bionic woman

In Michelle Ryan, NBC has found a potential breakout star for its new series Bionic Woman, which kicks off at 8 tonight on Channel 2. The show also gets a great villainous turn from Battlestar Galactica's Katee Sackhoff.

As for the series itself? It has some great promise, but like the bionic parts that make up much of Jaime Sommers' body, it hasn't all been harnessed yet.

This update of the 1970s series follows the same basic template of the earlier Bionic Woman, with a young woman getting portions of her body replaced after a horrific accident and going to work for the people who fixed her. In this case, Jaime (Ryan) is a student/bartender who's in a hesitant relationship with Will (Chris Bowers), one of her professors, and trying to look after her teenage hacker sister (Lucy Hale).

Driving home from a date with Will, their car is broadsided by a tractor-trailer. Fortunately for Jaime, Will just happens to be in the employ of a shadowy group that's experimenting with a highly advanced form of artificial body parts, and she wakes up with new legs, a new right arm and a fresh eye and ear.

The group running the show, however, is far more sinister than the old show's OSI. Led by an appropriately menacing Miguel Ferrer, the organization has experimented with bionics in the past, and the result has not been pretty: Sackhoff's Sarah Corvis has gone rogue and is none too pleased to find out that both Will and Jaime survived their accident. Jaime, too, is not exactly a willing patient, bristling (understandably) at the responsibility Ferrer and Co. want to put on her shoulders.

Ryan, who starred in the British soap EastEnders for several years, handles the disparate elements of her character pretty well and seems to grow into the role over the course of the pilot. As the "original" bionic woman, Sackhoff gets the swagger and a couple of the choice lines, but by the end of the episode Ryan is more than holding her own.

The two share a fantastic fight scene on a rain-soaked rooftop, which points to one way the new Bionic Woman has it all over its predecessor. Special effects and stunt work have come a long way in 30 years, and they're both pretty great here. The show pays homage to the familiar ch-ch-ch-ch sound effect that signaled bionic action in the '70s, but Jaime's new abilities are visually realized in much more exciting ways.

Some of the other elements, though, don't quite mesh. The love story between Jaime and Will is pretty much a non-starter, and the world in which Jaime's benefactors move is pretty murky. Just who Sackhoff's Corvus is working for is unclear ― it somehow involves Will's father, who invented the bionic technology, but that's about all we know after one episode.

Bionic Woman feels like a show that hasn't quite figured out what it wants to be. That could be a result of several behind-the-scenes changes on the series: Laeta Kalogridis is credited as the writer on the premiere, but she's no longer with the show. Jason Smilovic (Kidnapped) also worked on the pilot and remains as an executive producer with Battlestar's David Eick.

On the plus side, Bionic Woman comes pre-sold to a certain segment of the audience, which will probably buy the show a little time to find its footing. That, along with the presence of Ryan and Sackhoff, will probably be enough to carry it for a while.

At one point in Bionic Woman ― NBC's sleeker, faster, cooler version of the 1970s series ― a little girl looks out the window of a car to see the 2007-model Jaime Sommers (East Enders' Michelle Ryan) zipping through the woods like a cheetah. The child alerts her disbelieving mother, and then smiles: ''I just thought it was cool a girl could do that.''

Too much? Yes, too much! And yet, it's one of those moments you just have to shrug at and enjoy. Girls can do lots of things in this energetic, dark drama: They can leap buildings, cartwheel around rooftops, and pounce across rooms in flimsy hospital gowns. As rethought for the 21st century, Jaime is no mere girlfriend of Steve Austin. She's the girlfriend of a cute scientist (Will Anthros)! When a car smashup threatens Jaime's life, he copters her off to his underground lair, er, research facility, where the majority of her body parts ― both legs, an arm, an ear, an eye ― are replaced by futuristic military bionics. The compromise? She's now government property, and must participate in secret operations or be killed. When she's informed of this, her beau is apologetic, but not that apologetic: ''You're hardwired for highly specialized warfare, yes,'' he admits in a hilarious Oh, did I forget to mention that? moment.

But the writers need to tweak the irony: Bionic Woman is a flowery-feminist show whose go-girl premise depends on some dude asserting control over a young woman's body without her permission. Will this be a clever commentary on current sexual dynamics? Or just unimaginative storytelling? (The whole aggro-male vibe is partly due to poor casting: Anthros appears a good decade older than baby-faced Ryan, giving all their interactions a skeezy overlay.) Whether Bionic Woman plays with its contradictions and proves to be an insightful, allegorical series like exec producer David Eick's other show, Battlestar Galactica, remains to be seen. It could end up being simple, popcorny fun (no small feat), in which case the only other worry is Ryan. The Brit actress has the same brunet intensity as Alias' Jennifer Garner, but lacks the innate confidence. This absence is glaring anytime she's acting opposite slick, pissy Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar), who shows up as the very first bionic woman, gone bad, determined to get badder. ''I'm cutting away all the parts of me that are weak,'' she tells Jaime, creepily, before trying to kill her. The problem is, if you're a fan of Sackhoff's throaty, chin-jutty delivery, she absolutely overpowers the callow Ryan, and if you're not a fan of Sackhoff...she still overpowers Ryan. It's not going to get easier for the actress when the gravitas-enriched Isaiah Washington starts his guest arc in October. In short, this Bionic Girl had better hurry up and become a real Woman
Premiere week gains momentum tonight with four―count 'em, four―series premieres. And they're big'uns, too. At 9 p.m. is girl-power hour on ABC and NBC: Private Practice and Bionic Woman. And at 10 p.m. comes Peter Krause's return to series television in Dirty Sexy Money and the American network debut of Damian Lewis in Life.


By the way, if you have not yet seen Damian Lewis lead the 101st Airborne Division's Easy Company from the beaches at Normandy to the Eagle's Nest in Nazi Germany in HBO's 10-part miniseries Band of Brothers, you must go―go now. It's quite simply one of the finest stories ever put to film, due in no small part to Damian's performance as Capt. Richard Winters. You must not die without seeing it―and for all you know, you could be hit by a truck tomorrow morning, so you better get your Band of Brothers viewing in now.

However, if you've already seen Band, your opinion on these four series is welcomed in the poll and in the Comments below. Fire away.