I hate Fox with a passion. The only reason 24 doesn't blow mad donkey chunks is because Kiefer is the Exec Producer. Just like with SG1 and RDA, though, eventually the pinheads and pencilnecks at Fox will wear him down and he'll bow out. And if we learned anything from Season 8 of SG1, once the leading man bows out literally in production, regardless of whether he's on set, his character will figuratively bow out. I suspect that the Simpsons have only made it this long 1. because Matt Groening is a crazy ass genius and 2. because the Simpsons are the Michael Jordan to Fox's Nike.
All primetime networks need to learn that these midseason breaks NEVER WORK. They are NEVER helpful. People forget when crap is on. Hell, I'm about as obsessive and reliable a fan statistic as they're going to get and even I can't remember when my shows are on. I consider my job too stressful for that information to stay aloft in my brain - there's no way in hell the average working family is going to keep track. Except maybe the kids, and they don't control the remote if Desperate Housewives or Monday Night Football is on.
Oh well. TSCC's days are probably numbered. IMO they need to make some tough but obvious choices: stop beating a dead horse and get rid of Riley, already. The problem is they've written themselves into a corner. They've already given us every reason to think Cameron's going to do it, so now if she does, it's totally uninteresting. The shock value is totally gone. Maybe Derek could do it. Maybe Derek could do it and John could kill him for it. That's about the biggest shocker they could manage, at this point. Still, they need something better than PTSD-inspired flashbacks and panic attacks brought on by strangling Sarkissian from behind as a vehicle for turning John Connor into JOHN CONNOR. Big whoopdy friggin doo, how is that more traumatic than any one of 15 other armed encounters with post-apocalyptic homicidal cyborgs? They HAVE to know that as soon as the Terminator 4 ad campaigns and viral videos online start picking up steam, they're going to be faced with the prospect of Thomas Dekker living up to Christian Bale.
And speaking of Terminator 4, the TSCC producers actually have the opportunity of a lifetime -- a big ass reminder to the general public that the Terminator franchise has a television portal. As long as they can survive until May (I believe that's when Salvation is releasing), and if they can manage to put some hair on John Connor's cohones in that period of time, they can cash in on the big screen, big-dollar reminder that the Terminator franchise still exists. But, if John Connor's still a whiny 16 yr old who can't hardly fill his mother's shadow by the time the movie comes out, then the two won't resonate. People will see the movie and then expect the TV show to illustrate how John Connor went from 'little kid in T2' to 'scrappy kid in T3' (even though T3 isn't really included in the TSCC canon, people don't know that), to 'badass Christian Bale SpecFor operative in T4'. As I alluded - in my opinion, for John Connor to grow up in TSCC, Sarah Connor has to die. I know, people keep telling me, "It's called the Sarah Connor Chronicles". Well, he's John Connor, and maybe if they intended for the focus to be on Sarah, they should've done a double take on the canon before trying to make the main character of the franchise... not the main character of the show. Besides, then John and Cameron can 'git it on' without interruption

Whatever's going on with the three dots, people are quickly going to stop caring. And the thing with Sarah hallucinating Kyle has gone a little beyond cute and endearing - it's bordering on Ghost Hunters and Lost -- "Is he really there?!". Zeiracorp's building UFOs? Weaver is SkyNet? Who cares. The best sci-fi series are character-driven, ala Battlestar Galactica and Firefly; not plot-driven. Yeah it's been done and yeah, fanficcy 'ships carry a television stigmata, but they've been beating another dead horse for 2 seasons: John and Cameron. Either they're hedging their bets or they're think they've got 5 seasons to explain exactly what their relationship is in the future, how it got that way, and when the hell its gonna get down to business. I'm also not that interested in Ellison's TNG-reminiscent tales of morality and virtue, but that's just me. That character lost interest when he started getting all religious. They're trying too hard with that to invoke a kind of X-Files-esque Machine vs. God schema, and it's bothering me to no end. Stick to one genre at a time. You're a sci-fi/action-adventure drama.
--by the way, off topic. But is there any way on fanfic.net to find a count of how many people have favorited a particular story?