The Bionic Review 1.4: "Face Off"
Posted by Brendan Newton on 10.19.2007
Still a mess, but an improvement over last week...
As I discussed in last week's Bionic Review, Bionic Woman has reportedly had its' share of turmoil behind the scenes, with several prominent members of the creative team, including former X-Files Executive Producer Glen Morgan, exiting the series during the first few months of production. This turmoil has spilled into the on-screen product as well, with poor written dialogue especially plaguing the series. Nowhere was this more clear than in last week's episode, which was a largely incoherent jumble of competing plot threads and underwhelming dialogue, albeit with a few memorable scenes, including the final one, a thankfully nonverbal standoff between Jaime and Sarah that put Jaime's sister Becca in jeopardy in a very tense moment. That this scene was far and away the best in the episode-probably the best in the series-thus far made me cautiously optimistic that tonight's episode could build on it and get this series back on track, despite the fact that it's now apparently hemorrhaging viewers, having dropped from a 14% share the first two weeks to 10% last week. So did this week's episode get the series back on track? Well, yes and no. It was an improvement on last week's mess, but still very shaky. My thoughts:
-Goddamnit. Remember that great scene last week, with Becca as Sarah's plaything during her standoff with Jaime? Well, it was barely acknowledged this week. This strikes me as further evidence that these first few episodes have been heavily re-shot and spliced together in post-production, to the point where while the individual episodes still pretty much make sense, a lot of the arc-based stuff goes out the window. In this case, while Becca is still suspicious about Jaime's “new job”, she doesn't ask any questions about who that mysterious blonde lady was, and why she passed out when the lady visited! Couldn't they have at least given her a throwaway line to acknowledge that it happened? Okay, maybe the drug caused her to forget about Sarah, so that's forgiveable, but Jaime doesn't even bother to mention Sarah's break-in to the rest of the Bionics crew! Also, that final scene last week seemed to dramatically establish that Jaime had chosen the Bionics Company over Sarah once and for all, and so this week we'd see a change in their dynamic. Yet this week we have Jaime at odds with the Company again as though nothing has changed. To me, one of the main signs of a bad, poorly run TV show is when you have these big, apparently pivotal character moments one week, and then forget about them the next. It's especially annoying for a show like Bionic Woman that tries to be so arc-based to do this; what's the point of having an arc if you're not paying careful attention to the development of the characters and the arc from week to week? There is one throwaway reference to Sarah's visit to the Sommers' when she and Jaime cross paths at the Bionic Compound, but that scene, where Sarah's wheeled through, says “hi” to Jaime as though they're old pals and is then dragged off and not mentioned again for the rest of Jaime's story was perhaps the most stupidly tacked-on scene I've ever seen in 24 years of watching far too much TV.
-I really don't see why the writers felt that Sarah had to show up in this episode, and especially why they felt they had to have her actually speak to Jaime in the stupid aforementioned scene. Since it wasn't mentioned again and didn't impact Jaime's story, there was no reason to have them casually interacting like that. If I've said it before I'll say it again; Jaime and Sarah should be kept completely separate for at least the next few episodes. Build up a showdown between the two of them, show them preparing with other characters, to the point where we really feel like the Bionic Women encountering each other is something special. I never thought I'd say this, but I wouldn't mind seeing less of Katee Sackhoff, so long as it was building the tension between she and Jaime. Her scenes as a prisoner in the Bionic Compound were a mixed bag; as with many of the things this show does, having her actually captured, taken prisoner, and brought to Bionic HQ seemed like way too much too soon. Again, there's such a thing as a slow build, especially considering her very interesting, twistedly loving relationship with Jae Kim. Instead of having him capture her this week, why not have a few weeks of Kim tracking Sarah? Have her play mind games with him but also give them loving moments like the one they had in “Paradise Lost” (those yellow roses need to make a comeback, that would be a cool ongoing trademark for Sarah), have Kim doubt whether or not he actually wants to bring Sarah in, then eventually lead to his betrayal and capture of her. The writers of this show really need to learn to take their time with this arc, it all seems so rushed. Things picked up once Sarah got back to the Compound (outside of the exchange between she and Jaime, a scene whose stupidity I feel I should mention just one more time for posterity) and also in spite of the fact that it wasn't made that clear just why they had captured Sarah; there were a couple of vague mentions of wanting to use her to get to Anthony Anthros, who's supposedly the main villain of this piece despite rarely actually showing up and not