Tivo sez:

There are basically two ways to do a pilot: Tell a story or set up a story. Good pilots do both. Bad pilots tend to emphasize the setting-up part. They seem to have a check-list of things and people that need to be explained or introduced. This was a bad pilot, all exposition, no plot, no charactarization except for Sarah Corvus. The show has a chance to improve if it has a story to tell, but it will have to be a lot more agile than this.
And is it me or is Miguel Ferrer basically playing the same character he did in Point of No Return.

Not bad, not great. I'll stick with it until something else comes along.

I wish I had something more constructive to say, but...

This show is really, really terrible. It's just really bad.

Awful! So so contrived, man. I liked the girl power angle (that ended up getting pounded into our heads) but so much of it was just so corny, so contrived. I'm sure it'll get much love, but her acting was bad for most of it, and it was just basically an amalgamation of different sci-fi movies and stories.

And throwing Sia into it just made it even cornier.

Ok, how long y'all think it will take before the Jamie/Sarah femslash fanfics start appearing? My guess is about two hours.

Meh. I wasn't terribly impressed by this. I liked Michelle Ryan, but nothing much else struck a chord. Even Miguel Ferrer fell flat for me. I also thought that the "discovering my new power" scenes were terribly cliched--the running faster than the car (and the little girl noticing it, which was cribbed straight from the original Superman movie) and the jumping from one rooftop to the next. I'll keep it on my DVR for now just in case things pick up next week, but overall I was kind of disappointed.

Just God awful acting and writing. This looked more like a McG pile of crap than "Chuck". Plus, for a character that can run really fast, and runs a lot, she just looks awkward.

I didn't hate it. I like Katee Sackhoff and Michelle Ryan so I'll keep watching. The story was passable enough to keep me entertained. But then I'm easy so. LOL

I'll keep watching it for Bionic Starbuck... but that may be about it.

I loved it! But then, I'm a bit simple like that. Girls kicking ass + amusing music + fights in the rain with chain link fences = AWESOME Very simple mathematics if you're me. Heh. Although, I'd rather if Sarah Corvus got her own show, because that shit would RULE.

I liked Michelle Ryan well enough; though her striking resemblance to Ione Skye was a bit distracting at times. I kept waiting for Lloyd Dobler to come ask her out or something. LOVED Katee Sackhoff, but that was a given because I always love Katee Sackhoff. I always love Miguel Ferrer. I always love Badger. I'm sure there were all kinds of imperfections, but the critic in me is on break because I'm too caught up in the awesome. So far, this is my favorite new show of the season! Yay!

Really, really wanted to like it, but OMG, the writing and acting are atrocious.

Thank God it wasn't just me. The acting was just so flat, so wooden, in the main characters. No spirit, no fire in their eyes. I just happened to put on the show, wasn't planning to watch and I'm glad I haven't put much energy into this venture.

I didn't hate it; but it's not love at first sight for me either. I'll give it at least one more episode to win me over and get me to care about some of these characters.

I liked the pilot okay. Kind of slow, but I give pilots a slide since they have to set up the characters and overall plot points and that's not always easy to do. I'll see how later eps go.

Other thoughts:
Both Chief Tyrol (in a minor role) and Starbuck in the pilot. Do we need to start a BS:G alumni watch? And if Katie Sackhoff is the first bionic woman, does this make her the Final Cylon?

Okay the pilot was whatever but first of all I have a ridiculous girl-crush on Katee Sackhoff. SO AWESOME! And yeah the thing that made it worth my while was the frakking Battlestar Galactica Reunion that was going on in this episode. I mean I know David Eick is the producer but it was still so cool. I'm still not sure if the main girl can carry the show...but as long as Katee's there....so am I.

PS ~ Previous poster beat me to it but it wasn't just Chief and Starbuck...Jammer and Romo Lampkin showed up too! God...I need that show to come back on.

let me chime in here and say yea it wasnt the best pilot ever and the acting was a little off, but I think it has a lot of potential for greatness.

Bionic Starbuck indeed.

Katee was scorching.

I've said a lot of what I wanted to say in other threads but it still remains the same. I found it dull, uninspired, cobbled together from parts of every other show. I didn't care about any of the characters. And I still think that Sarah looked like a clown in the second bar scene.

