DVD Review: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete First Season

The first season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is now available on DVD! Here's TerminatorSite webmaster Craig Byrne's review of this fantastic set. [Please note that this is a review of the regular edition DVD and not the BluRay which contains some extra content]

The Short Version: The complete 9-episode first season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is collected in a really nice, affordable package (under $20 in most online stores!) What makes this set special, however, is that it includes more bonus features than most series sets for shows with full 22-episode seasons! I'm not sure if it was the show's creators or the studio that insisted that this is a top-of-the-line product, but they definitely succeeded.

Packaging/Artwork: Like most other recent Warner Bros. DVD releases, this set comes in a snappy case with a shiny cover over it. The cover design is simple yet very powerful, and the disc art and menus continue with the same motif. There is also a booklet inside that tells you what is on each disc, and although it's a very different design, it looks quite cool - and it seems to include some promotional photos that have never been seen before! I like that a lot.

The Episodes: All nine episodes from the first season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles are included, and on DVD, they look fantastic. My personal favorites on the set are the show's first two episodes ("Pilot" and "Gnothi Seauton"), "Dungeons and Dragons," and "The Demon Hand," but of course it's recommended that you watch all nine - especially to prepare yourself for the Sept. 8 second season premiere.

The Extras: They really outdid themselves here. There's a series of featurettes about the creation of the show, from exoskeletons to locations and series development. Most of the show's producers and actors all offer their feedback, and in some cases I actually learned things that I did not know. (For example: Did you know that Summer Glau actually requested sunglasses that looked like Robert Patrick's in "The Demon Hand?") Commentaries are available on three of the nine episodes, and "terminated scenes" can be found for five of them. There's also an "extended cut" of "The Demon Hand" on this set. Two things you might not be ready for in the special features: You get to hear Lena Headey's real, accented voice, so don't expect to hear her sounding like Sarah Connor; and Thomas Dekker has a very different look, as features were done at the time he was doing a movie with his hair and eyebrows shaved off. That bald guy? Yep, it's Thomas. Finally, animatics, a dance rehearsal for Summer Glau, a gag reel, and cast audition tapes for Thomas, Lena, and Richard T. Jones can be found.

You can see from watching the bonus features that most everyone involved genuinely takes pride in the series. It's a good bunch of people.

In Conclusion: Warner Home Video gave Sarah Connor the DVD treatment it deserves, and I'm pretty sure my weekend plans will consist of having a T:SCC marathon. I love having the show at my fingertips in such a way, but I'm also glad that no one skimped on extras.

Edited To Add: My friend Roy complains that "there's no Summer Glau on the cover so minus 10 points." I'm happy to share, though, that she is on the back cover.

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Season 1 DVD - Standard Edition

Season 1 DVD - Blu-ray

Visit Warner Bros.' Terminator DVD site at http://warnervideo.com/terminatorondvd!

 

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