Bionic Woman

Ming

Ming

Well-known member
Holy smokes... they snagged Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) for the role of the evil experimental revision 1 bionic woman prototype. Awesome! She's totally badass too, perfect casting. I'm a little jealous and concerned that they're stealing her away from BSG but -whatever, it's Katee on primetime top 3.

I used to watch this show as a kid and had a gigantic crush on Lindsay Wagner, the original Jamie Summers. The new one wasn't -all- bad. The first episode was so crammed with obvious plot devices there was little any time for anything else. (little sister, lover-scientist bionic woman maker with a presumed dead father who's been held captive in a sekret underground gulag, missing bionic woman's dad who's a drunk "activist," duplicitous agents, "terminated- cough" preganancy, the list goes on and on.

Did I mention Katee Sackhoff? They also snagged Aaron Douglas (Tyrol from BSG)

The show afterward, Life, was really good. It might actually last.
 
well, it is made by the BSG people, so I dunno if snagged is the right word. but that is also why I have high hopes for this show.
 
Ah.. I didn't research at all. How completely depressing, really now that you mention it. Going from something as epic as BSG to something as droll as one woman's quest to save herself and the world from "the man." C'mon. The cylon characters Number 6 and Sharon alone, have faced every crisis of conscience the Bionic Woman will ever dream of facing. Whatever.. need more coffee.
 
yeah well, so many great shows have had bad pilots, I don;t even worry about it anymore. The pilot to Buffy was basically unwatchable, but I think that turned into one of the best shows TV has ever produced. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Also, remember, they are making this FOR NBC. Which means, the network probably has its say. BSG was produced through SCI-FI and SkyTV(a british network), and star trek TNG(also by same producers) was produced by paramount under the authority of Gene Roddenberry), so they had more freedom in the past.

I'll give them time.
 
Being a nerd is so hard sometimes. Why couln't they just leave BSG alone. I'd rather watch characters in the BSG universe wheeling themselves around the old folks home with fond cutbacks to seasons 1-13 than having it parted out like this for some mainstream crapfest. I'm beyond cynical since Farscape got the axe. Okay if they brought over Ben and Claudia to the Bionic Woman as main characters perhaps? And why not Nigel. He could be the evil genius (always off screen or in profile....well okay maybe not profile being Nigel... but we'd know who that voice behind the Bionics Program belonged to.)
 
well, not me. To me, BSG gets bad when they have too many episodes. I thought seasons 2 and 3 went so far off the rails, compared to season 1(which was edge of seat material every episode). I think they do better when they don't have so much time for soap opera junk, or random episodes like "Black Market" which introduce some aspect of the fleet we've never seen before and then never see again...
 
I guess I'm just a sucker for shows that never end. If I had my way I'd see The Wheel of Time series with all the characters of Six Feet Under, Deadwood, Farscape, BSG, LoTR, and hell toss in Samuel Jackson somewhere, preferably in a role he doesn't fit at all.

Clip of Katee called "Emmy After Party:KateeSackoff" being interviewed on working both BSG and BW on the same lot. Asked about viewers saying she basically stole the entire first episode of BW, "A hero is only as good as their villian."
 
Last edited:
I think this pilot was a mixed bag, but as pointed out above, most pilots aren't that great. However, I do think they shot their load too early storywise, which will be a future problem. The show doesn't have any real mystery at this point. Everything was too explained for the audience up front. I would have rather seen this go more a Bourne Identity route, where she's on the run and has to figure things out for herself. Basically the stakes aren't high enough for Jamie Summers to make me want to keep watching her, whereas Lost had such a compelling pilot it's kept me watching even when the show's gone off the rails, which it has quite often.
 
yeah, but they may have been counting on the fact that everyone knows the story already. I mean they kind of did the same thing in the BSG miniseries. They told all of the background info about the cylons and the war, etc up front. I think their motives are different.

If BSG is the model, or even Star Trek TNG, they are more interested in character and metaphor than they are suspense, say. Again, everyone knows who the bionic woman is already, and I think they bank on that.

These guys are doing some of the best, most important work on TV, so again, I'll give them a chance.
 
Mmmmm . . . best, maybe, in certain categories (character-driven writing, production design). Not sure about "important" in any real sense (but what on TV really is?).

I find I'm growing tired of the "super-flawed hero" which Moore and Eick seem to love. I'm a big BSG fan, but there comes a point where you stop believing that some of the characters could successfully tie their own shoes, let alone save humanity, as wrecked as they are.

Seems like Eick's sorta giving the same treatment to BW.
 
The pilot last night of BW was one of the worst things I have ever seen on TV. Simply horrible. Unbelievably wooden writing, non-existent makeup, disjointed crap.
 
Mark Harris said:
I mean they kind of did the same thing in the BSG miniseries. They told all of the background info about the cylons and the war, etc up front. I think their motives are different.

If BSG is the model, or even Star Trek TNG, they are more interested in character and metaphor than they are suspense, say. Again, everyone knows who the bionic woman is already, and I think they bank on that.

