Check out this awesome Jaime centric Music Video:

Credit: Wolfke1979

One of my early questions when this whole Bionic Woman series was pitched, was whether real-life technology was capable of achieving the technological advancements that the show would flaunt. No doubt, one of the coolest gadgets in Jaime’s configuration was her Bionic eye, which, if memory serves me, allowed her to see for miles and miles..with perfect vision.

Now it seems that my question is beginning to be answered, with the exciting news that scientists have developed the worlds first Bionic Contact Lens! The lens allows it’s wearer to “zoom in on distant objects and display useful facts”. Useful facts? Do they actually mean that the contact lens comes equipped with a digital interface just Jaime Sommers’? Now THAT is cool.

Apparently the prototype “doesn’t light up and display information” – so it’s not quite like Ms. Sommers’ version, but still, it’s an awesome leap into the scientific ‘Pandora’s box’ that we seem to be ever opening these days.

When I first heard this news I was instantly reminded of just how exciting this kind of thing can be..I remember being overjoyed that there was actually a TV show which was going to present us with the idea of what it would be like to be a bionic person..to be a product of man living in God’s world.

As for when this Bionic Contact Lens will be available..well, I wouldn’t have thought it will be on general sale for a good few years..perhaps even a decade. But it’s always fun to read about the real world catching up with fantasy!

Finally got round to posting this - I thought this episode was quite a mixed bag, but it was definitely a continued improvement for the series. In particular I liked the fact that they showed some continuity from the previous episode by referencing the fact that Antonio had been killed. It was important to see the Burkets mourning his death and significantly it was interesting to see Jaime actually grieving. Odd, that she should grieve more for Antonio than she did for Will (her ex boyfriend), but nonetheless it was important in that it gave us the Jaime many of us had been desperately seeking – the Jaime who struggles with her new found position in society.

There are, however several things which I didn’t like about this episode – notably the crazy camera angles, which I sense they have borrowed from Battlestar Galatica. Sorry, but it’s not cool to disorientate the viewer! Jaime still does silly things – like speak in front of the bad guy whilst she’s on the phone to the guys from the Bat cave..sorry, ‘Burket Headquarters’. Seriously Jaime, discretion is important in your job!

Whilst I appreciate the fact that the creators consciously tried to marry the ‘A’ and ‘B’ story, it still felt somewhat coincidental and even random at times. I mean what are the chances of Becca having a crush on Vincents son? What was the point of that boy anyway, except to to bring the two storylines together? It seemed too forced and they will have to address this in the remaining 5 episodes.

Oh, and where did Jaime get all of that ice from?

I felt that Jae and Ruth were still vastly under-employed. Seriously, is there no real work to do at the Bat cave, I mean, Burket Group?

Despite a few criticisms there were several bright sparks in this episode. I loved the introduction of more cool Bat cave, I mean ‘Burket’ gadgets in the form of Jonas’ Visual Caller ID. But did Jaime even have to ask whether it is legal or not? This is Burket Jaime, get with the programme! ;)

I liked Jaime’s line to the receptionist at the Spa – “TV’s really important to us”. I felt that was a nod to the fans maybe?

I thought it was cool to see ‘Heroes’ referenced in this episode – I just hope Heroes repay the old ‘quid pro quo’ sometime soon! Or make that sometime in Fall 2008, seeing as the strike has crippled it’s 2nd season.

I thought there was some cool use of bionic abilities in this episode – in particular I liked it when she used her Bionic hearing and then Bionic strength in the car bomb scene. The filming of these scenes was much better than the ‘oh there’s a propeller, let me bend it’ scenes.

I did feel that this episode was a little ‘filler’ – I mean when you see Jonas doing the dishes you kinda know what’s coming! It was a little slow in places and a little sentimental – but I can kinda understand that because after the death of Antonio we really needed to see the ‘human’ Jaime..the Jaime who struggles with the choices she is expected to make, the Jaime who is torn by her own morality and ‘the greater good’. We finally saw Jaime make a heartfelt decision..one based on the love for her sister. She so badly wanted to confide in Becca – and I even found myself willing her to do so -but she realised that the more Becca knows, the more danger she is in. This is a simple thing, but it’s something which, as a viewer, I wanted to see addressed, instead of skirted over. It was great seeing Jaime nearly, but not quite being able to share her secret with Becca. I felt that the writers finally did something to advance the storyline – the decision Jaime made was the wrong one (in my view), but it’s totally understandable and debatable.

