It’s disappointing that there were only 8 episodes of this show made. Whilst it was a bit of a mess - with sloppy writing, continuity problems and muddled direction - it nevertheless showed a lot of promise.
Michelle Ryan is fine and dandy in the lead as a Jaime Sommers for the new millennium – strong, pretty, intelligent and compassionate - juggling dangerous missions for a shadowy government agency with keeping her non-bionic eye on her tricksy younger sister. This whilst having to come to terms with the fact that she is now half machine with a shelf-life of 5 years!
Michelle’s American accent is impressive, seeming natural and convincing – easily rivaling Lena Headley’s in
The Sarah Connor Chronicles and even Hugh Laurie’s in
House or Anna Friel's in
Pushing Daisies.
Ironically, it was in the episode that she went undercover as a plummy British student and came over all Liz Hurley that she was most accomplished – far superior to her earlier stab at doing posh as the terrorised psychiatrist in
Jeykll. Michelle had come a long way since being the Cockney troubled teen Zoe Slater in
Eastenders.
There was a good back up team too: the geeky tech guy who monitors Jaime at bionic HQ and clearly has the hots for her; her stroppy but sweet little sister Becca; Miguel Ferrer solid as always as Jaime’s dour boss Jonas - with echoes of his abrasive FBI agent in
Twin Peaks. Excellent too is Katee Sackhoff, wonderfully pouty as the twisted first multi-million dollar lady.
So it's a pity that this
Bionic Woman stalled before it ever really got going.
