Bionic Woman

Some of the fans at Fans4Writers.com have come up with another great idea for supporting the writers … they have hired skywriters to fly over the Rose Bowl parade. There will be several planes bearing different messages, and hopefully at least one will be picked up by the cameras of the many television networks that cover the parade and broadcast it all over the world. So if you were not already planning to watch the pageantry tomorrow morning, be sure to tune in and cheer every time a banner lands on your screen.

As Battlestar Galactica head writer Ron Moore said on his blog, it is a very creative idea and another impressive effort from these amazing fans.

It’s also an expensive idea, perhaps not in the grand scheme of entertainment but certainly for a few individuals who are hoping to make a difference with a self-funded initiative. Word is the effort will cost $6,500, all of which is being underwritten by one rabid fan … who hopes to have at least part of the cost defrayed by donations from other fans who would like to add their support to his or her own effort. That is why there is an auction going on over at Fans4Writers, and from now until January 7th you can make a donation to the fund or bid on some great science fiction items.

Among the autographed scripts is one for the Battlestar Galactica episode “Maelstrom,” in which Katee Sackhoff’s character Kara “Starbuck” Thrace self-destructs in a particularly dramatic way,” which is signed by signed by writers Bradley Thompson and David Weddle as well as director Michael Nankin. These three fellows also autographed scripts from the controversial BSG episode “Scar,” and the visually stunning episode “Flight of the Phoenix.” There are also several Ron Moore autographed scripts, including some of the best episodes of the series (in my opinion) as well as a group shot of the cast of Firefly/Serenity and an autographed poster of James Marsters (best known as Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer). So head over there and do some shopping … it is never too early to start gathering gifts for the 2008 holiday season!

It seems I can’t write enough about actor Kevin Rankin these days.  Rankin plays Nathan on BW and next to Katee Sackhoff as Sarah Corvus, Nathan is my other favorite.  Rankin adds a wit and style to the show and he is often the most entertaining to watch. 

I have compiled a Youtube clips play list of my favorite Nathan scenes from all eight Bionic Woman episodes.* Enjoy!

*Note - Rankin joined Bionic Woman in episode 1.02 and appears in only 7 of the eight episodes which have been produced and aired on NBC.

Bionic Woman Michelle Ryan returned to London for the holidays and made the most of the trip by plugging BW.  BW is scheduled to air in the U.K. in 2008 and the BBC has begun airing promos for the show and creating quite a buzz.  Ryan is best known in Britain as Zoe Slater from the long running soap opera EastEnders.

Although the fate of BW is not certain because of the poor ratings and WGA strike, Ryan treats the return of BW as a certainty and acknowledges the strike in passing but doesn’t even mention ratings struggle.

She also discusses her love life and the rumor that she and Owen Wilson are dating and blames that rumor on the internet and presumably bloggers.

Regular readers know that Kevin Rankin as Nathan is one of our favorite characters on Bionic Woman.  Rankin adds a sense of humor and levity to the show and is overall a funny character.  His weekly flirtations with Michelle Ryan’s Jaime Sommers are the funniest moments of the show and usually the most entertaining. 

Rankin is a busy man as he also stars in NBC’s prime time drama Friday Night Lights.  BW is filmed in Vancouver, FNL in Austin.

Rankin recently gave an interview to the LA Daily News and discussed his hectic schedule and the fate of Bionic Woman.

On landing the role on BW:

“At the beginning of the season, they did a lot of retooling. They fired some of the producers and writers. The guy they brought on to fix the show was Jason Katims. He was the show-runner for `Friday Night Lights.’ Within a week, he called me up and invited me and offered me the part. He said come up and try and instill some humor, and ground it in reality a little bit. I became Nathan, the bionics guy, I work with computers. I’m going out on missions and learning how to fight.”

On BW returning after the WGA strike is settled:

“The show was getting its feet under it before the strike happened, but I’m not sure if it’s coming back,” he admitted. “I just don’t think it got a fair shake. I’d love to see it come back.”

His first big break:

Kevin’s first regular television role came on NBC’s short-lived but well-remembered comedy “Undeclared,” in which he played the resident adviser in a college dorm. He knew he was a part of something special because the show was created by writer/director Judd Apatow, who is responsible for such movie hits as “Knocked Up” and “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.”

“That took me to a different level,” he said of “Undeclared.”

“Little did I know that a couple of years later, (Apatow) would be the biggest thing in town.”