having any clear motivation (Why was he imprisoned? Does he know his son's dead? What happened to that brother of his? How about that whole thing with Chief Tyrol the Prison Guard?), but absolutely no mention of her having you know, killed these people's former colleague Will Anthros. It's not as egregious as Jaime not having mentioned it last week, but this should still be a priority issue for both the writers and the characters, and it's frustrating to see it repeatedly glossed over. We still don't even have a clear answer on why she killed him! And what about her belief a couple of episodes ago that she had been “hacked”? Another very interesting, very modern idea that's gone nowhere yet. We really didn't get any central explanation as to what they wanted from Sarah. I know I say this every week, but Molly Price and Miguel Ferrer do great work with the material that they're given. Price especially is given some good material and does a great job with it during her scenes with Sarah. I don't know if all of those years on Third Watch gave Price a preternatural ability to deliver mediocre lines with flair or if someone just knows how to write for her character well, but her scenes in this episode and in “Paradise Lost” have some of the best writing and delivery of lines in the series thus far. Loved her deadpan delivery of the cliches in the psychological test and the unflappable way with which she dealt with Sarah's snark. The character clearly understands how dangerous Sarah is and has to struggle to keep her composure around Sarah, yet she's so focused on the job at hand of analyzing Sarah that she's able to keep control of the situation. This contrasts with Kim, who's not focused on the job at hand but rather on his love for Sarah, thus allowing her to take control of the situation. Great escape scene with the requisite Red Shirt soldiers showing up to get taken out by Sarah in a typically strong action sequence, as usual Kim and Sarah stuff is great as they make it clear that they love each other even when quite literally at each other's throats and willing to kill each other. My only complaint is that apparently Sarah escaped from Bionics HQ much like Jaime did in the pilot. For a high-tech, top-secret facility, that place sure is easy to break out of.
-On to Jaime's plot, as it occurs to me that they really should change this show's name to Bionic Women if they're going to give them both all this screen time. Loved the episode's opening with her using her Bionic speed to break up Becca's illicit makeup sessions as I always like these “super powers used for mundane purposes” gags. Other than that, the scenes with Becca were a bit clunky, as they've really dulled Becca's character up. The “computer geek” aspect of her character from the pilot seems to have been dropped entirely, in favour of more generic “rebellious whiney teen” stuff, which is a lot flatter and less original. It's really sucking any charm out of the character, but there's some interesting stuff here as she finds out that Jaime lied about where she was; it's clear that Jaime can only stammer out lame explanations about her “hard new job” for so long, after which Becca will demand answers. If handled properly, that could be a very interesting plotline.
-Again, Miguel Ferrer is great as he verbally spars with Jaime early on in this episode. He's another of these actors that can be given very little and take it a long way. Less great is Jaime's dialogue with the nerdy technician guy when she's having her toe X-rayed; while their relationship has the potential to be very cute (kind of like the Lone Gunmen and Scully on The X-Files), their dialogue needs to be much cuter and less stilted (Her: “Do you have a foot fetish? Him: No, I'm pretty much just a regular boobs man.” A regular boob, maybe) in order for that to happen. Jaime's absolute phobia about flying was a nice touch, as it humanizes her in the same way as her injuring her non-Bionic hand while punching a guy in “Paradise Lost” did. My only whine about that was that she actually came right out and told Antonio “I'm afraid of flying”; when a character's gripping their seat and wincing on an airplane (and Michelle Ryan did a fine job of conveying that absolute anxiety that some of us have about flying) you really don't need to write in perfunctory dialogue explaining that they are in fact afraid to fly! Good chemistry between Jaime and Antonio as always, at least until she kicked him into a wall after a great little fight scene with a cool callback to their last training session (re. Antonio's crowbar), a lame throwaway line at episode's end about “Antonio's doctor” implies that he did survive after it was left vague, so hopefully we'll get plenty more of these two trying to beat the crap out of each other. Knowing this show, though, my only concern is that Jaime's rebelling against Antonio and the Bionics program won't be given the attention it deserves next week, so again we'll have that major dramatic moment that should change the course of the series (her discover of her “life expectancy” and her lashing out against the Bionics crew as a result) amount to nothing. I'm not sure quite what to think about Jaime's discovery of said life expectancy, although my first thought was the obvious smartass remark about how with this show's quality so far I'd say five years as a life expectancy is a little