Bionic Woman

A little birdie dropped the Bionic Woman pre-air pilot in my lap and it’s obvious this isn’t the 1970’s version I grew up with (and loved). I hope the rumors that the pilot has been re-done are correct because there are serious missteps almost right out of the gate with this pilot.

WARNING: Spoilers after the jump.

I say "almost right out of the gate" because the opening scene introduces the incomparable Katie Sackhoff as Sarah Corvus, aka the "first bionic woman." Wow, is Sackhoff obviously having a great time with this role. In every scene she gets better and better, right up to the end with the big showdown between her and Michelle Ryan as Jaime Sommers. The above pic is a screen grab of Corvus just before she lunges to kill her former lover. Starbuck ain’t got nothin’ on this lady. Other than Sackhoff as the "evil bionic woman," the episode careens, literally, out of control. You’ve probably already read that unlike the original, this one is darker and Sommers is no longer a professional tennis player/school teacher, but now a bartender in an uber hip nightclub.

Watching the episode, my overall impression is that it moved way too fast, sacrificing character development for speedy introductions without any deliberate setup or follow through. In the span of 42 minutes Jamie Sommers gets engaged, is nearly murdered, loses her baby, becomes a top secret government experiment, screams way too loud and long, is held captive by the government, breaks up with her boyfriend (who made her the government experiment), escapes from the government (and learns she can run very fast), watches her fiance almost get murdered, again, and then is almost murdered herself once more during a rooftop fight (in a thunderstorm no less) with Corvus. Like I said, a lot. And I didn’t even bother going into the four or five ancillary characters scattered throughout the pilot.

This is too much terrain to cover in the pilot. I expected more from the produces of BSG. Season after season, nothing on BSG has ever felt rushed. In fact, the writing on BSG has always had a longterm feel and approach to it. After watching the preair Bionic Woman pilot, I am disappointed such care and treatment wasn’t given to this pilot. While I am sure the network insisted on the "bionic" action right out of the gate, I think the better approach would have been to delay giving Sommers bionic powers until maybe the second or even third episode. Build up the relationships and let the audience get to know this woman. Overall impression, after watching the pre-air pilot, the villains interest me more than Sommers.

You can catch additional thoughts on the pilot in Jace’s review at televisionary here and more reviews over at Bionic Central. If you have watched the pre-air pilot, let us know what you think in comments.

Bionic Woman, NBC, pilot, Jaime Sommers, Katie Sackhoff, Michelle Ryan, Sarah Corvus, spoiler, Starbuck