I think (think) you should be able to follow it. Though I might be a bad judge since I've seen the first two movies so many times, I probably know them by heart.

I've been recording, but haven't watched any of it yet. Will I be horribly confused if I've never seen any of the Terminator movies?

I've only seen each movie once years ago and I was able to follow the plot pretty well. The title sequence has Sarah's voiceover giving a brief general backstory (or future story, or whatever).

< rant > I know the new thing in American TV series is not to have the actors listed with the opening title credits -- guess in part to save time (more ads for us!!). Maybe it also makes some sense when there's a big cast and/or the title sequence isn't using their likenesses, but here there's three actors and we see each of them in the title sequence. It can't be that hard to put their names in there. < /rant >

I hadn't seen the first two movies in a while, and was able to follow no problem. People I know who hadn't seen them at all had no problems, either, so you should be okay.

Son might be too stupid to live. Time will tell.

True enough, that. So far, he hasn't quite exceeded the bounds of Dumb Teen Moves. So far.

aurelia,

I wouldn't worry about that too much. I have seen T2 twice, but years ago. The relevant details you can catch while you go along.

Under no conditions should you watch T3. Watch T1 and T2 at your leisure, but avoid T3 at all costs.

aww...T3 wasn't that bad. i wasn't happy with the cast choices or some of the plot storylinges(like Sarah dying young), but it's a fun movie if you're not expecting much. plus, Claire Danes!

Heh. I've got T1 somewhere in my queue. It'll probably be a while before I get to it.

Son is so stupid it hurts, and seems to vary between "I'm no hero! I'm a kid!" to "I want to save Da Universe!". Often in the same scene.

Some of the lines are dire.

"All it does is play chess" "So did Einstein"

Heh. I do think it has a lot going for it, though.

True enough, that. So far, he hasn't quite exceeded the bounds of Dumb Teen Moves. So far.

I think he bugs me because he seems so much less savvy and street smart than he did in T2, when he was 3-5 years (depending on how old you think John was in T2 and now) younger. When he left the house and went to see his ex-almost-stepfather, I thought, "Oh John. Are you gonna be THAT guy now?"

I don't like that guy. That guy doesn't grow up to be the leader of a resistance to anything except maybe hard work.

I'd disagree that it's laughably bad in places. Occasionally clunky, but not laughably bad. The characters are, for the most part, very well realized, the acting is good, and the dialogue is solid, if not exceptional/quotable.

I'm with Plei, Kevin. I'm really liking it so far. We've been discussing it in Boxed Set, if you want to take a look.

I'm also with tiggy in not thinking T3 was THAT bad. It wasn't particularly memorable, but it was a nice chase movie with robots and explosions.

And Claire Daines.