Bionic Woman: Paradise Lost

The show is taking baby steps, but the second Bionic Woman showed some promise. The fact that this is a show going through a lot of changes was clear thanks to some big examples of instant retroactiving of events from the show's own pilot, but in most cases, these alterations were the right way to go.

First off, what, Will's dead? Okay, Jaime's boyfriend was shot in the first episode, but it hardly seemed like a fatal injury and there was no indication that he was dead by the end, nor did she even learn that was a real possibility. All that taken into account, it was jarring to open the second episode with his funeral. On the other hand though, for the sake of the show at this stage, it's a good move. Will wasn't exactly an engaging character, and the show already has a better and much more intense "Can I trust this person?" love story with Jae and Sarah. Of course it's hard not to think that maybe Will actually isn't dead and will be popping up again at some point, but for now, the show must go on....

Currently Bionic Woman has a lot of campy content, which included Jonas's revelation that the Berkut Group is a clandestine organization dedicated to stopping rogue organizations… or something. Let's just say it was a lot of nonsense that Miguel Ferrer did his best with, but hey, if I can buy into SD-6 and G.I. Joe, I can buy into this. The show is also ridiculously unsubtle at times, such as the scene in which one of Jaime's friends gleefully wants to celebrate getting into Columbia Law, which hammers home the whole "Jaime is sad because she wishes that was her life" motif.

A lot actually happened in this hour, including the introduction of Jaime's new supervisor, Antonio Pope, played by Isaiah Washington. Ignoring Washington's off-camera behavior, he is a solid actor who definitely brought the appropriate gravity to the role. Meanwhile, Jaime began some serious training ("We're gonna need a montage!") with Jae, which lead to a nice reveal: The fighting Jaime showed off against Sarah in the pilot was the "demo", a program entered into her bionics that Sarah was using to test her. While not explaining everything Jaime did in the pilot, like how she disarmed the assailant in the alley, it did do a nice job of going back and saying no, she's not yet suddenly an incredible fighter.

This was explored further in the episode's threat of the week scenario, as Jaime and Ruth traveled to a small town decimated by a biological weapon. There was more silliness here -- a teenage girl who'd survived the attack and seemed entirely unaffected emotionally by the whole thing -- but also some fun bits, including Jaime's fight with a bad guy. Things went very badly for Jaime at first, who fought rather ineptly, hurting her hand when she punched him with her non-bionic arm, then getting her bionic arm stuck in a wall when she missed on another punch. It was nice to see her still trying to get this superhero thing down, and I then got some legitimately cool moments as she finally caught him with a punch, sending him flying, and then knocked him out with a bionic-kicked paint can to the head.

There's still a lot of work to be done on this show. Becca, Jaime's sister, seems very extraneous and forced into the story -- Jaime taking her phone call during the middle of the crisis was just lame, nice Tenacious D reference aside -- and she and Jaime's relationship seemed to turn from affectionate to ongoing major arguments on a dime. Yes, I know sisters squabble, but do these girls have serious issues or not? And more so, why should I care, when there's more interesting stuff going on?

Sarah returned again, and she and Jae proved to certainly have the Mr. and Mrs. Smith thing going - I've already seen him shoot her, but this time they ended up having sex. Sarah's revelation that she was "hacked" also is intriguing, since it seems to both hint at a bigger conspiracy at work, and also re-conceptualizes her as someone who appears regretful of what she did and perhaps not a true bad guy. Though why would she shoot Will then? Does she know something about him, besides the secret file Jaime discovers (way to ineptly hide it under a way too loose floorboard, Will)? Or maybe she just knew the character was kind of lame?

This is a show trying to find itself, but the good news is that this second episode is at least pointing in the right direction. Both the show and Jaime herself stopped being so dour, and the little glimpses of humor were welcome, such as Jaime telling Jonas "God you're a douche." And hey, Kevin Rankin showed up as the Berkut group techie! As a Friday Night Lights fan, that is never a bad thing.