Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
28
Nov
Written by Brenda on November 28th, 2007
It has been another layoff since the last episode, this is part of the holidays, but we also know that the show is struggling, we may have lost one of the strongest assets of the show with Katee Sackoff threatening to leave the show. With Katee making a possible exit this could leave the show in all sorts of problems. In fact many are saying tonight’s episode could possibly be the final episode for the new Bionic Woman. So how does Bionic Woman “possibly” go out?
We see at the begining of the episode that Jaime is having a lot of problems with the death of Antonio (played by Isaiah Washington) so she is given the order to take sometime off. On her way to vacation in Montana in a very nice resort (looks relaxing to me) but to make a drop off of a briefcase while she is there. She drops of the briefcase, her cell phone is taken away by her sister, and it looks like a week of relaxtion, right? Well of course not, the guy who Jaime drops the briefcase off to is dead and she looks at the briefcase and finds out that there is a man at the resort who is selling a new nuclear technology to North Korea.
So we figure out real quick that this wasn’t what you would consider a vacation of R&R, however we see htat Jaime still has not stomach for killing people. She has clear shot with a sniper rifle to take out the nuclear specialist but she can’t pull the trigger. So she makes things a lot more complicated and a lot more difficult. She takes the man captive, drives away with him, almost gets blown up by a bomb in her car, and has to take out further enemies to get them out of here.
The end of the episode shows Jaime held up by the decision of whether or not she wants to tell her sister about her being Bionic. She ends up telling her that someone died at her work and that is effecting her, however you know she wants to tell her the truth but doesn’t.
If this does end up being the final episode, we can’t say it went out on a high note. This was the last show produced before the writers strike, so we won’t know the status of the show until after that, unless NBC decides to pull the plug which is a possibility. It’s a shame because Bionic Woman started out strong but with each subsequent episode the acting, the writing, and the plot lines just went downhill, hopefully if the show does come back it goes back to less family problems and more action. We shall have to wait and see.
14
Nov
Written by Brenda on November 14th, 2007
Trust Issues is one of those episodes that had a lot of potential going into it, from the previews it sure seemed like an episode full of questions and answers. The plot of Bionic Woman has been hurting a bit, viewers are just not connecting, and I think a lot of it has to do with the uneven storylines. Unfortunately Trust Issues doesn’t trust its cast well enough to really allow this plot line to develop. Trust Issues starts off with Jaime having her new love interest Tom, over for dinner with her sister, which lasts about a minute, and Jaime is called in for business. If there is to be a relationship for Jaime, no matter who it is, it is going to be a tough sell with her schedule.
So the big storyline involves Jaime and Antonio and some high powered sniper rifles which can shoot from over two miles away. Now that is what I call power. Anyways Antonio is acting fishy, he finds out about the location of a foreign president’s plane before anyone at the agency has found out, and then we see him go to a motel and it seems as though he is talking with the assassin. We find out later that he knew the assassin from previous assignments and doesn’t want to pull the trigger on a former friend.
Antonio hesitates when pulling the trigger on the assassin and gets shot in the process. It is one of those things that happens so fast that your not sure how deadly the wound was, but we all know Isaiah Washington’s role was temporary, and we see Antonio die in the ambulance only a few minutes after being shot. You know they hyped this episode up as being a big episode, but the big climax was really quite disappointing. Like many of the episodes in the past, Trust Issues has all the makings for a true November episode, but it has far to many holes in the plot to really keep you interested.
7
Nov
Written by Brenda on November 7th, 2007
So we are back with the latest Bionic Woman, this comes after last week’s week off being that it was Halloween. This week we see Jaime make a trip over to Paris, and she gets to choose one CIA agent to have accompany her on this trip. The reason for this is there is this “list” (hint the name) that has a ton of names that could put a lot of people at risk. So Jaime takes Tom (her guy interest from the last episode) and they are off to Paris. The two go to a party where they need to locate the one with the list. We get to see them use Jaime’s abilities to first locate the guy with the list and then get them out of a jam.
Tom and Jaime got into a big fight with who they thought were the owners of the list but were unfortunatley dissapointed and seperated at the same time. Not only did they get the wrong guy, but Tom was separated from Jaime and held hostage. Now it is time for Jaime to go get him back. You know I have really enjoyed the fight scenes so far in the season, but this episode wasn’t as satisfying. We see Jaime take out a few bad guys and it just felt like a bit of a rehash of to many fights.
The List was a big disappointment for me. I really thought the episode would have shed more light on expanding the storyline. The only question I have about this episode is does Jaime’s sister know about Jaime and her being Bionic. I was really missing Bionic last week, but this episode didn’t grab my attention the way that many have in the past. Hopefully next week proves to be a better episode.