Although Bionic Woman and FNL are on hiatus during the WGA strike, Rankin fans can catch him on the second episode of NBC’s Law & Order, which returns in January.

Let’s hope Rankin is wrong about BW not returning and we get more of Nathan.

Isaiah Washington is included on a list of the top twenty one money losers of 2007, in a list compiled by AOL’s Money & Finance Blogging Stocks. The actor’s well-documented dust up over his gay slurs cost him a lucrative job on Grey’s Anatomy, one of the most successful shows on television, and the high salary he enjoyed playing a doctor at Seattle Grace Hospital. The backlash also made it harder to gain new employment once he finished his guest stint on Bionic Woman, as the role of Antonio Pope is the only confirmed gig he has landed since he was fired from Grey’s.

As we discussed earlier in the week, hiring Isaiah got the network the headlines they wanted this summer but may have cost the show some coveted audiences. Particularly gay audiences, who have embraced Lindsay Wagner and Bionic Woman as something of a seventies icon and were naturally curious about the show. Gay viewers are known for their loyalty and their high household incomes, both of which are coveted by advertisers.

Other money losers on the list included NBA legend Michael Jordan, whose divorce cost him over $168 million this year, convicted dog fighter Michael Vick, and Britney Spears, who also suffered a plethora of legal troubles in 2007. There were several mortgage brokers whose plan to take advantage of low income borrowers cost them their jobs on the list as well, along with the “American Homeowners” who got pwned in the process and boy band producer (and alleged ponzi scheme creator) Lou Perlman.

Bionic Woman, Isaiah Washington, Grey’s Anatomy, Michael Jordan, Lou Perlman, mortgage, gay, money

This is Part V of a list of Top Ten Things That Hurt Bionic Woman.  Click here for Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV.

2.  The Bionics.  If you are going to have a dark and brooding show centered around a female character struggling with the world’s most complicated body issues, then you had better be clear on what that means.  What can she do?  How do certain situations affect her body?  Is she dying?  Why can she bend a pole when she punches it but the nameless thugs she hits can get up swinging?  And how does all of this stuff work anyway?  Once again, we don’t really have to know everything right away … but we need to feel like the show knows.  And right now, the rules change every week depending on whether it is convenient to have Jaime have trouble with her bionics or not.  That may get the show through the hour, but it won’t win it any new fans or keep the attention of its steadily dwindling faithful fans.  Until the audience can trust that the people in Vancouver know how more about bionics than they do, the bionic part of the show will never be anything more than a farce.

1.  The Woman.  Who is Jaime Sommers?  What is really bothering her?  Is it Will?  Antonio?  Tom?  Her parents?  What makes this woman get up every day?  Duty, power, the thrill of the unknown?  Is she the type of girl who will randomly screw a guy in a bar bathroom ("Paradise Lost") or is she the type of girl who obsesses about the rules of dating and won’t kiss a guy first ("The List")?  Or is she both, a woman who is fine with a one night stand to ease her pain when she needs it, but gets all prim and proper when she meets a man she actually likes?  The third option sounds the most plausible, but once again this all goes back to trust.  Are those our intelligent observances of Jaime’s complicated character, or are the coincidences caused by too many chefs adding things into hastily prepared scripts?

Bottom line is, we are not sure what we are seeing when it comes to Jaime and if it should be trusted.  The show has not sold the idea that her inconsistencies are part of a larger idiosyncratic character, instead we are left with the idea that even the people who write Jaime don’t know her very well.  Where is the character study on women and power that we were promised, and where are the moments where Jaime struggles to figure out her new identity in her new world?  We get hints, but they seem more scripted for the moment than true character development. 

We want to like this bionic woman, and we really do want to get to know her … but we need to trust that someone in Vancouver has taken the time to do it first.

This is Part IV of a list of Top Ten Things That Hurt Bionic Woman.  Click here for Part I, Part II, and Part III.

4.  The Backlash.  As David Eick knows better than most people, a remake of a beloved scifi television show from the 1970s is bound to generate controversy.  There are people who still have not forgiven him for bringing back Battlestar Galactica, for making Starbuck a woman, and for the myriad of supposed scifi sins that he and the new BSG cast and crew have supposedly committed.  So you would think that he would be prepared to handle the backlash about Bionic Woman, and use it to an advantage for the show.  However, that does not seem to be the case.

