Bionic Woman- Season 1 [Pilot] 9/2007

[Truth Seeker]

Writer: Laeta Kalogridis, David Eick

Director: Michael Dinner

Star: Miguel Ferrer (Jonas Bledsoe), Molly Price (Ruth Treadwell), Will Yun Lee (Jae Kim), Michelle Ryan (Jaime Wells Sommers), Chris Bowers (Will Anthros), Mark A. Sheppard (Anthony Anthros), Lucy Hale (Becca Sommers)

Recurring Role: Katee Sackhoff (Sarah Corvus)

Guest Star: Emma Lahana (Sally Crane), Aaron Douglas (Supermax Prison Guard), Leela Savasta (Shawna Tyler)

Jaime Sommers is a normal, hard-working woman caring for her younger sister and managing a love relationship. Her life is complicated further after she is involved in a horrendous car accident, leaving her with injuries so severe, she can only be saved using bionic body parts with amazing abilities beyond Jaime's control.​

 

[Sir Brennen]

I've already seen the pilot thanks to an On Demand preview, so I'll post my opinion from that thread: (no spoilers)


Bionic Woman tries too hard to cram in as much character background/relationship info as it can in the first 10 minutes; almost every line was spoken to inform the viewers of a particular fact, and there was very little "real" interaction between the characters. This caused some of the "tragic" elements to lack emotional resonance, just a check list of "bad things 1, 2 and 3 happened." The viewer never gets a chance to connect and have this checklist really mean anything.

The acting was a bit stiff, mostly I think because of the expository dialog. Miguel Ferrer was the only actor who really seemed to have brought his A game. Katee Sackoff, who I like as Starbuck, was just too flat as the villain. I think the pilot could have used about another 1/2 hour, to give the show a little more room to breath around the establishing of all the sci-fi/conspiracy elements. Still, interesting premise, and hopefully now that they've set some things up, they can slow things down a bit and give the actors a little more opportunity to behave like real people.

edit: I think I prefer Michelle Ryan as a redhead, like she was in BBC's "Jekyll".

 

[Hand of Evil]

Did not seem to have a good flow for me, as Sir Brennen said, tryed to cram too much into it. Actors lacked chemistry.

 

[Abraxas]

Unless the second part of the pilot is spectacular, my initial reaction (after I had seen the extended trailer), seems to be coming true after watching the first part of the pilot - it was awful.
Plus - How many BSG actors are going to be in this show ?
Plus - Just because it bugs me so much, enough with the shaky cam to represent hectic combat already!

 

[Vocenoctum]

I liked it well enough I suppose, but it's not a "must watch" or anything. It's a very "typical" "accidental super soldier" show, IMO.

Also watched er, Life? The "typical" "savant detective" show. Wasn't bad, but again, nothing Must See.

 

[Jamdin]

I liked it so I suppose it will get canceled at mid-season.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I think it shows some promise as a series. Far better than the new Flash Gordon (which I've given up on).

 

[Insight]

Thoughts:

1. Too much shoved into one episode.
2. Bad dialogue, poorly acted in places, and bad dialogue.
3. Not showing Jamie getting used to her new "powers" is a real mistake. They lost out on some valuable dramatic territory there's no way to get back now.
4. Raised the stakes way too much for a pilot. Jamie has already beaten a more skilled and experienced cyborg. Now what?
5. The pacing is terrible.
6. Did I mention bad dialogue?

Granted, pilots are not always the best, and the developers have a chance to fix some of the above (hire a writer who can write dialogue that doesn't make you vomit, for example). Some of it is not fixable (letting the cat out of the bag too soon).

Put me on the list of people who don't expect this to last very long.

 

[Wycen]

I watched about 5 minutes worth because I was busy surfing and eating, but the 1 question that came to mind was, will this give credence to the "is Starbuck a cylon?" debate. Though I don't know if she was supposed to be bionic, I only saw the part in the bar.

 

[James Heard]

4. Raised the stakes way too much for a pilot. Jamie has already beaten a more skilled and experienced cyborg. Now what?

I dunno about that, all I could think of is "they're making super soldiers, all that crap has to be built in" and then "whoa, if she's beating Starbuck then she's either A. Got a better super-soldier program B. Not a trained fighter trying to make decisions on her own."

Personally I liked the show. As others have said, it's head over heels better than Flash Gordon even if that's a rather low bar to jump over. What it felt like more than anything else to me was Alias, without all the back story baggage that I had to wade through because I didn't start watching Alias until late in the series.

I'm waiting for the more "mundane" things that properly should be included in a 2007 bionic super soldier - cell phones, GPS mapping, search engine, bosses checking up on you through your bionic eye, etc.

I think if they can grab an Alias writer or two it should be fine. I think it's got better bones than Chuck, also about technology aided agents, albeit on a comedic level.