TV with MeeVee

BSG Creator Takes On "Children Of Men"

Far be it from us to call David Eick a master of really depressing television, except wait, that's exactly what we're going to call him. The master himself is reportedly working on a pilot script for "Children of Men," an adaptation of the P.D. James novel about a world in which all of the women become suddenly infertile. There was a 2006 big screen adaptation of the story, staring an extremely stubbly Clive Owen, but Eick says his TV show will take more inspiration from the book than the movie.

"It's really taking root more in the origins of the novels in that it will focus on the cultural movement in which young people become the society's utter focus, much like our culture, whenever Lindsay Lohan does something [and] it becomes the headline of every news show, it's about how, when you don't have a responsibility to the next generation and you're free to do whatever you want, where do you draw the line?"

Sounds cheery, no? Despite the depress-o-fest, there's a lot of great material in P.D. James' novel, and Eick has shown us what he can do with a bleak future (and Katee Sackhoff) in "Battlestar Galactica." Unfortunately, he's also shown us what he can do with a bland present (and Katee Sackhoff) in the aptly canceled "Bionic Woman." So color us hopeful but cautious at this stage in the game. We're waiting to hear more.

 

"Bionic Woman" Gets Non-Bionic Axe

Well, it's the end of the line for "Bionic Woman." Maybe it was the "creative turmoil" back behind the cameras, and maybe it was all Michelle Ryan's fault. It's also easy to blame Isaiah Washington, because he's easy to blame for any kind of thing. Rain on your wedding day? Totally Isaiah's fault.

While I'll admit that "Bionic Woman" was hardly a great show, I still feel like it's a bit of a shame it got cancelled. I really liked Katee Sackhoff (left) as Sarah Corvus, and now I have to wait until April to see her again as Starbuck in "Battlestar Galactica."

At least this now frees Sackhoff to star opposite Summer Glau in something totally new and totally awesome.

"Bionic Woman" A Washout?

Yesterday the TV Decoder blog posted details on just how precipitous the ratings decline for NBC's once-promising "Bionic Woman" has been. Remember when I said it had "hot chicks fighting in the rain" and thus looked like a certain hit? Boy was I wrong. Now with its final pre-strike episode aired, it may never return to production.

The comments on the Decoder's post offer a scathing and hilarious laundry list of all the things that were wrong with the show, including but by no means limited to star Michelle Ryan :

• "Michele (sic) Ryan is a car wreck, and there’s no rebuilding her. She mistakes oogling her giant, expressive eyes for acting."
• "Really, just about the worst actor I’ve seen a show built around since Emeril Lagasse. Not many people can make a line that reads as bad as “That saving the world thing? I’d like to give it a try,” and deliver it so it sounds even WORSE."
• "It utterly wasted it’s (sic) one real asset - Katee Sackhoff"
• "There is no big enemy to conquer, no end of the world to avert, no great conspiracy to uncover on this show, no compelling mystery to unravel."
• "The interesting “dark” storyline seemed to disappear as well, and it became just another boring B-level action series with bad writing to boot. I heard rumors one of the producers quit early on — I suspect this has a lot to do with the show’s boring turn. Without Sackhoff, there’s basically no reason to watch this turkey."

"Bionic Woman" Teaches Us About Forbidden Love

Anybody find it ironic that Isaiah Washington is the one teaching us about the importance and dangers of forbidden love on "Bionic Woman" this week?

Rest in peace, Antonio Pope.

Note: Next "Bionic" episode comes in 2 weeks, after Thanksgiving.

"Bionic Woman," Not So Much

Word is out all over that the creatively troubled NBC "Bionic Woman" series is in ratings free fall. Worst week yet featured headlines like "Bionic Woman Hits Bottom" and "Bionic Collapse."

Poor Jaime Sommers drew less than 6.5 million total viewers on Wednesday night, less than half of the audience for the show's promising pilot. This had everything going for it - including a smart cast with Michelle Ryan, Katee Sackhoff and Miguel Ferrer, and an intriguing noir take on the 1970s franchise. But from ep #2, obvious problems with the show's direction - and less obvious backstage turmoil - have been chipping away at its appeal. What was lacking: a strong behind-the-scenes hand like Joss Whedon with a creative vision for the show and the power to make it go.

What do you think the odds are this show will survive the strike?

