I’ve been watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles since it started. It’s a really great show. The series’ story arc is inserted between Terminator 2 and Terminator 3 — in fact, it thankfully ignores T3 (a terrible movie) entirely.

The show captures the spirit of the first two Terminator movies exactly: the fatalistic dread, the hope, the determination, the love. Several new characters are introduced, including a “white hat” terminator played by Summer Glau and another member of the Reese clan. The stories are deep and detailed, more like watching a movie than watching TV. It’s a satisfying extension of a satisfying franchise.

Sadly, the show is in very real danger of being canceled because viewership is low.

Now’s your chance to start watching it. The series does have an ongoing story arc — John, Sarah and Summer Glau travel forward in time several years, where they fight off “black hat” terminators, while trying to stop Skynet (that’s right — Skynet wasn’t destroyed by the events of T2, just changed). That’s all you need to know about where we are now — you can dive right in. You can find old episodes on iTunes or Hulu.com if you’d like to catch up, but you don’t need all that backstory to enjoy it now. It’s a great show.