Bionic Woman

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 episode 1.08, “Do Not Disturb,” was not the greatest hour ever to air on t.v., but it had some fun moments. 

Like the following scene.

Almost at the very beginning of the episode, when it opens, we find Jaime on assignment tracking a bad guy while Nathan banters with her as she gets shot at and almost run over.

Like I said, fun. 

Enjoy.

Bionic Woman, Episode 1.06 “The List,” featured one of our favorite Berkut Group employees, Kevin Rankin’s Nathan, pretty heavily.  Rankin has done a great job, week after week, making Nathan a funky, energetic guy.  His scenes with Michelle Ryan’s Jaime Sommers have been hidden gems since Rankin joined the cast in episode 1.02.  Thus far, Nathan has been the go to guy to fix Jaime when she injures herself, or the person in charge of watching her back via her ocular implants when she is undercover.

Each week, I like to highlight Nathan’s rants and observations.

This episode’s best Nathan scene is between Nathan and Molly Price’s Ruth Truewell.

The setup:

The Berkut Group gang have flown to Paris to capture terrorist Victor Booth and recover the list of undercover CIA agents Booth has stolen and attempting to sell to the highest bidder.  This clip begins as Nathan arrives at the CIA’s Paris HQ.

Best line: 

Truewell:  “You realize that spies don’t really talk that way?”

Nathan:  “I know, it blows. I’m just trying to bring back the cool.”

Kevin Rankin as Nathan will always bee cool to us!

Damn, those Angels!  The three ladies snagged an exclusive interview with actor Kevin Rankin, a.k.a. Nathan, from Bionic Woman.  Nathan is one of our favorites around these parts, as evidenced by our series of Nathan and Jaime clips from previous episodes.

Viewers may also recognize Rankin from one of NBC’s other shows, Friday Night Lights, where he plays Herc.  Filmed in Austin, TX, Friday Night Lights is quite a ways from Vancouver - home to the set of BW.  Rankin’s schedule keeps him busy shuttling back and forth from Texas to Canada.

Technical difficulties prevent us from hearing the entire interview, but you can listen to most of it here.

Some highlights:

Romance between Nathan and Jaime?

• Not going to happen anytime soon, but who knows.

Travel between Austin and Vancouver?

• Hectic but he loves the two cities.

Inspiration from the original series?

• He was more of a Six Million Dollar Man fan but he loves the bionics.

How was he cast as Nathan?

• The latest show runner for BW, Jason Cahill, is a producer for Friday Night Lights and he asked Rankin to join the cast.

I for one hope Rankin gets a bigger role on BW because the scenes between him and Michelle Ryan are great.

Rounding out the third Jaime and Nathan scene from, episode 1.05, “The Education of Jaime Sommers,” this clip is fun because it shows Jaime figuring out how to break into the office of the professor she has gone undercover to investigate.  Her goal is to break in the place and scan his computer to get proof he is selling his mind controlling computer chip to terrorists.

Jaime and Nathan’s scenes are some of my favorites because Kevin Rankin has turned out to be a fun, likeable character.  Unfortunately, we don’t know too much about his character Nathan, other than he is the go to guy for Jaime all things bionic.  He mends her when something breaks, watches her while she is undercover and here, assists as she figures out how to get in the office.

Also, note Michelle Ryan uses her British accent and she does sound, as Nathan says, “It is literally the hottest thing ever.”

I hope there is more of Nathan as the season goes on and we finally get to see more of him.

Favorite Line:

Nathan:  So typical of this place, they spend $50 million dollars on you and won’t spring for Bluetooth.

Continuing the highlights of Jaime and Nathan scenes from Bionic Woman, episode 1.05, “The Education of Jaime Sommers,” this scene finds Jaime already on assignment undercover as a British transfer student working to find out if a world renewed professor in Parkinson’s research is selling his research to terrorists.  The professor has a teaching assistant, this week’s extra special guest star, Jordan Bridges.  Turns out, Bridges plays “Tom” the CIA agent, also on assignment to learn who is selling the professor’s mind controlling chips.

Jaime has become quite enamored with the teacher’s assistant.    Unbeknownst that the other is a spy, Jaime and Tom hit it off and start to become more than “student” and “teacher”.

Poor Nathan, he has to sit back at Berkut HQ and watch through Jaime’s ocular camera as Tom smoothly seduces Jaime.  It’s fun watching Nathan get jealous as Tom’s smooth style obviously has a romantic effect on Jaime.

Favorite Line: 

Nathan:  Chatty Kathy, cut the cord.

It’s no secret around these parts that I really like the interaction and chemistry Michelle Ryan as Jaime Sommers and Kevin Rankin as Nathan have each episode.  In fact, I think these actors have the best chemistry on the show, and the producers haven’t even bothered to give Nathan a last name!

Here’s one of three, count ‘em three clips of Jaime and Nathan from episode 1.05, “The Education of Jaime Sommers”.

The set up:

Jaime is going undercover as college student transferring in for the semester to study neurobiology under a world renewed professor suspected of selling his brain chip research to the highest bidder. 

Jaime feels completely overwhelmed because a) she didn’t actually go to Harvard and b) had she gone, her major was going to be Irish literature.

Poor Nathan, the more time he spends with Jaime, the more he realizes they aren’t such a perfect match.

Favorite line:

Nathan:  Wow, we have very little in common.

Katee Sackhoff has gotten lots of great write-ups for her portrayal of Sarah Corvus, the “first bionic woman” and dedicated nemeses to Michelle Ryan’s Jaime Sommers, but there is another character I like almost as well - Nathan.  Each week, Jaime and Nathan engage in playful, flirty banter that has really taken on a fun, fan perspective recurrence.  Nathan starts most scenes with the “What have you done to my ear, toe, etc.” question after Sommers has damaged her bionics.  Sommers reminds Nathan each time those body parts belong to her. 

Nathan is played by veteran tv actor Kevin Rankin.  Many fans will recognize him as Herc from Friday Night Lights. 

In Bionic Woman, we know practically nothing about Nathan, not even his last name, except he is the go-to-guy when Sommers is having technical difficulties.  He is a sort of Q to Sommers.

I’ve pulled together a couple of clips.

This clip comes from 1.02, “Paradise Lost”.  Sommers is having problems with ringing in her bionic ear and Nathan fixes the problem with an unconventional technique.

(more…)

Bionic Woman episode 1.04, “Face Off” was a bit disjointed, but it did give us this fun scene and line of the week.

The setup:

Michelle Ryan’s Jaime Sommers has broken one of her bionic toes while spying on her sister, Becca.  Jaime heads to the Wolfe Creek facility to have Nathan fix her toe.  Nathan flirts with Jaime each week and while he is working on her toe, she accuses him of being more than a little interested in her feet.  Nathan’s reply is classic.

Sommers:  Do you have a foot fetish?

Nathan:  Actually, no, Jaime, I do not, I’m pretty much just a simple boob man.”