"Bionic Woman" Gets A British Accent

Hey, let's bring a British accent into the mix! It's Michelle Ryan's original accent... she got her start on the long-running British soap Eastenders:

Also, let's send Jaime to college. And have her flirt with a different woman: her roommate.  And with the other boys at school. And let's make it obvious that Nathan, the bioengineer back in the office, is totally in love with Bionica. He gets horribly jealous when the neuroscience TA flirts with her.  Nathan thinks the worst of people, and Bionica of course thinks the best, despite all available evidence that she is surrounded entirely by people with ulterior motives. Even the "good guys," such as they are, have ulterior motives.

The nominal plot of the episode is that some soldiers are getting evil brain implants. It ties in nicely with the overall theme of fallible technology that distinguishes the new "Bionic Woman" series (and the 21st century, if I might be so bold) from the 20th-century version. OK, put fifty million dollars worth of computers into your body... and then debug them and worry about having your brain hacked into and reprogrammed.... by Al Quaeda, of course.

Of course, the flirty TA is incredibly hot and smart and is Isaiah Washington's hot suspect. Of course, he seduces Bionica - Aren't TAs never supposed to date their undergrads? Isn't that totally against the rules? - but it turns out he's not actually the bad guy, he's in the CIA. Bionica and Hot TA have a cute romantic moment before stopping the microchip dropoff and kicking ass at a farmer's market.

Best moment: taking out a fleeing suspect with a thrown cantaloupe. Also liked: closing theme by Ani DiFranco, every college woman's favorite singer-songwriter for at least fifteen minutes.

I think we all learned a lesson here: Science is bad. I think that's the lesson. Possibly the lesson is that you should never trust a cute TA who wants to get into your pants. Also if you're a cute TA who's secretly in the CIA, you should never leave a hot, mysterious undergrad alone in your apartment, because she'll totally find your microchips.

"Bionic Woman" Star Will Yun Lee Interview

TV Guide has an interview with Will Yun Lee, the conflicted martial arts expert from "Bionic Woman," and the interviewer does an amazing job of kissing up. His first question is "How does it feel to come out of the gate with such a smash hit?"

Look, I love the show, and I think Will Yun Lee is great in it. But it's just not a hit: NBC is in third place on Wednesday nights and "Bionic Woman" rates well behind "Private Practice."  Sure, it's NBC's best-rated Wednesday-night show in eight years, but that's a little like being the best athlete who doesn't win a medal.

There are plenty of ways to praise and compliment a guest without resorting to this kind of insulting condescension. Why not just say it's a great show?

"Bionic Woman:" Don't Stop Watching

Televisionista says that overnight ratings for "Bionic Woman" are terribly, terribly low. I'm hoping the DVR-adjusted ratings improve, because there are a lot of things I need to know about what's going on (GMMR has a recap if you missed anything Wednesday) and only an extended run is going to be able to reveal them.

I've got questions about background plot issues, like "If Sarah Corvus wanted help from the bionic-weapons people, why did she kill Will, the man who could most help her?" And want to know about character issues like "Why hasn't Jaime spent more time looking over and understanding the file that Will has on her?"

Wednesday's episode added "What's Isaiah Washington's real agenda?" and "Is Sarah going to hook up with that missing CIA resource who's also a computer nerd, a doctor, and a cutie?"

And most importantly, I need to know why, if Jaime Sommers and the bionic-weapons creators don't want her sister to know about her job, they keep giving her such crappy alibis! Wednesday, she flew off to Paraguay, but did not say "I have to attend a consulting engagement in Paraguay" or "I've been invited to the South American Bartending Championships in Paraguay." She said, "I'm going to Napa with my friend," and then failed to tell that friend not to show up. Hello, at least pretend to be visiting an out-of-town friend. Seriously.

OK, so maybe some of those questions won't be answered because there are a couple of annoying holes in the plot. But mostly, I think those questions are things we'll find out in the next few weeks, and I'm curious. And I think that if you watch it, you'll want to know too.

"Bionic Woman" Gets Into My Head

Last night, one after the other, I watched an old episode of "Rome" on DVD, then "America's Next Top Model," then "Bionic Woman," then most of an episode of "Life," before I fell asleep. Which one did I dream about? "Bionic Woman."

For bloggers, there's really only one major problem with the show: it's really hard to spell the characters' names right. I know you don't get a choice about Jaime Sommers, but I keep spelling it Jaimie, and I've definitely seen a "Jamie Summers" around the web more than once. And as for Sarah Corvus, I know "Corvus" is Latin for "raven," which is perfect for an evil character. But people keep spelling it "Corvis," which was the name of a fiber-optic company for awhile...

