A Terminator TV show might sound like a footnote in a franchise defined by its iconic movies, but Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is anything but forgettable. Premiering in 2008, the live-action Terminator series picked up the narrative thread directly from Terminator 2: Judgment Day, ignoring the subsequent movies and instead crafting a bold, serialized continuation of the saga. It followed Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) and her son John (Thomas Dekker) as they dodged assassins from the future and struggled to prevent the rise of Skynet. 3z36n

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles may have only lasted two seasons, but it introduced the most advanced Terminator model in franchise history. While fans of Terminator 2: Judgment Day still praise the liquid-metal T-1000 as the ultimate killing machine, The Sarah Connor Chronicles quietly raised the bar with a model that could do something no Terminator before had achieved - genuinely blend in as human. The Terminator TV show didn’t just recycle old ideas. It evolved them, and in doing so, it gave the Terminator universe its most dangerous, most unpredictable asset.

For years, fans have debated which entry in the Terminator franchise should be considered the real Terminator 2 sequel. After Terminator 2: Judgment Day changed the game with its groundbreaking effects and emotionally charged story, every follow-up has struggled to capture the same magic. That includes the 2019 movie Terminator: Dark Fate, which had James Cameron’s involvement and promised a return to form. But while Dark Fate might have been the franchise’s official attempt to follow up T2, there’s another installment that quietly did it better - and it didn’t even hit the big screen.

Although The Sarah Connor Chronicles featured a cliffhanger ending, this did allow viewers to see a version of the Terminator franchise where John Connor never existed. The Terminator franchise timeline is almost impossible to follow. The first two movies in the series follow one storyline, but 2003’s Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is where things get complicated. The sequel ends with the apocalypse, which explains why 2009’s franchise reboot Terminator: Salvation is a post-apocalyptic action movie. However, everything beyond this point makes less sense.

Although the Terminator movies introduced the definitive portrayal of Sarah Connor decades earlier, the franchise’s first stab at recasting her in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was surprisingly successful. The Terminator movies have a knotty chronology, to put it mildly. After the events of 1984’s original The Terminator and its first sequel, 1990’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the series frequently retconned its own events in subsequent outings. 2015’s Terminator: Genisys retconned both Terminator: Rise of the Machines and Terminator: Salvation, while 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate retconned its story in turn. This makes Terminator 7’s plans tough to guess.

James Cameron only made the first two Terminator movies before stepping away, and while they spawned more sequels that allowed Arnold Schwarzenegger to return, one lesser-known project without the iconic actor is better than them all. The Terminator movies have been pretty divisive since the franchise-starting writer/director made his exit after Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Aspects of the canon like Terminator's time travel rules have been retconned and rewritten countless times, resulting in almost everything post-Judgment Day approaching the description of a nonsensical mess. However, a brilliant sequel from 2008 does exist outside the film series.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chroniclescreator Josh Friedman has reflected on the sci-fi show's cancellation 15 years later, revealing the John Connor storyline that would have happened if it was renewed for season 3. The TV show follow-up to Terminator 2: Judgement Day sees Sarah (Lena Heady) and her son John (Thomas Dekker) trying to prevent the rise of SkyNet once again, this time with the help of the Terminator Cameron (Summer Glau), who John sent back in time to protect himself. The Sarah Connor Chronicles ended on a cliffhanger, with the series getting cancelled after season 2.

The Sarah Connor Chroniclesintroduced many new aspects of Terminator lore, including the arrival of the series' most advanced model yet seen. The show was the Terminator franchise's only attempt at a television series, centering around Sarah Connor as portrayed by Lena Headey in the aftermath of Terminator 2. She was ed by Summer Glau's Cameron, a terminator sent back to protect John Connor. It was the typical Terminator setup, with the twist that Cameron blended in far better than any Terminator audiences had seen before or since.

Dean Norris had a minor role in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, but I’ve come to realize that his character might have been more important than I imagined. Although Dean Norris is best known for his role as Hank Schrader in the Emmy-winning series Breaking Bad, a character he also played in Better Call Saul, he has been in plenty of other shows and movies. This includes Terminator 2: Judgment Day, although it was a very small role many do not associate Norris with. The actor portrayed a SWAT team leader who did not remove his mask.

Set shortly after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was canceled after just two seasons, leaving the series unfinished and with a cliffhanger ending. While it's not entirely clear what was going to happen next in Terminator: TSCC, the science-fiction drama show teased a few possibilities in what became its series finale. Penned by Josh Friedman, who'd go on to co-write 2019's Terminator: Dark Fate, the 31-episode spinoff show aired from 2008 to 2009, and starred Game of Thrones' Lena Headey as Sarah Connor — the Terminator protagonist first portrayed by Linda Hamilton in 1984.