Bionic Woman has had more than its share of controversy, and the show does not seem to handle it well.  There was the initial outrage from classic fans and television purists who were outraged that Jaime Sommers was being "reimagined" at all, much less in such a dark and potentially degrading fashion.  Then there was the outrage from the Battlestar Galactica faithful who were furious that Eick was allowing BSG to end, partially in order to focus his attention on a new scifi show they were sure would "suck."  Then was the protest from the deaf community about having a hearing person play a deaf girl (based on the original pilot, which showed Mae Whitman as a deaf Becca) and the even louder protest when the show recast the deaf girl as a perky teen without a disability.  There was the protest when the show replaced Mae for the cute, slimmer, sleeker Lucy Hale from critics who said the network was "dumbing down" the show before it even aired.  The gay community became outraged when Isaiah Washington got cast on Bionic Woman the same week he was fired from Grey’s Anatomy for making a gay slur, and the bad press from that debacle followed the show throughout the summer.  Not to mention the people who were angry the show made no attempt to look like San Francisco, the folks who were angry that the show underused Katee Sackhoff, and the people who were just angry the show was on the air at all.

There is no question about the fact that Bionic Woman pisses people off.  Why probably depends on the demographic, but the show seems to be an equal opportunity offender.  And yet, Bionic Woman does not seem to be able to channel this press into ratings … all of its controversies seem to make the show lose, rather than again, viewers.  Which is why the backlash from various sources, and the show’s inability to weather the storm, is so high on this list of things that have hurt Bionic Woman.

3.  The Writer’s Strike.  It just could not have come at a worse time fro the show.  After floundering through October, Bionic Woman was finally getting its sea legs when the strike began.  Jordan Bridges’ adorable Tom added some romantic tension, Michelle Ryan seemed to be really settling into the role of Jaime, and things appeared to have calmed down enough on the set to allow the writers to focus on fixing the scripts.  If the cast and crew had been able to work for one more month, perhaps they would have been able to fix some of the glaring inconsistencies and finalize the answers to some of the glaringly unanswered questions regarding Jaime’s abilities, her future, her role at Berkut, and everything else.  We support the writers, but there is no question that the strike has hurt Bionic Woman.

To read Part V of this list, click here.

This is Part III of a list of Top Ten Things That Hurt Bionic Woman.  Click here for Part I and Part II.

6.  The Studio.  When you have a high profile project like Bionic Woman, everybody is going to want to put their stamp on it so they can claim responsibility if it becomes a hit.  Unfortunately, that type of ego-centered feeding frenzy often leads to inconsistency which then hurts a show’s chances of success, as happened with Bionic Woman.  It was the studio who demanded that Isaiah Washington be written into the cast, and it was the studio who changed Jaime’s sister from being a gifted computer hacker (a story line with a lot of potential given Jaime’s bionic parts) to just another jeans-and-boys obsessed teenager.  As a result the show lost much of the gay audience that had idolized the original version in the 1970s, and more faith from the audience as a whole.  If Becca is supposed to be the person who grounds Jaime in reality, then the viewers need to understand who she is and why she is so important to her big sister … but they can’t if Becca is a different person every time she comes on the screen.

5.  The Back Story.  We still don’t know what it is, which would be fine … except at this point we are not sure if anybody else does either.  As noted repeated on this list, Bionic Woman has been through so many changes we don’t know what direction the show is going in anymore.  The show changes so much from week to week it is hard to tell where we are going, much less where we have been.  

Did Will Anthros target Jaime years before he met her, and then date her in a predatory fashion designed to get his hands on her body … which was uniquely perfect for bionic implants, thanks to some genetic marker she inherited from her grandmother?  Maybe, but maybe not. 

The folks who are making the show don’t have to give us the back story right now to keep the viewers interested, because this is the age of Lost and we understand the need for some mystery here.  But we need to trust that the folks who are running the show have a plan, and right now it is not clear that anybody up in Vancouver is certain about the characters of the show, much less the mythology.  Let’s just say the audience and the producers have some "Trust Issues."

For Part IV of this list, click here.

This is Part II of a list of Top Ten Things That Hurt Bionic Woman.  For Part I click here.

8.  The Casting.  Note that I did not say the cast.  Michelle Ryan, Katee Sackhoff, Will Yun Lee, Molly Price, and Miguel Ferrar are probably the only steady cast members on the short history of Bionic Woman, and they have all done a great job with what was written for them.  Everybody else in the cast, however, has gone through multiple versions … just like everything else on the show.  Do we even know who is on this show anymore?