But really, that's about the only objection I have. Now is the perfect time to have a show like this. Just look at the headlines: we really do have a bionic nerve-machine interface under development, although there's just four people, one of them a woman, to be using it. It's still quite awkward but it gives Claudia Mitchell, a former US Marine injured in a motorcycle accident, the use of her arm. She is the world's first real bionic woman.

Of course, it's only for people who really need it. The UK's Daily Mail has a whole piece on how Michelle Ryan, who plays Jaime, got into superhuman shape: long hours of weights, boxing, running, martial arts, and more.

One thing I'm sort of surprised about on the show is that there don't seem to be any bionic dogs. See, any real super-science program would probably begin with insects and work their way up to larger animals. So they should have bionic watchdogs that can run really fast, and there should be all kinds of tiny super-powered animals. Like frogs that can jump way further than usual, say.

That's how they're doing it in the real world, at least according to the SG NewsBlog (I swear, I read it for the articles!) Sure, they're very expensive bird food for now, but just look at this line: "Some federally funded teams are even growing live insects with computer chips in them, with the goal of mounting spyware on their bodies and controlling their flight muscles remotely."

Welcome to the future!

"Bionic Woman" Episode 3: I Love Sarah Corvus

I keep wanting to call Jaime Sommers "Bionica" and Sarah Corvus "Starbuck," but I guess I'll get over it and learn the proper names, because I am rapidly falling in love with this "Bionic Woman."

This week's episode of "Bionic Woman" was, to be honest, everything I hoped for and more. I love the Sarah/Jaime interactions, especially the line "don't get me started on how objectifying this whole "Bionic Woman" thing is."

I was also glad to see more of the origins of Sarah Corvus. For example: She was in a terrible car crash eerily similar to the one that made Jaime into Bionic Jaime. The crash was her fault, and her sister died.

And most importantly, we get to her motivation for stalking Jaime: she's dying from some kind of nanotechnology failure, and she needs Jaime's help. Or at least, that's what Will's dad is telling her.

And he tells her all kinds of things, like that she needs to kill Becca Sommers to get Jaime to relate to her more. Creeeepy!

This episode seemed filled with knowing references to earlier films: the limited lifespan of a superhuman is an obvious nod to "Blade Runner," and "Single White Female" bells rang in my head when Sarah suggested that both bionic women wear matching outfits: "How do you look in capris?" And of course, when Jaime tries to convince Sarah that she's not entirely evil, it's a very Star Wars family reunion.

Some people might say that's a ripoff, but I'd call it a brilliant pastiche.  (Yes, I used the p-word. Sue me.)

I'm really curious to find out how this is going to pan out: is Sarah going to get any sympathy at all from Jaime? Is Jaime going to begin suffering from the same problems? Was Will really as horrible as Sarah says? And on next week's show, is Isaiah Washington really a mole?

One more question: Is the Center For Ethical Bionics for real?

Morning Links Exchange

Julian McMahon talks about the upcoming season of "Nip/Tuck." (Buddy TV)
And is "Nip/Tuck" the new "Love Boat?" Uh, no. (TV Addict)
The Times, of all places, offers a bracingly sardonic assessment of a reaction to a recent tragedy/normal Darwinian interaction on "Meerkat Manor." (NYT)
Goodman asks his blog readers which of their favorite shows are going off the rails this season, and "Heroes" and "Friday Night Lights" and "Rescue Me" all come up a lot. Some smartass also complains about the current season of "Veronica Mars." (SFGate)
Recap of the third episode of "Reaper," which I haven't seen yet because I watched "House." (Buddy TV)
Myself I lost track of "Damages" a long time ago - no rooting interest - but here's every twist and turn of this week's ep. recounted in advance of the season finale. (TV Squad)
We've mentioned the way DVR ratings have been roiling the waters. Now comes word that the execrable soap "Gossip Girl" has been renewed mainly on the strength of its live+ ratings. (Televisionista)
Cable ratings good for "Brotherhood." (Hollywood Reporter)
And last week's top broadcast shows. (AP)
"Bionic Woman" ratings could use a power boost. (E! Online)

Totally Frakked: "Bionic Woman" Now With 50% More Lead

Jamie Sommers takes her first trip to the big leagues and I take a nap. I wish I could say that the second episode fixes all the problems of the pilot, but in truth they're all back in force, along with way less Katee Sackhoff. Since Katee is undeniably the best thing about the show, that's not a great choice. Again, it's not bad enough to say the show is totally without merit; there are certainly bright spots. Just not enough of them.

