DirectTV is my anti-drug

Not to say I don't have some problems with my satellite provider, but sometimes, this company is awesome.

Taking a page from TIVO, the company has now linked up DIRECTTV PLus receivers with the DVR Scheduler. What that means is that if you're like me, and constantly forget to set stuff you actually mean to record, you can log in on line, choose the program on your TVlistings and presto! It's recording for you when you get home.

Now that's what I call... well, biting off of TIVO, but also, AWESOME.

In other news, The Terminator chicks continue to be bad ass, if not a little clueless, when in this week's Sarah Connor Chronicles, the soccor moms lose John. This proves to be a nice little learning exercise for Sarah, who realizes she has to loosen the stranglehold she has on her son in order to let him grow into the man who saves the world, and allows John to stop being such a wussy wuss and actually kick some accidental and idiotically planned ass. Meanwhile Cameron gets to torture a guy, strand him in a minefield, call Sarah irrational, visit the place of her birth, and steal a momento from the occassion: a piece of super strong metal from which she is built.

Meanwhile, on that OTHER show that's in the same show - Terminator gets plastic surgery, and turns into THAT guy (Garret Dillihunt), who does all that awesome character work on The 4400 , Deadwood, No Country For Old Men, Life and just about every show you've ever seen. Which means of course that new Terminator guy will be bad ass. And FBI agent becomes the new Mulder, with a strangely more friendly Catherine Dent as his skeptical Skully, as he begins to put together pieces that don't fit. Of course no one believes him, particularly the little pipsqueak FBI agent who keeps trying to undermine him.

Also, on American Gladiators, part II of the semi finals kicks off this Monday, with this week's episode knocking out Siene (who wore out her welcome REAL quick with all her friggin' crying. There's no crying in the Gladiator Arena!) and the cutie fireman, who stood no chance next to cutie salesman Evan, who cleared the eliminator in 1 minute, 20 seconds. Unless the guy pulls a ham string in the finals, he's unbeatable. Crush continues to be awesome, Wolf continues to crack me up, and Titan is the biggest ham that ever hammed. Also? Siren finally proves her worth when she kicks complete ass on the rings.

Left to compete are the muscly minister versus the other guy, and does it really matter since Evan will cream them both? Also: Venus versus Soccor Mom. Venus posted a 3 and a half minute eliminator time, Soccor Mom: 2minutes. Again with the no point.

TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Turk

Before I get on with my review, allow me to have a geeky TheShield!Casting Moment and squeal over the unexpected pop up of Catherine Dent as SkepticalFBIagent. Hooray. Catherine is awesome.


Moving on.



In the third episode, Sarah Connor, battling killer's anxiety, gets the work trying to track down the origins of SKYNET. She finds a load of nothing and decides to go to Miles Dyson's widow for help. The widow isn't exactly pleased to see her, but does seem rather resigned. She reluctantly points out a former intern of Dyson's, who is now a cell phone salesman. He is adorkably cute, and instantly smitten when Sarah heads over to the store to investigate. Things get complicated fast, however, when Sarah discovers he has built a super computer in his closet that can outthink other chess-playing computers and appears to have moods. Reluctant to kill him, Sarah burns down his house, instead.


Meanwhile, John and Cameron, posing as brother and sister, attend their first day in school, and Cameron encounters the terrifying reality that is having to deal with teenagers. She does fairly well for her first couple days, being called a bitchwhore and making a new friend who proceeds to fling herself off the top of the school building.


Also, FBI guy finds more and more evidence that Sarah Connor might not actually be insane, the creepy robot finds a creepy scientist and shows him how to regrow skin, then kills him and takes his eyeballs, and the last remaining resistant fighter from the future stalks Sarah.


Verdict:


A solid episode, but there needs to be a little less of the whole 'fish out of water' thing with Cameron. The whole awkward robot trying to fit in scenario was played out a while ago, and smacks of sitcom-y cliche the likes of 'Small Wonder'. As much as I liked that show, that is not a good thing. Still, Summer Glau continues to be a strong actor in this episode, the first in which she has had no fight scenes.


John is still a whiny bitch, but, thanks to being forced to watch a girl jump to her death and literally restrained by Cameron, he has good reason. His argument to both Sarah and to Cameron that if he's going to be some great hero, he should act like it, is a nice step forward.

The SKYNET storyline is moving slowly, but the talk of chess really does fit well. With the storylines floating around each other, setting in their places, it does indeed feel like the show takes place on a chess board; the pieces lining up, matching, getting ready for the ultimate checkmate.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - Pilot and 102

It feels like I've been waiting for the premiere of Sarah Connor Chronicles forever (and thanks to the Writer's Strike, I totally have). I was lucky enough to catch the premiere early last year, and was completely hooked. Of course it didn't hurt that Lena Headley was starring, who I've loved since the liveaction version of 'The Jungle Book'. Yes, I really saw that. Yes, I really loved it. And I loved her more when she starred in Imagine Me & You with Piper Perabo. Of course everyone else probably knows her from that silly little movie called 300, in which she wore like... strips of linen and was generally bad ass.

The show also stars ... that girl from Firefly - whose name is 'Summer' something or other, but honestly I was never a fan of that show. I tried, if only for the sake of my love for Buffy & Angel, but... meh.

