As Good As It Gets

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Jaime Summers (Michelle Ryan) has been going out with a good looking professor, Will (Chris Bowers) for a few months. On paper, it looks like a mismatch, for Jaime is a bartender and also cares for her teenage sister, barely making ends meet. One day, on a date after Will's class is finished, Jaime even questions him as to why he is interested in her. He tells her its precisely because she doesn't feel like someone his own father would have pre-programmed him to meet. This, even though she is pretty and smart, too. Not long after, the two of them are in a terrible auto accident and, as Jaime lays in a more dire situation than Will, his true identity is revealed. Yes, he teaches classes but he is also a member of an elite committee that is studying bionics for the national defense of the United States. Also, he is a surgeon. Rushing Jaime into an operating room, against the objections of other committee members (like Miguel Ferrer), he gives Jaime two new legs, a new arm, a new eye, and a new ear, among other things. He also gives her the power to heal quickly, with some newfangled antibody. In short, he sees Jaime as a potential heroine for the USA but, also, he loves her too much to lose her. Coming out of the operation, Jaime is aghast with the changes that have happened. These secrets are extremely weighty but, whoa, there's more. Will's team made a previous woman bionic, with terrible results. Sarah, as she was named, turned to the "dark side" almost immediately and is still out there. She may even have been responsible for the auto accident in the first place. Will, again, breaks protocol and lets Jaime leave the hospital to sort things out. Running home at an incredible rate of speed, Jaime tries to fool her sister into thinking she was on a ski trip. But, sis isn't buying the lie. With Sarah still a huge threat, among others, the Americans need Jaime. What will she choose? This is a much darker and more violent series than the original, with Lindsay Wagner. Which is not to say its any better. The new angles are interesting but the ambivalence on whether the technology employed is a good or bad thing creates unease. Ryan, who somewhat resembles Kristin Stewart, is spunky but not overpoweringly pretty or talented. Bowers, on the other hand, is quite handsome and a primary magnet for the show and Ferrer is fine at the helm. Also, the female playing Sarah is nasty, nasty. Sets, costumes, and production values are high, making for a good looking series. If you like science fiction, you might want to try this show on for size. But, fans of the original show might not like the changes.

I don't understand why so many people hate this remake of the classic series from the 1970s.Actually this miniseries is pretty good. It is definitely different from the original series. For starters, the name of the main character is "Jaime" vice "Jamie". And while most of the plots of the original series involved Jamie Sommers out there dealing withe the bad guys and other members of the criminal element during the day, the new miniseries has our heroine fighting in a darker and more shadowy environment.The plot involves Jaime Sommers, a bartender who is trying to support her younger sister. She is also in love with Dr. Will Anthros, a brilliant professor who is everything that Jaime Sommers is not. A car accident leaves her critically injured until a top secret operation gives her a new lease on life, along with a new arm, new legs, a new eye and a new ear, giving her almost super strength, super hearing and the ability to focus up to 2 miles away.Unfortnately, the more she learns, the less she understands. The comparison of this miniseries to the original series from1976, is not unlike the comparison of the recent Batman movies to the campy Batman TV series from 1966. I must admit that having Jaime Sommers make all those bionic leaps and fast dashes, wearing fashionable footwear, ie. high heeled boots, was an oversight that shouldn't had been overlooked.

I've never seen the 70's series (and at this point, have no intention to) so my disappointment with this show has nothing to do with my attachment to the original. I had some hopes for this show, and I gave it every possible chance, religiously watching each episode and waiting for it to improve. Guess what, it never did.As many people have noted, this show gets wrong absolutely everything. The cast, the writing, the direction, the special effects. Ryan is very bland as the lead. She is not an incompetent actress, but she doesn't have the presence to carry the show. Clever writing and good direction could have probably helped her to overcome that problem, except she didn't have the benefit of clever writing and good direction.And she was not the only bland character. Even Katee Sackhoff's character was only marginally better. Other than psychotic episodes, fights in the mud and that trademark wicked half-smile of hers, she had almost nothing to work with. All characters in the show were so dull I couldn't care less about them. When one of Jaimie's co-worker died I just shrugged while wondering whether the death was supposed to shock and move the audience. And how can you possibly create suspense if the audience don't care? Most insultingly, the show writers didn't miss the opportunity to insert every single Hollywood cliché: a woman hanging on the edge of the roof waiting to be saved, a mugger in a dark alley trying to mug the Bionic Woman... But worst of all, the show didn't seem to have any direction or coherent story arc. Some story threads hinted at in the earlier episodes, simply disappeared. And don't let's even start on the copious holes in the plots.As for the special effects... are we supposed to be impressed by Jaimie being pulled on wires from one rooftop to another? Pah-lease.Despite all that, I kept watching, and even hoping that there would be a second season, because with a different team the show was not beyond salvage. But, to be fair, far better shows have been canceled. I guess we'll just have to wait for the next BW remake in around 2030...

When my Dad would teach Sunday school, his approach was very scholarly. For instance, concerning the virgin birth, he'd say "If it doesn't make sense, or if it's outdated, then DON'T believe it. Inevitably, a little old lady would chirp up and reply "Please don't take away the virgin birth. I've believed in it since I was a kid. It's special to me" I come here now as the old lady, where concerning the shows of my childhood. Don't take away my childhood by raping the classics. Ron Moore has pretty much raped the noble aspects of BSG and gotten every TV whore/critic to back him up. My childhood heroes have been turned into whiners, alcoholics and pussies in the name of "good drama".And now, someone has tried with Bionic Woman. Guys, there are fans, I'm sure, for the whole "ultra dark brooding" approach. But you know what? Today's generation should have a chance to have heroes of some kind. The TV heroes of the 1970s, however corny or cheesy, enriched my childhood. All this brooding crap today is embarrassing. Good drama be damned, give us a show with redeeming qualities.