Bionic Woman

Let’s face it, the first two episodes of BW really weren’t what they should have been.  The pilot, “Second Chances,” was too fast and the second episode was so disjointed, it had to have been a compilation of scenes intended for other episodes, but got the bionic treatment and crafted together as episode two.  I think the last minute title change from “Birds” to “Paradise Lost” is a strong indicator union rules kicked in and the original writer of the episode couldn’t/wouldn’t get credit for what finally aired.  (If anyone in t.v. land has a copy of the original “Birds” episode, please forward to us as WBW.com)

However, episode three, “Sisterhood,” finally revealed how fun and good the new Bionic Woman will be.  With the exception of Isaiah Washington, all of the characters are either fun, intriguing, and/or scary as hell and the acting is solid.  All reasons burgeoning fans will return to the show and bring new ones with them.  Episode three also gave us insight to Katee Sackhoff’s Sarah Corvus and showed her story in flashbacks.  In my early review of the unaired pilot, I questioned the producers decision to introduce the creation of Sommers immediately as a new bionic woman rather than let it play out over a couple of episodes.  It would have been much more effective to have done it this way.  Roco at bionic-blog.com thinks along the same lines.

So, the show started out with enough people interested in watching that the numbers were decent for NBC, however, a majority of those people have failed to return and BW is coming in third in its time slot on Wednesdays.  It’s time for NBC to move Bionic Woman to Mondays after Heroes (where it should have started) and create a super hero packed Monday lineup.  I think by doing so, NBC will bolster their ratings for both shows.

NBC, get to it.

 Bionic Woman really came fully online for me during this episode.  Titled “Sisterhood,” episode 1.03 finally moved beyond the bionic setup and got to the heart of what the show is about, fighting bad guys, the Berkut group and family. 

The preview led us to believe Katee Sackhoff would be featured prominently in the episode and she was.  Corvus gave us the best line of the week and took part in one of the best fight scenes of the episode too.

In my original review of the pilot, I was more interested in Corvus than I was Sommers.  This episode finally changed that for me.  But we did get some great background to Corvus, in the form of a flashback to a car accident involving her sister, which was nicely juxtaposed next to the relationship of the Sommers sisters and the evening looking at family photographs.  (However, I thought Becca’s wasn’t allowed near a computer because of a court order via the pilot?)  We learn that Corvus will die within a year without Jaime’s help.  In the meantime, Mark Sheppard, as Anthony Anthros, has gotten Corvus hooked on a drug that is supposed to be keeping her alive, but looks to string her out.  Despite Sheppard’s character turning out to be a traitor (he offered to sell bionics to the highest bidder), I am excited to see more of him in the upcoming episodes.

Regarding Sheppard as daddy Anthros, despite the fact episode 1.02 opened with the funeral of Will Anthros, it doesn’t seem likely Will is really dead.  The family dynamic between the two Anthros doctors, father and son, should make for great dramatic TV.  I have faith that David Eick and his team will not disappoint.

The mission this week was to protect the daughter of a Canadian business man.  The assignment was a bit week, but it did lead to a cool fight scene.

This episode also gave us more of Molly Price’s character Ruth Truewell.  Truewell is interesting but we don’t know much about her at all thus far into the season.  She may even be a lesbian.  The question was asked, but Ruth declined to answer.  Although my hope is that Isaiah Washington will turn out to be gay, Truewell would be great.

For more on this week’s episode check out Margie’s take.

I first read about serial bigot Isaiah Washington’s radio appearance on Stevie Wonder’s radio show at TMZ.com.  As our regular readers know, I believe Washington was unfortunately cast as recurring character on Bionic Woman. 

The TMZ.com article appears to be a pretty “straight”forward news story about Stevie Wonder breaking into song during Washington’s appearance last Thursday.  The article in its entirety:

Things are certainly looking up for Isaiah Washington. First, he lands a part on one of the hottest new shows this Fall (”Bionic Woman”) and a development deal with NBC. Now, he’s got none other than Stevie Wonder singing songs in his honor. My Cherie Amour!

Isaiah was on Stevie’s radio show on KJLH in Los Angeles on Thursday , when Stevie and the crew spontaneously broke into a song about Mr. Washington himself. It’s really just a chant for about a minute, but then Stevie himself breaks out a verse and it is truly on.
It’s hard to be mad at anyone when the man who wrote “Songs in the Key of Life” is singing.

Seems pretty innocuous until you actually click through and listen to the one minute clip and listen to what is said that makes Wonder break into song about Washington.  After commenting on Washington being fired from Grey’s Anatomy last year because of his gay slurs, Stevie Wonder then sings this impromptu song about Isaiah Washington doing God’s work because he is “outspoken”.

God’s work?  I’m not sure what God Stevie Wonder is referring to but hurling gay slurs at your co-worker and publicly outing him is not “doing God’s work.” In my book, it is just the opposite.  This group is doing God’s work. Washington, not so much.  In fact, Washington’s “outspoken” behavior got him fired from the hottest show on television because it was mean and bigoted.  

However, I will agree with one observation made during the show, how Washington is able to secure work in Hollywood amazes me too.   

Finally, why TMZ.com failed to mention the complete context of this song and interview is disappointing.  Are there no gay people working at TMZ.com who were outraged by this interview?  Washington’s behavior?  Stevie Wonder literally singing praises to bigotry?  Does TMZ.com have no idea how many gays read their site?

