Bionic Woman, Sarah Connor Chronicles

Ok, ok, so I can’t wait a week or so til the actual premiere of Bionic Woman, and I *definitely* couldn’t wait weeks more to see The Sarah Connor Chronicles, lol. I’ve now seen both pilots…and have a few comments…spoilers after the break!

BIONIC WOMAN: Overall impresson: Katee Sackhoff good; the rest, eh. Yeah, yeah as a BSG fan I’m a bit biased, but I still think Katee knocked it out of the park. I am much more intrigued by Sarah Corvis than I am by Jaime Sommers. Michelle Ryan seemed too weak to carry the show; Katee grabbed attention from the start and never let up. Now the ep I saw is not the one that’ll actually air; the free pilot ep on Amazon Unbox I can’t view because I have a Mac, so I had to download elsewhere, and it’s the first version leaked to the internet that included the deaf sister. That character has been replaced, and I don’t know what else has changed. I doubt much of the plot/major scenes did, so I’m still gonna say so far that Jaime Sommers has a lot of work cut out for her to become interesting. The bit at the end about her “knowing what she’s capable of now” was lame—she does NOT know what she can do yet, and her transition from sappy-ish “I’m just a bartender” to “I know I can kick ass now” type seemed rushed and ineffectual. She needs a few eps to really learn what she is.

The character of Sarah Corvis needs her own show; I wanna know more about the woman who wants to replace the “weak parts” of herself (while still wanting love). Katee just owns the character from the first moment, despite the dialogue she’s given.

SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES: Loved it; it hooked me in right away. Writing was very good for a network show, and casting was spot-on. Great visual effects for network tv, too. The pilot did a very good job of explaining how it fit in within the Terminator universe (taking place after T2 and ignoring T3). Effective first ep in that it laid out the background, situated you with new characters, then took off into its own territory. Lena Headey is great as Sarah Connor, despite not being ripped as Linda Hamilton in T2, LOL. She conveys that intensity and conviction that Linda had. Thomas Dekker is good as John, and I see him getting stronger as the show goes on, growing more into what the future demands of him. Summer Glau is a great terminator, reminding me a bit of her character from Serenity, lol. I’m curious as to what’ll happen with the FBI agent (will he join forces with them like the cops did in Charmed? Or be forever against them?) and with Sarah’s abandoned fiancee, who looks set to find her again. I see lots of room for all the characters to grow/expand as the series progresses. So far this looks to be my favorite new show. :-)