I sort of saw the Bionic Woman pilot Wednesday night; we were playing City of Heroes and chatting on Skype so my attention was divided between fighting bad guys and cracking on my buddy Carl. So, I caught the repeat of it on the SciFi Channel tonight. I like how NBC reruns its cool shows that way.
Michelle Ryan, who is British, plays a pretty convincing Jamie Sommers, an American bartender, raising her teenaged sister and living in San Francisco. Her boyfriend, bio-nerd Will Anthros, has been targeted for death by the first Bionic Woman, Sarah Corvis, played by Battlestar Galactica's Katee Sackhoff. Corvis drives a semi right into Anthros' car, smashing it, but most of the damage is done to Jamie, who loses her right arm, both legs, right ear, and right eye. Anthros takes his love to his secret biotech facility and makes her better. Better, stronger, faster. Okay, sorry, I couldn't resist!
When Jamie awakes just after surgery, Will explains that "anthroscytes" are healing her. Sounds like coal to me, but whatever. After the secret society of super-scientists convene a meeting to determine whether or not to train Jamie, she hops up out of bed and walks around. Well, I guess they have made improvements to bionics since 1972. Steve Austin had to work at it.
Jamie soon escapes from the biotech facility, which looks like an old missile silo, and turns on the speed. No slow-mo for this Bionic Woman! They also did a nice little CSI-let's-look-inside-the-body camerawork, letting us see some of the action inside her bionic legs. Nice work!
Back home, she cues a music video and deals with her changes. She runs for the edge of the rooftop and does a Tobey Maguire off the roof. She feels alive! Jamie apologizes to her sister and they have a bad moment. Jamie goes back to work and her sensory enhancements kick in just about the time she meets Sarah Corvis. Next thing you know, she's puking up oil in the ladies'. Sarah is nice, though, and holds her hair. What a pal!
Naturally when she walks outside the bar, Jamie's attacked by a mugger. Gotta show off those bionics! She takes pity on the mugger and lets him go.
Jamie confronts Will about what has been done to her and he reveals that there are microchips in her head. She doesn't like that, so naturally they end up in bed together. Like in a bad horror movie, Will is immediately shot from a nearby rooftop by Corvis. Jamie gets him out of sight, and goes out to confront Sarah. She does a Greatest American Hero landing and goes hand-to-hand with Corvus. Like the Seven Million Dollar Man, Corvis has two bionic arms and an advantage. They have a Lethal Weapon closeup fight in the rain, and Corvis makes her escape.
Jamie meets her new boss Jonas Bledsoe, played by Miguel Ferrer, who is as cantankerous as ever. Some veiled and not-so-veiled threats later, Jamie walks away with her freedom.
It wasn't bad as a first episode goes. It introduces the characters adequately and sets up the relationships that we can watch for later. I just hope that this more of a re-envisioning like Battlestar Galactica was. I'll definitely watch more episodes.
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