geekent’s stuff’n things

Caught the premiere of the Bionic Womanyesterday and, holy cow, it was not good, not good at all. First impressions, especially where TV shows are involved, count for a lot, and sometimes if a show has a weak start it takes much cajoling to get me back on board. It happened with both Battlestar Galactica and Heroes, and given that Battlestar eventually wound up being one of the best shows on TV for a year and a half and this show (again a 70’s genre remake) is brought to you by one of Battlestar’s champions, it’s the only reason I’m going to give it another shot.
But it pains me. It pains me so. We meet Jamie Sommers, a hyper-intelligent bartender dating a college professor and caring for her troubled teenaged sister who was abandoned by their father. Jamie and her boyfriend, Will deal with some impromptu relationship issues such as him moving to France and wanting her to come along (”but I have a job” she says) and Jamie telling him she’s pregnant in turn. It’s an overwrought and thankfully brief ten minute lull before Jamie and Will are pinballed around between a transport truck and a telephone pole. Will survives with cuts and bruises, Jamie loses an eye, an arm, and both legs (from the severity of the stunt crash they show, they should both really be dead). Of course Will isn’t what he seems, working for an underground organization (presumably governmental) where he’s developed nano-technology that regrows Jamie’s eye, legs and arm, but imbuing her with speed and strength and bionic sight and hearing, and oh yes, digital rewiring of her brain so that she’s combat-ready.
There’s drama and intrigue, as Jamie, having escaped, must face her new condition by going back to her bartending job, oh and having sex with Will despite being really unsure of who he really is and what his motivations are. Then there’s Sarah Corvus, the mentally unstable, emotionally needy first Bionic Woman, who is on a mission to kill Will and to either befriend Jamie or kill her (she was also, coincidentally, driving the transport that kick started the show). And that’s a large part of the problem with this show is there’s no understanding the characters or their motivations as they all seem to turn on a dime. Jamie and her sister are at each other’s throats one moment, and best friends the next. Will’s superiors in the organization all act like hard-asses but never seem to go the distance. Everyone in the show bandies between nefarious and amiable so there’s no being sure, aside from Jamie, who’s really good or bad or what they’re really after.
The scenes where Jamie discovers her bionic powers steal quite liberally from the first Superman and Spiderman films, and Jamie’s reaction to having speed and strength is borderline apathetic. Her first fight scene, so cheesily staged, finds her squaring off against a thug with a knife in a back alley, when suddenly she kicks his ass. And her shaky-cam fight with Sarah Corvis is equally difficult to embrace, especially as it first seems Sarah’s toying with her, and by no logic other than she’s the protagonist does Jamie get the upper hand. After the fight she agrees to work for the organization, but on her own terms, of course.
There’s no plot threads that cry out for more explanation (some side plots introduced just seem out of place in this pilot) and the show is perhaps too tightly wound in its own circular logic to escape into something more interesting down the road. The cast is decent but left with a horrendous script to try and emote. Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck on Battlestar) seems to relish her role as the rather insane anti-Bionic Woman, but teeters the ham-fisted line. Star Michelle Ryan does better than I thought she would, but the drastic shifts the script demands of her character - between demure and confident, meek and hyper-intelligent - just make her come off looking uneven. As for the rest, they’re all dispensable. Get rid of them and few will even notice their absence.
Pushing Daisies airs before Bionic Woman next Wednesday and so I’ll give this show at least one more shot before giving up on it (but if Pushing Daisies turns up to be a loser as well, Wednesday nights will prove dead to me until Lost gets going).

Sat down last night to the season premiere of Heroes and Journeyman and I have to say I’m already hating this weekly structured TV format.
Heroes, to start, is already proving difficult to watch (oh, the season premiere isn’t nearly as rough as the pilot episode, thankfully) mainly because I watched the first season in such a concentrated dose. I realized while watching the season one DVDs that each episode doesn’t often give enough to each character’s storyline, but when watching them in quick succession it’s not as noticeable. This first episode of season two was basically a 40 minute teaser, and it seemed to be over before it even began.
Claire has found herself a new “hero” (what the show calls anyone with superpowers, regardless of how they use them) at school (who I suspect is an alien). Bennett is large an in charge in his situation. We’re getting some background on the senior “heroes” (Mrs. Petrelli, Hiro’s dad…they say there are 9 left, meaning after Mr. Petrelli, Simone’s dad and Linderman, there were 12 to start) as one of their ranks (looking an awful lot like Sylar early in season one) is killing off the others, taking Mr. Nakamoura off the top of the roof. Hiro is in feudal Japan, meeting his hero and being disappointed, unaware that his dad is dead (kind of puts a damper on his lighthearted counterpoint story). The wonder twins (a South American brother and sister duo, one with murderous power she can’t control) are trying to find their way out of their homeland to Suresh, who himself is working with Bennett to try and infiltrate the remains of the Organization. Matt, now divorced (his pregnant wife = dead weight apparently) has adopted the “tracking system”, but the “more sinister than Sylar” guy is peering into her mind. In the most unfortunate part of the storyline, Nathan Petrelli has, somehow, survived his brother’s explosion, grown a beard, and taken on very Tony Stark-esque habits (maybe Micah could build him a suit of armor?). His wife and kids have left him and he wont give Claire the time of day. There’s a strange scene where he looks in the mirror and sees a hideously burn-scarred reflection, which I thought meant that Peter, having come into contact with Candice (the illusionist) last season, was pretending to be Nathan, and having some split personality disorder in the same vein as Niki/Jessica. Unfortunately Peter pops up at the end, found shackled inside a cargo container by the lads from Fight Club.
Was it good? Not really. Interesting, sure. Frustrating, definitely. It seems to be much more of a TV show this year, as opposed to the comic-book affair it was last year. There was no sign of Niki, DL and Micah, which is unfortunate, cause I think DL rocks. Of all of them, he seems the most human… fragile, uncertain, but also not without strength. Anyway…
Following immediately after was Journeyman which I was afraid by the commercials I had seen that it was going to be a chick-flick version of science fiction, where the time travelling protagonist encounters his dead ex-fiancee in the past and tussles with the decision of saving her (or having an affair with her) or protecting his marriage. Thankfully it wasn’t (totally) like that, as Dan intriguingly finds himself thrust back and forth in time between the now and various pasts (where he goes missing for lengths of time in the now, causing his wife and coworkers much distress, going so far as to think he’s doing drugs). Dan, and investigative journalist, seems to observe the chance encounters with the same man as a sign as to what he’s supposed to be doing and settles into his whole “time travel” thing with relative ease. When a more mature version of his ex-fiancee appears, throwing him for a loop, at guiding him on his journey, it became clear to me that this is just Quantum Leap revisited. It’s decent, and the acting is fine (although the lead, Scottish actor Kevin McKidd, sounds unusually like Ray Romano, which throws me off), but it’s not very unique. It’ll make for perfect serialized television, but beyond this pilot, I’m not really engaged to watch more.
So, that’s one hour of television I can wipe off the slate (phew). I really need to learn how to bit torrent… and then I’ll need a computer that can burn DVDs… so that I can have my own TV watching schedule as opposed to what the networks decide.

