Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Season 2 Update

After last weeks disturbing news I can happily report to you this week that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has been picked up for a full season. So there is no longer any threat of it being cancelled.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Season 2

Here we have another show that has managed to reach the UK before it has even finished in the US. Unfortunately I don't currently have freeview though and so have been watching all of my TV off of the Internet on BBC iPlayer, ITV Catch Up, 4oD and Demand Five. This means I haven't been able to watch season 2 of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles which started on Virgin 1 on Thursday, and so will probably end up buying the DVD Boxset if it comes out.

Yes Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles isn't scoring very high in the ratings over in the US and the show is close to being cancelled. It appears to be managing to stay alive for the moment as Fox has ordered some more scripts.

But it seems such a shame that the show is now struggling when it started off so well. My only hope is that if it does end up getting cancelled, that they are allowed to tie up the story so we won't get left without any closure, like so many other good shows that get cancelled (e.g. Firefly).

Sanctuary

It would seem that American and UK television networks have been working more cooperatively recently, with shows such as Heroes arriving in the UK only a few weeks after their American broadcast. Sanctuary seems to be one of those.

Sanctuary started life off as a webseries, but now it has been picked up by an American network. I didn't actually know much about Sanctuary before last month so I never actually watched all the webisodes (I believe there were quite a few of them). Instead of being a continuation of the webseries they seem to have started a fresh. A definite positive for new fans but possibly not such a good move from the point of view of old fans.

I've seen the first four webisodes of which the two hour pilot episodes (all though ITV4 only showed one this week, part two is obviously next week) are basically a re-write of. But old fans should not be worried, they won't just be watching repeats of the webseries as the TV version will be taking a different root.

I was quite surprised that the TV version of Sanctuary had the same cast as the webseries. But when I watched the webseries and realised Amanda Tapping was in it I wasn't surprised. Although I was surprised that she was in a webseries to begin with.

The TV version is still shot mostly with green/blue screens although the special effects look much better in the TV version than the webseries, obviously due to the higher budget.

The show looks great so far and it definitely has a lot of great potential. If you haven't already checked it out then it is definitely worth doing.

Eureka Season 2 Soundtrack

I'm a huge fan of Bear McCreary the man behind the music for the television shows Battlestar Galactica, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Eureka. However, whilst Bear was there right from the start of Battlestar Galactica (writing additional music for the mini-series) and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles he didn't join Eureka until season 2 where with the permission of the producers he reinvented the sound of Eureka.

If like me you own all of Bear's other soundtracks or if you just own one or two, then it will only make you really appreciate the musical talent of this great composer. Eureka is unlike anything we have heard from McCreary so far. A soundtrack that he describes as:

"A twisted blend of folk, blues and zydeco with 80s New Wave synths, 8-bit and 16-bit video-game-inspired FM synthesis, 70’s keyboards, accordions, dobros, didgeridoo and a little Spanish Flamenco."

In all my years of listening to soundtracks I really have never heard anything quite like this soundtrack. It is fresh and original and some of the tracks are so good that they almost make you laugh just listening to them. And not having seen the series it has definitely made me want to go out and buy it, because if the show is anywhere near as good as the music then it will be money well spent.

If you wish to read an interview with Bear McCreary about his work on Eureka, click here.