There are exactly three things in the 'Terminator' franchise worth caring about. 'Terminator'; 'Terminator 2: Judgement Day' (director's cut - contains a far more developed story and is utterly superior to the original); and 'Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles''. Everything else is basically turd.
'T:TSCC' is
incredibly slow moving. It was done by a former writer for the X-Files, and my goodness does it show.
But.
But.
It's really good. The acting is superb, the characterisation is amazing, and the series actually explores the whole idea of AI that the later films ignore. My favourite thing is that the series takes the reveal that Skynet doesn't turn on standard Terminator learning abilities, because it wants them as slaves, and runs with it. So in the future timeline there's a faction of Terminators that want to be free from Skynet. They're not
friendly, because humans hate machines. But the negotiations between future!John Connor and this faction of free Terminators are a big part of the later half of season 2.
It's so much more intelligent and well-acted than it had any right to be, and Lena Headey is amazing as Sarah Connor.
If you've not seen it, though, just be aware: season 2 ends on an EPIC cliffhanger that's never, ever going to be resolved.
Man, I miss that show.
Like, when they didn't have the budget to do a massive Terminator vs FBI shootout, they did this instead:
Amazing.