I am tainted, tis true. I have an unnatural nostalgia for the original of "The Bionic Woman" due to the fact that my first and only female action figure was that of Jaime Sommers.
You could peel back this plastic flap of "skin" on her molded arm that would reveal a 2D depiction of intricate bionic wiring. In fact, on the show when she sometimes got hurt, wiring would be exposed and sparking from either her arm or her leg. Ahhh. Good television watchin' times, folks.
Naturally when I saw the previews for the new "The Bionic Woman", I was struck with a severe case of sentimentality. You don't know how excited I was to see the new 21st century Jaime Sommers. I guess I never gave any real consideration to how they would "improve" on the original.
Well, let's just say that those television programmers way back in the 70's broke the mold when they made the original. This time 'round, there is no Oscar, no OSI, no bionic dog, no guy that makes the gadgets or soups up the bionics. Instead, we are talking about a sleek production that seems like a cross between Alias and 24 - production value wise - but not as good as either of those shows. Mind you, I never watched either of those TV shows, but they were critically popular and had large audiences.
"The Bionic Woman" may actually gain a following. I dunno. Perhaps there are those out there that will embrace the idea of a bartender named Jaime Sommers (um, original JS was a school teacher), that takes care of her orphaned sister (yeah, that didn't happen 30 years ago either), dates a scientist with a super secret job (JS of the 70's dated the freakin' Six Million Dollar Man - I guess they couldn't top that) who gets her some bionics; after which time she has to do battle with the first bionic woman that her boyfriend helped make in the super secret lab before Jaime - and that beta version of the bionic woman is like, really pissed.
Jaime never did battle with a version of herself like that - although I do vaguely remember some storyline involving a clone of her... but it is all so hazy and misty at this point (which I am sure has nothing to do with the fact that I watched far too many hours of television in the 70's). At any rate, and to further my point - this 2007 version of Jaime Sommers isn't even Jaime Sommers. Jaime SOMMERS got hurt in a parachuting accident, okay? She was not injured in car wreck with her boyfriend that has a super secret scientist job.
How can I express my disappointment?
Perhaps it is best that I do not embrace the current version of "The Bionic Woman". I mean, I don't need to like anymore television shows. But it sure would have been nice to have an old friend back every week - and that familiar noise that the bionics used to make - remember? - whoosh sh sh sh sh - woosh sh sh sh sh....
...no, this one doesn't even have that either.
2 comments:
I doubt I'll ever watch this, especially since I only have one fuzzy channel. It's probably a GOOD thing because I was quite the Bionic Woman fan back in the day as well. Don't want to spoil a good memory.
Your trips of nostalgia are so wonderful! I do so remember your bionic woman doll and how Jamie Sommers was the coolest actress on TV. You may have watched too much TV in the 70's, but I remember you or your sister telling me in the 80's when we lived in Bellingham, WA that you were only allowed 2-3 hrs of TV a day . . . the reason being that I (or the male member of the household) had to have their TV time too. (We only had one)
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