Bionic Woman

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?

It makes no sense to me why the studios won’t settle with the writer’s guild and pay writers their fare share of the profits.  Hollywood is the land of crazy money and who better to share in the wealth than the very people who write the material uttered by the actors.

Here’s an interesting theory behind the continued strike.

For the past two decades, the moguls have bought into the idea that they all save money if they negotiate as a group. And up until now, such a strategy has served them well. But present circumstances have changed the equation. Yet still the companies are hesitant (at least thus far) to negotiate individually.

Why?

Unfortunately for writers, Hollywood below-the-line workers, Los Angeles businesses and, yes, even the companies themselves, what’s driving the negotiations (or lack thereof) is Nick Counter’s agenda. And the bizarre part is, that agenda doesn’t necessarily line up with several of the congloms.
Compiled from sources close to the companies who are frustrated by the lack of progress, below is a brief primer on which company stands where at the moment:

…

NBC/Universal, like Warners, has a well-diversified corporate parent in GE. Still, Universal has lost some movies and is facing a wave of cancelled/sub par projects if this lasts past January. Furthermore, NBC is givng back money to advertisers and seeing a migration away from its network that could be permanent. (Everyone’s nightmare about TV generally.)
GE can easily withstand the losses. But our leakers say Fairfield, CT realizes that the bottom-line economics of holding out make no sense, and Universal City, at least, is entirely in agreement.

Take a look at the entire post if your interested in the author’s assessment for each of the studios.

To read more about the strike and our take, start here.

That’s what my husband said tonight when I asked him if he wanted to watch Bionic Woman with me … and if you know my husband, you know that he never says things like that.  He followed it up with the comment "No offense to you, by the way, or your blog but everything else about that show is just bone dead stupid."  Well how’s that for honesty in a relationship?

I still have hope for this show, and think that at the very least the premise was a good idea that was spoiled by too much anticipation and too many people meddling which resulted in a convoluted vision.  But when I look around almost no one I know is watching … even the ones that came in to the series hopeful (like my husband) seem to have turned their backs on Jaime Sommers and the lack of bionic focus her series has had since its debut in September.  I wish I could say that I was mad at my husband but part of me knows that he is right … the show is not even remotely living up to its potential.

That said, the show is not nearly as bad as most of the press makes it out to be and that is part of the problem.  Many journalists seem to have been hoping for cancellation since the show came on the air.   A few weeks back I posted a rant about how frustrated I am about all the stories slamming Bionic Woman, even when the ratings for this show were higher than for other shows that were deemed to be successful.  Last time I checked Bionic Woman was averaging about twice as many people as shows that are deemed to be hits for NBC like The Office and My Name is Earl, but no one is really talking about that.

How about you?  Are you still watching or are you joining SyFy Portal and the crowds of people who seem to be cheering on the Bionic Woman’s cancellation before it even happens?

Bionic Woman episode 1.07 “Trust Issues” was one of the better episode of the series thus far.  It had the right combination of bionics mixed with playful banter and spy intrigue.  Unfortunately, it had way too much Becca (it’s time for her to win a scholarship to a boarding school and ship her off the show) and far too little Katee Sackhoff as Sarah Corvus (which is to say not at all) for the episode really to have been top notch.

Oh, and the poor stunt casting of Isaiah Washington finally comes to an end when a sniper shoots and kills his Antonio Pope character.  Good riddance.

Here’s a quick sampling of episode 1.07 reviews around the web.  Most are harsh, but delivered with hopes that the writers will fix the major problems with the show.

TV Guide

I had high hopes that Bionic Woman would continue its recent wave of success, but “Trust Issues” brought this reinvigoration to a grinding halt. The show’s quality depreciated to the same substandard levels of its debut episodes.

…

“Curtis from 24 is back from the dead!” That’s what was going through my mind when I saw Roger R. Cross in tonight’s episode. After I recovered from the sudden shock, I was baffled that I got so excited about an actor that I thought was at best average. Unfortunately, this all-too-brief moment was the most enjoyment I was able to reap from “Trust Issues.” With Bionic Woman hemorrhaging viewers every week, the writers are running out of time to make this show work.

Ryan McGee of Zap2It:

But minor quibbles all. I’m not going to overly hate on a show that was remarkably watchable for the first time in ages. The mission felt right, the stakes felt right, and the tone felt right. I’m not asking for a relentlessly dour hour of television (”Dour Hour TV” doesn’t have quite the ring as “Must See TV,” does it?); but I do enjoy the show more when it takes its fantastical concept seriously, applies it to real world situations, and then produces drama and action plausible with our version of that reality. This week’s episode did that most ably, and I look forward very much to seeing if they can repeat it again in the near future. And so, a tentative “thumbs up” for the future of the show, with final judgment reserved until further evidence is produced.

