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)

Paradise Lost was a come down from last weeks pilot. This was a badly written episode and I’m left asking myself how they managed to drop the ball after a terrific start last week? I get that they need to settle into a rhythm and have the story develop, but the episode just seemed disjointed.

So Will Anthros is dead – OK, major shock, didn’t see that coming! Maybe that will teach you to not run off to play with Sarah Corvus after your boyfriend has just been shot, Jaime..I mean there is such a thing as 911! I must stress that I don’t actually think Will is dead, but i’ll come to that another time.

Jaime grieves by breathing in Will’s scent (yuk!), before stumbling upon a secret spy-file that he had been keeping on her, dating back 2 years before they ‘met’. Hmm, these Burket people sure like to test the water before they actually introduce themselves properly, don’t they Antonio. Anyway, I can understand Jaime’s confusion and anger over making this discovery, but I’m not sure why they nearly made her lose her dignity in a public toilet? Sorry, but much like the sex montage with Will last week, this seemed out of place and unnecessary.

Another thing that sucked was the insensitivity of Jaime’s ‘friends’. Erm, she’s just lost her boyfriend and they’re so caught up in their own selfish issues. This may be true to life but I just didn’t like that scene..at least bring Crystal Lowe in so I have something good to look at if I’m going to have to watch stuff like that!

Now for my biggest complaint..and this one is even worse than the annoying “I just think it’s cool that girls can do that” girl from last week – enter ‘Vivian’, the girl with the heart made of stone. So she has just found out that her grandparents have been killed in a terrorist attack..whilst she slept..and she doesn’t even shed a tear…What!? To make things worse she goes on to utter “They were good to me”, Yes Vivian..too good, by the looks of things. So that was bad acting..but more so it was terrible writing, I mean seriously.

But thankfully it wasn’t all bad, somehow Isaiah Washington managed to save the episode with a polished performance as Antonio Pope. I like his character, not as much as I like Sarah Corvus or Papa Anthros, but he’s interesting, layered and seems to be well acted, thus far. This episode really needed more Corvus, however, and what we saw of her was some more good character building, as my suspicions of her being ‘forced’ to kill those BG scientists gained credence. Afterall, she’s half computer and computers can be hacked.

Speaking of hacking, another bright spark in this episode was Becca. I like her snarky attitude and her interaction with her elder sister is actually believable. The montage scene at the end was good and once again we have evidence that they made the right decision in replacing Mae Whitman with Lucy Hale.

Jae Lee really likes the sound of his own voice, and whilst I loved his “The machine is nothing without the woman”soundbite, he really needs to let Jaime get a word in edge-ways! This is afterall, HER show, lol.

The episode had some other good lines, but you could tell that even the likes of Molly Price (again excellent) and Miguel Ferrer struggled with the script at times.

All in all it was an ‘OK’ episode, overall, the writing was fairly bad in places and the direction they took was disjointed, and at times, baffling. There were far too many eye-rolling moments and moments of dialogue which just seemed ‘off’. We need more layering of characters, more emotion, better character interaction and better production values (seriously make the visuals more glossy). They need to look at LOST and see why that is such a success. For example, every scene should be important and should act as a set-piece to the larger plot. The creators need to start making the characters people who we can emotionally invest in, not ones we actually detest, when that is not the overriding intention - i.e. Vivian. 

My disappointment is amplified due to the potential this show has – the themes are so powerful and interesting, but the worry is that we’ll waste too much tome seeing Jaime having drunken sex in public toilets before we get the explore these themes. I’m sure next weeks episode will be better, we mustn’t forget that the show is still finding it’s feet and most shows take a while before they fall into a rhythm. With the likes of Katee Sackhoff, Miguel Ferrer, Isaiah Washington, Molly Price and Mark Sheppard on board, I still have every faith that this show will live up to the hype. Just make sure next weeks episode is ‘better’ and ‘stronger’, Mr Eick.

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Best Quotes:

Jaime “I’m faster than you are”

Ruth ”Only at running”

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Jae (to Jaime) “The machine is nothing without the woman”

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Worst Quote:

Vivian (finding out her grandparents have been murdered) “They were good to me” (notice the absence of any tears or concern whatsoever)

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Best Performer: Isaiah Washington (Antonio Pope)

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Some Select Shots:

“RIP Steve..er..I mean, Will”

“Thank You for saving this episode, Isaiah!”

“Listen..not everyone can jump rooftops like Corvus and I!”

“YUM!”

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EPISODE RATING: 6/10 - The best is definitely yet to come.

*I should add, that the character of Vivian does interest me in regards to ‘how’ she managed to survive, whislt the rest of ‘Paradise’ died..however apart from that, she was awful.

What did YOU think about this episode?

So, I finally got around to reviewing this – let me tell you, it’s better on 2nd viewing!

I thought that the episode began brilliantly with Sarah Corvus and Jae Lee setting the pace and the angst of the episode. Seriously, those are the words I would use to describe this episode because ALOT happens and there is plenty of gritty realism (moulded with science!). Speaking of which I found Michelle Ryan’s performance believable – she portrays an ordinary woman thrown into an extraordinary situation with great skill and integrity. I found myself willing Jaime to succeed as she first stumbles and then leaps her way through the various obstacles that she faces in this episode. I think it’s crucial that the viewing public are sympathetic to this character and boy does she have me invested.