24
Oct
Written by Brenda on October 24th, 2007
This episode among many others started off with a big bang, a POW that was just rescued wakes up and murders all of his fellow comrades. We find out that there is some sort of depression chip that goes into these POW’s heads that makes them turn on there own friends and kill them, as the show said a walking car bomb. So Jaime get’s the call that she has to go back to college, and pretends to be from England. Stellar writing for the show because as we all know Michelle Ryan is a British actress so this is right up her alley.
The big question comes up and a buddy of mine who likes Bionic Woman and watched tonight’s episode and with Jaime having a British accent it makes you wonder why they couldn’t have just let her keep it. It actually gave the show an edge. I think I speak for many of us, we don’t need to here her speak American, we don’t have that style that a British accent holds. I think this was a bad decision by the makers of Bionic Woman not to just let Michelle Ryan keep her accent in the show.
With that rant to the side Jaime gets a bit of a love interest in the episode but as soon as you start to see something develop it is immediately stopped when we find out that he is the one with these chips that are subsequently used to kill innocent soldiers. The love interest ends up being an undercover CIA agent who is after the same goal as Jaime and they get it done in a very nice fight scene. One thing I have noticed with the fight scenes is that she is rather predictable. Each fight seems to have two dodges and then she attacks. Why can’t Jaime go for the attack? This was another very solid episode for Bionic Woman, it wasn’t as action packed as last week, but as you can see from the next episode, Jaime has a new love interest and he’s in the CIA.
17
Oct
Written by Brenda on October 17th, 2007
This episode starts off pretty strong, much like this previous episodes, however in this episode we see Jamie going after her sister and breaks a toe while she finds her sister making out with some guy. We then find Sarah playing a game of poker which was a setup to bring her back to the institution. The episode starts off extremely strong again with Jamie and Antonio are off to Paraguay off to save an American captive. We get to witness a lot of Jamie learning her skills something that has been a point of interest since the begining of the show.
One of the things we have seen quite often in this show is Jamie being lied to. Antonio tells Jamie that they are going to Paraguay for saving a man, however when they get there they see that wasn’t necessarily the plan and Jamie won’t have any of that and saves the guy on her own getting shot while she is at it. The man she saves (name I am not sure of) happens to be a surgeon so he manages to remove the bullet from Jamie’s shoulder. What was interesting was the information that comes out of this, and that is that the files he wasn’t supposed to read, showed a five year plan, but instead five year life span for a Bionic. That is not the news Jamie was hoping to hear.
The man that Jamie helped ends up ditching her with all of the information that could make more Bionic’s and help her get more then five years. This sense of trust echoes throughout Faceoff, and in fact much of what you find with Jamie and her sister has echoed the issue of trust, something that has actually worsened with each week.
Faceoff was the kind of episode that started off strong and ended with a bit to be desired. I enjoyed the episode that’s for sure, however I did want to see a bit more insight into Jamie and Sarah. Sarah is captured and then somehow the metal that restrained her wasn’t thick enough and she was out free again. All in all another great episode for Bionic Woman, which makes us look forward to see where this episodes developments take us next week.
10
Oct
Written by Brenda on October 10th, 2007
So if you read my review of episode 2, you know I loved the episode, it really built upon the pilot episode and carried a solid feel from start to finish. Episode 3, titled Sisterhood has the same solid start, watching Jamieout to lunch with her sister. She is given an assignment during her lunch, and she instantly goes takes care of a job, and get’s back to life with little to no problem.
What was really interesting about this episode was this connection between the two Bionic Women, Sarah and Jamie. Sarah obviously has a few screws loose, she really needs Jamie, but the trust between the two isn’t necessarily there at the start of the episode. We also learn more about Jamie, her family, and the fact that Jonis had placed a camera in her eye so they could track Jamie at any time. There was some great conversation between Jonis and Jamie at the top half of the show, some of the best stuff of the series thus far.
Jamie is stuck babysitting some sort of important Canadian girl, and of course she is a big pill to swallow. Jamie briefly looses her, but uses her amazing hearing to find her in a nearby tattoo parlor. The mission for Jamie in this episode is rather bare, and as of the first half of the show doesn’t really have a significant impact on the episode.
There is a moment in this episode that I think the ant Isaiah Washington crowd will love to see. Jamie is continuing to train and trying to learn to let loose away from what is already installed in her brain to become less predictable. Isaiah’s character Antonio Pope tries to get her to let it out and gets beat down in the process. I am sure T.R. Knight from Greys Anatomy wouldn’t mind watching that one!
Jamie continues to watch out for the Canadian rich girl who is requiring Jamie’s protection, the two go to the nail salon and guess who shows up, Sarah! She warns Jamie of the upcoming bad guys who are ready to take the Canadian girl. Jamie and Sarah team up for an awesome action sequence one of the best so far this series.
The conclusion of this week’s episode leaves us with the biggest cliffhanger thus far this season as well. Sarah comes to Jamie’s house pretends to be a neighbor and gives Jamie’s sister some sort of sleeping pill. Jamie and Sarah have this final stand off where the two obviously are coming to blows in the coming weeks, Sarah needs Jamie to live, and Jamie doesn’t trust Sarah at all. Sisterhood continues to improve on the last two episodes, and makes for the best episode this season. This episode continued to improve on the flow of the show as well as creating one of the most entertaining experiences of the season. This was a great episode of Bionic Woman!
