Bionic Consensus: Isaiah Washington is horrible on "Bionic Woman"
Since the announcement he was cast as a recurring character on Bionic Woman, I have been adamant that Washington was a horrible choice, even before his first line was uttered. Scoring the worst line of last week’s episode, there is nothing appealing about Washington’s acting style nor his contribution to the struggling show. It seems Bruce Fretts at TV Guide.com agrees:
Jeers to Isaiah Washington for his tragically lethargic performance on Bionic Woman. The former Grey’s Anatomy lightning rod was clearly brought onto NBC’s sci-fi remake to generate controversy — and ratings — but he sucks the life out of every scene. As Antonio Pope, the trainer/guru of Jaime Sommers (Michelle Ryan, who’s no party herself), he’s adopted a too-cool-for-school acting style, mumbling his lines and only coming to life when he’s kicking somebody’s ass. Washington needs to take a cue from his Bionic cast mate Katee Sackhoff and amp up his energy level several notches. He should be better, stronger… and less boring.
So far, BW has been disappointing. If it weren’t for Katee Sackhoff as Sarah Corvus, this blog would have stopped writing about the show after watching the un-aired pilot. Washington was a poor choice because his casting immediately alienated many gay viewers and now we see his self-aware, stale acting style doesn’t compliment the show.
Since he is so bad on BW, I am awaiting the announcement from NBC any day now that Washington will star in a mid-season replacement.
UPDATE:
Surfing the net, I noticed over at Roco’s place, he’s got a poll going asking readers how interested they are in seeing Washington in a spin-off series. 50 percent say no way.
October 20th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bionic_Woman_%282007_TV_series%29#Episodes_and_broadcast_history ih here is the name of episode after the next one “the list”
October 22nd, 2007 at 12:09 pm
[...] Critics agree, Isaiah Washington is horrible as Antonio Pope. [...]
November 14th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
[...] else to add to the list of people who think that casting Isaiah Washington was a mistake: Steve McPherson, the head of ABC, was recently quoted in the New York Times as saying [...]
November 20th, 2007 at 8:44 am
[...] and the poor stunt casting of Isaiah Washington finally comes to an end when a sniper shoots and kills his Antonio Pope character. Good [...]
December 15th, 2007 at 9:39 am
[...] this blog know that I consider Isaiah Washington’s casting on Bionic Woman one of the dumbest mistakes NBC could have made for a new show. Washington, as you will recall, is the serial bigot responsible for outing fellow [...]