These guys are doing some of the best, most important work on TV, so again, I'll give them a chance.
Click to expand...
BSG is head and shoulders above BW, at least from what I saw of the pilot. After being consistently impressed by the production on BSG, I was stunned by the godawful production of BW.
 
David Jimerson said:
Mmmmm . . . best, maybe, in certain categories (character-driven writing, production design). Not sure about "important" in any real sense (but what on TV really is?).
Click to expand...

That's a pretty flip statement, and not very well thought out. So then, what is important "in any real sense," if not what most people in the country fill their minds with?

If you're going to say that, then what in any entertainment is "important?" But I think it is. BSG had the balls to use their writing to make statements about what they felt and believed in, at a time when many other shows used their writing to suck a lot of cock.

Whether you agree with them or not, it's important that it is not simply mindless garbage, and it is what they believe. TV is one of the most powerful tools in the history of Man, and the most relevant cultural landscape of the last century, so yeah, shows like BSG are important because they use stories to communicate actual ideas rather than to beat you down and sap your mind.

Same with something like the Daily Show. That's another example of a show I would call important.

I'm putting a smiley in here so I don't get banned(again)

:)

Anyway, my whole point in this thread is to say I am willing to give them a shot to get this thing up and running, based on their past performance.
 
Mark Harris said:
yeah, but they may have been counting on the fact that everyone knows the story already. I mean they kind of did the same thing in the BSG miniseries. They told all of the background info about the cylons and the war, etc up front. I think their motives are different.

If BSG is the model, or even Star Trek TNG, they are more interested in character and metaphor than they are suspense, say. Again, everyone knows who the bionic woman is already, and I think they bank on that.
Click to expand...

Who under 35 really knows who the bionic woman is? Yeah, they know she's bionic, and that she's a woman, but that's all most people know and remember. They could have gone a hundred more dramatically intriguing ways with the premise then they did. You know you're in trouble when the villain is a far more interesting character than the heroine.
 
Mark Harris said:
That's a pretty flip statement, and not very well thought out. So then, what is important "in any real sense," if not what most people in the country fill their minds with?

If you're going to say that, then what in any entertainment is "important?" But I think it is. BSG had the balls to use their writing to make statements about what they felt and believed in, at a time when many other shows used their writing to suck a lot of cock.

Whether you agree with them or not, it's important that it is not simply mindless garbage, and it is what they believe. TV is one of the most powerful tools in the history of Man, and the most relevant cultural landscape of the last century, so yeah, shows like BSG are important because they use stories to communicate actual ideas rather than to beat you down and sap your mind.

Same with something like the Daily Show. That's another example of a show I would call important.

I'm putting a smiley in here so I don't get banned(again)

:)

Anyway, my whole point in this thread is to say I am willing to give them a shot to get this thing up and running, based on their past performance.
Click to expand...

I guess it comes down to what you think is "important."

I don't think BSG is going to have any particularly noticeable cultural impact, which some TV shows do. It's gotten critical acclaim and has done pretty well in the ratings for a show on Sci-Fi channel, but I still surmise that the actual audience level isn't all that high. Will it seep in later and develop a big following like the original "Star Trek"? Maybe, but I doubt it. As great as it is, it's not really novel enough, and while it had a high "ripped from the headlines" factor to it, I don't think it really addressed all that many big-I issues -- at least, when it occasionally did, it didn't say anything new.

Seems to me that as for writing what they "believe in," they sorta went to pains not to take any particular sides on the various contemporary issues explored. True, lots of people read quite a bit into it, and were SURE they meant to say this or that, but I don't think they did anything so groundbreaking that anyone's really going to remember 10 years from now. It's not like being the first show to depict a well-integrated crew on what was, at the time, almost all-white TV, or anything comarable to that.

What it might do -- and already has to some extent -- is inspire some copycat shows.

Now, don't get me wrong; I love the show. I think its first two seasons were two of the best seasons of sci-fi television.
 
Bionic Woman was probably the most disappointing show I've seen this season. it was badly shot, badly edited, badly acted and the story was far too thin. I felt no compassion for the lead characters, their conversations were inane and unbelievable and the whole show stank of rush job and underfunding.

normally I try to support shows that are shot here in Van city but this was really bad. I'm surprised the BSG people didn't see the folly in this and do something about it.

remember the first episode of Alias? you were left feeling really bad for Sidney and you really identified with her. after watching the Bionic Woman pilot I was left with absolutely nothing.

and what the hell was that last conversation: "You have two choices: You lose or you die!" "OK, if we're going to do this we're doing it my way!" What the hell!!! she's the Bionic Woman for god's sake. she could just kill them all right there and get it over with. they don't have anything to threaten her with so why on earth would she go along with anything? and the modus operandi of the first Bionic Woman was nonexistent. AND they didn't really establish a true protagonist.

I'm giving this show one more try JUST because it's shot here in Vancouver and I like to see the waterfront and Granville Street on TV. But if it doesn't dramatically improve next Monday I'm going to watch Private Practice just out of spite!

mor10
 
As horrible as the BW pilot was, it won the night! BW beat "Grays Anatomy" spinoff "Private Practice" to be the #1 rated show of the evening.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top