The following contains MAJOR SPOILERS for "Strange Things Happen At The One Two Point," an episode of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles."

Is it a bad sign when a fan falls asleep while watching what is supposed to be an action series? I?d say so. This episode of ?Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles? was high on verbosity and short on action. Sadly, that is becoming somewhat of a pattern lately.

I have absolutely loved a few episodes of this series, particularly the ones that feature terminators (what a novel concept). Sadly, this show at times devolves into talk-fest, overly obsessed with relationships, with little action and only negligible glimpses of the future. This was not a terrible episode, but I am starting to wonder if it bears enough resemblance to the original film series to warrant the ?Terminator? in the title.

I know budgetary considerations prohibit the development of 22 action filled, special effects laced episodes, but it is getting to the point that if I can?t have the Terminator story and universe as it is intended, then what is the point of it all? A terminator world where terminators buy cakes and clean the house just doesn?t make a powerful impact. Somehow, this series? narrative structure has fallen into a jumbled mess full of complex love lives, allies with hidden motives, machines that want to be human, and FBI agents who can?t hold a job so end up working for machines.

The plot focused on Sarah?s obsession with the three dots, which leads her to a company trying to develop a microchip. Sarah cashes in all her diamonds to buy the chip, but ends up getting conned. She (not Cameron, who is actually a terminator) beats up the perpetrator. She rambles that everything is connected. Oh, and Jesse is apparently in cahoots with Riley, who has a rant of her own, telling everyone that they are all already dead. Somehow, it lacked the dramatic punch that it had when Michael Biehn said pretty much the same thing in the original ?Terminator? film.

I?m sure there was a point to it all, but to me, it seemed like this was just a week of filler during a holiday week. This episode, while not a disaster, simply wasn?t anything special and advanced the storyline minimally. What did we learn? We learned that machines have no conscience and you can?t trust anyone. We already knew that.

I recently watched the original 1984 ?Terminator? film. I was struck by the simplicity of it. Arnold Schwarzenegger?s terminator just wanted to complete his mission and he would kill whoever got in his way. It was simple and effective. We cared about Sarah because her character exhibited enough humanity to elicit some response. In this series, I see little difference between the humans and terminators. Maybe that is intentional, but I am simply starting to not care.

Watching the original film was a reminder of why I loved the ?Terminator? universe in the first place. For one, I like seeing human characters I care about opposing ruthless machines?not ruthless business men. This series has developed a rambling narrative pattern and has incorporated too many serialized, soap opera style elements. Time to get back to the basics and bring more action (and more terminators) in on a regular basis.

What Worked

The integration of biblical references is a consistent element. In fact, the actually storyline wasn?t all that bad. It just lacked a sufficient amount of action for my tastes.

What Didn?t Work

The lack of terminator action didn't work.

Not only did they kill off an intriguing secondary character in Dr. Boyd Sherman, but this episode featured too much of Shirley Manson?s character. That storyline just isn?t very interesting. Please make it relevant and clear soon, or just drop it already.

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

"Strange Things Happen At The One Two Point" was written by Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz. It was directed by Scott Peters. "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" stars Lena Heady, Thomas Dekker, Summer Glau, and Brian Austin Greene.

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