Roco at Bionic Blog

I thought the episode had a much better ‘feel’ to it - I sensed that something big was at stake, despite Jaime’s laid back approach, this made the show much more exiting. Although I felt they dragged certain scenes out for longer than necessary on occasions, thus losing that extra ‘edge’.

…

Oh, and no Corvus or Anthros..imagine what it would be like to actually include them in one of this ‘good’ episodes. Food for thought NBC, food for thought.

Margie:

The episode started with the best and worst of Bionic Woman, because it showed Jaime stalking an unknown person who was obviously a mission mark while flirting on the phone with Tom.  It is a familiar pattern for BW: Jaime quipping on the phone before doing something amazing and bionic, but it seemed a bit more jarring since the conversation included the phrase “what are you wearing” instead of the more G rated banter Jaime usually has with Nathan.

Remember kids, no new BW this week.  Next episode, 1.08 “Do Not Disturb” airs Wednesday, November 28, 2007.

One of the pleasures that I was looking forward to each week on Bionic Woman were the action sequences.  I have long missed the well choreographed action sequences Le Femme Nikita, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Alias delivered each week.  For me, BW was supposed to satisfy the void in my TV schedule these now canceled shows satisfied each week.

Unfortunately, BW’s pilot, “Second Chances,” has had the action/best fight scene to date.  Michelle Ryan as Jaime Sommers and Katee Sackhoff as Sarah Corvus battling each other on top of the roof during a rainstorm was great TV.  Sadly, rather than serving as a warm up to what was to come, no action/fight sequence has quite lived up to what the producers led us to believe we would get each episode.  In fact, the pilot has turned to be a false promise, great action sequences, and I think it is no surprise as a result the pilot has had the best ratings so far and since the pilot aired the show has lost viewers with each passing week.  Part of the reason, among many, I think has to do with the unsatisfying fight sequences.

Regarding the fight scenes, Jim writes in to offer his advice:

That has been the most disappointing aspect of the show to me, so far. I do not watch BW to see martial arts, I want to see a bionic woman bend bars, leap high buildings, run fast, crash cars, not hit other people with her bionic body, and potentially kill them. They should focus on the former stuff, and I believe I would say this even if the fight scenes were halfway decent.

Regular commenter Chris offers is take on the action sequences:

Nope, still a mess. The fight scenes [are] atrocious. When is this stupid hand-held camera fad going to end?

…

More judo lessons in the Batcave with Jae? When she’s fighting during training, she never uses her superspeed, and ends up losing. If she used her speed when fighting, the opponent would be dead before they hit the ground. All she does is kick people every week. This is The Bionic Woman, not Hong Kong Phooey.

While I don’t agree with Jim and Chris 100%, I do think they are on to something.  There really isn’t enough action/stunt effects each week, and the ones we are getting aren’t satisfying and are mostly a mess from a filming/choreography standpoint. To date, the best stunt sequence after the pilot was found in episode 1.04, “Face Off” where Jaime leaped across a warehouse to escape the terrorists shooting at her. 

This sequence was good, but we just finished episode 1.07 and there have only been two action sequences worth mentioning?

Let’s hope two things while the show is on hiatus:  The WGA strike doesn’t spell the end of BW and during the break, the producers will take this time to get the show on track.

A few days ago Kel stopped by to leave a long rant about why he hates the writers’ strike, and I felt the need to respond with a post instead of a comment. It’s no secret that I am a fierce supporter of the writers, and perhaps it is naive of me but I think most folks like Kel would be too if they understood the stakes involved in the issues.

Much of the strike is about the fact that writers are not being paid for their work AT ALL. The episodes that end up on the internet are seen as “promos” under the current WGA contracts, even though studios and networks sell advertisements and make a profit off of them.

So the writers are simply wanting to be paid for what they produce, because right now they are expected to produce internet only content without compensation.

And while you may be right about the fact that writers have little to do with producing DVDs, there would not be a DVD without a good script. Residuals from things like DVDs help writers stay writing over the course of their careers.

Sure, you are correct that some writers advance their careers to the point that they are making a lot of money. But most script writers make about as much as your friends and neighbors do, only they can expect to be unemployed for about half of their lives as they scramble to land their next job. Not everyone makes the fat checks a showrunner like Joss Whedon does, and the residuals help feed their families during the times that they are between writing jobs.

