Bionic Woman

Post by **Fist and Faith** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 11:16 am

Starts Sept 26! Looks like she has the eye this time. Heh.
www.nbc.com/Bionic_Woman/

Post by **Fist and Faith** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 11:37 am

OH wow, I didn't realize Starbuck was in it!

Post by **[Syl]** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 1:05 pm

"Struggling as a bartender and surrogate mom to her teenage sister..."

That reads about 8.1 on my lame-meter.

I guess "Bob, a transient accidentally crushed by falling trash in Monday's morning pick-up..." didn't focus well.

*checks producer credits* If it wasn't for that, I could ignore the recurring theme of making the formerly male bad-ass a woman.

Post by **dlbpharmd** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 1:27 pm

I'll definitely be checking this out.

Post by **Cail** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 2:04 pm

Looks really, really weak. I'll give it a try, since BSG manages to rise above the lame factor, but I'm expecting this to totally suck.

Post by **High Lord Tolkien** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 3:01 pm

I downloaded it already.
It sucks.

Post by **Fist and Faith** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 3:16 pm

Well, I'd heard the BSG people were doing a new BW, and was very hopeful. I'll certainly watch at least a few episodes.

Post by **dlbpharmd** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 3:40 pm

Can it really be that bad? The way I see it, the show is bound to be better than 50% of the crap on the air now.

Post by **bloodguard bob** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 4:33 pm

I think I'd rather watch the original again.

Post by **Cail** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 4:42 pm

"Struggling as a bartender and surrogate mom to her teenage sister..."

That's a mission statement, and it's lame. Another Sarah Connor-clone with a BS subplot about empowering wymyn or some crap like that. Not interested. There's so many cool things to be done with the premise (which, to be fair, is relatively weak itself), that it's just sad and weak to fall back on this now-tired cliché.

Look, I'm all for empowered women, but when the first line of a show's plot summary is the above, that completely turns me off.

Post by **A Gunslinger** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 4:50 pm

Cail wrote:"Struggling as a bartender and surrogate mom to her teenage sister..."

That's a mission statement, and it's lame. Another Sarah Connor-clone with a BS subplot about empowering wymyn or some crap like that. Not interested. There's so many cool things to be done with the premise (which, to be fair, is relatively weak itself), that it's just sad and weak to fall back on this now-tired cliché.

Look, I'm all for empowered women, but when the first line of a show's plot summary is the above, that completely turns me off.

Agreed. The empowerment thing can be accopmlished without reaching elbow deep into the scak of cliche's. The whole "single woman on her own " thing has been done to death. I think that's why the character in the NBC show "Medium" was so embraced.

Here is a strong female...empowered...but also part of a family. Her strength is granted via character development, rather than MADe for her via cheap plot point.

Post by **Edge** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 5:45 pm

For strong female characters, I'll stick to re-watching Buffy for now... at least until something original comes along, not just another role-remake with a gender-switch.

Post by **Cail** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 8:21 pm

There actually was a Bionic Woman series back in the '70s. It wasn't all that good.

What makes BSG so good (for me, at least) is the story. This is why I didn't care to much for this last season; the writing was nowhere near as good as the first two. The source material was a hopelessly cheesy family show; Moore and Eick have done a good job turning BSG into a good political yarn in space.

This just looks like soapboxing, and a me-too reply to the upcoming Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Post by **ItisWritten** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 5:41 pm

The whole "single woman on her own " thing has been done to death.

Done to death? In the last 10 years, I'd agree, but that's because it was so seldom done before that. Strong female characters like Sarah Connor and Ripley were a rarity. Now they're not. Coming up with something original is not in Hollywood's resume. I'll settle for well-written.

BW is not on my watch list because I don't like serious cheese. Fun cheese I can handle, which is how we got interested in Buffy.

Post by **matrixman** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 8:51 pm

I'll be tuning in out of pure curiosity, just to see what kind of makeover they've done. The Bionic Woman and the Six Million Dollar Man were two of my favorite shows as a kid.

Cail wrote:"Struggling as a bartender and surrogate mom to her teenage sister..."

That's a mission statement, and it's lame. Another Sarah Connor-clone with a BS subplot about empowering wymyn or some crap like that. Not interested. There's so many cool things to be done with the premise (which, to be fair, is relatively weak itself), that it's just sad and weak to fall back on this now-tired cliché.

I have to agree, it does sound pretty lame. Like you say, I was hoping for a show that would exploit the cool possibilities (of being a 21st century bionic super agent). I don't want a soap opera about domestic issues.

A bartender? I don't remember what Jaime Sommers's profession was in the original series, but bartender isn't exactly inspiring (no offense to any bartenders).

And it's certainly a far cry from Colonel Steve Austin, experimental test pilot. I did wonder why they decided to revive Bionic Woman instead of Six Million Dollar Man, but I guess it's the female empowerment thing. I'm all for the idea of it, but like Cail said, I wouldn't want the show to become a political soapbox.

Post by **dlbpharmd** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 8:53 pm

A bartender? I don't remember what Jaime Sommers's profession was in the original series, but bartender isn't exactly inspiring (no offense to any bartenders).

She was a professional tennis player.

Post by **Cail** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 9:23 pm

FWIW, if anyone remembers the pilot for the original Six Million Dollar Man, it was awesome. The show degenerated from there, but the original premise was really, really cool.

Post by **wayfriend** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 10:45 pm

Yep. I miss the days when we had a $6M man and a bionic woman and a man from atlantis and a guy who had to wear a watch or else he was invisible and all those kinds of shows. (What others?)

There was sort of a resurgence a while back. We had an early addition and a quantum leap guy and a guy who could do any job. And Knight Rider.

Now we have Heroes. Maybe its all coming back again. A sign of the times ... the world is impossible for regular people, we need superheroes to rescue us, or something.

Post by **matrixman** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 10:55 pm

You sound a tad sarcastic, Wayfriend.

Am I reading you right?

I just know that bionic guys and gals are darn cool. Yes, even bionic dogs. Remember Max?

I don't think I ever saw the pilot for Six Million Dollar Man.

Thanks, dlb. Pro tennis player. Hmmm...she could've went back to that after her "operation" and had a stellar career. 200 km/h bionic serve, anyone?

Post by **Cail** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 1:06 am

Just to be clear, I have no issue at all with strong, independent female characters.

But think of the possibilities that today's technology offers for a bionic spy. I don't care about the bionic mom.

Kevin's Watch

Kevin's Watch

Bionic Woman

Bionic Woman