I can bet top dollar that I'm the only one on this forum that actually likes Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. And that's high praise coming from a Terminator fanboy like myself that swore up and down that I wouldn't watch it for a number of reasons. But curiosity got the better of me way back in 2008 and found myself watching the very thing that I spent a few months prior bad mouthing a series sight unseen. I didn't need to watch any trailers or read about the casting choices. I just knew it was going to suck. But after just the Pilot episode alone, I was hooked.

Season 1 is not without its bumps in the road. There are a few to be had for sure. The first of course is casting other actors in the key roles. It's a tall order to ask actors to step into ICONIC roles beloved by millions of people all over the world and not expect there to be some kind of backlash. If you can get past this somewhat major obstacle, you will find yourself enjoying the series because the story is still there, regardless of who is playing who. And even though I love the original cast, I came away from the series a big fan of Lena Headey and Thomas Dekker, both I didn't even know of till the premiere of the show. The one draw of course was Summer Glau. In an ironic twist of fate, because of my lack of enthusiasm for the series, I didn't bother to brush up on who was playing who. So when it's revealed that Summer as Cameron (nice nod to James) was in fact a Terminator, it was a nice surprise.

These three that made up the core "Family" were all great together. As great as they were. It's not until the arrival of Brian Austin Green does the series take a huge leap forward (no pun intended) with the introduction of Derek Reese, which gave the series a huge jolt and gave fans a chance to keep Kyle alive, in spirit at least. These series definitely needed it's own 'Kyle', and in Derek we got that. Prior to Brian being cast on this series, I hadn't seen him in anything since Beverly Hills: 90210 went off the air. A nice comeback if I do say so myself. As for the season as a whole, they could have done a bit better with the pacing. But it's gonna feel slow when you have Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day in the back of your mind. It's not a deal breaker though. Just takes a little getting use to is all. Even though this is the first time I've watched the series since it's cancellation, Season 1 had one of the coolest scenes I've never forgotten about and that's when Derek takes John to the park on his birthday and as his gift to him, he allows him to see a 5 year old Kyle Reese (and 12 year old Derek) playing baseball. Priceless. If you can get over the new actors, I definitely say this is worth a Rent. Hell, even if you can't, it's still worth it.