected. The show is averaging a 4.1/6, which means it's down 34% from last year. Even the 18-49 demo loved by networks and advertisers aren't watching the show. When the geeks science fiction enthusiasts aren't watching the show, you know you're in trouble.

I have to admit I've drifted away from the show. There are just too many shows to watch and towards the end of the first season I sort of decided to not want to follow this story anymore (same thing is happening with Fringe). Anyone else there stop watching this show after the first season?

(S02E04) This story focused more on the individual members of the Connor team, particularly Cameron. I was glad about this for two reasons. First, more Summer Glau. Second, I think the flash forwards make for very good, interesting episodes.

At first, I was a little taken aback by Cameron's display of emotions. Since when can Terminators shed tears? I suppose it sort of makes sense given that she's an infiltration unit, but it seems kind of a stretch.

(S03E03) Is it me, or have the Terminators gotten more sophisticated since Arnold's day? Arnold never would have set a trap. He would have just pursued until terminated.

The opening of this episode was reminiscent of the closing of the first Terminator movie when Linda Hamilton was driving in the desert.

It's funny how the actor whose life Cromartie stole ended up being (sort of) famous. Usually they try to keep a low profile. Also, despite being the future savior of humanity, John Connor is not above stealing cable. This is a lesson for the rest of us.

(S02E02) The plot for the series has become convoluted very quickly. I take that as a good thing since it means the series can potentially last a few years. My favorite part remains the flash forward in this episode, brief as it was. The rest of it was good but not particularly memorable.

Who else spotted Busy Philipps as the pregnant landlady? I keep wondering if the kid is James Franco's from her previous series. I admit she's looking a bit chunkier in the face and I'm wondering if that's make-up for the character pregnancy or the effect of her real-life pregnancy.

Time travel has certainly become a revolving door in this show. It used to be more difficult now people are falling through time-doors that are powered by jet engines much more easily. Maybe they've improved the technology in the future. This is getting to be a bigger time war than the one in Doctor Who.

(S02E01) Last season ended with a bang. More specifically, Cameron in the middle of a bang when the SUV she was occupying exploded. The new series begins with music by the series composer Bear McCreary and vocalized by the lead singer of Garbage, Shirley Manson (who appears later in the episode as ZeiraCorp CEO Catherine Weaver, a new major player).

The show had good ratings the first season, but only nine episodes. Both of these can be attributed to the WGA Strike, which both cut down the available episodes and gave the show no competition. If it does well this season in the ratings, then we'll be seeing more killer robots in the future.

Why do college students get all the breaks? It looks like Fox will be offering the premieres of both Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and J.J. Abrams' Fringe at fox.com for those with a .edu e-mail address. They will also offer some behind-the-scenes footage, music videos and interviews.

This is a clever marketing ploy by Fox. The demographic for those shows definitely leans towards the young, and since college students are more exposed to computers than anybody I know who doesn't work in the industry (and are probably more used to watching stuff online rather than on the television), the idea has definite appeal.

Mind you, such systems can be fooled, particularly if you have a friend or relative with a .edu address (or so I've heard). With that in mind, I don't understand why Fox wouldn't just offer this to everybody. I can only guess that it's a way for Fox to control illegal downloading of these highly anticipated shows.

I'd love to hear the context in which this quote was uttered in this MTV interview with Sarah Connor Chronicles star Brian Austin Green.

Green says that he would love to play The Riddler in the next Batman movie. He knows he's going to be busy "killing machines and people" on the FOX show, but he's still available to be in the movie, even though it might take a lot of time to prepare for such a role.

A lot of people online are giving Greene flak for being presumptuous that they would even consider him for such a pivotal role in a big screen blockbuster and also for sort of campaigning publicly for the role. But I wonder exactly why it was brought up in the first place. Did the interviewer ask him, "So Brian, how's it going?" Then he answered "It's going well. I'd love to play The Riddler in the next Batman movie." Or did the interviewer ask him about The Dark Knight and ask him if he'd like to be in the next movie and Green offered this answer and the question was left out of the interview?

