There was a time long ago when we all had to look on the bright side of life. Whatever a studio would dish out sequel wise, we would accept with open arms no matter how bad it was, we accepted out of love and respect for the characters and a loyality to follow them through thick and thin.

There was a time long ago when I thought I had to stand by Batman & Robin, for I knew not of the looming Nolan franchise just around the corner. To be fair I had to get through a Catwoman era before the return of the Golden Age made itself apparent (but it did make Batman & Robin a little better by comparison).

Yes, the remark, the restart, the white wash, whatever you want to call it, it's popular now more than ever this year with DC dishing out their rebranded Batman for the second time and Marvel having another crack at the green giant sweet corn ads on LSD (The Incredible Hulk) and Alice Cooper's mate gets a gun license the movie (The Punisher). But while the cinema may offer the smell of ludicrously expensive popcorn and hilariously divised Orange adverts, there is another screen that seems to be missed... television.

Fox along with Warner Bros. Entertainment released Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Season 1 on DVD this week, a show that in my opinion is soarly under rated. The Chronicles are in many ways an apology for the travesty that was Rise Of The Machines. Yes the beginning was epic and awesome and why yes, the ending was down beat, depressing and very much in the spirit of Cameron's nightmares, but the main bulk was desperately lacking the misery, narrative and standard that the first 2 films had raised.

First of all, if you are an unstoppable killing machine like the T-X why are you going to pull over for a police officer, sheerly so you can enlarge your breasts? If we were to break the fourth wall, then the answer is simple, to make chavs laugh and make quiet, dirty old men in the back row smile. But in the context of the story it does not work. Neither does the T-800 losing his dignity and presence in a pair gay stripper glasses, or John Connor being generally weak and whining about a kiss he had many years ago in Mike Kryptkey's basement. In a couple more hours that basement will be dust... now focus John...focus.

What The Chronicles sets out to do is essentially right the wrongs with a budget closer to that of the first film. It takes place a few years after the second flick and thanks to a little bit of time hopping, they jump over all the mistakes made by Jonathan Mostow and crew (who also happened to write Catwoman and the new Terminator Salvation). Even though the season only lasts 9 episodes, the characters grow in leaps and bounds. John is already well on the way to becoming the great military leader, Sarah continues to remain strong rolemodel, but most fascinating of all is how the writers have divised a potential evolution of Skynet. Obviously I want you to all go out and watch this, so I won't be saying too much more than that. Some of the dates don't hang together in episode 7 and 9 with regard to the first films, but the writing is so good and original, that I can kinda look the other way as far as continuity is concerned (which I don't do very often)

A word of warning though as far as the DVD is concerned. In the words of Harvey Dent, “I recommend you buy American”. Warner Home Video have got a little greedy in the dawn of Blu-ray and in the case of the region 2 release, have moved the majority of the special features off the DVD and onto the Blu-ray as an exclusive bonus, to encourage Blu-ray sales. The region 1 DVD however remains intact.

Season 2 is about to begin this September in America (where I will be upon it's airing) and my Zod am I glad they got the thumbs up to continue. From what the Terminator Salvation Teaser and Comic Con panel have shown so far, I think I'll stay infront of the box in the summer of 09. Even Arnie's not impressed....and he'll sell out to anything.