Anyway that's my opinion on the name.

I'd also hope that BW's "realism" extends to the bionics. Even as a kid it bugged the heck out of me that Jaime (incidentally, that was indeed how her name was spelled) and Steve used to pick up cars and whatnot. It was perfectly clear to me that the car would rip off the bionic arm. I used to think "Would it kill them to update that bionic graphic in the opening credits to show reinforcements built into their skeletons?" (Yes. I am a geek now, and I was then.)

Caidin's novels did not include superstrength -- Steve could run far and fast, and throw a mean punch (steel-jacketed fist), and even leap a bit, but no hoisting cars (Caidin's Austin relied far more on gadgets built in to his limbs).

So far, BW is presenting a slightly more "accurate" physical representation of bionics (as in the fight with the Marine), although I'm dubious about the hearing range of two miles. Seems like she'd pick up a LOT of ambient noise, plus there's a 10-second delay for sound to travel 2 miles, so I'm not sure of the utility there.

I have the same problem with Superman's super-hearing -- besides ambient noise, most comic writers can't be bothered to find out that sound travels at about 720 mph and do the math (that means the bullet almost certainly hits its target before the sound ever reaches Superman). Also, my understanding is that your brain tracks sounds by analyzing the time differential between when the sound reaches either ear, so Jaime couldn't use it to locate the sound's source, since one ear would effectively be "deaf." If I'm wrong about that, somebody set me straight.

Sorry, all that sounds awfully critical. I can't shut it off. On balance, I'm positive about the show, and I'm still on board with Bionic Woman for a few more episodes.

That's what happens to people born deaf or blind if they're "fixed". It's not so much the interface as that their brain never learned to process that sort of stimulus in the appropriate depth and in adulthood neuroplasticity ain't what it used to be.
Which incidentally is why it's so vitally important to diagnose hearing problems as early as possible.

Either way, presumable the implants in the show are super-smart and can filter out the relevant stuff and present it to her unmodified cortex. (This does work for hearing aids by favouring the range of frequencies normal speech happens in and also taking certain signal characteristics into account by Ms. Summers runs world class facial recognition software inside a tiny chip in her eye.)

No, that would have had Oscar Goldman shooting Steve Austin in the head, raping the corpse, and Dan Didio giving interviews about how mature bionic TV shows were for dealing with such mature subject matter maturely, because they're mature.

And thanks, Perry. It's probably a false alarm but since our scary surgical spring they test Julie for EVERYTHING and there was a spot on a picture somewhere. We'll know more on Friday.

Hmm... from what you descibe, I almost wonder if the writers aren't lifting a few pages from the old Cyberpunk 2020 role-playing game - shadowy amoral corporations, cybernetics make you crazy, programmed skill chips, etc.

I’m an idiot who assumes too much. Apparently the current version does spell the name Jaime. Seems weird to me, but that’s how they spell it.

It IS weird, I suppose, but that's the way it's always been spelled in all the official press and licensed materials, even back in the Lindsay Wagner days. You'd have to take it up with Mr. Johnson.

What happened to all the TV spy agencies staffed with heroic people doing good things for good reasons?

There's Torchwood, I suppose, although they're not really spies, and I'm not entirely sure all their reasons are good (mainly because I'm not sure what all their reasons are).

All I can say is that if this is the trend that Universal is going with in terms of reviving its series, I think I’m glad that the Quantum Leap revival completely and utterly stalled…

Or, maybe it was simply renamed "Journeyman."

Strangely enough, IMDB actually has the spelling you mention in the cast listing at this link:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0880557/

But if you click on the name link, it takes you to a character page with the normal spelling for Jamie.

I feel like part of the problem is that they seem to be rushing to set up a 90's style episode-of-the-week status quo instead of the more serialized format that most of the better modern shows use.

I hated the pilot. For me, Bionic Woman was Battlestar Galactica without the compelling characters or Ron Moore's creative direction (and I suspect one informed the other there). I'm a huge fan of David Eick and Ronald Moore's revisioning/revamp of Battlestar Galactica, but here it felt like every complaint I heard from die-hard original BSG fans coming true: take an iconic 70s series and make everything dark and drab and depressing in the quest for 'realism'. It's Dan DiDio television.

I take issue with that on two levels: I think it was easier to do such a revamp with BSG because, let's face it, BSG was a bit of a joke and it only lasted 13 episodes and aside from the iconic look of the Vipers and the Cylon centurions there was a lot you could just ignore. But The Bionic Woman lasted three seasons, was the spin-off of an equally popular show, the actress who played her became a superstar from the show. It won Emmys it had critical and ratings success and as a show, yes it was of its time but it was also actually pretty good. It was an interesting fusion of adventure show, spy serial and women's drama (you could air those episodes on Sci-Fi, USA or Lifetime and not alienate any of the audiences-- the truth is we don't make TV with that kind of broad appeal anymore). I think overall that's less easy to dismiss than Galactica.

But I just think the show doesn't work well on its own terms. Oooo shadowy government organization fighting things citizens don't normally see...how 1993. A naive young woman suddenly imbued with tremendous legacy who acts as a fish out of water in a shadowy world...gee, haven't seen this before.

Plus, I go back to my original problem: the only character to have any charisma is Katee and she's the villain.

The second episode went a long way toward making the show interesting to me: certainly it tried to get away from the gloominess and attempt to straddle the different camps the original series did a little more, but I'm not sure if it was enough.

Just two side notes: It's funny, but I think Miguel Ferrer's Jonas is Oscar Goldman in all but name. In the pilot, he's the Oscar of the original Six Million Dollar Man pilot and the Martin Caidin novel: a heartless bastard who sees himself 'owning' the bionic agent. In the second episode, I can see them moving toward the TV series Oscar, which is no bad thing.

The other side note is that, basically the reason why Oscar is Jonas and there's no Rudy Wells is that Universal owns the Bionic Woman concept outright as well as the Jaime Sommers character. All the characters from the novel Cyborg are part of some weird contractual dispute as to who owns the rights. (though this may have been resolved) It keeps getting in the way of reviving The Six Million Dollar Man and putting it out on DVD in North America.

All I can say is that if this is the trend that Universal is going with in terms of reviving its series, I think I'm glad that the Quantum Leap revival completely and utterly stalled...

Every little bionic thing that Jaime does doesn't have to involve high tech (expensive) special effects. The original certainly had just a fraction of the budget that this one has. They made do with break-away padlocks, faux steel, styrofoam bricks, etc. And you know what? A lot of times it worked just fine! They could have Jaime do a lot more if they just stopped trying (very unsuccessfully, IMO) to make your jaw drop with every bionic scene.

I disagree with the first poster about Sackhoff. Sarah Corvis is the only remotely interesting character so far. I suspect that Katee's acting only appears so over the top because she's surrounded by people who are, quite frankly, so painfully dull. And there's only so much these poor actors can do with that sucks-by-the-numbers dialogue.

I liked the "what if I give you $20 a week?" line, though. That made me chuckle.

However, I have to disagree with your Katee Sackhoff comments (and you are far from the only one to espouse this opinion)...I think she has been terrible so far. I have found her performance, especially in episode one, to be over the top (not in a good way), unbelievable, and uninteresting. I think I like episode 2 more than 1 largely because she has less to do.

Oh well, just an opinion. Let's see where this goes...