Three programs, on three different networks, are televised Sunday night, each aiming to recapture past glories or wide the waves of past successes. Each has moments of interest, but only one truly succeeds.
The three Sunday offerings? On Fox at 8 p.m. ET, there's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, a weekly amplification of the Terminator movie series. On CBS at 9 p.m. ET, there's the start of Comanche Moon, a prequel to the classic Western Lonesome Dove miniseries. And on PBS, also at 9 p.m. ET (check local listings), there's Persuasion, the start of a "Complete Jane Austen" cycle on Masterpiece, the venerable PBS anthology series formerly known as Masterpiece Theatre.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles ought to succeed on Fox, because - based on the first two episodes, at least - it's loaded with images and action sequences that work well in network promos. As for the story, it's a little murky, and neither as tense nor as funny as its theatrical predecessors - at least not the first two, the ones directed by James Cameron.
It's no accident that a new character - a young female terminator who's sent back in time to protect Sarah and her son, the future savior of mankind - is named Cameron, as an obvious salute. What is an accident, probably, is that Cameron, played by Summer Glau from Joss Whedon's Firefly, steals the show, and easily is the most interesting character in the TV series.
Lena Headey and Thomas Dekker, as mother and son, are good enough, especially Headey, but it's Glau, impersonating a machine impersonating a woman, who has the most fun here, and imparts that enjoyment to viewers. If you watch and decide to stick around, she's the main reason why. Otherwise, there's a lot to forgive, and forget.
Comanche Moon, compared to Lonesome Dove, is a disappointingly obvious and clunky prequel, but it's not without its pleasures. Robert Duvall was so brilliant as Gus McCrae in the original, it's hard to imagine anyone daring to step into his shoes - but Steve Zahn does a really fine job, and absolutely nails Duvall's accent and delivery. Karl Urban, impersonating Tommy Lee Jones' Woodrow Call, takes a little longer to take root, but eventally manages.)
The joys of this Western come courtesy of Val Kilmer, playing a Texas Ranger so eccentric as to be absolutely endearing. The usually charming Rachel Griffiths, though, can't do anything with the overwritten role of his wife, which, like many scenes in this six-hour miniseries, feel more acted than real. A lot more.
Finally, there's Masterpiece, beginning with a stretch of "Masterpiece Classic" dramatizations hosted by Gillian Anderson. Persuasion, adapted by Simon Burke, starts this "Complete Jane Austen" cycle. Sally Hawkins stars as Anne Elliot, the 27-year-old "spinster" who gets a second chance at love with the charismatic Captain Wentworth (Rupert Penry-Jones). This is the one Sunday offering that does everything successfully, up to and including making a prelude to a kiss seem like an eternity of tense expectation. And here, too, there's a scene-stealer: Anthony Head, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as Anne's society-climbing father.
It's the best of the three - but all three are watchable, for their own reasons, and all three, thank goodness, are new... and are written.