I have just watched TV with thousands of strangers.
Room 20 of the San Diego Convention Center was packed to the rafters with fans (some audibly skeptical) waiting to see the pilot for the upcoming reboot of The Bionic Woman.
I must be fair to the show: this was a terrible environment to watch it. Comic-Con is great for clips or trailers, but not for a full episode. Especially an episode that introduces new characters and storylines. There were multiple frightened, screaming infants around me, as well as confused Comic-Con latecomers and ushers who weren't prepped to use an "inside voice." Annoying! Hard to concentrate! Boo!
So -- the show. Is it good? Yes, it is good. Is it great. No. Pilots rarely are, and I was pulling for this one. But the big problem is the script. There are some real howlers in there. All the actors (we'll get to that in a moment) do their best to help these lines land, but there are a lot of lame jokes and cliches in there. "If we do this, we do this on MY terms!" Please.
Young British actress Michelle Ryan is quite good in the title role. She is pretty in a Nicole Kidman-ish kinda way and she projects the terror Jaime Sommers experiences upon discovering the changes to her body. Miguel Ferrer is cool, even if it is kinda the same role he played in RoboCop. Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The real kick is seeing Katee Sackhoff -- Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica -- as a villain. She is total badass in her Grace Jones haircut and candy apple lipstick. Fans will not be let down.
The action sequences are pretty cool -- they do somewhat incorporate the Bionic "eh-eh-eh-eh" sound effect -- but they aren't anything too new. Scenes presenting new powers should just blow you away (think first Spider Man and these just fall flat. We're gonna be seeing these powers for the rest of the season and they have to be awesome. Hey, it's just my opinion.
I'll definitely check in with the next episode, but I'm curious to see how this pilot is received by other fans. I feel like it could go either way.
We'll have some cool photos of the event coming up soon.
