Television Review | Netflix

Terminator Zero: Season One — Japan brings malfunctioning sci-fi series back online

A warrior from a post-apocalyptic future travels to 1997 to protect an A.I. scientist being hunted by an unfeeling and indestructible cyborg.

It’s official. We’ve tried to deny Asia’s dominance of cinematic creativity, ingenuity, and excellence for years. Even after the success of anime, Squid Game, Parasite (2019), and then Godzilla Minus One (2023), critics and fans alike were still convinced there was at least an ounce of creativity left in the Euro-American mind that could revive the glory days of 1980s and 1990s cinema. But now, with the debut of Terminator Zero from Romanian-American Mattson Tomlin and Japanese animator Masashi Kudo, it’s become much too clear to ignore. If you want depth, beauty, and a good continuation of a great franchise without unnecessary nostalgia bait, don’t look to Hollywood. Look to Tokyo and Seoul.

This series, which takes place in James Cameron’s Terminator universe, follows a Japanese scientist, Malcolm Lee (Yuuya…