TVSquad

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.

We here at TV Squad are sometimes privy to top secret industry information (information if revealed in public would result in our spontaneous beheading). Other times, we're just given the press release.

That being said, the second season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles will begin on Monday, September 8th at 8 p.m. I'll wait while you run to the DVR to set the record time. Fox is also planning to run a season one marathon leading up to the premiere (the DVD is set for release on August 19th).

Returning actors include Lena Headey, Summer Glau, Thomas Dekker, Richard T. Jones and Brian Austin Green. New cast members include Shirley Manson, who plays a tech company CEO, and Leven Rambin as a possible love interest for John Connor.

Season one of the show had to be cut short due to the writer's strike (and had a somewhat unsatisfying cliffhanger), but there were some real gems of episodes. I'm looking forward to season two.

It's a rare thing when one of the major networks takes up an hour of its schedule almost every single night of the week to air the same show, but that's exactly what FOX is going to do this August.

The network is going to run a marathon of the first season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles starting on Sunday, August 10 at 9pm. Then the other episodes from the first season, in order, will air at 9pm on August 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 24. The two-hour second season premiere then airs on September 8 at 8pm.

According to Variety, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has been picked up for a second season. Michael Ausiello of TV Guide also indicated that the show had been given the greenlight for a second season but could not deliver official confirmation. Fox has ordered 13 episodes so far for the second season.

The Fox series stars Summer Glau as the "good" Terminator named Cameron, Thomas Dekker as John Connor, the future savior of mankind from the evil robots, and Lena Headey as Sarah Connor, the mother of said future savior. The show is executive-produced by Josh Friedman and John Wirth.

Did you even know there was going to be a fourth film in the Terminator series? Yup, and it's going to star Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, and Anton Yelchin (Huff and Chekov in the new Star Trek movie). Sorry, Arnold Schwarzenegger is busy being the Governor of California, but there another name added to the cast, and what a cool name it is.

Moon Bloodgood, who played Livia in Journeyman and Rita in the short-lived Daybreak, is about to sign on to the new sci-fi movie, Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins. The film will be directed by McG (he directed the Charlie's Angels big screen movie) and is the first film in a planned trilogy. Bale will play John Connor (currently played by Thomas Dekker on FOX's The Sarah Connor Chronicles)., fighting evil robots after most of mankind has been destroyed. I have no idea if this plot will make sense with what is currently going on in the FOX show (or in the previous movies, for that matter), but thinking too much about all of it will give you a headache anyway, so just accept whatever happens.

Recently, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Fox Entertainment president Kevin Reilly dropped a little nugget regarding Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles that should make fans of the show sigh a little more in relief.

In the interview, Reilly mentions that Sarah Connor and Back to You are the "lead candidates" for returning for a new season, adding that they've "already started staffing" the show.

We already mentioned the high likelihood that the show would be returning before; several times, even. Is it because of Fox's track record with canceling shows, seemingly so quickly, that's got everyone so nervous about Sarah Connor's return? At this point, after hearing all of the rumors and mumblings that the show's safe, it would be extremely cruel for them to bring the axe down during the upfronts next month. Die hard fans are probably already planning a backup plan, thinking of what kind of crap they're going to send Fox studios to beg for the show to return. Any suggestions?

(S01E06) Nice to see a little more personal information about the other characters. I was curious when we would get to meet the famous Eddie Marquez. Nestor Serrano is one of my favorite character actors and he's a good choice for the role. My only worry is that Eva's "Papa Don't Preach" routine is already wearing thin.

Not that you can really blame her for being so pissed off all the time. In this episode alone, there were numerous occasions where John worked the case by himself. If I found out my partner was more willing to discuss the case with his dog than with me, I'd be pretty bent out of shape about it too.

(S01E09) This is continued from the "Vick's Chip" episode post.

Finally, everything comes together. There are references to several episodes (if not every episode) throughout the season and there is something of a climax (albeit a disappointing one). Agent Ellison finally reappears after sitting the last episode out and he comes to the conclusion that killer robots from the future are after the Connors. What's he smoking?

For some reason, I thought Derek was the younger Reese. Obviously, I was mistaken. One of the comments in previous reviews pointed out that Kyle and Derek were alive in the current timeframe. Obviously, this plot point hadn't escaped the writers. Good thing Skynet doesn't know who John's daddy is.

I'll make some commentary about this episode than wrap it up with my thoughts for the entire season.

(S01E08) Fox has decided to show the final two episodes of The Sarah Connor Chronicles (which is still on the bubble for a second season) in one night and treat it as a two-parter. I, on the other hand, will be treating them as two separate episodes for the purpose of these reviews. I will link to the second one at the end of the first so it's sort of like two-Two-TWO reviews in one.

As always, I'm amazed at the sophistication of the television Terminators. One of the reasons Arnold was so great at the role was that he acted stiff naturally. A young William Shatner or David Hasselhoff might have similarly been able to pull off the role. Now that better actors are available, some subtlety and nuance is required in the performance. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

(S01E07) When I was in college, I took a science fiction class. In it, we discussed the themes of the first two Terminator movies, such as the religious themes (note the initials of John Connor and the other religious figure with the same initials) and the sources of violence (In the first movie it came in the form of machines. The second backpedaled and blamed minorities for violence).

I mention this because given the overt religious theme of tonight's episode, I wonder if Josh Friedman was in the same class. This episode went all "New Testament" on us.

Summer Glau looked mighty fine dressed as a cop like that. Some might not find it sexy, but I couldn't help but be reminded of when female strippers dress as cops. They look a lot like that. At first, I mean. When the clothes are still on. But I digress...

(S01E06) This episode was a definitive step up for the series. I have one or two minor quibbles about it, but this episode has been the highlight so far.

The viewer is presented with the story of Derek Reese, who is Kyle Reese's brother and John Connor's uncle. This is done in the style of "future-flashes" in which we see Derek's story post-Judgment Day and learn a lot of new information that answers some questions and creates a few more. I also got a little nerdy thrill out of myriad of references to the first Terminator movie (more on that shortly).

I should have recognized the set used for the Resistance shelter. Was the "Hang In There Baby" lion picture in the first movie? If so, I don't recall it. I did like how they retouched the Linda Hamilton photo to put in Lena Headey's image instead. It's like one those time changes from the movie Back To The Future in which you see time changing around the travelers.

Sonya Walger is a busy actress nowadays. Not only does she guest star from time to time on ABC's Lost as Penelope "Penny" Widmore but she appeared in a few episodes of FOX's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and is starring in HBO's Tell Me You Love Me, show that will return for a second season later this year.

This is Spoilers Anonymous, a weekly column here at TV Squad where we'll supply you with the dirt on some of the more popular shows on the air. We'll never put spoilers up here on the main page in order to help the reformed stay unspoiled. If you have anything to add to the group, feel free to step up and let yourself be heard, either with our tips form or by emailing us at tvsquad at gmail dot com or call and leave a message at (775) 640-8479 - your anonymity is guaranteed, if you wish to remain as such.

This week we have: Greek, Lost, One Tree Hill, Stargate: Atlantis and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. (SPOILERS FOLLOW!)

(S01E05) Andy Goode is back with another chess computer, the Turk II. This is relevant because John Connor played chess in his youth in South America and apparently knows a lot about chess history as a result. And people say this series is unrealistic.

Of course, chess is being used as a war metaphor in this episode (rather blatantly if you listen to Sarah Connor's commentary at the beginning and end of the episode). This could be ironic because apparently Skynet is being developed from a chess program. Perhaps in the future, Skynet loses a game of chess to a human and annihilates the species as a result.