2023/08/16

Through the years there were a number of rumors of a new TV series (or movie) of the Six Million Dollar Man. This never came to be, however, they decided to try to reboot the Bionic Woman with Michelle Ryan as the Bionic Woman. It didn’t become a success unfortunately, due to the low ratings and the WGA writers strike of 2007, Bionic Woman was cancelled after only 8 episodes. If there hadn’t been a strike, we most likely would have seen more episodes, probably 13 episodes before it would be cancelled after all.

Critics mostly gave negative reviews, most of them preferred the 1^st Bionic Woman (Katee Sackoff) and to be honest, while watching this the last few weeks, I was also thinking that! Not that I disliked Michelle Ryan or anything, but by that time Katee Sackoff was a household name, why not give her the lead role. So I believe that if there wasn’t a writers strike, Bionic Woman would have also been cancelled soon.

While Michelle Ryan wasn’t yet very known to the general public, there are some seasoned actors in this show: Miguel Ferrer (has done so much), who unfortunately passed away a few years ago, Molly Price (Third Watch), Katee Sackoff (Battlestar Galactica), Mark Sheppard (Supernatural), Will Yun Lee (The Good Doctor), Lucy Hale (Pretty Little Liars), Kevin Rankin (Breaking Bad / Claws) and Isaiah Washington (The 100). I enjoyed the 8 episodes although they weren’t stellar or something but you got to remember, especially with a SCI-FI show, it sometimes has to find its footing, it needs to be given a chance and this one didn’t get it.

So no, there wasn’t much character development, but on the other hand, how much character development can you expect in only 8 episodes. I did like the IT tech support guy, Nathan (Kevin Rankin), he had a thing for Jaime but it was not mutual but this meant a lot of fun scenes between these two characters. I also thought Jaime had an interesting relationship with her boss Jonas Bledsoe which certainly would have fleshed out more, had there been more episodes. There were also some interesting mysteries, for instance, her boyfriend also the doctor who replaced a number of body parts with cybernetic replacements, already had a file on her before they met. Michelle Ryan’s Bionic Woman was the 2^nd one, Katee Sackoff was the first prototype, she first appeared to be an evil one, who did kill and such but soon it turned out that this character was more complex. This character was already evolving in the 5 episodes she was there.

Episodes:

There isn’t a bad episode among these 8 episodes, there definitely is a story-arc present, the mystery around her deceased boyfriend, her acceptance of her new life, her relationship with the 1^st Bionic woman. But I think it is episodic in nature, with some story-arcs in terms of character development and story development.

Final Word:

As I said, we only have 8 episodes, but I liked it, I wouldn’t have minded to have more episodes because yes, I think it was getting there, there certainly was some growth in the storytelling, in the characters but you cannot expect wonders in such a short time. Few TV shows can, think of a show like Firefly. If you have it on DVD or if you can find it somewhere on a streaming platform, check it out, it is still kinda fresh, entertaining and no real cliff-hanger, so there is not any frustration in this respect. Rewatch Recommended!