Preview - Bionic Woman 2007 (A-)

Starring Michelle Ryan, Miguel Ferrer, Katee Sackhoff

I plan to preview a few shows from the upcoming TV season that I find interesting. So here's the first one. Be forewarned: This is a really extensive trailer that's essentially a 5-minute distillation of the pilot movie. So if you don't want the episode spoiled, skip past the clip!



This re-imagination of one of my favorite childhood shows, The Bionic Woman, looks pretty cool. It certainly has greatness potential. With what little I can see, Michelle Ryan seems to be doing a commendable job so far with a role that has tons of 1970s-pop-culture-icon baggage. The "realness" upgrades could easily trip her up in writing that makes her merely another angsty superchick but I truly hope this doesn't happen. And her American accent is darn good. Most Brits play it safe with a flat, generic accent but she's doing a regional one! I can't quite figure out which, though.

Sadly, solo female action heroes almost never bring in huge numbers on the big or small screen, regardless of the quality of the material. Buffy The Vampire Slayer, though it was popular for a WB show and a huge critical success, routinely came in the bottom 50 in the Nielsens. Alias (which struggled for all of its five years on a major network) opened with two of the best seasons of any show ever then fell into a funk of ratings-desperate plotting and schedule changes and limped to a closure that would not have been afforded most other shows. I'm afraid the same gender bias may hurt this show's chances as well. And that' what it is. Bias. If I took the same show with the same writing and production and reversed the genders, it'd be an instant hit. Please send our young women a better message than this. It's shameful.

NBC is either extremely confident about Bionic Woman or is taking a huge gamble, hoping it and the superhero-related Heroes will boost their ailing flagship network. It may perform better on a niche channel, though. We'll see.

Final trailer score: A minus