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NEW BIONIC WOMAN

bionicbob

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Ever since they announced the new Bionic Woman series last year, I have been waiting with great fear and anticipation. As my online name suggests, I have a great love for the bionic mythology. :smile:

Well, the pilot premiered the other night and I was left with very mixed feelings.

This is definitely not your childhood Bionic Woman. Other than the same name, practically everything else is different. Jaime Sommers in not a former tennis pro turned school teacher. Now, she is a college drop out who works in a bar and is raising her little sister.

There is no OSI. No Oscar Goldman. No Dr. Rudy Wells. No bionic sound effects. And definitely, no Col. Steve Austin. :-(

The casting is strong and the effects and action are very well done. But the story left me wanting....

The pilot just felt waaaaayyyyyyy too rushed. It almost felt like they edited a 2 hour movie into 45 minutes and left all the character development on the cutting room floor. No real time is taken to get know or care about the characters. It is introduce hero and badguy, cut to horrible car accident, cut to bionic surgery, cut to escape after surgery, cut to final bionic showdown. It is as if the pilot suffered from A.D.D.

The fact that the surgery and recovery takes only ONE DAY and Jaime is fully functioning, really bothered me. Who knew the original Bionic Woman would seem more realistic?!?!? :shock:

But they introduced alot of interesting subplots (maybe too many, thus detracting from the development of the characters), so the series could have potential. Often many of my favorite series had weak pilots and the series became stronger over the first season. Hopefully this is the case here.

Did you watch the pilot? What did you think??????? :-?
 

joebshmoe

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no i didn't watch it because it looked dumb

i guess i'll have to reconsider?
 
P

Peter von Frosta

Miss Sackoff is in it, that's a positive aspect ;)
But then the lead looks like Jennifer Garner, which is never good...
 

bionicbob

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I would say check out a couple of episodes, hopefully the series will improve though I have read online there have been some off stage trouble and one of the head writers left the series already.... might not be good sign. Also, read they are doing some retooling of the show and adding new cast members.... again this could be bad or good. :-o


But I really enjoyed executive producer David Ecks re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica (btw, several Galactica alumni make appearances in the pilot), it is one of best dramas now on tv (imo) but it had a very slow start too. :)

And as I mentioned before, the cast seems strong and the subplots introduced may have some interesting potential.

Still.... give me Lee Majors and Linsday Wagner anyday of the week. I LOVED the original series! :D

BTW, I lOVE Jennifer Gardner! ALAIS rocked! Well, atleast season 1-4 did, season 5 was a major let down.
 

bionicbob

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DoctorM said:
This says it all:
Link

Yeah, i would have to agree, that is pretty good summary.
Still I am hopefull it may improve... maybe. :eek:
 

beckmen

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Yeah, it didn't blow me away, but it was decent. I kind of look forward to seeing what happens next, so I will be tuning in. I think it'll be a show that kind of grows on me, instead of me instantly loving it. Heroes kind of did that. The first few episodes, as I recall, were good...but not jaw dropping. I kind of only kept watching because I was curious. Good thing I stuck around, because it got really good. So I hope BW does something along these lines. I don't expect it to be as good as Heroes, though.
 

joebshmoe

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ok i tamed the demon and watched this...

i'd give it a C+/B-. it was entertaining but the characters were annoying and thin. it just didn't make much sense...

why would they invest all their resources in her because of the doctor? why would she be such a bitch about it? how is she such a badass all the sudden? etc. etc.
 

Remixed by Jorge

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*SPOILER ALERT*
So the first bionic woman, with full bionic arms and legs, both eyes and chest, wants to kill the doctor behind the tech and she decides to... ram him with a truck and then not check if he's dead or not? WTF? but then she uses a high power rifle later in the same episode? what about just ripping his head off with her bare hands?
The writers must have just watched the movie SINGLES since the same car accident happens there and she also loses the baby.
Acting is horrible, dialogue is saturday morning cartoon, the bionic woman runs like a chick. could those high heel girlie boots really take speeds up to 60mph? doubt it.
And in the final fight, could a human arm block an attacking bionic arm? doubt it.
It just shows me how brilliant the original series was. i don't want to see some fake speed up effect because it never looks real.
the slow motion effect always gave the impression of grace, power and speed.
who knew?
 

bionicbob

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Just watched the second episode.... and it is not getting any better.

The lead actress Michelle Ryan (???) just has no appeal whatsoever.

SPOILERS WARNING:
There was a HUGE continuity blunder in the episode. And I do mean HUGE!!!! The whole subplot revolves around this town called Paradise which has been quaritined by the government. It is on the news constantly on the tvs in the background from the beginning of the episode. Turns out the whole town is mysteriously dead (shades of SMDM episode "Population Zero").

After Jaime's doctor boyfriends funeral and some attempted stupid drunk bar sex((with a guy named STEVE??), Jaime rescues a woman attempting suicide from jumping off building. After some soul searching (or was that feeling sorry for herself), decides to join the spy game. After THREE DAYS of training (this was stated as fact by her new supervisor in the episode) on how to use her bionics, they send Jaime and a doc into Paradise to investigate.

