Fall TV: Bionic Woman is Promising

Bionic Woman Pilot Isn't Perfect but Worth Watching and Good Enough to Keep Me Coming Back for More

I was a bit iffy about the new Bionic Woman TV show when I heard about it this past spring. Not because I am a fan of the original program. I never saw the original program. I was concerned because it struck me that of all the old TV properties you could mine, The Bionic Woman is not among the best ideas. Still, I heard it was from one of the producers of Battlestar Galactica, David Eick, so it seemed worth at least checking out. Bionic Woman wasn't perfect but it showed a lot of promise and had me interested in seeing what would happen in episode two.
Jaime Summers, played by Michelle Ryan, is a bartender and college drop out. Her boyfriend is Dr. Will Anthros, played by Chris Bowers, who is a college professor, surgeon, and, we later discover part of a secret government project to create bionic soldiers. The opening scene of the pilot introduces us to one such bionic soldier, Sarah Corvus, played by Katee Sackhoff. Corvus, we find out, was unstable and had to be gotten rid of. Jaime also has a sister, Becca, played by Lucy Hale. Over the course of the first act we get quick recaps of character history via dialog, this is a pet peeve of mine because the dialog in these situations often comes off as excessively expository and a bit stilted. The plot picks up when Jaime and Will get into a car accident. Their car is struck out of nowhere by a semi. I thought this part was really well done as, even though I knew there was going to be a car accident, I was surprised by it. Jaime is badly hurt in the accident so Will has her whisked away to the secret government facility he works for and and they replace her damaged limbs, eye, and an ear with bionics and part of her blood with special nano-bots that help her heal at a greater rate than a normal person. From there we find out that Sarah Corvus is still around and she's out to get Will. There are some nice scenes between Jaime and Sarah and an exciting fight scene. The plot works, it kept me interested but for some slightly clunky parts, and there are more than a few threads hanging out there to be explored. They don't seem to have set up the show to be a threat of the week show, hopefully that will hold for the rest of the season.
What struck me in particular about the show was the strength of the female characters and a very welcome lack of titillation. Jaime is an independent woman, she's taking care of her sister after her sister was abandoned by their father. She works and doesn't seem to be particularly reliant on her boyfriend. In addition to Jaime we have Ruth Truewell, played by Molly Price, who works with Will but doesn't seem to be a token member of the team, but rather a vital team member equal to if not a bit better than her peers. Also, there didn't seem to me to be any overt titillation, something that's been a little too common it the science fiction shows I have watched of late. The women are certainly sexy but I felt a distinct lack of lingering shots on cleavage, tight shirts, or tight pants. This was very welcome and is hopefully something they can stick with beyond the pilot. I like all of those things, don't get me wrong, but the lingering shots tend to make one feel that the show is less about the story and more about getting men excited about women's naughty bits.
I also liked how they showed Jaime's Bionic abilities. It wasn't overdone, but it was still cool. When she starts running super fast through the woods my jaw dropped a little, and when she leaped between two buildings I was a bit in awe. The way they handled her ear and eye implants coming online in the middle of the bar she works at worked out well, and you get a good sense for what that could be like.
Bionic Woman shows promise. The pilot was hardly perfect, but the cast was solid, the plot interesting with enough threads set up to make an interesting season, and I have to say that I may have a little crush on Michelle Ryan now, so I will be watching this show and hoping that the season can live up to the promise of the pilot. Bionic Woman debuts next Wednesday, September 26th, on NBC but you can download the pilot from Amazon Unbox now for free.