My episode rating: 7.5/10 (but with huge promise)

Random Thought #3 

At the end of the Pilot episode a determined Jaime told Jonas: “If we’re gonna do this, what ever this is, then we’re gonna do it on MY terms”. A stupid line if ever there was one, but that aside, what ever happened to Jaime ‘doing things on her terms’??

I was actually looking forward to seeing Jaime claim her independence only to realise that it would be more complicated than she had envisaged – or something like that. Instead we’ve seen very little of Jaime working for Burket on her own terms. Sure, she’s had the odd day off here, finished work a few hours early there, but I had associated ‘doing things on my terms’ with her making conflicting choices regarding right and wrong, possibly leading to her working outside of the organisation that made her. After all, this was the cautionary tale – Sarah Corvus served as a warning to what could become of Jaime. However Jaime has instead led a rathered sheltered life – not once have I got the impression that she was in any REAL danger (either physically or psychologically), or that she could be ‘changed’ by an event which ‘could’ lead to her taking the ‘Sarah Corvus route’ in self preservation.

Perhaps I’ve just missed the parts when any of this happened? Perhaps I haven’t been paying close enough attention? Perhaps I’m being unfair? Hey, I’ll admit it if this is the case.

I actually think that two of the biggest problems with the Jaime character is that she relies too much on men (or when she is ‘ballsy’, as they say in the UK, it’s unconvincing), and she never seems to be in any great risk. What’s the point of being bionic if you’re never in any real peril – even Superman had Kryptonite! This is why I really wish they had expanded on the whole ‘Bionic Lifespan’ storyline (what happened to that? Heck, what happened to Corvus!?) – now THAT was interesting! I get the feeling that they thought we were too unintelligent to grasp such a storyline..that, or they didn’t want to get too ’scifi’ on us…HA!

Anyway, my main point is that I don’t think Jaime stayed true to herself – perhaps I am overlooking moments when she did things on her terms? If I am, I fear that they were too insignificant or not important enough to make me remember!

*I realise that alot of my complaints are down to the problems that the show has encountered, but hey, this is a blog and until the show gets cancelled I’ve gotta get my BW thoughts/frustrations out there!

NBC have released the following images to promote tonight’s episode, titled “Do Not Disturb”. By the looks of things we’re going to have a bit of action..YEEES!

Oh and Becca appears to feature quite heavily in the episode. Funny, I never expected her to have more screen-time than Antonio, Jae, Ruth and Jonas!: 

As the curtain comes down on Isaiah Washington’s stint on Bionic Woman, I thought it would be a good time to look back on what he and Antonio Pope have brought to the show.

Well, whatever you want to say about Isaiah and his time on the show, he certainly brought the buzz that helped to catapult BW into he realm of ‘most anticipated new show’ back in the summer. I recall blogging about the controversy that his arrival brought - often I wished we could just have the actor and not his baggage, but the two things remained inseparable as column inches were filled with his past controversy, and predictions were made that he would unsettle and fall out with certain members of the cast. How ironic that it is now Katee Sackhoff who is ‘apparently’ doing the falling out. As for Isaiah, not a peep..not one problem reported. Not that it deserves praise..that’s what professionals are supposed to do. But in light of the hype, he did his job – got kicked through a few walls, raised the stakes and got shot. Goodnight Antonio.

I don’t think Antonio Pope was the greatest character I’ve ever seen..far from it. Neither was Isaiah’s performance anything special. On the whole it was just ‘OK’ (although many would disagree).

Will Isaiah or Antonio be missed? Not really. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure Jaime will miss her human ‘punch bag’ and Jonas will miss those long lingering stares that the pair used to share, but in all fairness they can now promote Jae Lee to ‘actually’ doing something other than “taking it beyond the demo”.