3
Oct
Written by Brenda on October 3rd, 2007
Paradise Lost starts right where the first episode of Bionic Woman left off. At the end of the first episode we saw Will, Jamie’s future husband get shot, and now at the start of the second episode, Jamie is attending his funeral. This was a start to the show that I was not expecting by any stretch. Jamie goes back after the funeral to his apartment and finds quickly a file that holds information all about her, two years before they even met. The start of this episode of Bionic Woman was fantastic, it really grabbed my attention right out of the gate, and started even stronger then in the premiere episode.
I think one thing that Bionic Woman needed to do was to bring Isaiah Washington in the show as soon as possible, in order to get that controversy out of the way, and he gets into this second episode rather quickly. Jamie is struggling with the loss of Will but ends up saving a woman who was going to commit suicide. She also gets to know Isaiah Washington’s character in a bookstore who influences her to become all that she can be. After saving the woman from committing suicide Jamie gets the buzz to want to save the world and thus the show continues. Isaiah Washington doesn’t have a major role, but is Jamie’s supervisor, and will be in charge of her training.
Speaking of training, Jamie’s training will never be compared to that of Rocky Balboa, there was no Eye of the Tiger, but then again watching Michelle Ryan do the one arm pull ups was a real treat. The main focus of the episode outside of Jamie’s decision to join the agency, was the town of Paradise where we are left with a town with everyone left dead outside of one young girl. The town has been attacked with a biological weapon that Jamie’s new employer actually created. There is some sort of insurgence in the town as well and Jamie gets into a hand to hand combat action with one guy in an extremely memorable fight. In fact I was surprised to see how bad Jamie gets messed up in the fight.
If your still wondering what I thought on Paradise Lost, then let me put it into one word, fantastic. This episode of Bionic Woman not only improved upon last weeks first outing but made for one of the most enjoyable TV show episodes so far this fall. Paradise Lost got the timing down, it felt steady, interesting, and action packed. Isaiah Washington without all of his baggage is still a top notch actor and brings a good solid presence to the show. But all the credit in the world to Michelle Ryan, I wasn’t all that impressed with her in the first episode, but she stepped it up in this episode and I can’t say enough about how impressed I was with this episode. This could really be the start of something truly special.
26
Sep
Written by Brenda on September 26th, 2007
The time has finally come, Bionic Woman has finally premiered on NBC and we have our full review of the pilot episode. For those who have any experience with the 1970’s version of Bionic Woman, this version is extremely different. Of course the obvious difference being that this new version is a much darker and more intense look at the Bionic Woman storyline. But the big question still remains can this re-make do a better job of telling the story of a Bionic Woman?
So more then likely you have seen the previews of the show, where you witness Jaimie Sommers played by Michelle Ryan go through her transformation into the Bionic Woman, what you may not know is how she came to that spot, and that is what the first half of the show attempts to explain. Your quickly introduced to Jamie’s boyfriend Dr. Will Anthros a professor, but also is part of a secret bionic institution. To make a long story short the two love birds are out for dinner and Jamie breaks the news that she is pregnant with their kid. On the drive home the two are actually happily discussing names when they crash into a pole leaving Jamie clinging to life. Will makes the decision to take Jaime to his organization where they literally take out the majority of her limbs thus creating the Bionic Woman.
The second half of the show is getting to understand Jamie and her dealing with this new found bionic self. Of course her initial reaction isn’t one of joy or even a grateful heart for having her life spared, but rather a very scared and often feisty bionic woman. Jamie ends up being held at this institution that Will works at for a bit, but manages to escape and go home to her sister, finding some of her new skills along the way. In fact there is a fight where she takes out a random guy in an alley way that shows just a little taste of the awesome fights that could come from the series in the future.
By far the best part of Bionic Woman isn’t actually Michelle Ryan but instead Katee Sackhoff who plays the first ever Bionic Woman, Sarah Corvus. What is so impressive is the great attitude and fire that comes from the character. She is seen a few times throughout the show but nothing was more memorable in the episode then the final fight between the two Bionic Women which set off the episode on the right note.
One issue I had with the pilot was that it jam packed with content, and in fact it actually became to much information for just one episode. You learn so much about Jaimie her boyfriend Will, Will’s father who came up with the technology to make Bionic’s into soldiers, and even a love affair between one of Will’s co-workers and Sarah Corvus. To throw insult to injury you even have Will getting shot by Sarah at the tail end of the show. So as you can see there was just a ton of information thrown into this episode. My feeling is that the show is on the right track. I do feel at the same time there was far to much put into this first episode which left me a bit unsatisfied. Overall though there is a lot of potential to be had in the show but its going to need to smooth out its edges to be a show that sticks around for the long haul.