So a couple of weeks ago I wrote about how I was looking forward to the new season of SCC. Well I just finished watching the first episode, and like the first season they start off with a big action fest.

The first time around they had a relatively low budget for that kind of show. And Looked like it. This time they have a much larger budget and it shows. The special and visual effects are all much better. that is to say they don't make me cringe. They are still a little weak compared to other programs.

So far I'm certainly not disappointed. It looks like the promises of last season are going to be fulfilled in this one.

Of all the new shows coming up this season, for some reason, I'm looking forward to Terminator: TSCC the most. The first season could be best describes as not great, but showing potential, and slow improvement.

It suffers from large gaping holes, big enough to drive freight trains full of physics professors through. Holes like a Terminator lifting a couple thousand pounds of metal like it was an empty cardboard box. And again when a couple of Ts fight in a moving truck. It gets thrown around the road as they pound on each other inside. If they really weighed enough for that stuff to be possible, they wouldn't be able to walk in normal buildings, or sit in normal chairs, for fear of breaking everything.

Also the action scenes in the first episode are too large for the modest budget the show has. As a result they look cheep and cheesy. It was a good call to dial down the action for the rest of the season. The idea of a machine trying to adapt to living with people, was something I always thought was the best part of bringing Ts in to fight for us in the first place. It provides a good story mechanism to show us how irrational, and illogical we all are.

But for all it's faults I still find it entertaining, and frankly, riveting. Plus... You will have to forgive me for being a guy for a moment. But isn't that the hottest machine you have ever seen? Kristanna Loken is was great also, but Summer Glau I think just slightly edges her out. Maybe because she is a little funny looking. Imperfections make people more human. The proportions of her facial features are kind of strange, but they work great anyway.

the first season was only 9 episodes. For now at least, you can see them on Hulu. So give it a shot.

HBO's Latest major endeavor is truly spectacular. John Adams premiered last night. And I am just a little inspired. It seems, unintentionally, to force one to look back at the kind of people who created the government we now barley tolerate. I'm not sure we have people like that anymore. Well… That's not quite right. I know they exist. The problem is that they have to content with all the self-inflated, power hungry individuals who refuse to take any steps that might weaken their control of the over extended sphere they trap themselves in.

I have great hope that Obama will be able to help this country. But simultaneously, I have very little expectations that any real change, lasting any longer than a single term of office will ever take place. But one can and should always hope.

So I sit down at my computer after 3 days of work, and find lots of news.

Writers strike is over
A deal has been struck and the strike is basically over. AP has some answers for the most important question, When do we get our post strike TV Shows? Well they suggest that the major shows will be back for a short spring season. The remainders are probably going to wait for the Fall. So hopefully Heroes will be back in a month or so.

HD DVD is dead
Ars Sums up the HD DVD news pretty well.

Net flicks sent me an email. They are no longer going to support HD DVD. They will stop replacing HD DVD titles, and no longer get new ones. This is really crappy. I thought even if it takes another year for Blu-ray players to get the capabilities HD DVD players had since day one, I would still be able to rent HD DVDs.

And in other HiDef movie news, Best Buy is going to suggest Blu-ray to all it's customers. They will still sell all the HD DVD movies and players (for this week), but they will be pushing Blu-ray to un-decided people. Best Buy is the King of home electronics. Their Blu-ray backing will with one hand shift the sales ratios dramatically.

So the first two night two hour premier one of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Was Sunday and Monday. As soon as I heard of it, I knew it was a bad idea. The three movies weaved together a very nice little improvised trilogy, with little room for more story between. A rumored 4th film depicting life after the apocalypse could work, but could very easily suck.

It turns out Sarah Chronicles is not nearly a bad as I thought it would be. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still far from great, but it didn’t make me wish the Terminator movies were never made. So I give it very little credit for that. What it does get a lot of credit for (from me), is Summer Glau. She was the genius, turned psychic killing machine, in the vastly superior series, Firefly and later the movie Serenity. Is always great when people from shows I love, get new work.

However I hope she doesn’t stick with the series for more than a season or so. Playing an emotionally stunted robot killing machine, while almost completely different than a mentally disjointed killing machine (yah that’s sarcasm), could still get her poorly typecast.

I would give the Sarah Chronicles a solid try it. Some people at work seemed to like it. And I will probably give it more than it deserves because of my girl. And I’m also kind of curious where they take it.