Customer Reviews

Pilot

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Pros: Interesting retelling of the origin story. Cute leading lady. Decent cinematography.

Cons: Terrible dialogue. Poor execution of dialogue. No chemistry between any of the characters. (Bionic Woman's nemesis didn't seem menacing; she was more "too cool for this dialogue".) Goofy execution of "chinese flying" special effect.

I was so looking forward to a resurgence of sci-fi cool. When I heard that the creators of Battlestar Galactica were involved in the Bionic Woman, I thought how could I go wrong...? Boy did it go wrong! The B.W. pilot was a mish mash of poor character development, cheap looking special effects, even cheaper sound effects (what was with that Fred Flintstone foot pitter patter when the B.W. was supposed to be running fast?) and very poor choices in the hideous score music. I found myself wincing my eyes at the trite dialog all throughout and I also had a great deal of difficulty believing that Jaime didn't want to just march right back down to that mountain bunker and get the other arm fixed after that fight with the superior cyborg Katee Sackhoff. I really found myself not caring very much for any of the characters in B.W. because they just weren't that interesting.

Oh where do I start.
1. Needed more character build up. Where was the rehab. The bionics were mastered too fast, although an argument can be made the chips in her brain made that possible.
2. Lets hear some more about the limitations and abilities of the bionics. How fast is she able to run? How long or high can she jump. What is the extent of her hearing and sight. Without setting certain limitations, her powers are going to get out of control like mutants in the third XMen movie.
2. Like a love interest ruining many epic action movies, the little sister is not necessary. Cut her and spend more time on Jamie.
3. Special effects are cheesy. It is not seemless. Like another reviewer said, too much like Smallville. Needs to be more subtle. Have a good story and use the powers sparingly.
4. I'm not too excited about the fact that the Bionic Woman is being made to use martial arts. The fighting sequences are no different than the non bionic woman of Dark Angel and Alias.
5. Lets see the bionics used in more real life situation. Locked in room? Smash the door open. Bad guys getting away in a car? Chase it down. Need to jump off a 2 story building? Jump. I don't want to see a blur across the screen when she's running. I don't want to see jumping across top of buildings.

I will continue watching it, but it won't last.

It was interesting to see 2 characters from Battlestar Galactica in the show, though one was probably a special guest. But the show's main character acting and lines were extremely weak.

And the pilot was just plain boring. The bionic woman gets a grasp of her skills immediately, without any training, common, make it plausible.

Acting and the lines of the script were so flat, I really felt that I should have fast forwarded the show to the end.

I was originally looking forward to it, but I had to high expectations, by the end of the show, I was seeing fight scenes straight out of the matrix and other action flicks, and it bored me.

Character development is crucial, and I didn't see it. Nothing compelling, and nothing to see here, just move on.

In a sf series promising to take a hard look at the ethical dilemmas of transhumanist trends, I was really disappointed that Jamie's sister, who was originally cast as deaf, was switched out with a hearing person. (Not only would this have offered more deaf actor visibility, but it would have provided an opportunity down the road to address the dilemma of, for example, Deaf cultural responses to cochlear implants.) The idea of a female being made into a cyborg against her will certainly has some legs (as it were), but overall the pilot hasn't convinced me that this series will ultimately be as smart as it aspires to be...

To be honest, I shut it off about thirty minutes into it. During what I saw, there wasn't a single scene that I hadn't seen before, done better. The dialog is stale, the plot is overblown, the acting is wooden-- in conclusion, if I had paid for this I would have been very upset.

While other aspects of the pilot were decent, the writing was awful. Don't expect the series to be any better.

Writing-poor. Characters-undeveloped. Acting-awkward. Special Effects-funny (at best). Simply a pathetic attempt at another superhero show. Smallville and Heroes have that covered. Skip it.

The first version of the show produced by David Eick without interference from NBC was much better. Dark, edgy, quirky. Then NBC executives got afraid that Battlestar Galactica's dark mood was what killed the show in its third season (it wasn't, just bad writers). NBC ordered recasting and reshooting. (Mae Whitman had been great as Jamie's deaf sister!) The result is this boring, committee-produced monstrosity. Flat, stale, boring and ultimately unprofitable. I won't watch it. Hopefully, Life and Pushing Up Daisies can save the new TV season.

I really enjoyed this pilot. I was expecting something more similar to the Bionic Woman of the 1970s, but this show turned out to be a great update of the original concept. It reminded me of the Bourne Identity to a degree - similar notion of "what is happening to me" and "who are these people." Not quite on the same caliber, but I'm guessing that the money and time put into this project was a bit lower, too. ;-)

Contrary to some other reviews, I did feel a connection to some of the main characters.