Some of the characters get fleshed out, including Jamie herself. She seems a bit more natural in this episode, even if her natural state seems to be whiny. Her boss, Jonas, gets more screen time, and his gruff, deadpan humor helps balance out the show's tendency to take itself too seriously. There's also a good gag about the Jamie and co. going under cover as representatives from the Department of Agriculture.

A couple of afternoon reads

• Last night's ratings for new and returning shows were a mixed bag. ABC did good with "Dancing With The Stars," and "Private Practice" won its timeslot - but not by much over NBC's "Bionic Woman." NBC's "Life" lost a bunch of viewers halfway through. And things don't look so hot for CW's "Gossip Girl." (Televisionista, TVSquad, and real numbers at The Futon Critic)
• On the brighter side, with the return of "The Office" tonight, we also get the return of "The Office Thursday on GMMR." If you're giddy with anticipation over Jim and Pam's dinner date, this is the place for you.

Totally Frakked: "Bionic Woman" And The Running Start

"Bionic Woman"
Title: Second Chances
First Aired: 9/26/07

I have to give the new "Bionic Woman" the benefit of the doubt; scifi and fantasy shows often have weak pilots. The need to crush a lot of information into a small space, and the tendency of networks to assume that viewers are still figuring out how to tie their shoes often leads to a lot of forced dialogue and rushed character introductions. The focus of many scifi shows on special effects also tends to leave character development for later days, after a sufficient kaboom! quotient has been established. Because of all that, I'm going to give it a few weeks before I decide if it's time to give the show its walking papers, but it is most definitely on notice.

Most of the first episode is concerned with getting the titular character into her bionics, and introducing the cast of characters, including one mighty fine villain. Jamie Sommers is a bartender/college student who is struggling to support her angsty, irritating younger sister and look good doing it. She's also dating her professor, and having really forced dialogue about why they're dating. Over a romantic dinner, Jamie tells her main squeeze, Will, that she's pregnant and he proposes marriage on the spot. Despite the fact that their relationship hasn't hit the six-month mark, he thinks they can make a go of it. Of course, this is all cut short when a big-rig slams into their car on the way home, nearly killing Jamie. A big-rig piloted by BSGs own Katee Sackhoff.

Review: "Bionic Woman" = Hot Chicks Fighting In The Rain

Scifi/action fans have three great new choices this season, with the hilarious "Reaper," the upcoming "Sarah Connor Chronicles," and "Bionic Woman," debuting tonight on NBC. Michelle Ryan (right) stars as Jamie Sommers. This is moody, broody stuff, and I don't just mean because Isaiah Washington begins a multi-episode appearance next week. (We kid because we love! But not in a homosexual way!)

"Bionic Woman" is scifi noir, part of a modern tradition that dates back at least to "Blade Runner," with chilly blue-white lighting and lots of cyberiffic people making difficult existential choices while wearing frowny faces.

That doesn't mean I didn't like it. Actually, this is one new show that really knows what it's doing. For example:

1) They cast Katee Sackhoff (left), "Battlestar Galactica's" Starbuck, as Jamie Sommers' nemesis, Sarah Corvis, her predecessor in bionic hotness, now gone very, very bad.
2) They end the pilot episode with a big fight scene for Jamie and Sarah. On a rooftop. At night. In the rain.

A gazillion pages of XXX fanfic will no doubt be spun off from this drenchingly sexy battle royale. (And this time we do mean in a homosexual way. Or technically, a Sapphic/bionic way.)

Fall TV Night-By-Night: Wednesday

YIKES. More talked-about new shows hit the airwaves on Wednesdays than any other night of the week, including the new "Bionic Woman" (left).

ABC unveils its critic's pet series "Pushing Daisies" on 8 p.m. on Oct. 3, and I'm waiting to hear whether it makes a huge splash or a tiny little cult-audience plink. This is the dreamy, sweet, weird series about a guy (Lee Pace) who can revive the dead with a touch - but his second touch kills them for good. This gets a little tricky when he revives his childhood sweetheart (Anna Friel). Barry Sonnenfeld's gentle weirdness is all over this show, but I'm not sure if audiences will go for it.

