Smoking on Bionic Woman
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The signature image of Bionic Woman, thus far, is not of the heroine Jamie Sommers. Instead, the image that the press has fallen in love with the photograph of Katee Sackhoff’s evil Sarah Corvus, dripping wet in the rain as she waits for Jamie to come and fight her in the pre-air pilot … and while she waits, she smokes.
There can be no denying that it is a great photograph. Sackhoff’s cool control is a stark contrast to the elements that are fighting to invade her, she is oblivious to the rain that would make others uncomfortable. When Jamie arrives and words are exchanged, Corvus mentions that the anthrocytes that are part of the bionic technology heal her lungs, so she smokes.
Unfortunately, the smoking villain has become such a cliche, that I’m afraid it’s considered original again. This doesn’t sit well with me. Broadcast television, like it or not, has a responsibility to the general public. Study after study concludes that kids who see celebrities smoke will try smoking themselves. While I am a champion of the new BW plumbing the depths of human nature, I wish they would leave smoking out of it. There is never a place to show actors smoking on screen, ever. Especially not a primetime show.
Why would Sackhoff agree to be filmed smoking? Surely she had reservations about the promotion of smoking (I hope so anyway). And make no mistake about it, she is promoting smoking simply by agreeing to do it on screen. I’m not sure which is worse, smoking on screen or insulting the fans who came to see you at ComiCon.
Bionic Woman, NBC, Katee Sackhoff, Sarah Corvus, Jaime Sommers, Comicon, smoking, teens
September 13th, 2007 at 7:37 am
[...] an undercurrent of sexiness - that shot of the not to be forgotten ‘Sarah Corvus’ rain-smoking says it all [...]
October 4th, 2007 at 10:31 am
[...] wrote about how he thought Katee Sackhoff should not be smoking on Bionic Woman, and apparently she agrees because this weekend she told some guests at the Sacramento Comic-Con [...]
May 7th, 2008 at 3:32 am
It’s up to parents to raise their kids, not television
I saw plenty of smoking on TV when I was a child and was never tempted into lighting up