So here is the STUPIDLY HUGE CONTINUITY ERROR... So up to this point according to the episode, Paradise was quaritined at the very beginning of the episode, there was the funeral and the whole Jaime training period, so lets say 3 to 5 days have elapsed... well, when they get to Paradise they discover one lone survivor, except now according to the survivor and what the spy doc says, it has only been one day! :?

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did I miss something or misinterpret something? Please correct me if I am wrong....
 

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tick...tick...tick... and the COUNTDOWN TO CANCEL begins...tick...tick...tick...
predictions anyone? 6 episodes and yank?
 

joebshmoe

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yeah the second episode was HORRIBLE.

i couldn't even watch it. i had to do other things while it was on. a complete lack of anything interesting.

i'm with killbillme. this sucker is getting cancelled.
 

beckmen

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They certainly re-tooled the show yet again with the second episode, too. It seemed like a different show. Still not that good, though.

What happened to papa Anthros or whoever was in the pilot that escaped from that jail? They made it seem the next episode would continue that, and then didn't.

Anyone notice how they added the bionic sound effect kind of?

I dunno, I will still be watching it for now. Until it gets axed, at least.
 

bionicbob

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Episode 3 aired last night.

It was definitely the best episode so far.... but that is not saying much. :-o

There seems to be definite effort by the writers to inject some humor into this series, but most of it comes off as flat or awkward. Also, was it just me, or was the whole big fight scene between Jaime and the Serbs seem very UN-bionic? I mean, isn't she suppose to be like as strong as 5 men or something? How come these bad guys keep getting up after being hit? Why isn't she throwing them across the room? It was just like any other action tv fight without bionics. In the good old days, when Steve or Jaime knocked someone down, they stayed down! Aahhhh, the good old days.... :grin:

But my biggest complaint is there no real major threat, no real interesting "A" story. This show is spending too much time trying to be an immediate conspiracy show, instead of an entertaining cool action show. Atleast shows like Alias or the X-Files knew how to balance the two, this show so far is anything but balanced. (which is odd, considering two the show writers are former X-files staff...Glenn and Darren Morgan... though i believe Glenn Morgan has since left the show over creative differences...) :shock:

NBC seems to have faith in the show though, they have ordered a bunch more episodes, so the show will be around for a while yet. :)
 

DoctorM

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Well NBC knew there was a problem up front and yanked a bunch of their Friday Night Lights writers to go at the show.

Regarding episode 2's issues. This is from Ask Ausiello a column on TVGuide.com:

Question: What did you think of the second episode of Bionic Woman? ? Joel
Ausiello: I know I'm in the minority here, but I rather enjoyed it. I expected to hate it based on what I was hearing from my Bionic moles ? that it was basically a couple of episodes spliced together. According to sources, that whole Idaho disaster was originally supposed to be the primary focus of Episode 3, but it instead became a subplot of Episode 2. So if it felt a little rushed, that's why. Also, I'm hearing that the Bionic writers are getting a little worried because, per my spy, "the entire Friday Night Lights staff is slowly taking over. They're hoping FNL does well in the ratings so they'll go back to working on their show."

Am I crazy?
I don't remember the guy busting out of prison... and yet he's out.
I don't remember Jamie being told at the funeral that her brain was filtering her bionic eyes or whatever... but there was a flashback of the conversation.
And lots of other odd, abrupt odd things happened. This show is a hack jon all around.
 

bionicbob

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Actually yes, the evil bionic doctor was broken out of prison in the pilot episode but was totally absent in the next episode, so that is probably why you don't remember him.

That is interesting about the Friday Night Lights writers, I didn't know that before..... Fridday Night Lights is an excellent drama but it makes me wonder what kind of direction they are planning on taking BW? Based on the first three episodes, it would seem they are not planning on making a "BIG/WOW/COOL" action/adventure show and I don't know if I would continue to tune in if it is going to be just bionic drama when the characters are so bland and stereotypical. :eek:

I did notice that they inserted more "bionic" sound effects this time, which was a nice nod to the original.
 

beckmen

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DoctorM said:
I don't remember Jamie being told at the funeral that her brain was filtering her bionic eyes or whatever... but there was a flashback of the conversation.

Was it a flashback? I thought that at first, but then I decided it was them subconsciously talking. Maybe you are right, though...your explanation makes more sense.

The show does feel tinkered with. Mainly the Papa Anthros thing, how he was totally missing in 102 like that.

My main complaint about the show right now: The music. Do we really need shitty rock music or whatever playing over the fights? Isn't it more cost-effective to use original score? It certainly pisses me off far less, given my fervent views of shitty music in action/scifi tv/movies.

Can somebody (DoctorM or a mod) truncate that URL. Am I the only one looking at some serious scrolling here? Making it a real bitch to read the thread.
 

DoctorM

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You are quite right. I used tinyurl to shorten my link.
BionicBob needs to fix his post too.
 

Remixed by Jorge

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I don't know what the problem is beckmen, in my browser the url just wraps around. why doesnt yours?
 

bionicbob

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killbillme said:
I don't know what the problem is beckmen, in my browser the url just wraps around. why doesnt yours?

DITTO :grin:
 
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