Bionic Woman Pilot Review

Bionic Woman is, like its creator David Eick's first baby Battlestar Galactica, an updated version of an old, and cheesy, sci-fi show. In it, bartender Jaime (Michelle Ryan) is in a car accident with her scientist boyfriend Chris. Not only does she lose the child she's carrying, she loses an arm, two legs, an eye, and an ear.

She wakes up... dun dun dun... bionic.

This apparently means that there are "anthrocytes" in her blood that help her to heal super-fast, and fake replacement limbs that look just like the regular shapely ones she was born with but have super-strength, an ear that apparently has super-hearing (I wasn't quite clear on the details of that one), and also some kind of optical interface that identifies potential enemies. But the group owning this technology, which her boyfriend is a part of, wants her to help them with their mission and make her a weapon or a military asset of some sort. However, Chris helps her run away back to her old life with her younger sister and job at a bar. Meanwhile, Katee Sackhoff shows up as Sarah Corvis, the first Bionic Woman, and helps Jaime discover her powers.

I have to admit, the pilot was pretty damn cheesy. I'd expected something grittier, trained by BSG to expect David Eick to make me cry, and instead it was like, "ooh, funky camera work... ooh, girlfight, yay." Which is fine, and quite fun in its own way. And the relationship between Jaime, who's solidly living in the real world, and Chris, who's mired in scientific research, military secrets, and the university bubble, could be interesting to explore now that things have changed between them. I'd kind of like to know more about her optical interface too, because it kind of seems right now like it's just green circles around people's faces and random series of numbers.

The question is, I think, what is this about? So she has superpowers now, and she has to fight not to be used as a weapon. I don't want to be hit on the head repeatedly by a large anvil with The Themes written on it in big letters, but I think what was lacking was a sense of deeper urgency and meaning.

In Summary: I'd recommend people to watch and wait on this one. It certainly has potential, but at this point there's no contest: on Wednesday nights at 9, I'll be watching Gossip Girl, and waiting for Bionic Woman to come online instead.