too optimistic. It does give the somewhat aimless character a clearly defined “quest”, namely a struggle to find a way to stay alive beyond five years. It could make for some very intense, personal stories as she searches for a cure. Her discussion of the Bionic technology with Dr. Stevens, who should become a good recurring character, led to more scenes with the shiny Anthrocite effects, which was great, and the idea that her technology has a “shelf life” is a very cool, very realistic touch. Considering how much TV technology is expected to function infinitely without anyone questioning it, having this cutting-edge new technology be in fact very fragile and limited is a neat touch. Michelle Ryan does a great job as Jaime realizes that her “new lease on life” is really little more than a high-tech set of bandages that are eventually doomed to stop working. You can really sense Jaime's frustration, fear, rage, and the whole shift in her world view that comes with this revelation. She's well and truly on borrowed time, and hopefully this will give the character-who often seems a dull foil to the more interesting Sarah-some much-needed darkness and edge (okay, so you wouldn't have thought a woman who's lost a baby and a lover to murder would need darkness and edge, but she really hasn't had much thus far). In a short scene, we see Sarah's reaction to her impending death from Bionics failure; she goes out, sees what (and who) she wants, and takes it. This scene, which initially seemed a bit pointless, demonstrates how some react to the threat of imminent death, and raises the question as to whether or not Jaime will react in a similar way. Or will her love for Becca hold her back from recklessness? Or will she follow in Sarah's footsteps and drag her sister into that recklessness and destroy her? Jaime's now much closer to Sarah than she might have thought possible, so it's interesting to think how their relationship might change, not to mention her already strained relationship with the Bionics crew. Much good storytelling can proceed from Jaime's newfound “terminal illness.” Will finally gets a mention, as we find out that he may have been working with his father and others against the Bionics team, it will be interesting if this is followed up by further revelations, perhaps connected to the file that Jaime found that implied Will had been monitoring her for years. Was Jaime's accident and Bionic transformation a plot devised by Will, Anthony, and Sarah, with Will playing the grieving boyfriend in order to convince the Bionic team to let him augment her? If so, was Will killed because he had developed real feelings for Jaime that were clouding his judgment? The stage is set for some interesting revelations in weeks to come.
-That being said, I wasn't a big fan of Jaime's story in this episode, besides the cool action stuff and the fight with Antonio especially. Although her impending death is an interesting new storyline along with Will's possible dark motives, I'm getting a little sick of the arc surrounding the Bionic technology. It's just so jumbled up and filled with bad writing that as I commented last week, I feel like I'm watching a mytharc episode from that last seasons of The X-Files. Without any prior emotional connection to these characters. Mytharcs only work if we're given other stories in which to develop these characters and get to know them, and that's what this show should be providing right now, especially given its' great action scenes. We need to take a break from all of the confused Sarah Corvus-Anthros-Bionics-Life Expectancy stuff and just tell some good stand-alone stories. I would have been much happier if the story had just been Jaime going to Paraguay to fight some random terrorists. Right now I'd say the best thing for Bionic Woman to do would be to put the arc on the back burner for now and tell some good stand-alone stories to allow us to get to know these characters without having something (or sometimes as it feels with this show, two or three things) life-changing happen to them. The show needs to find its' feet and decide what sort of stories it wants to tell from week to week, before starting in on its' mythology, which at the moment is a dull and confusing mess. To put things in perspective, X-Files only really started to tell its' Mytharc stories after over a season of mostly stand-alone Monster of the Week type stories that allowed us to get to know the characters and the dynamic of the show. It's only once a show's accomplished this-making us care about the characters-that it can really start to tell us about its' characters and their larger mythology. Not a bad episode this week, certainly an improvement over last week's hour of dull confusion, lots of potentially good storylines to develop down the road and a major change that could make Jaime's character more interesting, but in my opinion the show needs to ditch the arc for a while and focus on churning out some tight one-shot stories.
The 411: Well, it's an improvement. This episode was noticeably less of a jumble than last week's, with clear plots for both Sarah and Jaime (again, the show should be Bionic Women) and some big arc revelations that could be awesome if payed off properly. That being said, for now the show needs to get away from the overarching storyline while it finds its' feet and just tell some good stories.