So what about the other characters? I couldn’t really find a weak link. All of the main characters add value to the show – Sarah Corvus is the obvious standout character. I think that she could possibly be one of the best TV Characters we will see over the next 12 months..that’s how awesome she is. I didn’t know much about Katee Sackhoff before Bionic, but I can see why she is so highly regarded – she has bucket-loads of charisma, style, guile and she is beautiful..absolutely beautiful to look at – so much so that her rather ‘manic’ grin adds to her aesthetics rather than detracting from them. Sarah has an interesting back story, as I mentioned in my Episode Notes, she was hired to kill Will Anthros by the guy who breaks Anthony Anthros out of jail – so there’s a whole interesting storyline going on there.

I thought that the characters of Jonas Bledsoe, Ruth Truewell and Jae Lee were well acted – I found myself wanting to find out more about all three characters and it will be interesting to see how Isaiah Washington’s character fits into their hierarchy. I can already see how he could act as an awesome counter-balance to Jae Lee.

I have to give props to Mark Sheppard- he only had about 2 minutes of screen-time, but man did he do a great job with Anthony Anthros! The guy is just awesome – I totally know what Producer Smilovic meant now!

As for the now re-casted Mae Whitman, well watching it a second time I found her not too bad. She wasn’t brilliant but until I see Lucy Hale’s performance it will be hard to tell whether the right decision has been made. But I don’t think it’s a ‘travesty’ she has gone.

Overall this original Pilot was good and the best thing about it is that is has me wanting more. I thought the mixture of science, ethics, love and humanity used throughout was just about right. On the downside the visuals need touching up a bit, things seemed a bit bleak and grey. I don’t mind dark setting’s but dark with a bit of gloss would be nice (ala ‘Heroes’). As I mentioned earlier, alot happens..perhaps too much? I think they needed to pad out certain parts and offer more context. I also wasn’t best pleased that they skirted over the issue of Jaime’s baby dyeing – a 2 minute montage of ‘surgically changed’ Jaime and Will making love was a bit, shall we say, off-key. Oh and why did Jaime leave Will to die after being shot by Corvus? ..where’s her priorities!?..and after her rooftop dance with Corvus she STILL didn’t seem too worried - even after seeing him being strapped into an ambulance? Could her ‘machine side’ (if you will) be de-humanising her already? I’d rather that than a plot-hole to be honest.

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‘OH YES..THAT ROCKED!’ MOMENTS:

1.Rooftop Battle – This is such a great scene, I challenge anyone to not love this! What can I say?..the whole thing was great, from the way Sarah initially turns her back on Jaime to her soon to be iconic “tadah!” to the way she lays the smack down on Jaime to Jaime’s second-wind as she begins to harness her abilities and fights back. It was simply O..M..G! Great visuals in ‘that’ scene also..and i’m not just talking about the hotness of Michelle and Katee :)

2. The remainder of Jaime’s Bionics going online whilst she’s working. I thought this was a great way to show her experiencing the ‘machine within’, as she suddenly develops all these new abilities that she didn’t have before. It was also great the way Sarah, wearing bright red lipstick(!), toys with Jaime but then shows alot of empathy as she helps her. It was just a nice moment which emphasised the light and shade of her character.

3. Jaime being imprisoned by the Burket Group whilst they figure out what to do with her – Jaime walks up to the ‘non-see through’ glass and says “BOO!” to Jonas who is watching her from the other-side. This was great, as she seemed so de-humanised yet appeared to be realising that they couldn’t keep her for long. Jonas’ smile was also great.

‘THAT STINKS!’ MOMENTS:

1. The little girl who notices Jaime using her Bionic speed says to her mom “I just think it’s cool that girls could do that”. I mean COME ON..hello!??..lines like this will take us back to the 1960′s, never-mind the 1970′s! I get the point they wanted to make, but surely there was a better – less ridiculous – way to do it? I don’t like having my intelligence insulted thank you very much! I hope that doesn’t show up in the final version of the Pilot.

2. Padding – this episode lacked a bit of padding and with so much happening it really did need a 2nd viewing for me to get the most out of the episode. I hope they address this.

3. Jaime and Jonas in their final scene – what was up with the dialogue!? Very clumsy in parts:

“If we do this, whatever this is, then we do it on my terms”

Ok Jaime, but what if your terms, whatever your terms are, conflict with my terms, whatever my terms are?.. LOL!

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Performance ratings:

I rate all performances ‘relative’ to what they had to do and the impact they made upon me as a viewer. I have also taken into consideration that this was a ‘pre-air’ Pilot:

• Michelle Ryan -    7.5/10 – Good start
• Katee Sackhoff -   9/10 – Awesome!
• Miguel Ferrer -    7.5/10 – The bad-good guy..I like
• Molly Price -         7.5/10 – Suprisingly good
• Will Yun Lee -       7/10 – Will do better, but OK
• Mark Sheppard -  8/10 – WOW.
• Mae Whitman -    7/10 – Did OK

OVERALL EPISODE RATING 7./10

Ryan over at wathcingbionicwoman.com has also given his review of the Pilot (final cut). It’s well worth checking out. Also I will be posting my Episode Notes and Review of the ‘Final Cut’ Pilot soon, so check back!