Anyway...

As pilots go, The Sarah Connor Chronicles is pretty solid as far as pilots go. It's got the entire Terminator lore to fall back, which presents it's own interesting sets of challenges. Like the Star Trek franchise, this new offering opens itself to comparison and nitpicking. Linda Hamilton is a hard act to follow, and when placed at the tricky time after the badassary of Terminator 2, Lena Headley's Sarah could seem a trifle week.

Thankfully, the critics thus far, have been kind. And with good reason - in the drought of the writer's strike, there's a lack of hard hitting drama, and SCC does deliver.

In the pilot, we discover that newly engaged Sarah Connor (now living under the assumed name Sarah Reese - a nice throwback to John's father) is now on the run iwth 16 year old son John. They're being chased by a cyborg, sent to kill them. However, future John has sent back a Cyborg of his own, in the form of angelic beauty Cameron, a new kind of model who seems to want to ape and mimic the humans she's protecting. Sarah is horrified to discover that SKYNET, the company that creates the machines that will one day take over the world, has been built despite the creator's death. In order to stop it, Cameron, Sarah and John travel to the year 2007, in order to find out who starts SkyNET and stop them before it's too late.

Time Travel will always give me a headache, but forcing John and Sarah to travel through time to 2007 kind of feels like a fresh reboot (that seems to jump completely over the 3rd movie). As a result, John gets a kicky new haircut, Sarah gets better hair, and Cameron gets a chance to be the second generation 'Vicki' from Small Wonder.

In episode 2, (which takes place 3 days later and in that time John and Sarah have both managed to grow like.. 2 inches of hair) mother and son struggles to adjust to timelag. John struggles to understand why the caged bird sings (and very stupidly goes to visit his mother's ex-fiance, freaks out, and beats him up). Sarah struggles to keep it together after she discovers from Cameron that she will die of cancer, and that she can't really control Cameron, who goes around killing old friends for Sarah because they're traitors. Cameron struggles to understand that you can't just kill people and makes a new friend, who gives her a makeover, chola style.

The chemistry between all three leads is melding together nicely. Lena seems more and more confident in the iconic role of Sarah Connor, and she seems much stronger here than she initially comes off in the pilot. John continues to be a whiny idiot, but at least there is open acknowledgement that somehow this kid isn't the one that transforms into the leader of the free world. He's got some growing to do. There is also a certain amount of charm in Summer's performance. The scene in which she initially builds an unspoken connection with the chola girlfriend renders itself as almost sweet, and her partnership with the hot-headed Sarah gives her an increasingly complex amount of layers.

Though, seriously?

You Know You've Bonded Too Well With Your Mom When:

- You watch as your mother tosses a chick out the window.

- You go with her to steal money and guns. And rob banks together.

- You send a cyborg back in time to keep her alive because she's the best fighter you knew.

- You visit her ex-fiance and freak out about it.

- You hang out naked with her while the naked Cyborg chick beats people up.

More Cheese Coming Your Way: American Gladiators Renewed

When people want the silly, they embrace the silly. American Gladiators, in which regular athletes are pitted against each other and monster men and women, has already been renewed, according to TVWeek.

Also? They're planning an animated series and Vegas show. Really? Isn't that a little overkill? What's next, a music video? (Please don't take that as a suggestion, show).

Of course for me, that just means more Crush, which will always be a plus in my book. Gina Carano, aka Crush, is a bad ass, as witnessed by these youtube videos, in which she kicks the stuffing out of all the athletic women brave enough to get into a cage with her.

Also big news? The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which I'd like to gush about, but would rather do it when I have more than five minutes.

A Small Reprieve: Females Kick Ass In January

While there appears to be no end in sight for the writer's strike that is casting a dark, dark shadow on Hollywood (and cutting jobs left and right), there is a small measure of hope.

Scifiwire is reporting 2 new episodes of Chuck (the last of the season that are in the can) will air on January 24th. If you haven't watched Chuck, you should. A funny, smart show with three engaging leads and an entertaining menagerie of supporting characters, Chuck mixes James Bonde-esque satire with an Office Space twist. Some of the plots are a little unbelievable, but the sincerity of both Chuck and his two handlers Sara and Casey more than make up for it. It's just a gem of a show.

American Gladiators appears to be hitting it's stride as one of the more brutal reality shows on the market, and with 9 episodes total this season there's plenty of time for broken bones and patriotic cheesery. In a series of interviews by craveonline, The Gladiators reveal themselves to be a funny, outspoken bunch, and Crush in particular, continues to be a favorite of mine. As the only female Gladiator who doubles as a professional cage fighter, she makes comments about killing people with her bare hands and being bummed out that she can't kick people in their heads. That's bad ass. American Gladiators airs 8PM Monday nights on NBC.

Also coming atcha is the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, frontlined by a personal favorite Brit actress of mine, Lena Headley. If the rest of the series holds up to what the pilot promised us, we're in for a bang up, hard hitting, ball blasting heck of a show. With two female leads (one android, one human), the show proves that kicking ass and taking names isn't exclusive to the gents. T: The Sarah Connor Chronicles debuts this Sunday on FOX at 8PM before moving to it's regular timeslot at 9PM Monday night.