Oct
Bionic Woman Seeking More Help
Written by Brenda on October 29th, 2007
I have to say with each episode of Bionic Woman I have been more impressed with the show. It has in my mind progressively come into its own, however many feel that it still needs some fine tuning. But that makes sense, any new show really does need time to find its niche. Well to help with the process go a bit smoother, which means yes there has been yet another behind the scene change. Here is what IGN TV had to say about the surprising addition:
The Hollywood Reporter says that writer Jason Cahill is joining the series as the new showrunner. Cahill is a veteran of The Sopranos, which won him a WGA (Writers Guild of America) award for the episode “Meadowlands.” Cahill recently served as co-executive producer on CBS’s new drama Cane.
The Reporter confirms a recent report on aintitcool.com saying that the writers’ room at Bionic Woman has most recently been run by Friday Night Lights executive producer Jason Katims, but contradicts another aspect of the Aint it Cool story, which said Bionic executive producer Jason Smilovic had left the project after Katims was brought in. In articles discussing Cahill’s new job, the Hollywood Reporter and TV Guide both list Smilovic (along with Battlestar Galactica’s David Eick) as still with the show.
There have been a ton of changes to Bionic Woman’s writing/producing staff in the few months it’s been in production, including the departure of Glen Morgan (The X-Files) and Katims being brought in as a “consultant”, who then was quickly made showrunner, albeit on a temporary basis, with Cahill now filling that role. Meanwhile the show has dropped a substantial amount in the ratings since its strong debut. With this latest addition to the staff it seems NBC is still invested in the series, though it remains to be seen if Cahill can be the unifying force the show needs for both its ratings and its on-screen content, which has suffered some criticism.
Although to me the constant shuffling of writers and such seems to causing more problems then solving it should interesting to see how these changes effect the show throughout the season.
It would have been much better if they hadn’t tried changing the show from an uplifting statement about humanities union with our machines, like the original, into the bleakest thing since Blade Runner and Chucky. The original worked because it wasn’t about hunting robots, it was about technology making life better. It’s the escapades of a believably human covert agent, not Blade Runner meets Chucky.