HBO Max’s 10-Part Sci-Fi Series Is Perfect For Terminator Fans

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Even though the newer Terminator movies haven’t been a hit with critics or fans, Mackenzie Davis’s TV series Station Eleven is still a great choice for anyone who enjoys the dark, action-packed world of the Terminator franchise. There are many other post-apocalyptic shows available for sci-fi fans, including The Last of Us and Fallout.

Despite being a hugely popular series in movies, the Terminator franchise has often found it difficult to succeed on television. While its first TV show, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, was well-received, it was ultimately canceled because it was expensive to produce and didn’t attract enough viewers in the highly competitive world of network television.

As a huge Terminator fan, I thought 2024’s Terminator: Zero did a really smart thing by bringing back Arnold Schwarzenegger as the T-800, and Timothy Olyphant’s Terminator was seriously one of the best villains the whole series has ever seen. It’s a shame the show didn’t catch on with a wider audience, though. I think switching to animation might have been a big part of why people didn’t stick with it.

Terminator: Dark Fate’s Mackenzie Davis Stars In Station Eleven

If you didn’t enjoy the movie Terminator: Dark Fate but still like Mackenzie Davis, you’re in luck! Just two years after appearing in that film, she starred in the excellent, but often overlooked, HBO series Station Eleven.

The series Station Eleven is based on Emily St. John Mandel’s 2014 novel of the same name. It’s set in a world where a devastating flu has wiped out most of the population. The show follows a traveling group of musicians twenty years after the collapse of civilization, and their encounter with a dangerous cult.

Mackenzie Davis gives a fantastic performance as Kirsten Raymond, the lead of the Traveling Symphony, and she’s joined by a strong supporting cast including Lori Petty, Gael García Bernal, and Danielle Deadwyler. Station Eleven is a clever and beautifully made story about a post-apocalyptic world, where a comic book unexpectedly becomes a vital part of the survivors’ lives.

As a total movie and TV fanatic, I immediately understood the hype around Station Eleven. So many post-apocalyptic stories focus on, frankly, really grim stuff – you know, cannibals and deserts. But this show? It’s something else entirely. It’s beautifully haunting and creates this incredibly immersive, weird, and unsettling world after everything has fallen apart. It really stuck with me.

The connections between the people who survived the disaster are strong, but their past ties to the dangerous group hunting them show that even in a world gone wrong, we can’t escape our human connections. Released during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Station Eleven offered a bold and thoughtful take on the end of the world, proving to be both clever and unique.

Station Eleven Shows A Very Different Post-Apocalyptic Future From Terminator

Despite sharing a post-apocalyptic setting, the show Station Eleven is very different from the Terminator movies. While both take place after the world has ended, that’s where the similarities stop. However, Station Eleven’s slow and thoughtful approach to storytelling is something the Terminator franchise could really use.

The latest Terminator: Dark Fate didn’t connect with audiences or critics, suggesting the franchise could benefit from a more reflective and emotional take on its apocalyptic themes. A similar approach might have helped Station Eleven‘s competitor, CBS’s 2020 adaptation of The Stand, find more success.

Similar to the Terminator films, The Stand relied heavily on special effects, a non-linear timeline, and non-stop action to grab viewers’ attention. Unfortunately, instead of being exciting, this approach mostly left audiences frustrated, tired, and disengaged from the adaptation of Stephen King’s novel.

I thought Station Eleven did something really smart – it used a relatively short season to explore both the best and worst of what’s left of humanity after everything falls apart, and honestly, its slower pace worked so much better. If the Terminator movies are serious about getting this iconic franchise back on track, I think they should definitely be taking notes from that show.

The recent Terminator films – Rise of the Machines, Salvation, Genesis, and Dark Fate – haven’t been successful. Simply continuing with action-packed chases and robot fights isn’t working for the series. To revitalize the franchise, the Terminator movies should learn from shows like Station Eleven and focus on more deliberate, character-driven storytelling.

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2026-02-16 20:39