It's coming. The table is set, the players are on the field, the sails are raised, and the pretty maids are all in a row. Of course, I speak of the 2008-09 television schedule. In just a few short weeks viewers will be able to dine on a number of favorite and new dishes that are being served by the networks as well as the increasing number of cable channels who are delving into original programming.

While other fall seasons have come and gone with nary a whimper, this season may be different. Due to the prolonged Writers Strike many shows ended their seasons quite early. Programs like Life, Private Practice, Pushing Daisies, and Heroes haven't aired original episodes since the end of 2007. Heck, there hasn't been a new episode of The Shield since June of last year! So, the beginning of the 2008-09 season will be a second chance for some of these shows, particularly the ones that premiered last season, to show their worth to fans and the networks.

(S01E08) "Guy I Don't Know is starting to look like Guy I've Known My Whole Life." - Noser

Yo, Wendy Watson. Thanks for wearing the skimpy dress in the very first scene of the show.

For the most part, scenes with two attractive young people flirting with each other while spouting flippant duologue has been done to death. For some reason that I can't quite identify, the scenes in tonight's show worked for me. Maybe it's the huge crush I have on Natalie Morales, maybe it's the fact that The Middleman is chock full of that kind of dialogue, maybe it's because I still feel bad about what happened to Brendan Hines on The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Besides the panels that focused on various television programs, Comic-Con also had panels on the TV industry in general. One of these panels that I had time to cover was on genre television shows.

This wasn't a panel featuring writers and producers of obscure genre shows you have never heard of. The people on this panel had long careers in television and, in most cases, were actively writing or producing. These included Steve Melching, writer on the new Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie, Ashley Miller, writer on The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Susan Watson, showrunner for Middleman. Also included on the panel were Harry Werskman and Gabrielle Stanton -- former showrunners for Moonlight.

Saturday -- a time of rest and relaxation. A time to put your feet up, grab a lemonade, open a book, and let the cool, summer breezes gently rock your hammock as a lazy July day passes. Of course, that's if you aren't attending the San Diego Comic-Con. Then, it's out of your bed, quick shower (if any), breakfast-on-the-go, and right back into the queues to see your particular favorites talking about their television shows.

Like Friday, Saturday at Comic-Con will be packed with television goodness. This is the day that many of the big guns come to play. Shows like The Office, Lost, Battlestar Galactica will be making appearances. They will be joined by newcomers Chuck, Dollhouse, and Pushing Daisies. There will even be an appearance by the recently single Sarah Silverman. There's also a good bit of television animation being featured, particularly by Nicktoons and B.E.T. Animation.

In order to make sure you get the most out of the money you paid to get into the convention, we here at TV Squad are providing you with a complete list of television-related panels for that day. If you are interested in seeing what else is going on July 25th you can review the official full schedule at the Comic-Con website. Remember, times and appearances are subject to change and seating in all event rooms is on a first-come, first-serve basis.

After the mid-day lunch/writing break, FOX jam-packed events into the rest of the afternoon and evening, not leaving much time to breathe, much less stop and type a blog post. One of the more noteworthy sessions after the break was for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Note that I said "noteworthy," not "interesting." Why? Because not much in the way of news came out of it. Still, a few things were thrown out by the producers and stars that may pique a fan's interest.

First of all: The show will have more self-contained episodes this year. Why? Executive producer John Wirth had a very succinct answer to that: "Because we wanted to."

The Saturn awards ceremony was held last night, and Lost dominated the television categories with four wins. The drama won the award for Best Network Series and nearly swept the acting categories. Evangeline Lilly lost the Best Actress award to Ghost Whisperer's Jennifer Love Hewitt, last year's winner. Most of the first-time nominees, such as Pushing Daisies and Journeyman, were shut out. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was the only exception; Summer Glau tied for Best Supporting Actress.

Comedian Jeffrey Ross hosted the event. Hopefully this is just the beginning of a successful awards season for Lost. A complete list of winners in the television categories follows after the jump.