Audiences will be all over "Private Practice," the "Grey's Anatomy" spinoff ABC debuts at 9 on Sept. 26. Kate Walsh's Addison moves to a new clinic where her co-workers include Tim Daly, Taye Diggs, Amy Brenneman, Paul Adelstein and Audra McDonald. The question is whether "Grey's" fans will love the new crew or find them lacking. And that will likely spell success or failure for the show with the season's best title, "Dirty Sexy Money," debuting at 10 on Sept. 26. Peter Krause of "Six Feet Under" stars as the new retainer to a powerful, rich, lunactic family headed by Donald Sutherland and Jill Clayburgh.

MeeVee Video Top 5: Fall Preview 2--Bionic Woman, K-Ville, Cane, and more

Fall is coming. That means the leaves are gonna start changing colors, temperatures drop, and children everywhere begin to complain how much they hate their teachers. Fall is a time for change and the world of television is no exception. Some of your crappy guilty pleasure shows didn't make the cut for the fall line-up and are replaced with potentially new crappy guilty pleasures. Hopefully, for the networks' sake, the five shows we have previewed this week will be successful on their debut this fall.

Video Top 5 features five fresh shows coming to your sets this autumn. We have preview clips for Bionic Woman, Cane, Gossip Girl, and Carpoolers. As well as, the full pilot episode for K-Ville. 

Also, in the wake of Miss South Carolina's "blonde moment", our YouTube Clip of the Week plays off the classic dumb blonde jokes.

Isaiah Washington On "Bionic Woman"

NBC has posted its first pictures of "Grey's Anatomy" exile Isaiah Washington in character as Antonio Pope on "Bionic Woman." The character is a member of the shadowy government organization that has created the bionic warriors. According to what star Michelle Ryan has said in interviews, Pope tries to get Jamie Sommers to embrace her machine side. Here are two pix, one of him with superior Miguel Ferrer and one sparring with Ryan.

Totally Frakked: How Bionic Are You?

Heartbreaking but true, I would probably not make a very good bionic woman.  I tried, I gave it my all, but my hand-eye coordination did not live up to the promise of my multi-million dollar implants. 

In celebration of the new Bionic Woman remake, I took a shot a the "Bionic Assessment Test", a groovy little web quiz that lets you show off your skills, mental and physical.  I was not the giant I hoped to be.  I didn't get beat up quite as badly as Anna Johns over at TV Squad, but I did suffer when lined up against Jaime Sommers.  You can't judge a book by its cover or a show by its viral marketing, but this is a cute quiz.  Give it a shot, see if you can show me up.

Come on, that's not so bad for a mere mortal, right?  Oh well, I guess there's always journalism to fall back on.

"Bionic Woman" Offers Actor A Second Chance

Hey, we finally had our first press tour brouhaha. Well, semi-brouhaha. Well, almost. The producers and lead actors of the new NBC action series "The Bionic Woman" just trooped through the big room to tout their noirish remake of the campy 1970s sci fi show. But they ran into a minor buzz saw, or at least an weed whacker, of criticism over their decision to hire fired "Grey's Anatomy" actor Isaiah Washington for a five-episode role. New NBC co-president Ben Silverman grabbed some ink with the announcement yesterday. By this morning at least a couple of reporters were wondering, why was NBC so happy about gaining the services of an actor many in the gay community view as a bigot despite his apologies?

Washington will play "a mysterious person who is brought into the enigmatic scientific organization that is responsible for  creating the bionics that turn Jaime Sommers (Michelle Ryan, 'EastEnders') into the Bionic Woman." The role already existed and was tweaked to fit Washington after Silverman suggested him, the producers said. (Washington also has a deal to develop an action series for NBC.)

Reporters questioned why producers would hire Washington after he was dumped from "Grey's" in a flap over calling one of his co-stars a "faggot." "We feel he is the right actor for the role, and also we believe in second chances," executive producer Jason Smilovic said. He said the right way to deal with someone in Washington's position is "not by casting them outside the system, but by allowing them to make amends."

This led to a question about whether a white actor who used the N word would get a similar second chance, but Smilovic went rope-a-dope, refusing to be drawn into a discussion of hypotheticals. He insisted, though, that producers "embrace the gay community" and that the role is a second chance for Washington, not a sign of absolution. The little dustup petered out as yet another reporter suggested a gay kiss for the character might be the way to solve the issue, which drew derisive laughter. "I think that would break the third, fourth and fifth wall," Smilovic said.

NBC photo of Michelle Ryan as "The Bionic Woman."