Continued ....
And then the Hollyweird trend continued when Universal promotes David Eick to one of the head studio execs at The Sci-Fi Channel.
His first actions were hijacking and 86ing acclaimed screenwriter, director, Bryan Singer?s (The Usual Suspects, Apt Pupil, X-Men and X2) fan supported Battlestar Galactica production and hire Ron Moore ( a no talent former Treker scriber who has publically stated his disdain towards the original series on numerous ocassions) to rewrite it into a radical re-imagining/remake/reboot which turned out to be one of the most biggest controversial blunders in science fiction history.
Together he and Ron Moore reworked all of Bryan Singer and Tom DeSanto?s Battleestar Galactica scripts into the ratings failure of what it is today ... considering that their Battlestar Galactica Re-Imagined is constantly matched or beaten in ratings by reruns of ?Star Tek Enterprise, WCW Wrestling and every Sci-Fi Channel's original in house B movie production and ? (yes I know it's critically acclaimed by the left sided media such as Time Magazine and New York Times for all the anti Bush and Anti War on Terror metaphors within their stories.) Never the less. the show never captured and maintain a large audience and took a nose dive in ratings since the pilot/mini-series ... but yet ..... as a head studio exec, Eick was able to get this series renewed season after season while other series such as ?Farscape? and Stargate SG1" were cancelled while they were holding way more higher viewers.
Go figure....
So recently, Eick failed to get another one of his pilots sold (gee I wonder why) so he opted to raid the NBC/Universal vault and found something old that he ridiculously called ?The Bionic Woman? and after a few rewrites on his failed pilot, the Bionic Woman re-imagined was green lit to begin production.
For all his constant public Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman bashing, I have to laugh at this piece of crap that I just finished watching because not only does this new Bionic Woman have nothing in common with the original (I mean nothing, not single nod or tribute to the original)... there was also no character depth nor deep story. Even on it's own merits it was terrible.
The Pilot:
The pilot opens up with an arm task force hunting down what looks to be a psychotic, physically enhanced woman played by, Katee Sachoff (Halloween: Resurrection, Battlestar Galactica Re-Imagined).when they finally corner in which looks to be in a pool of blood (which seemed to serve no other purpose but shock value), the head soldier shoots her down.... but is she dead ?
Who knows and who cares ?
Then the viewers are introduced to the massively cleavage exposeing Jaime Sommers, who is a semi sleazy bartender. We learn that?s she is somewhat bright but she pissed away her college scholarship (or something to that effect so she?s now a part time student at the local community college). We?re then introduced to her boyfriend at a university as she drives by to pick him up there.
A couple of side notes:
1) Rumor had it that David Eick wanted to name Jaime?s boyfriend the re-imagined ?Rudy Wells?. It?s a typical poke your finger in the eyes of the original fanbase tactics which David Eick and Ron Moore strived on while doing the current ?Battlestar Galactica re-imagined series. My guess is to avoid any conflicts with Miramax (who now owns the rights to Martin Caiden?s Cyborg novels and all characters connected to it), the boyfriend?s name was changed. Ditto to Jaime?s abusive boss (who originally was named Oscar Goldman) but now changed to Jonas.
2) Shouldn?t the young bright University professor be the person that owns a car instead of relying on a ride from a bartender that doesn?t make much money ?
Wow David Eick, these are some realistic characters and situations we have there. (Rolls eyes).
Then we?re treated to some quick mushy soapy dialogue on why he wants to be with her instead of any bright woman at the university... yadda yadda blah blah blah.and I also think she mentioned that she?s pregnant.
Then out of nowhere comes the auto accident and we get a quick glimpse of the person that intentionally causes it. Yuck !!! It?s Katee Sackhoff again and she?s still alive. It turns out that she?s a jealous ex lover of Rudy ... er.. I forgot his new name.
Wow tell me that?s not a typical soap opera clitch. (Rolls Eyes some more). Oh and get this.It turns out that Katee Sachoff is an evil bionic renegade . This is some deep story telling here [sarcasm mode off] .
We get a quick shot of Jaime in the hospital (at least I think it was a hospital) she?s a mangled up with missing limbs and get this... Rudy (or whatever his name is. Let?s just call him Rudy for the rest of this review because his character was so lame that his name is not even worth remembering).
Back to Rudy.
Rudy escapes the wreak with just a bruise on his head and an arm in a sleeve while Jaime is mangled and limbless.
Even with the strongest safest airbags, there?s no way anyone could have escaped that wreak with just a bruise and a sprained arm.
That is some more great gritty realism from the mind of David Eick.
Immediately after the quick shot of Jaime mangled up, she wakes up and Rudy explains that she needed some enhancements to survive. Jaime pulls back the sheets that were covering her legs and whamo, we see the cheesiest CGI interpretation of bionic legs.
There was no scientific explanation nor do I remember the word ?bionic? being mentioned.
Also and there?s more. She didn?t need any kinds of physical therapy and/or rehabilitation or what not, Right away she got out of bed and knew how to walk and discover her other bionically enhanced abilities.
Then we have a quick scene where Jaime befriends a therapist (which was a wasted opportunity to learn something more about her character and then immediately goes to another scene where the shrink helps her escape. It all happens far to quickly and doesn't really give the viewer to much time to connect with any of the characters on an emotional level whatsoever.
And yet David Eick has the balls to slam the original series for having two dimensional characters ? What a hypocrite.
There?s no bionic sound effects nor anything catchy during the running and jumping sequence. The fighting effects is nothing more than one part Matrix and one part Spiderman.
They even ripped off an entire sequence from Superman The Movie where a little girl in a mini van tells her mom that there's a woman running fast along the vehicle and the mother tells her to stop telling stories.
The special effects is pretty bad through out the pilot and the atmosphere is dark and gloomy through out for no other reason but for the sake of being dark and gloomy.
As always with a David Eick production like GINO (Galactica In Name Only), the characters are very unlikable and very unsympathetic and big time underdeveloped. There?s no complex characters what so ever.
Jaime Sommer's is just sleazy and all around ungrateful for the Bionics which saved her life.
Katte Sack-Off as usual turned in a bad performance. I figured she?d be easier to swallow this time around because she isn?t playing a bad reinterpretation of a beloved character like on Battlestar Galactica but I was wrong. Katee is just an over all bad actress. She stinks.
The Good:
Michelle Ryan, I?ll also give her credit for the physical demands of the role. However, she lacks the charm and charisma of Lindsay Wagner and she's an overall bad actress.
Also, George Clooney?s ugly cousin turns in a pretty good performance as the shady unlikable Jonas (the Oscar Goldman character) but the he suffers the same thing that Michelle Ryan suffers from due to the bad material. Gone is the do gooder OSI branch replaced by some shady government conspiracy organization.
Another thing that wasn?t too bad was Jaime?s rebellious deaf sister. It was the only element in this production that had any heart. However upon seeing the 2nd version of the pilot the deaf sister was replaced by an annoying bratty whiny computer hacker (how original) so I guess this wasn?t even worth mentioning.
IMO if this show needs to succeed, they have to find better writers who knows how to explore the psychological trauma of becoming Bionic and the human condition as apposed to exploring dark government covert mumble jumbo because the conspiracy type thing has been done to death and had been done far better as well like on The X-Files for example.
I doubt any of the current reworks and/or tweaking can save this production because we all know the old saying... No matter how well you polish a turd, it?s still just a turd.
The original series starring Lyndsay Wagner, had more heart and her character had more depth and was more likable. Although the original series is somewhat dated, I find it to be more superior on many levels.