It was kind of shit, but I don't blame them. You have the weight of a pretty big cultural icon and so you have to find a way to do the show, seem original and yet redo something that's been done already. You also made the mistake of trying to be way too many things at once. First problem was rushing into the bionics, tell the friggin characters story. Leave people on a cliff hanger with the accident at the end of an hour of story. Trust that people will want to care to see how the bionic thing is developed the next week.

Instead you have a show that creates a bionic woman, has her understand her powers, somehow learn how to fight and meanwhile I have NO clue who the hell this woman is or who her sister is. You can get away with that in the seventies, but nowadays you need characters not character sketches. I will give it some time because there is potential.

Oh, so true, I forgot about that. Her lipstick was FRIGHTFUL, where was her publicist, where were the producers. Like, OK we get it she's severe and a little crazy, but...ARGH no no no that was a hot mess.

Does anyone else think Michelle Ryan looks like Katee Sackoff?

That said, Katee kicked arse and Michelle...less so. I think it will get better.

And Mark G. Sheppard who played Baltar's attorney during his trial.

I'll keep watching for Michelle Ryan.

I've gotta second the girl-crush on Katee. She was the only reason I was interested in the show to begin with, and after that pilot she's the only reason I'd keep watching. Sarah Corvus is the only character who seemed like she "fit" with the story - both in her actions and looks. Starbuck never wears much makeup but Katee was rockin' the red lips and smoky eyes somethin' fierce!

I read a review that called her out on her "striking resemblance" to Monica Lewinsky. I myself think she looks like Alicia Silverstone. I guess she's just got one of those faces.

Who was the actress with the choppy blonde hair--the one who seemed to be Miguel Ferrer's sidekick? She seems to be an NBC recyclee of some kind, but I can't place her.

Anyone else think the younger sister is hot?

/I'll just be over there, hopefully Chris Hansen won't ask me to have a seat.

She was Bosco's partner on Third Watch... At least the first couple years, I stopped watching after that. I don't know if they stayed partners or not.

ETA: The actress' name is Molly Price. Her character name on Third Watch was Faith Yokas.

I liked it well enough, but I'm easily entertained. Plus, I'm just happy to have Faith from Third watch on my screen again. Although it's pretty obvious that she's trying to hide her NY accent.

I can cut them some slack since it's a pilot, there's potential here if they can get it together. Will stay on my DVR for now.

This is what pains me about premiere week: so many shows to check out, not enough time to watch them all, not enough room on the PVR and for me, no access to watching them online since I'm outside of the U.S and will not be able until I remember what proxies will work for me. You give up shows you normally watch and it will come down to either something you would watch again and you need to spend hours planning your timeshifting on said PVR or backup VCR or watch it once and you ask "I gave up (insert show) for this?"


Tonight, I was very close to the latter (I gave up Kitchen Nightmares.)




Well said and well explained. There was a LOT of set up and not enough reason to care why Jamie was "picked" (if that is what we're supposed to believe). Also, I hated the modern rock soundtrack every. single. time. she had to put her brave face on and learn a new ability or fight back in Showdown #1 out of however many there will be. I will probably give it a month but it better pick up the pace because for an action show, it wasn't invigorating.

If the episode had ended with "Jamie! We always knew what you were capable of. If we have to send some one after you. you'll never see them coming. Even with your better eye" Then I would know this show would stand a chance.

Because the writers would understand that they are writing about some serious people doing very nasty work.

I agree with all of the early reviews that I've read about this, which all said that it was really uneven. Yes, it was. In spite of that, I found it almost entirely watchable.

I'm very disappointed that Miguel Ferrer's character is not named Oscar Goldman.

After Chief Tyrol's cameo, I now want to see the rest of the BSG cast.

I thought Jamie's attitudinal change into Faith at the end was a bit abrupt, but whatever. I know pilots aren't always a true representation of the overall tone of a series, but this looks like a "move the plot along" kind of show. Which I don't really object to.

I IMDB'd her and she was Carrie's friend Susan-Sharon or whatever on "Sex and the City." The one with the mean husband? She had long black hair then. I looked her up because...um. I thought she might have been Nellie Olsen (From Little House on the Prairie) all grown up! I'm...stupid. Hee.