I’m not a huge fan of the television. Oh, I love TV shows (as witnessed by my voluminous TV on DVD collection), but I’m not a lover of TV schedules and commercials. Commercial breaks are inefficient and time-wasting for the man who likes to consume as much story, information and entertainment as possible, as quickly as possible. Why watch a tv show in 1 hour at the rigidly scheduled period of 9 PM on Tuesdays when I can record it and watch it at my leisure, skipping past the commercials, in under 45 minutes (I miss TiVo), or, better yet, watching entire seasons in 5 days, like Aden and I just did with Heroes thanks to DVD.
But, at the same time, with my 1-year moratorium on new DVD purchases, I’m going to be a bit stuck for fresh entertainment, so I’ll have to consume only what I have available to me. And even though the BNY doesn’t start until January 1, 2008, I have to prepare for it now and invest in some programs, or else just watch nothing at all.
Aden and I devoured season one of Heroes quickly so that we might catch the second season premiere, which airs tonight. This of course will tear us away from any sort of movie (theatre) watching which I’ve been awfully neglectful of (we were planning on one of the nu-Western flicks).
Journeyman also starts tonight, and thanks to it’s genre trappings, I’ll give it a shot (it’s a time-travel show, because, thanks to Heroes the big thing this fall is paranormal and/or super-powers). I don’t think Aden will be into it (she doesn’t like time travel or sci-fi much) but who knows. I’m not expecting much.
There’s Carpoolers (October 2, ABC @ 8:30), from Kids in the Hall alum Bruce McCulloch, and a couple of Arrested Development producers. The previews I’ve seen are generally cute and or amusing, but not necessarily funny. McCulloch’s post-Kids output (mainly sub-par Hollywood studio comedies) has been abysmal, and I can’t say I expect much out of this either. Here’s hoping. In general, network sit-coms aren’t worth any sort of investment. Even The Office and My Name Is Earl find themselves played out after only their second seasons, and once smart comedies like Scrubs start to become routine, their humour expected. America loves Two and A Half Men, and I feel ill (previews for the new nerd comedy from the 21/2Men creators looks stomach churningly awful… I’m sure it’ll be a hit). Carpoolers, if it’s any good, should be a good occasional show, since I don’t really feel like dedicating myself to a sitcom.
The Bionic Woman (Wed. Sept. 26 @ 9:00 on NBC) looks like it could be really good or yet more by-the-numbers “running-man” sci-fi. From the resurrectors of Battlestar Galactica, I’ll give it a shot, since they did good things there, but, again, not expecting much.
Pushing Daisies (Wed Oct. 3 @ 8:00 on ABC) sounds intriguing but whether it has any legs or not, we’ll find out after the first half dozen episodes. The conceit is a man discovers he can bring the dead back to life with one touch, but one touch again and their dead. A Private Investigator discovers his abilities and coaxes him to help him on his cases. On one case he discovers and resurrects his childhood sweetheart, they find themselves enchanted once again, only if they touch he’ll lose her forever. It looks sweet and charming but I don’t see a lot of potential for storylines. It’s shows like this that make me wish the US made programming more like the BBC, shorter seasons with better quality episodes… and with creators who know when to quit and move on.

Battlestar Galactica and Lost don’t begin again until January (sigh), which should fit into my schedule nicely, and by that point some of the above should be tanked, meaning my schedule should be freed up to actually do something productive for a change.
As it stands the start of the week is pretty top-heavy for me, with Mondays and Wednesdays being fairly busy days (and if Lost is back on Wednesdays at 10:00, that’s three hours of TV plunkerdome to fill in the hole that having no New Comic Book Day will leave behind).