Remember the three versions of Becca, which happened before the pilot even aired?  Remember when Jaime was actually supposed to have friends who would be played by people whose names we could remember?  Remember when the Anthros boys were supposed to be big players in the Bionic universe?  It’s hard to keep up with what is actually happening on Bionic Woman, much less what started to happen and then was dropped like a hot potato.  This holiday season our hearts go out to all of the cast members who were hired and fired from Bionic Woman, as that list is a big post in itself.

7.  The Boyfriend.  Speaking of casting, there was one giant casting fumble that may have single handedly hurt this show more than any other error … and that was casting Chris Bowers as Jaime’s bionic surgeon boyfriend.  Much of the success of the show centered around believing that Bowers was a surgeon with off-the-charts chemistry with Jaime, and as many bloggers have noted it was very hard to believe he was scientifically inclined (much less gifted) or interested in much more than Jaime’s boobilicious body parts.  The early premise centered around Jaime discovering that Will had been planning to implant her with bionics way before their car accident, and complicated plot lines about Will and his maniacal genius surgeon Dad (played by Mark Sheppard) and their ongoing love hate war with the Berkut Group.  Plot twists about Jae and Sarah Corvus, backstories for the Berkut Employees, and a long and loving show mythology were sure to follow. 

Unfortunately, Chris Bowers was a bad bad choice for this part and the whole thing fell apart as a result.  When they killed off Chris Bowers’ character after the premiere, much earlier than they had intended to, they also had to scrap the major storyline for the season and much of the back story on how he double crossed Jaime when he implanted her with her bionic parts.  If a different actor had been cast as Will Anthros, we would probably have been watching a much different show this season.

For Part III of this list, click here.

It’s been a topsy turvy television season so far, but few shows have surprised viewers more than Bionic Woman.  The show came into the summer blazing with potential, hot off a buzz-filled debut at the NBC Upfronts last Spring and blessed with a Battlestar Galactica pedigree.  It’s first episode was highly rated … and then it sank like a stone in the ratings, and now has reached the point where it has people cheering on its cancellation.

So what happened?

It was not one thing that pulled Bionic Woman off its pedestal.  Here’s my top ten list of things that hurt the show, written with the optimism that it will be "re-launched" after the writer’s strike with renewed commitment and potential. 

10.  The Sets.  Even the casual fans noticed that everything that happened in the first few episodes of Bionic Woman happened in a warehouse.  Even when Jaime and Antontio Pope head to South America in "Face Off" they end up in … a warehouse.  The show was consistently inconsistent about many things, but the sets never seemed to change.  By the time Jaime ventured out to better sets in Paris in "The List" or to the race track in "Trust Issues" not enough people were watching to notice.

9.  The Showrunners.  Ch-ch-ch-changes was the motto on the Bionic Woman set, as the show went through at least three different showrunners in its first three months on the air.  Each of these folks seemed to have a different idea of what would work, different ideas of what the characters were, and worse … different ideas about Jaime, her bionics, and her role in the world.  As a result the show had trouble finding its footing and building credibility with its audience.  Episode two, "Paradise Lost" is probably the best example of this.  It looks like a bunch of different scenes edited together from different things, and perhaps it is … the version that aired was rumored to be a combination of what was originally supposed to be the first two episodes, "Paradise Lost" and "Birds."

Click here for Part Two of this list.

Margie has given us her Christmas Wish and I know the WGA members would like to see the strike end sooner rather than later too.  Tom Smuts, a WGA member, has put together a site of apparel that can be purchased to show your solidarity with the writers with proceeds going to the cause.  The site, Writers Strike Swag site says:

Profits will be donated to the Writers Guild Foundation Industry Support Fund to assist members of the industry who are in financial distress as a direct result of the Writers Guild of America strike against the AMPTP.

These T-shirts are cute and a nice way to show the writers that equality and fair pay is a right for everyone.  Check out the site to find some great stuff. 

And as the site asks, Katherine Heigl wears one, shouldn’t you?

Various Internet sites are reporting that Bionic Woman Michelle Ryan will be featured on the Extra! television show feature "America’s Most Eligible" on December 26, 2007.

Could it be true, could Michelle Ryan be resorting to tabloid television to enhance her love life?  Or is this just another bad Bionic rumor?

It would be an unlikely move for Michelle, who has spoken about her lack of love for the British tabloids, who covered her mercilessly when she was on prime time soap EastEnders.  In interviews last summer Michelle often spoke of the pressures of being in the press constantly, commenting that she could not enjoy herself at events and parties and also that the constant focus on her weight led her to be depressed, anxious, and exhausted.  Since Michelle has hardly courted the tabloids since she came to the U.S. it is unlikely she would willingly appear on a tabloid show and discuss her love life.