It appears Isaiah Washington’s publicist is working in hyper drive, securing an article in the New York Post over the weekend with Paige Albiniak.  Honestly, I don’t know why Washington’s people let him speak in public at all.  His inability to keep his bigoted thoughts to himself got him fired from Grey’s Anatomy last year and this interview further reveals how out of touch with reality he is.

Isaiah Washington says things are going so well on the Vancouver set of NBC’s “Bionic Woman” that the network already is considering a spinoff featuring his character. Washington plays Antonio Pope, the ex-Special Forces mentor of the newly bionic Jaime Sommers, played by Michelle Ryan.

“There’s been some relative excitement about my presence,” says the 44-year-old actor. “I may end up doing more than five episodes. I don’t see myself becoming a series regular but there’s some talk about spinning me off into my own show once ‘Bionic Woman’ becomes a huge hit.”

Really?  The executives at NBC have already started talking to Washington about a spin-off character for a show that has aired one episode and has yet to introduce his character?  I hardly think that is the case, but just more of Washington running his mouth.  Remember last year when Washington blamed T.R. Knight for making him use those gay slurs and insisted it was Knight who should have been fired instead?  After watching the clip of Washington’s character meeting Michelle Ryan’s Jaime Sommers, I am underwhelmed and remain skeptical of his claims. 

Reading this article in contrast to the article posted below about his fellow Grey’s Anatomy cast mates, it is laughable that Washington would specifically highlight how well things are going on the set of BW.  What else is he going to say, “I’m f*cking up this work environment too.”?!

Consider this post the first of many “my condolences” to the cast and crew of BW. 

Lost in the controversy over the recasting of Jamie Sommers’ sister is the news that when NBC jettisoned the deaf character on Bionic Woman, they also ditched the monkeys.

Apparently the new Jamie was originally going to be a lab worker, not a bartender. And her unusually strong connection with the monkeys in the lab was going to be explained by her deaf sister. Jamie’s familiarity with sign language helped her communicate with the monkeys, bringing a whole new depth to her character. The character of Jamie’s sister would add additional darkness and internal conflict to Jamie, and the concept would add a whole plethora of potential monkey moments into the show as well.

And then NBC ditched both the depth of character and the monkeys. As you can see from the above photo of a monkey with Natalie Portman, this was truly a great loss for the show. BuddyTV explains why the decision to recast Jamie’s sister will hurt the show and the characters, noting that “Jamie’s deaf sister would have symbolized the unfairness of the bionic technology being used for warfare, all the while providing the new Bionic Woman with a secret self-loathing that would play out at the very sight of her sister’s struggles to fit into the world.” And we could have had monkeys!

monkeys, Jamie Sommers, Bionic Woman, NBC, deaf, sister, Natalie Portman, recast, television, sign language

I can’t help but wonder if Bionic Woman will be prevented from becoming the show it could become because it is on NBC prime time instead of one of NBC’s cable networks. Namely Sci-Fi Channel. Like I said in my review of the pre-air pilot, the producers of Bionic Woman disappointed me because I know what they are capable of based on their stellar re-imaging of Battle Star Galacticabut failed to deliver for me in the pre-air pilot.

Had BW been assigned to Sci-Fi Channel, I think the show would be allowed to be much darker than the pre-air pilot and the plot and character development would not be so rushed. Unfortunately, I fear that making the show a primetime vehicle, NBC will expect the producers to keep it pretty mainstream as well as deliver big ratings.

This will be unfortunate because the darker BW is allowed to be, the better. The exploration of machine vs. man vs. technological advancement vs humanity is fertile ground for excellent t.v. However, as we see more episodes, I see this becoming a bionic version of The Pretender - government conspiracies and shadowy agents.

Bionic Woman, NBC, Sci-Fi, Battle Star Galactica, The Pretender

SyFy Portal reported last week that Bionic Woman is intended to be dark, but not nearly as dark as Battlestar Galactica. Although both shows are reimagined versions of classic 70s shows, and both shows focus on the dark implications of merging human beings and technological advancements, Bionic Woman will not go to the very dark places BSG has in its first three seasons.

“That’s not really the style of show you would want to do with someone like Michelle Ryan, who is so appealing and winning and charismatic. You don’t want to put her in ‘Taxi Driver,’” executive producer David Eick said. “That being said, it’s a darker show than the old ‘Bionic Woman,’ and I think that’s a good thing. Darkness doesn’t mean depressing. This is meant to be an exciting show with a lot of optimism and hope.”

This makes sense, partially because Bionic Woman is on a major network and does not have the freedom that Battlestar Galatica enjoys on the SciFi Channel. It also explains some of the decisions the producers of Bionic Woman have made this summer, such as the controversial recasting Jamie’s younger sister to move away from the goth-loving handicapped girl depicted in the pilot.

I just hope that this is not a nice way of saying the show will not be as intelligent as its premise. The scifi shows that have developed a following in the past few years are those that are not afraid of complicated story lines, complex characters, and trusting the audience to make connections that are not explained on screen. These qualities are missing from the preair pilot, based on Ryan’s review.

In the modern television landscape the joy of audience discovery cannot be underestimated, and Lost and Heroes have demonstrated how much fans love to dissect episodes and theorize what is to come in the future. It is hard to generate that kind of following and buzz, however, if the stories are so obvious that they leave nothing to speculate about.

Bionic Woman, Battlestar Galactica, NBC, network, cable, dark, technology, 70s, classic, David Eick, Michelle Ryan, Taxi Driver, SciFi Channel, Lost, Heroes