I came across a rather interesting article by Richard Leis Jr, where he slams the updated Bionic Woman for being too pessimistic. He writes:
Show creators apparently hate technology, especially when used to successfully save lives. At what price, they want to explore, do we do so? A character who suffers terrible trauma must continue to suffer long after they have transcended their human weaknesses and been relieved of their pain. The price, we learn, is generally too high, and it would have been better if the character had just died. Because they did not die, they now must spend the seasons performing altruistic acts, to give back to simple unenhanced humans who are owed some unexplained debt. The moment the transhuman start enjoying her powers, she will be taught a terrible lesson.
This bionic woman is a creation of nanotechnology and cybernetics, packaged in a beautiful and indistinguishable-from-human body. A simple bartender enriched by her involvement with a man of education and science must now pay the ultimate price for becoming transhuman. We do not learn in one episode, of course, exactly what price she will pay during her upcoming ordeals, but we can be sure it will be gratuitously gory and tearful.
Modern medicine is marvelous and technologies in labs and on the horizon suggest great things ahead. We know from experience that most people in pain, experiencing great suffering, or nearing death, will, no matter what their prior belief system, embrace relief. Relief is so obviously joyful that relief as horror as depicted in fiction simply rings false, yet writers go back to that same dark well over and over again.
Could there be conflict in a depiction of a transhuman that was joyful and thankful for her transcendence? Absolutely. We have already seen one such character on television, albeit with her own moments of angst and depression and confusion. Her name was Buffy, The Vampire Slayer and she was always at her best when she gave into the morally valid pleasures of her power.
And Buffy Summers, of course, was partly inspired by another woman of incredible power who could, sometimes at least, enjoy her powers. She was the original Jaime Sommers in the original 1970’s Bionic Woman. If her joy was not always apparent, she was a superior role model compared to the current ungrateful incarnation. Until writers embrace the potential joys of transhuman existence, they will continue to “re-image” old material while popular storytelling continues to stagnate.
He also says that the show is a “disaster” and labels Katee Sackhoff’s portrayal of Sarah Corvus as ’painful’ and “badly acted”.
Whilst I did enjoy reading his article and can appreciate several of the points that he made, I disagree about the performance of Sackhoff and his calling the show a “disaster” - afterall, he’s only seen the Pilot..and that was far from being a ‘disaster’. As for his point about the show not celebrating the ‘gift’ of ‘transhuman’ abilities, I can understand his viewpoint, however doesn’t the show also have a responsibility to reflect the potential reality of such a ‘gift’? Afterall, most ‘heroes’ (if you will) are burdened with responsibility - “With great power, comes great responsibility” - being in a position of power is often a lonely burden..one could call it the ‘gift and the curse’ effect.
Yes, it would be nice to explore the joys of human transcendence and I’m sure that along the way Jaime will experience moments where she is at one with herself and ‘happy’ with her role. However, it’s much more fun and realistic to experience the light and the shade of the human condition..because that’s what life is often about..light and shade. Nevertheless, it’s a great piece and you can read all of it here.
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