But let’s give Isaiah his due, he did a decent job (not that “decent” should be enough for this re-imagined franchise) and gave us some excitement by walking into his ex girlfriends bullet.

Incidentally, do you think we’ll ever find out what happened to her? Did she get caught? Perhaps they’ll tidy up such loose ends in Isaiah’s spin-off show? ;-)

I’m also noticing a trend here..first Will Anthros (remember him?) and now Antonio Pope (remember him?) killed by a bullet. They have all this technology and these two guys get killed by bullets? You gotta love it..

But I digress, this is not the time to split hairs..join me as I say goodbye to Antonio. Even Jaime shed a tear for him..one more than she shed for Will Anthros. Bless.

When Jaime punches or kicks normal humans, why do they get back up and continue fighting with her? Surely being bionic and all they would be knocked out after one punch or kick from Jaime’s bionic limbs? It’s okay when she’s fighting Corvus because she’s bionic too..it’s all relative, and therefore I can believe that they could go ten rounds before one of them gives up or becomes too badly injured to fight. But humans like Jae Lee, Antonio Pope and the other goons that Jaime has put through walls, would surely be unconscious after 5 seconds with Jaime, no? 

Unless Jaime uses a ’softer’ fighting style when fighting normal humans, so as to not injure them too badly? Has Jae Lee taught her this? If so, why have we not been informed? I can suspend disbelief if they want me too but sadly I just think it’s an oversight.

Meanwhile, Ryan from WBW.com has an interesting article on the fight sequences featured on BW, which you can read here.

Oooh ‘Trust Issues’ – well they certainly promoted this one well didn’t they? NBC must have the ‘Heroes’ people working on their trailers at last. Of course they ever so slightly misrepresented the whole thing, but that’s advertising for you. Nevertheless, it was a good episode. But first, let’s get the bad stuff outta the way:

Why is Jaime so irresponsible?..you would think that she was Becca’s age – at least then it would be understandable! Like I mentioned in last weeks review, I like Tom and Jaime as a pairing, but they’re now far too forced. Why on earth would Jaime entertain his “what are you wearing?” conversation whilst she is on a mission? Doesn’t she know that she may be Bionic but other people (i.e. civilians) are not? Didn’t she ever watch Spider Man 2? “With great power comes great responsibility”..come on Jaime, sort it out girl! As for Tom, he’s far too casual to be a believable CIA agent..he’s more IKEA than CIA..that’s how laid back he is!

Also, the show has to get to grips with the inconsistencies in Jaime’s abilities – why is it she can stop and bend a blade with her bare bionic hand and yet that same hand, on some occasions, cannot help her to pull herself up with ease from a building ledge? Why is it that Jaime is unable to utilise her bionic speed when being held at gunpoint by a man she knows she can out manoeuvre? Why didn’t he windscreen of the car she crashed smash when her bionic foot stepped on it as it came towards her at at least 60mph?

And while I’m ranting let me ask why Jaime goes to missions with heels on? Does she want to damage her toe again or is she secretly hoping to spend some more quality time with Nathan in the repair room? Oh and why O why don’t Burket buy her a better car? I’ve nothing against an old skool SAAB, but considering they can blow $8million at the drop of a hat, you’d think that upgrading her with a faster and more secure car would be a mere drop in the ocean for Burket. What are they, the studios? Come on, share the wealth Burket!

Sorry to continue the rant, but can someone PLEASE get Jaime a new ringtone!!? Honestly, why she even has it on full blast is beyond me - she has bionic hearing!!

I’m being critical here but I feel these are all valid points (well, maybe the not the ringtone one) and aspects which the show needs to address if they don’t want viewers to feel that their intelligence is being insulted.

That aside it was a pretty good episode and things got fairly exciting for a moment back there didn’t they! I thought the episode had a much better ‘feel’ to it – I sensed that something big was at stake, despite Jaime’s laid back approach, this made the show much more exiting. Although I felt they dragged certain scenes out for longer than necessary on occasions, thus losing that extra ‘edge’.

