You better catch it quick if you're gonna cos one season's all you get... (Bionic Woman, The)

Member Name: sparkymarky1973

Product:	Bionic Woman, The
Date:	09/04/08 (39 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: stars Katee Sackoff (Battlestar's Starbuck!!!!!)

Disadvantages: doesn't quite have the punch it should ....perhaps the ol' bionics need a service

I'm a bit young (ahem) to remember the original series but I vaguely remember the 6 million dollar man and had one of those dolls with the infra-red eye or something and also Steve Austin pjamas and a t-shirt or something...wasn't the bionic woman supposed to be his cousin or something-thats how these things normally work at any rate...

This new incarnation is in no way related to the old-skool series except by name. It stars Michelle Ryan in the title role (she was Kat Slater's daughter in Eastenders and more recently in bbc 1's Jeckyll) and also Katee Sackoff who plays "Starbuck" Kara Thrace in the new imagined Battlestar Galactica- a show which I postively adore to geek status!!

In fact, Bionic Woman was created by David Eick (not THAT one -lol) who is one half of the producing team that brought you Battlestar and the pilot episode also features Chief Tyrrel and the lawyer from the last episodes of season 3 of that hit T.V show that has far exceeded anyone's expectations and is due to end this year. Unfortunately bionic woman has failed to match the ratings achieved by Eick's other baby and with the further complications of the writer's strike in U.S.A , has managed to be cancelled with little hope of renewal- so what you get here is all you are likely to see.

Shown on ITV2 at the moment, it tells the story of a young woman looking after her sister who is involved in a car crash with her scientist fiancee. Unbeknownst to her, the crash has been caused by the first bionic woman prototype (played by Starbuck...I mean Katee Sackoff) who's not playing with a full deck and who fears her neural implants may be being hacked.

Somehow the fiancee is fine (very convenient) but Ryan is so badly hurt, her only chance of survival is to be fitted with bionic implants. Add a prison break, an assassination and a bitch fight on a rooftop between two bionic lovelies (wheres that mud bath when you need it?) and thats pretty much the pilot all sowed up.

Future episodes see Ryan teaming up reluctantly with the agency who created her to fight global terrorism etc (with shades of post 9/11 that all american drama seems to need nowadays) and trying to discover why the first bionic woman went rogue. As always, sinister conspiracy theories compound and there are all sorts of complications but four episodes in, I can say I'm quite enjoying it so far.

It's no Battlestar though it works as a concept and parts are as cheesey as other parts are inspired but you can see why it got cancelled as there is just not enough for it to really gel the way it should. Is perhaps Eick a bit of a fish-out-of-water without his partner, Ronald D. Moore, from the Battlestar brilliance....?

If you want a waste of an entertained hour, this is as good a way to spend it as any. It's better than Supernatural, not as unbelievable or uncredible as Prison Break has become but lacks the shine and gleam of shows like....yes Battlestar again. I'm not comparing the two because they are seperate concepts but Galactica has shown how you can do Sci-Fi and do it well whilst making events relevent to what happens in the real world.

This feels more like the 70's Cylons....not quite so well polished!!

It is good to see Katee Sackoff outside of her Starbuck persona and this is one of the main reasons I watch this as she is the best thing in bionic and her sub-plot is more interesting most times than the main one.

Overall this ain't bad but its not as good as it should've been though it will be sad not to see it return as with Galactica's imminent demise (Season 4 airing now is the last), we are badly going to need something bloody good to replace it and with Sarah Connor Chronicles also possibly not facing recommission, I feel a void is going to be left....

maybe they should remake Six million dollar man with Billy from Eastenders......you can see why I never made it at N.B.C can't you....?

Summary: sad that theres only one season but neded to be better to draw in the viewers