Bionic Woman: Episode One Preview

Bionic Woman certainly begins with a big bang. The first scene is an attention grabber. Hint. Think Quentin Tarintino's Kill Bill. "Bang bang, he shot me down Bang bang, I hit the ground Bang bang."

Next, it goes into a forced Gilmore Girls type scene between the protagonist Jamie Sommers (Michelle Ryan) and her younger sister Becca Sommers(played by Lucy Hale). Jamie took Becca in after dad abandoned them. Of course, one day during a sweeps month, Dad will return. And I'm sure younger sister Becca will make fodder for villains with bondage fantasies. But let's not go into the future, let's concentrate on the present.

The premise of the show is slightly introduced as the consort/ lead male is introduced. He's a "professor" at a college and teaching a lecture on body augmentations. Very timely for the camera to catch that for the studio audience.

Seven minutes into the show, you notice how quick the transitions are between scenes. The writers perform a quick info dump during character dialogue at dinner, to build sympathy for the next scene. The car accident you've seen in all the commercials and promo spots, it occurs. And immediately after the gruesome crash, that is no accident by the way, the show finally gets it's first spark of life.

Once they get to the wonderful teaser moment of Jamie in the hospital seeing her bionic implants for the first time, it's all uphill from there. The effort and plodding for premise mostly complete, the show is allowed to shine.

Molly Price (3rd Watch) is Ruth Treadwell, a mysterious government liaison. Honestly, she always appeared awkward to me on 3rd Watch. No longer. Here, she belongs. She eats up the scenery.

Bionic Woman is rife with the Black Ops Government Programs that is necessary for technology such as this to be believable. Then the obligatory Indie mood music montage as the Bionic Woman goes through the emotional discovery of self. It becomes a subtle homage to previous hero standards. You might recognize classic moments from the first Spiderman movie, as well as the first Superman movie. Watching Jaimie come to terms with her powers puts Smallville to shame.

When the fighting sequences occur one should notice two things. First, how well done the choreography is. Second, unnaturally skilled Jamie is in combat. As far as her fight or flight response, they also explain how it's heightened. Yadda, yadda, yadda, microchip implanted in the cerebral cortex.

Bionic Woman is a satisfying show. Something NBC must be proud of. I expect David Eick to garner the commercial success that his previous remake, Battlestar Galactica, never recieved. It has a very like able protagonist in Jamie Sommers. An intriguing lead villain, Sarah Corvis played by former Galactica actress Katee Sachoff. A strong premise, that's even easier for John and Jane Q. Public to grasp because it's a remake of a pop culture icon. The secret weapon is the solid ensemble cast. If Michelle Ryan can't anchor this show alone, the writers can always take a page from Lost and Heroes and explore the connected history and motivations of the fine cast of actors.

Bionic Woman. In spite of the early bad reviews, I give it a thumbs up. I promise you much fanfare and hype as the series goes forth.