It reminded me of Alias, only without a sense of humor.

Katee Sackoff was the only enjoyable part for me; I kept thinking she should have been the lead.

bbell made me think of this. When you watched the first episode of Alias, you really got a sense of the depth of everything going on. After the pilot of Heroes I understood that Kring has a Heroes-verse and you just felt that an entire new world was within the series to be uncovered.

I did not get that sense from Bionic. I don't feel as though there was an entire universe there that exists and had existed before the episode began. I didn't not feel the complexity or the evilness or the realness of SD6 in Bionic Organization. Bionic Organization felt like it was just created for purposes of this show (and yes I know it was but I guess it's kind of hard to explain). After being spoiled by shows going back to X-Files and Buffy of shows that bothered to make their own world, this show just felt so ridiculously shallow in characters and plots and concepts.

Ruth: I'm Ruth.
Jamie: I'm pissed.
Me: I'm bored.

Wow, I knew it was going to be bad, but this bad? I should have set my expectations to less than nothing.

Anyone know what the budget was for this show? 'Cause I think the need to spend some more bucks on the sound editing. On the Ontario feed, the soundtrack was off. It was annoying. Was it like that everywhere?

On the plus side, screw having a Steve Austin-type of character. She gets the ear AND the eye.

On the disappointed side, I was hoping for a old-fashioned bionic sound effect as a shout out to version 1.0. Kinda like when Star Trek: TNG used the same sound effect for the red alert signal as Star Trek: TOS.

I'm old enough to have watched the original Bionic Woman and Six Million Dollar Man when they first aired. I do like the special effects, but I still miss the cheesy slow motion effects. I like the new Jamie Sommers. Katee Sackhoff really does nothing for me. I thought it was cheating to have Jamie's fighting skills downloaded into her. This probably isn't going to be must see TV for me. I love Gordon Ramsey in Kitchen Nightmares and I love Criminal Minds. I think I'll toss a coin each night and see.

I think I'm ambivalent.

Her name is Molly Price, and as SanLynn said, she was most famously on Third Watch, but has also been almost exclusive to NBC in recent years, also appearing on L&O, Studio 60 and Without A Trace.


I'd held off on watching the second pilot 'til tonight because I wanted to have the chance to see whatever changes had taken place in the fair arena of the actual premiere.

I needn't have bothered. Everything that was wrong about the show remains wrong. Perhaps, given a two-hour pilot they could have paced everything and added enough character development to encourage me to actually FEEL about someone on this show, but this was little more than an over-long trailer with a fight scene.

The other thing that really stuck out to me in all of this was the plethora of plot trash that was strewn about. You know, those throwaway bits that are somehow tidied up offscreen, and none of the characters care how or why. Clue for the future, BW writers: the incidental shit matters. If you want well-rounded characters and some kind of grounding in reality, you've got to care about the small shit.

There was more sexual tension when Jamie came in at the end and snuggled up to Becca than when she and Dr. Boyfriend were doin' it. And he must be injecting himself with anthrocytes too, if he's doing pushups on top of her a day or two after his ARM WAS BROKEN.

Le sigh.

I agree with this, plus I think the show has potential especially with the 2007 graphics/effects at hand. As long as the ass-kicking is a norm I'll be there since I feel character development is for shows/movies like "Beaches" or "Terms of Endearment."

I liked this first episode. I thought it kept my interest and was fast paced. Sure, they didn't spell everything out, but it's only an hour long. I actually thought they could have slowed things down a little bit. Too unrealistic for her to do the big fight scene so soon, but that's just my opinion. I hope this show beats Private Practice in the ratings too.

By the way, I watched the old Bionic Woman show when it first came out in the 70's (yes, I'm old). Liked it too.

I'll give it another week based on Katee but this wasn't that great was it? Kind of a hot mess. This is the first of the new shows I've tried that I didn't like.

How did Jamies boyfriend survive that crash with only a few scratches?

Disappointing pilot but I'll give it a few more weeks because of it's BSG connections.

Scratch this show of my short list of new shows. When they were fiighting, was anyone flashing back to those great Buffy/Faith fights? I was flipping around and maybe I missed something, but how did Jamie know how to fight so well? It's one thing to have superhuman parts, but did they give her built in fighting techniques too?