That said, Michelle may be looking for work very soon if Bionic Woman is canceled.  And she is supposedly single these days after breaking off her engagement with a "footballer" and denying the rumors that she was dating Luke Wilson earlier this year.

Some digging revealed that Michelle’s sexy cast mate Will Yun Lee was also featured on this Extra segment, so perhaps he talked her into an appearance?  While the show has featured over 80 Most Eligible Bachelors, the show’s web site only features three Most Eligible Bachelorette:  Jackie Warner from Work Out, Victoria’s Secret model Miranda Kerr, and Playboy model and reality television personality Kim Kardashian.

So will Michelle join their ranks?  Like most Bionic Woman rumors, only time will tell if the information is true.  While I have my doubts myself, I have set up my TiVo to record Extra on the 26th … just in case.

Hidden among the clips from Extra’s "America’s Most Eligible" series is an interview with Will Yun Lee, who plays Jaime Sommers’ fight trainer on Bionic Woman. 

Will appeared on the show in October as one of the segment’s featured single and successful profiles.  In his interview Will revealed he is a "butt man."  When pressed to be more specific, he admitted, "yeah, like, J-Lo Style."  Good to know!

Other qualities Will appreciates in a woman?  A laid back attitude and a good sense of humor.  Since he works out a lot he also appreciates someone who is in shape ("yeah, it’d be nice") but that is not necessarily a requirement for winning his affections.

Will was featured in People’s "Sexiest Man Alive" issue a few weeks ago, and appeared in the magazine’s "Fifty Most Beautiful People" issue in 2002.  He has had a good year so far, what with the magazine accolades and positive recognition he has received for his steady and sexy performance as Jae on Bionic Woman.  Best wishes to Will on his search for love, and here’s hoping we get to see more of Jae on our screens in 2008.

I know I am not alone among fans, writers, producers, agents, actors, and basically anybody who has a television when I say that I am hoping the writers’ strike ends soon. As I have written many times before, I support the writers’ efforts to get a fair deal one hundred percent, but that does not mean I would rather see the “pencils down” period end sooner rather than later.

Santa, if you read this blog, can you wrap that up and put it under my spaceship-themed Christmas tree for me?

The writers’ strike has been going on for almost two months now, and there seems to be no end in sight. Even as the effects of the strike spread to advertisers, studios, and of course the actors, writers, and crew members who depend upon the shows for income … no one seems to be sure when things will return to “normal” on television. Shows like Bionic Woman and many others are left in limbo, and fans are not sure what they can count on in 2008. They don’t know which shows and characters to invest in, and as a result they get snippy with one another while the cast, crew, and writers are wallowing in fear about the future. Meanwhile, all sides of this surprisingly uncomplicated issue have been surprised themselves by the level of interest and support from the public, and thus as the strike drags on it is harder to sift through the public relations war that is happening in the press. Let’s hope that the New Year brings peace … if not in the middle east, because that would take the biggest of holiday miracles, then at least to Hollywood.

Will Yun Lee’s quietly sexy performance as Jae on Bionic Woman helped him nab a spot in People’s Sexiest Man Alive issue a few weeks ago, and now he is winning kudos for his performance on the show as well as his chizeled good looks.

Jon Caramanica of the Los Angeles Times has included Will on his list of “Gems of This TV Season,” an interesting read designed to celebrate the quality performances that are often overlooked by the conventional wisdom of the television press. Jon’s praises of Will’s performance include these words:

“As he was on FX’s Thief, Lee is a master of quietude here. Even his hand-to-hand combat training with Jaime Sommers (Michelle Ryan), the new Bionic Woman, is subdued and controlled. He’s shaken only when he comes face to face with previous model Sarah Corvus (Katee Sackhoff), who can reduce him to shivers whether in bed or when he’s forced to put a bullet in her.”

Well said, Jon, and congratulations to Will for this well-deserved recognition. While Isaiah Washington stole the headlines, Will Yun Lee often stole the scenes with his quietly convincing portrayal of a tough fighter battling his feelings of love for a woman he could not trust while working for a corporation and cause that had betrayed him many times before.

Will’s scenes with Katee Sackhoff’s Sarah Corvus were especially moving, and provided one of the most interesting story lines of the show. If Bionic Woman returns to the airwaves, hopefully the new episodes will contain more scenes of Will … and hopefully his lady love Sarah Corvus as well.