I thought that Isaiah was very good as Antonio- he wont win any awards for his stint on the show but he at least gave it something extra that would otherwise have been lacking. The whole plot, well if I’m being honest, was silly and I just didn’t buy it for a second, but the pacing of the episode kept me entertained (despite a few scenes being a touch drawn out).

They need to give Ruth something to do, honestly, she gets her own office and good pay for what? For giving Jaime sessions which haven’t even begun to get under her skin yet? She needs to redo her psychology degree does our Ruth! I’m just surprised (but relieved) that they didn’t have Jae Lee mopping up the halls in his part time role as Janitor! Are they over-staffed (apparently not seeing as Jonas had to go to Halliburton in 1.02) or just really really bored down at Wolf Creek!? Ah well, I guess it was good to see Ruth leave the office to get a plant – though it would have been much more fun actually seeing her buying the damn thing! Hmm, do you suppose she will end up talking to that plant, seeing as both Jaime and Corvus have proven her sessions to be weak?

Speaking of weak, are they now going OTT with this ’soft-guy’ Jonas approach? It was fun at first but seriously, let’s see some light and shade, let’s see him slam his fist down on a table or something! Hey, sometimes cliche’s work!

Nathan was good – once again delivering the best line of the episode when asking Jaime what she was wearing – you see Tom, some people have it and some people (like you) just don’t.

Also, I have to mention this – was it just me or was Jaime slow to react to a partner being shot? She’s bionic for goodness sakes, she should have ran him over to the hospital – ahh, but she has to be ‘discreet’ about her abilities right? That’s why she jumped up to a rooftop in broad daylight and why she apprehended a car by fly kicking it, before casually walking away with it’s contents in hand. Yup..discreet is our Jaime. Also, what happened to the optical relay thing? Did she convince Burket that she had a right to keep it turned off? Because I would really have liked to have seen that conversation. Not to mention the fact that a live relay to Burket HQ whilst on that mission would really have helped old Antonio out..Nathan’s insight might even have prevented him from walking into that bullet there.

Despite my ‘constructive’ criticism I did actually like this episode and the show is definitely showing great improvement – I’m just being honest (and perhaps harsher) in my review of this episode because I feel that the show is now at a stage where it can deal with it because it is getting better, faster and stronger. I want it to continue to improve but I feel that it needs direction and a firm hand (obviously not Jaime’s though ; )).

Well done to whoever wrote this episode..much better..far from being up to the level I expect but you gotta walk before you can run (maybe someone should tell Jaime that?), and now that we’re finally walking, let’s see if we can try jogging next week? Just a shame that the WGA strike has given the show cramp..
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Episode Rating – a promising 8/10

Best Actor – Isaiah Washington

Best Character – Antonio Pope

Best Quote – “What are you wearing?” (Nathan) – funny because Tom’s SO wasn’t.

Final Thought – I liked this episode even thought it’s hard to articulate why exactly. Please please build on this and make Jaime a bit brighter – is it just me or has she reverted back to her “Paradise Lost” days over the past 2 episodes? Hmm..

Oh, and no Corvus or Anthros..imagine what it would be like to actually include them in one of this ‘good’ episodes. Food for thought NBC, food for thought.

 I’m a big fan of Nathan “The Tech Guy”, the man in charge of Jaime’sbionics down at the Burket Group. The actor who portrays him, Kevin Rankin, has been speaking to MediaBlvd about Bionic Woman:

Rankin on getting the role of Nathan on BW:

“All I knew is that he was going to be the bionics guy and ultimately was sort of a test run, so nobody knew what was going to happen with the character, and I just got up there and they all responded well to what I was doing, and you know, he was really just a crap shoot.  I didn’t really know exactly how to play him.  I didn’t want to play him too much of a techie geek…because I know there’s a possibility of a romance, but it was a fine line, because there’s a dark, serious tone to the show and I didn’t want to take it too far out there, but I also wanted to give it a little bit of lightness – also ground the humor in reality somehow.”

