Her future is looking brighter

In the wake of the disappointment that was NBC's "Bionic Woman," it's difficult to approach Fox's "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" without the flinching reluctance to trust of the recently brokenhearted. At first glance, the shows have so much in common: the weight of previously successful franchises; cool fighter chicks, some robotic, all capable of engaging in car chases, demolition, gun play or hand-to-hand combat; enemies who appear out of nowhere and threaten the world (as opposed to just wanting to knock over a bank); lots of ominous computer screens, not to mention the need of the heroine to protect a family member (Jaime Sommers' sister, Sarah Connor's son).

But there the similarities end, because although "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" has gadgets aplenty, it has what "Bionic Woman" never quite acquired: a brain and a heart.

Picking up where the feature film "Terminator 2" left off, "Sarah Connor" follows the title character's attempt to keep her teenage son, John, alive so he can become the leader of a band of rebels fighting the Skynet robots who, in 2011, declare war on mankind. Robots who keep sending increasingly upgraded terminator models back in time in an attempt to kill their foe before he reaches adulthood. Trying to figure out how all this works, time- and space-continuum-wise, will give you a headache -- why can't someone from the future just come back and explain how exactly John was able to survive? -- so it's best just to accept the whole conceit on its own terms.

One of those terms is that the grown-up John has sent Cameron (Summer Glau) back in time to help Sarah (Lena Headey) and teenage John (Thomas Dekker). Cameron is a terminator too, only the good kind, the kind fighting on the side of the humans. I hope that isn't considered a spoiler. It surprised me during an early viewing of the pilot, but since then, the show's ad campaign has focused on Cameron's torso suspended, naked of course, and trailing metallic bits (memo to Fox: Were you intentionally going for a "Saw" meets "Westworld" vibe?) so I think that big reveal is done for.

With her kick-boxer-fit form, lovely face and owl-like gaze, Glau, who played River in Joss Whedon's "Firefly," is one terrific robot. She can go nine rounds with the big guys, breaking walls and getting hit by cars, but she also conveys an intriguing, if limited, humanity that, one hopes, will enrich future story lines. "In the future you have many friends," she says, attempting to reassure the restless John. "Are you a new model?" he asks her. "You seem . . . different." "I am different," she says.