Yes. Yes they did. Just like Neo.

I saw the original pilot. They didn't really change much, other than the Magical Sister Transformation.

One key point: I don't think Origi-Sister realized that the Ski Trip story was a lie. That change actually seems important.

That struck me too in a few scenes. They totally do.

I really didn't like this. I wanted to like it. Always like shows with kick ass female parts but the dialog was terrible (poor Katee having to go from the awesomeness of BG writing to this crap) and I didn't really give a crap about any of the charcters. I think Jaime and her boyfriend have zero chemistry and well I'm too tired to really go into it but damn...... poorly executed. Not sure if I'll even give next week another try.

Katee Sackhoff should have been the lead with Mark Sheppard as the doctor/boyfriend. Michelle Ryan was quite wooden, and she doesn't seem to have the....whatever "it" is to carry a show. She's pretty and all, but it kind of felt like a series of upclose shots with her wide-eyed stare. That's not acting.

I'm sticking with it, but unless NBC is extraordinarily patient with the show and/or the writing/acting improve, it is not long for this world. Anything is possible, though.

Well maybe if the show tanks, they'll retool it and focus on Katee's character. She's a bionic woman afterall... so they wouldn't have to change the title or anything!

I only saw the clip on youtube when Jaime saw her bionic legs for the first time. Am I remembering wrong, or did she have more robot looking legs and feet back then? Her feet looked like flippers and I don't think there was skin on her shins at all. That clip startled and intrigued me, and it's the reason I watched the show tonight. It was such a let down to see it altered, and I wasn't impressed with the rest of the show at all.

Exactly what I was thinking about Jamie's ability to hold her own against the other bionic woman. I just feel they tried to jam too much into the opening episode. Jamie goes from freaked out innocent to willing recruit in too short a period of time. This should be a gradual process that develops over several episodes. Also to start right off with the "evil" bionic woman foe seems such a hackneyed plot device.

I miss Mae Whitman as the sister, because Mae Whitman can act.

I like most of the cast (Will Yun Lee, Molly Price, Miguel Ferrer, Katee Sackhoff, good stuff). Mark Sheppard is still a little too young to be the other guy's dad, but oh well, I like him, I'll let it slide.

David Eick should just slowly rotate the entire cast of BSG through the show in guest and cameo appearances. Oh look, Leah Cairns as terrorist! Oh look, Sam Witwer as a shifty arms dealer! Make it happen.

I don't dislike Jamie, but she doesn't really grab me either. I wish the show still had some characters named Oscar Goldman and Rudy Wells, even if they were different/evil/female/whatever.

Sarah Corvus rocks, she's clearly on track to be the "Faith" of the show. Just tone down the lipstick a bit (although actually it did give her a nice unhinged quality. It's not like the character is there to be appropriate or make people feel comfortable).

I'd say my main criticism is, they need to tone down on the tough-guy-catchphrases-as-dialogue. "Heads you lose, tails you die", junk like that. It's cheesy, and unnecessary.

We'll see how next week goes, now that the big fibrous mass of setup has been (for the most part anyway) taken care of.

And for folks asking how Jamie could suddenly fight, they mentioned a couple times she has additional hardware in her head, feeding her combat skills which she doesn't completely control. It's why she freaked out when she took down the creep in the alley behind the bar. If it's more recent than the stuff Corvus got (if Corvus has them at all, she didn't mention it when she listed her bionic bits), I can buy her holding her own in the fight.

She wasn't picked. Her boyfriend pushed the surgery through because he has top level clearance, and Miguel Ferrer's character let them finish because she didn't "officially" exist. Jaime was basically a free test to him- see if she'll work, if she doesn't they can eliminate her later since she should be dead anyway.

I liked it. I'm not saying it's high drama, but it works as a fun sci fi/action show for me. And they get worlds of credit for having Jaime wear flat boots during the fight scene on the roof. (Clichéd yes, but entertaining.) I don't care if you don't have to worry about twisting a bionic ankle, if one of those stiletto heels breaks it's going to throw off your balance for a second. This is one of my pet peeves, so it actually made me irrationally happy when I noticed that the first time I watched the pilot.

Katee Sackhoff should be on every show.

She was, by far, the best part of the episode. Besides HotHiro AKA Intense Asian Trainer.