Rankin on his input in Nathan’s development as a character:

“they’re actually letting me run free up there and do a lot of stuff, you know, just how I see it in my head, and just really run free, and I would do it as long as they would let me.”

On the writers strike and it’s impact on the show:

Rankin saysthat he believes that the show could be a lot more affected than others, because they are fairly far behind in filming. At the beginning of the season they shot about four or five episodes, including the pilot, and for whatever reason the network didn’t like a good bit of it, so they reshot about fifty percent of it. They even took the second episode and completely tossed it out. He went in and shot three episodes in a matter of days, and then they placed his scenes into what they had already shot, which made it look like he was around the whole time, even though he wasn’t. Rankin says that they are also farther behind then other shows, because it is so effects and stunt heavy, and that they have really long shooting schedules. They usually work Monday through Saturday, with Sundays off. He also said that he does not know how many scripts they even have past the one that they are currently shooting. Rankin did however say that he supports the writers.

Rankin on his hopes for Nathan:

“They’re training Nathan how to fight, and so I think they’re just really taking his character and they’re going to take him out of the underground world and just really let him be a part of the team more, as opposed to just sitting in front of the computer or fixing Jaime’s toe whenever it gets broken. The reason why they’re training Nathan to fight in this episode, is because his big brother got a little physical with him, and I show up with a black eye, and so my big brother beat me up, and I show up and ask Will [Will Yun Lee who plays Jae Kim] to train me. I’d like to see a little bit of Nathan’s home life actually and so people can get a little clue into why Nathan’s the way he is”

Rankin on the possibility of a Jaime/Nathan romance:

“I do know that Nathan, he loves his bionics, and he loves women, and you put them together, you can’t go wrong. I definitely think he is fascinated with Jaime, and I think that it’s just the combination of his two favorite things, like having peanut butter and jelly in the same jar. There was always that possibility when I came on the show that they wanted there to be some sort of trajectory there, but you never know when that ship is going to land. So, I think that if there is a romance, that you’ll always touch on it, but I don’t know how long it will be until you would actually see that.”

Rankin on Miguel Ferrer:

“I think Miguel Ferrer is just the coolest man I’ve ever met. He’s a great actor and just great to have on set, and just great to be in a scene with, and actually I’m glad that he’s taking Nathan out of the lair and kind of making me his sort of right hand man when he goes out on a mission and stuff,”

Rankin on Michelle Ryan:

“She’s just such a wonderful, beautiful young lady, and she never has a second to herself, because she’s in every scene and she rarely gets any time off, and God bless her, she’s just the biggest trooper.”

Rankin also talks about his personal hopes and his upcoming movie roles. You can read the entire interview here.

Later than scheduled, but here’s the Investigations for episode 1.06 – “The List”: 

The interface of the iris recognition system that Nathan was using to detect Victor. Apparently the only way to detect Victor – who keeps changing his identity - was for him to look into Jaime’s eyes. Jaime also used this method to ‘upload’ the ‘list’ to Nathan.

This amused me slightly – the picture of Jaime that Burket use for her file (above) is the exact same picture that Jaime found hidden in Will’s secret dossier on her (below):

…So, either the props department we’re being lazy/having an off-day/couldn’t be bothered to mock up a ‘new Burket’ photo of Jaime…or this is a clue suggesting that Burket we’re involved in Will’s ‘grooming’ of the unsuspecting bartender.

The ‘bad guy’ (Victor) uses the Apple iPhone upside down – is this a terrible production error/an actors oversight..or is this NBC giving Apple the finger over their recent split?? Hmm..who said Hollywood was petty? :P

In truth, I’m not sure how NBC would have gone about convincing Eick/Cahill to ‘abuse’ the iphone like that – then again, they interfere severely with it’s sister show, ‘Heroes’, in so much as the Nissan Versa (the shows sponsors) is, to my annoyance, referenced in every other episode! Would NBC stoop so low and so feebly to stick it to Apple by using their phone wrongly in an episode of BW? Watch this space for Apples comeback..I hear they will be having Peacock for Christmas..

Jaime uses her bionic eye to relay the names on the ‘list’ to Nathan.