Press tour: 'Terminator' less serialized

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- When Fox's "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" returns for its second season Sept. 8, the series will feature less serialization and more self-contained episodes.

"Sometimes we got overly complicated," said executive producer Josh Friedman of the show's first season. "We're trying to tell simpler - a slightly less ambitious storytelling method that's more clear."

Beyond that, producers were unwilling to say much about the new season. They wouldn't address what the future will hold for the robot Cameron (Summer Glau), who was in a truck that exploded in the season finale. She's a Terminator, of course she'll be back, plus Fox showed her emerging from the truck in a clip.

I even tried to throw them an easy question that avoided specifics: What's the theme for season two? "Evolution," was the best Friedman could offer somewhat haltingly. Makes you wonder if they have much of a plan in mind.

This much we do know, scruffy John (Thomas Dekker), gets a haircut and looks sleeker and stronger. Dekker said he worked out with a trainer in advance of season two production.

"I felt I didn't need to be physically able last season because I wasn't doing much," he said. "This season, I felt like there was going to be more.

"He didn't have the blood in him yet for a war to be a leader," Dekker said. "There was an essence of youth and innocence and I think a lot of that dies at the beginning of this season. I'm trying to do it subtly. It can't be night and day that he turns into a savior [overnight]. I definitely wanted to give the audience more of what they wanted to see last year but there had to be a transition, has to be an arc. I think he has more cold blood running in him this year."

This year John gets a new friend at school, Riley (Leven Rambin), who was named after Fox Entertainment president Kevin Reilly, just with a different spelling.

"When I pitched this season, I thought we'd add a girl maybe in episode seven and Kevin said, maybe it should be in [episode] one or two, so we compromised on two," Friedman said.

And what will this mean for the potential of a relationship between John and Cameron?

"Every interesting relationship I've been in was a triangle," said executive producer Tim Wirth.