Saturday, October 20th, 2007
11:30 Bionic Woman
12:30 Corner Gas
Bionic Woman. Episode 4. Another muddled and weak outting from the worst new show of 2007 that I'm still watching. For now. I'm hanging in there on the promise of new writing from the Friday Nights Lights crew, I guess. But it's hard to care about this god-awful show. I'm so bored, at this stage, by the character of Sarah Corvus that even the performance of Katee Sackhoff cannot entertain me. I'm bored by Sarah and the total lack of direction with regard to her character. She's the enemy, she's Jamie's mentor, she's sick, she's Jae Kim's lover, she's impossible to capture, she's easy to capture. Oh My God! Yawn.
Jamie is such a dreadful lead character when compared to, say, Syndey Bristow. They face many of the same problems but, while Sydney was awesome from the first episode, Jamie is just blah week after week. She's obsessed with her sister dating older guys in a way that only TV characters ever are, she's afraid to fly (!), she can't cook without starting a fire (!), she's naive about the mission they send her on, and she makes the wrong tactical decision for emotional reasons. Worse, she fights - and later abandons - her partner behind enemy lines.
It must be said that her partner, Antonio Pope, kinda deserves what he gets for being a jackass. Although his reasoning at the end of the episode was sound (kill the nice guy who was a security risk) his treatment of Jamie at the start of the mission was atrocious. He didn't tell his mission partner, Jamie, what his plan was. And it came as a shock to her when he got her captured by the bad guys. The sort of nonsense that appears on TV from time to time, but never on Alias or something good.
Also, isn't the relationship between Jaime and her sister, Becca, the worst portrayal of sisters every seen on TV. Like almost everything else in this show, it lacks consistency. In previous episodes they are shown to fight for almost no reason and later dance around the appartment together for no logical reason (and with no apparent rhythm!). This week's dilemma is: secrets. Becca is obsessed with Jamie keeping secrets. Because that happens in real life... yeah. And it's not just a thing that happens between TV characters... yeah.
There is a lot wrong with this show. A lot. But the worst sin, at this stage, is the character of Jamie Sommers. She is a moron. Starting fires in her kitchen, fear of flying, saving enemies because they are cute guys, are all part of her repertoir in this episode. She spends most of the story in absolute agony over the fact that she has to lie to her kid sister about the reality that she has just become a top-level government agent. (A top-level government agent, by the way, incapable to generating an air-tight lie that her sister doesn't see through before the second commerical break.)
Jamie can't justify this to herself. And it has to be explained to her. Repeatedly.
Think of Sydney Bristow, think of Buffy Summers, think of Veronica Mars, think of Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson. Then think of how badly the Bionic Woman writers have missed the boat with this new character...
Corner Gas. Season 4, Episode 3. One of the funniest episodes I've ever seen. Oscar and Emma try to cut their heating bills by having Hank install a digital thermostat, but it leads to fights over temperature control. Lacey drives thru a Yield Sign and has her licence taken by Karen, the cop, after she mocks the sign. Meanwhile Davis, the other cop in town, installs a new security decal at Corner Gas, which tells the height of anyone passing by. All these plotlines (and more) intersect with an ease that is an absolute pleasure to watch. All punctuated by genuinely hilarious gags.
I especially love the following exchange, which takes place after Oscar and Emma get Hank back to their house to re-jig the digital thermostat. So, he can set it in secret he sends them outside. Where they talk about all their fighting.
Emma: "I should have never listened to that do-gooder Lacey."
Lacey: "Excuse me, I'm right here." (She is standing beside Hank's pick-up truck.)
Emma: "And why are you here again?"
Lacey: "Because Hank's my ride."
Oscar: "And why can't you drive?"
Lacey: "Because Karen is on a power trip."
Karen: "Excuse me, I'm right here." (She is parked behind Hank's pick-up truck.)
Emma: "And why are you here again?"
Karen: "I'm making sure she doesn't drive."
Oscar: "And where's Davis?"
Karen: "He's off sulking because he's shorter than me."
Emma: "I'm going back inside."
Lacey: "See you at the driving test." (Emma is the town's Driving Test tester.)
Emma walks off in a foul mood.
Karen: "You're screwed."
Highlight? Guess.
Bionic Woman, Corner Gas
