Saturday, November 03, 2007

THE HELL---?

It's Saturday night, burn-off evening on network TV. NBC shows reruns of shows from its weekly schedule, and I'm sitting home bored off my ass, so I figured it was a good time to try out the redo of Bionic Woman.

As I tune in, two improbably attractive, tight-shirted brunettes are arguing. I'm assuming one of them is the titular bionic woman (and pardon my juvenile giggle at the use of the word "titular" in this context), and as the scene continues, it becomes an argument over their respective abandonment issues.

Cut to another scene. A college lecture, the professor showing slides, the first picture, in his words, "A victim of a car bombing in Baghdad..."

Well, that's enough of that.

Hey, I'm all for a certain amount of depth in my lightweight entertainment, I appreciate characters with some history, I get the idea of science fiction as metaphor for current issues. But come on. Anybody settling in for a show called Bionic Woman has a certain set of expectations, and none of which involve souls in torment or the war in Iraq. They involve seeing the titular (giggle) babe going undercover as beauty contestant or lifeguard or mud wrestler, and punching out vaguely foreign but unspecified bad guys, and running fast and leaping high. This show should be about fluff, not angst. If you want to do a crappy knock-off of Heroes, fine, but why the hell call it Bionic Woman?

If it brings a halt to production of this crap, that writer's strike can't come soon enough.