Plus, let us remember that they are not exactly asking for the moon here. Expecting to make eight cents rather than four cents off of a $19.99 sale is really not asking all that much in the grand scheme of studio profits, but it can make a huge difference to a working family.

Trust me, I know how much it sucks to think that your favorite show will not be around for a while .. or perhaps be gone for good. But in the grand scheme of life, I would rather support people who are simply trying to make a living. Kel and others may have a different opinion, and I support their right to do so … but for me, I am backing the writers.

Regarding the fight scenes on Bionic Woman, Chris asks:

When is this stupid hand-held camera fad going to end? It was moving around so much that it was hard to tell what the hell was happening. The back of a chair can stop high-velocity bullets? Jaime stubs her toe jumping a fence but emerges unscathed after crashing though a window and falling three stories? More judo lessons in the Batcave with Jae? When she’s fighting during training, she never uses her super speed, and ends up losing. If she used her speed when fighting, the opponent would be dead before they hit the ground. All she does is kick people every week. This is The Bionic Woman, not Hong Kong Phooey. I also love the way she hits a guy with her “bionic” arm and he gets up and continues to fight.

All valid points.  Thoughts?

Earlier I asked if the mysterious and all around Berkut Group wonder woman, Ruth Truewell, played by the talented Molly Price was a lesbian.

I wondered this after we were introduced to Truewell in episode 1.01.  I guess the writers thought it would be fun to tease the audience with the same question when they literally had another character ask outright in episode 1.03, “Sisterhood”.

It seems I am not the only one who thinks BW should introduce one of the characters as outright gay.  Via GayWired:

Oh come on. For a show about a butch dressing bartender who gets a second lease on life when a secret government agency hijacks her body, makes her bionic and sends her to do battle with a rogue bionic woman with a fierce blonde bob and bulging biceps, Bionic Woman is seriously missing the queer quotient. Maybe Isaiah Washington ixnayed any reference to homosexuality, but seeing as how his character supposedly ends his limited run this week, the opportunity is there to up the gay factor. Perhaps Jamie Sommers (Michelle Ryan) and Sarah Corvus (Katee Sackhoff) could take their rivalry to the next level. At the very least, give us some wet wife beaters—and more of Katee’s slicked back hair. Totally hot stuff!

Roco at Bionic Blog takes up the same topic.

Now that Washington will be leaving the show, Truewell, or another character should be identified as an out gay person.  However, let me go on the record and offer unsolicited advice to the writers:  DO NOT WRITE A BECCA SOMMERS EXPERIMENTS WITH LESBIANISM PLOT LINE.  It would be stupid and Lucy Hale has not proved herself capable of handling this kind of scene or plot line. 

So, Gay it Up, Bionic Woman!

It’s no secret that I have been extremely disappointed with Bionic Woman.  The show has been mediocre at best and unfortunately, poor casting decisions, the inability to  keep an executive producer,and the unevenness of the characters have had a negative effect on the ratings.  Sadly, Bionic Woman is losing viewers faster than Isaiah Washington loses gay friends.  Via Syfyportal:

I really hope the current writer’s strike doesn’t cause more harm than BW has already inflicted on itself.  It would be a shame to see the demise of BW sooner than the 5 year shelf life the writers gave her by making the bionics only last that long.

I had such high hopes for Bionic Woman.  When I learned David Eick, of Battlestar Galactica fame, was turning his eye to this 70’s classic, my nostalgic heart skipped a beat.  While no woman would ever replace the original Jaime Sommers, Lindsay Wagner, I was ready to let go of the past and enjoy a darker, more subversive hour long drama.

With each passing episode, episode 5 just aired, my disappointment and dissatisfaction grows.  Now on the third show runner (the person in charge of the show), BW has been a bionic mess since the un-aired pilot made its way online.

This scene from episode 5 pretty much sums up the problem with BW:  the writing is inconsistent and Isaiah Washington.  Take a look.

This scene makes absolutely no sense to the episode nor the characters as they have been presented.  Isaiah Washington’s character is supposed to be a world class top secret spy and his alias to guest star Jordan Bridges is that he is Jaime Sommers’ uncle?   This is stupid. 

Furthermore, why is this scene even necessary to the episode other than to satisfy Washington’s minimum line per episode contract?  It’s awkward, it doesn’t make sense, and of course, it goes without saying that Washington’s acting style is horrible.

BW is has many problems, but an easy one to solve is to write clear, logical scenes that are beneficial to advancing the plot and logically fit the construct and narrative of the week’s episode and the series as a whole.

It’s time to cast Lindsay Wagner as the head of a competing corporation to the Berkut Group.  This would be fun and at least it would satisfy my nostalgic cravings.