Commentary tracks featuring the stars and writer-producers; production and visual effects featurettes, interactive “Hunter Killer Attack”sequence, gag reel, storyboard, music, choreography featurettes, “Terminated Scenes”

Sadly, Sarah and John Connor find their adventures terminated. Although the first season was a bit rocky at first, “The Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” quickly found its footing with a series of interesting and emotionally complex stories that nicely dovetailed with James Cameron’s original two movies along with the third film (which played almost like a parody of the first two) and the fourth & final film released after the series completed airing its last episode. Director McG (“Charlie’s Angels”) hoped to jump start the franchise again with a daring if less than successful attempt to redirect the storyline. The series was surprisingly more successful than the theatrical reboot because it focused on character as much as action and plot twists bringing a unique flavor to the series. That managed to alienate many fans who expected every episode to be like Cameron’s first two films BUT it maintained the integrity of Cameron’s vision without being derivative or imitative. ***

Continuing from the previous season Sarah (Lena Hedey “300”), John (Thomas Dekker) , Cameron (Summur Glau “Serenity”) continue to try and prevent the destruction of humanity seen in “Terminator 3” trying to piece together the moment when Skynet becomes a conscious “being” and prevent it from occurring. ---

Image & Sound:

As with the previous season the Blu-ray looks quite nice with a much improved look compared to the HD broadcasts. Detail is quite good, clarity quite striking and colors pop. The show which is shot on HD video looks extremely good and while there are a couple of minor digital artifacts that crop up from time-to-time major issues such as blocking, compression artifacts and even edge enhancements were virtually invisible. ***

Audio sounds extremely good with a nice, robust 5.1 mix that gives the show a theatrical quality. Sound effects are used imaginatively as are ambient surround effects. Dialogue remains crisp and clear with music having a nice, powerful presence as well. ---

“Write the Future” features writer-producer-show developer Josh Friedman discussing how he came up with the story arc and individual episode plots for the second season. ***

“Blood and Metal” focuses on make up artist Rob Hall and how he creates the make up effects for the show. ***

“Designing Destruction” lets Production Designer Marek Dobrowolski take center stage showing his designs for some of the futuristic sets and how he integrates real locations into them. ***

“Choreographing Chaos” has 2nd Unit Director Joel Kramer and Special Effects Supervisor Steve Galich talking about and demonstrating how they create the imaginative stunts for the show without putting anyone in harm’s way. ***

“War Stories” isn’t about the imaginary future but, instead, has production crew discuss the challenges they faced in creating a science fiction show on time, often on location and on budget. For example, there was an unexpected earthquake that disrupted shooting on one day and they had to figure out a way to safely shoot the underwater sequences that appear during the second season on a their budget. ***

“Motivations” lets the producers discuss the themes of season two. ***

“Cameron vs. Rosie: Fight Rehearsal” gives us behind-the-scenes footage of the choreography sessions for the major fight involving Summer Glau . All I can say is that there is an amazing contortionist involved. ***

“Setting the Tempo” lets music composer Bear McCreary (“Battlestar Galatica”) discuss how he develops many of the music cues for the series. Shirley Manson (of the band Garbage and one of the series regulars) performs on the opening season song “Samson and Delilah” and she discusses working with McCreary. ***

“The Storyboard Process” takes us behind-the-scenes and lets us see the development of key sequences from the second season and how they were realized. ***

We get a gag reel and finally audio commentary on key episodes by stars Lena Headey, Thomas Dekker, Summer Glau, Shirley Manson along with writer-producer Josh Friedman and producers James Middleton and John Wirth. ***

Finally the Blu-ray has an exclusive interactive special feature “Collision with the Future: Deconstrutcting the Hunter Killer Attack”. It allows viewers to take a look at the individual elements from a variety of views. ---

Final Words: