After reading your column ...
Question: After reading your
column last week, I am wondering why people are so passionate in their dislike for
Bionic Woman. I've watched the first two episodes. Do I love the show? Not really, but my expectations are not for it to become a new
Lost or
Heroes. I'm in it for the brainless entertainment. And though its storytelling is disjointed and it has plenty of eye-rolling moments, the entertainment factor is there. I'd actually like to see a bit more of some
Superman-like moments: a seemingly ordinary woman with incredible strength who can prevent everyday tragedies in between "saving the world"-type stuff. I don't think they've developed her action moments to the fullest. She needs some
Buffy-level confidence but with
Terminator seriousness. But it seems people want to hate the show and condemn NBC for seeing it through. What could it hurt? There's enough fodder for everyone else to watch in the meantime.
Answer: While it may be too early to give up on the show just yet — given all the behind-the-scenes turmoil, we should look at it as a work in progress — it isn't too early to criticize it when the second episode is so much worse than the first. As I said in my
Dispatch at the time, the second week of
Bionic Woman felt to me like the worst
Alias episode ever, what that show would have been like had it been conceived by hacks and cast with glum no-talents. Brainless, yes. Entertainment, hardly. I've got no problem with those who just want to kick back and enjoy shows for what they are, but in this forum, I'm not particularly interested in settling for mediocrity, regardless of the genre. (And judging from the angry mail I received after giving the first episodes of the toothless
Moonlight a negative review — in which I even acknowledged that Week 2 was an improvement over the pilot, although that's no guarantee on how the show will develop — it seems that genre fans once again have the thinnest skins around.)
