"Bionic Woman" shows promise in muscular debut
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Bionic Woman" is back -- and without the superfluous definite article.
The 1970s original starred Lindsay Wagner and was replete with those cheeseball slow-motion special effects. The cheese is gone, along with Wagner, replaced by sleek and spare visual wizardry and a very-easy-on-the-eye star in Michelle Ryan. She plays Jaime Sommers as more conflicted and vulnerable than did her predecessor, and the opener delivers the goods as a promising, if at times hackneyed, piece of foreboding drama.
The premise is familiar: A woman suffers what would normally be fatal injuries in an accident but wakes from surgery only slightly the worse for wear. In Jamie's case, her survival stems from the intervention of her boyfriend, Will Anthros (Chris Bowers), who had just proposed to her following her disclosure of being pregnant with his baby.
Will does top-secret work for the government involving the creation of indestructible soldiers. He fits Jaime with bionic body parts that afford her the superhuman ability to outrun cars and beat thugs to within an inch of their lives.
In the mostly well-crafted opening teleplay from executive producer Laeta Kalogridis, Jaime is a reluctant soldier who inevitably feels freaked out. It doesn't help that a rogue loose cannon named Sarah Corvis (Katee Sackhoff) had been turned bionic before Jaime.
By the end of the hour, Sarah's murderous impulses mixed with the unsubtle persuasion of bionic lab boss Jonas Bledsoe (the ever-dependable Miguel Ferrer) will convince Jaime that it's her destiny to become a secret weapon of the feds. It's a big change from tending bar in a chic nightclub and playing surrogate mom to your little sister (Lucy Kate Hale), but what the heck.
It's clear from literally the first frame that this isn't going to be your mommy and daddy's "Bionic Woman." Under Michael Dinner's steady directorial hand, it's dark, tense and conspiratorial, a far cry from the camp sci-fi tricks of its predecessor.
Much of the credit for the new edition's well-crafted effectiveness goes to executive producer David Eick, who pulled off a similar renovation with his acclaimed reimagining of "Battlestar Galactica" on Sci Fi Channel. As our new heroine, Ryan has the stuff to make it work even better than the first time around as long as it can overcome the challenges of one of TV's more competitive time periods. The production team also will need to guard against the temptation to graft on the dopey dialogue, which doesn't work nearly as well now as it did back in '76.
Cast:
Jaime Sommers: Michelle Ryan
Jonas Bledsoe: Miguel Ferrer
Ruth Truewell: Molly Price
Will Anthros: Chris Bowers
Jae Kim: Will Yun Lee
Becca: Lucy Kate Hale
Dr. Anthony Anthros: Mark Sheppard
Sarah Corvis: Katee Sackhoff
Executive producers: David Eick, Jason Smilovic, Laeta Kalogridis, Michael Dinner; Co-executive producer: Dave Barrett; Producers: Howard Grigsby, Kamran Pasha, Lindsay Sturman; Supervising producers: Melissa Byer, Treena Hancock; Consulting producers: Darin Morgan, Jon Cowan, Robert Rovner; Teleplay: Laeta Kalogridis; Director: Michael Dinner; Director of photography: Rob McLachlan; Production designer: Mark Freeborn; Costume designer: Tish Monaghan; Editors: Barry Zetlin, Jim Coblentz, Augie Hess; Music: Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman; Sound mixer: Eric Batut; Casting: Eric Dawson, Coreen Mayrs.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
