I've been having something of a BW and SMDM revival over the last couple of months. I'm massively enjoying the two shows which I enjoyed as a kid. I had a lot of antipathy towards the new Bionic Woman show, but I caught a couple of trailers and part of an episode on Youtube this morning and I found myself quite interested by what I was watching. Nobody seems to have a good word to say about this show. What do the folks here think?
I liked it, and I wish the second half of the series was available on DVD, but only Volume One got released.
I thought the only good thing in it was Katee Sackhoff's rogue Bionic Woman...otherwise it was pretty terrible IMO.
I think there were some behind-the-scenes troubles with the show (revolving door of producers and writers?) that made it a problem child for the network. Coupled with ratings following its debut that were "meh" at best, in hindsight it's not surprising it got the axe. It seemed as if it couldn't decide whether it wanted to be more of a clone of the original Bionic Woman, Buffy, or Alias, IMO. I have to agree that Katte Sackhoff's character was more interesting than Michelle Ryan's lead character. I think it was a case of too many people who tuned in to for the debut quickly lost interest over subsequent episodes...
It had its moments but on the whole it just wasn't very good, bit of a confused mess really. Michelle Ryan wasn't great, but in fairness she was given a bland character to play and also slimmed down somewhat from her curvier UK looks, so she didn't even look as hot as she usually does!
EXTREMELY disappointing. It seemed like it might finally be coming together somehow at the end, but by then it was too late.
I agree that Sackhoff's character was the only thing that worked. I didn't like Ryan at all, and I liked her character even less. Really, it was misleading to call her character Jaime Sommers, because she was a profoundly different, far more unpleasant character. For that matter, I don't know why they even bothered to call it Bionic Woman -- particularly since they didn't give Kenneth Johnson a creator credit (and I'm surprised they could legally get away with that). They could've used a different title and main character name and kept everything else the same, and it would've functioned as a completely unrelated show rather than a remake. Sure, it had the broadly similar concept of a cybernetically enhanced woman working as a government agent, but it's not like there haven't been other shows with similar premises. This show was no more similar to the Lindsay Wagner show than Jake 2.0 was to The Six Million Dollar Man.
^ Christopher, I'm a little surprised by your comments there, for the simple reason that in other threads dealing with other remakes/ reboots/ adaptations etc, you've said things to the effect of 'This is an adaptation, why do you expect it to be exactly the same as the source material?' I happen to agree with that approach, that an adaptation can only be expected to take liberties. I haven't seen TBW remake so I can't comment on its quality, but why do you object to the retention of the name of the character and the show, given that it was, after all, a new version?
As with most things in life, it's a matter of degree, not black-and-white extremes. No, an adaptation isn't supposed to be an exact copy of the original. But it should try to capture the essence, the core sensibilities and meaning of the story. If you have to change the details and specifics of presentation in order to translate that essence and meaning for a new medium, that's fine. That's the nature of adaptation. But if you keep exactly two details -- the title and the main character's name -- and change everything else so profoundly that nothing of the essence of the original is preserved, then that doesn't constitute an adaptation. It's a separate concept, a separate character, with only the (literally) nominal pretense of commonality. It's not so much that I object to it as that I'm saying it was pointless. Why even bother to keep the same character name if it's a 100 percent different character? I have the same question about the current Human Target series. This is another show where they've kept exactly two things from the original -- the title and the main character's name -- and changed literally everything else. Indeed, HT goes even farther than Bionic Woman, in that it's changed the core premise so much that the title no longer even applies. DC Comics' Human Target was a master of disguise who protected people from assassination by taking over their identities, making himself the target. The guy in the show is just a bodyguard. Some people refer to the show as Human (Standing Next to the) Target. It has so little in common with the thing it's allegedly based on that one seriously has to wonder why they even bothered to pay a license fee for the use of the title and main character name rather simply change those two things and market it as an original show. Although on one level I do object to calling Ryan's thoroughly obnoxious character "Jaime Sommers," because I think that does a disservice to the original Jaime Sommers, who was a delightful character. But that's strictly a personal reaction.
I thought it was a good idea executed poorly. However I still found it watchable. I think what rained hate down on this show is that it wasn't what people expected a show named 'Bionic Woman' to be. If it had a different title, with the lead character named something else, people may have been more receptive.
Well, it's true that it didn't live up to the name, but I wouldn't have found Michelle Ryan or her character appealing regardless of the name she'd used.
Christopher expressed it very well. Bland actress, bland show. Lindsay Wagner, so bright and full of life, is a difficult act to follow
It was my understanding that that was the complete run. The cancelled it before any more were filmed. As for the show, it was another idiotic remake. Particuarly stupid was the addition of Kate Sachoff in the role of the psycho "first Bionic Woman" who went bad.
Production was halted at eight episodes, but it was because of the 2007 writers' strike, not cancellation. NBC said that the show would resume production once the strike ended. (This is probably why the US DVD release is labeled "Volume 1.") However, they changed their minds, presumably due to the show's low ratings. They never formally cancelled it, they just didn't bother to resume production. But the upshot is, yes, the series is only eight episodes long, and it has been released on DVD in its entirety. Actually that was the most interesting part of the show. I would've liked the show a lot better if it had centered on Sackhoff's character instead of Ryan's.
In Ryan's defense, I thought she was much better on MERLIN. Seems more like a case of "good actress stuck playing bland character."