Bionic Woman & Life

I caught the reworked "Bionic Woman" pilot last night. Somewhat better. I do like the new sister more than the old, if only because she is written as slightly less angry, bitter and angsty than the original. (omg! Sister #2 actually smiled once!)

Both actresses that played the sister were fine: but boy, Jaime is angry, bitter and angsty enough: having the two sisters competing for the angsty, angry and bitter prize was unbearable. I'm not sure why they dropped the sister's deafness: one friend heard the network was afraid of backlash since they had cast a hearing actor in the role. I'm actually not sure if the original actress was hearing or not (which says good things about her performance) -- I'm only repeating a rumor I heard. Believe it at your own risk.

I saw the original pilot several weeks ago, but the sister stuff seemed to be the only changes made. Certainly the only ones I noticed, anyway. It's understandable, due to cost and time considerations. The doctor boyfriend is still a bit of a drip, and Jaime is still, yes, angry, bitter and angsty.

Hey, I'm a huge "Buffy" fan: I love dark. I love angsty, and god knows I'm bitter. But for cryin' out loud, leaven it a little bit. Even as grim and tense a film as "The Brave One" has comic relief. And we're talking about "The Bionic Woman" here -- not brain surgery.

The highlight of the "BW" pilot is still very much Katee Sackhoff as Sarah Corvus. That's felony grand theft right there: she stole the whole damn show. And I'd forgotten how much subtexty goodness there was in the bar scene between Jaime and Sarah. Ohh my. It's sad but true: Michelle Ryan has much more chemistry with Sackhoff than she does with Chris Bowers, her ostensible love interest. Heh, heh. I mean, oops. Let's hope they build on it, instead of ignoring it.

The show is being reworked, so I'll keep tuning in to see how they're doing with the changes. Apparently "Bionic" kicked ass in the ratings. Be interesting to see how the ratings hold up next week.

"Life" -- I ended up really liking this one: primarily for Sarah Shahi. They've actually written a complex and interesting role for her. She's in recovery, and her career as a detective is on life support.

I found the lead character annoying for the first part of the show: but by the end of the show his quirkyness was working for me. They did a good job mixing the stand alone plot with the arc plot of our hero trying to solve the murder case that sent him to prison. It's well balanced: the stand alone plot took up most of the show, while they gave us enough of the arc plot to get us interested. Good pilot -- has promise. I'll definitely watch this one.

"Life" did very well in the ratings, winning it's time-slot. Yay! A show I like might not get canceled right away! (Yes, I'm looking at you, Fox, you "Firefly" and "Drive" cancelling bastards.)