Expectations…lowered…

I was pondering the state of my existence last evening as I watched the premiere episode of the new Bionic Woman series. Although I’m glad to see the show on the air, I am not sure if I will be able to warm up to it. You see, there was something about the impossibility of bionics that made the show intriguing back in it’s original days. Now that we have made such strides in technology, the concept of someone actually having bionic parts doesn’t seem so far-fetched. For this reason, I’m just not sure that the show will make it past its first season.

The character of Jaime Sommers was played so well by Lindsay Wagner that the new star, Michelle Ryan had some big shoes to fill. The storyline was altered from the original so that you barely recognize the main character from before. It was so strange to see Jaime tending bar and trying to take care of her sister. In the original, she was in the Air Force and she was a professional tennis player or something like that. In addition to the steamier scenes which only served to make me uncomfortable as I tried to watch the show with my daughter, another thing that was probably not necessary was the addition of another bionic character who was meant to be some sort of nemesis to Jaime’s character.

While the show was well put together as dramas go, it was certainly not worthy of riding on the coattails of the viewership formed from the original series. I have a suspicion that fans of the older series would not have wanted to see the show made into something so truly typical of television today.

Oh, and another thing that bothered me…where were the cheesy sound effects? You know, the ones that made her bionic…Well, of course, I know that the sound wasn’t what made her bionic, but I also know that the sound was a huge part of the ambiance for the show.

Maybe I’m old-fashioned. Maybe I’m just feeling my age. Maybe, it’s just as I had originally thought. The show was an easy concept for someone to pick up and run with rather than coming up with an original idea. Ouch…I just wish that if they are going remake something that they would at least try to maintain the integrity of the original. Simply naming the character with the same name doesn’t make it okay. This is why I don’t watch Smallville, why I didn’t really enjoy the Charlie’s Angels movies and why I really hope that no one has decided to redo the old Wonder Woman series. What’s that? They’re already working on Wonder Woman…? Well, crap. I apologize in advance for the impending disappointment.

This post was originally posted at the Booksden Blog.