Bionic Woman: Pilot
Based on the strength of the creative staff behind the show, I was really, really looking forward to seeing Bionic Woman.

That said, I was kind of worried that NBC might be hyping it too much–ratcheting up my expectations to such a height that virtually no show could live up to them.

After one episode, all I have to say is, “So far, so good.”

I don’t recall much about the 70s version of the show. I do know it was a spin-off of Six Million Dollar Man and that it had Lindsay Wagner…but that’s about it. Oh and that it was kind of campy. So, I guess you could say I’m coming into this one fresh.

Now, I’ll admit–the first chance I had to download and watch the pilot, I took it. And when I saw it, I have to admit I liked…especially the second-half when it gave off the Buffy-vibe (I was having flashbacks of Buffy and Faith battling as we watched Jamie battle the evil Bionic Woman played by Katie Sackoff…and in a good way). It’s interesting that the show would remind me of Buffy. It’s certainly playing off some of the same themes–woman leading an ordinary life one day is suddenly given powers and has to learn how to use them in order to “save the world.” On Buffy, we battled the supernatural forces and here…well, I guess we’ll wait and see. The interesting part is that we have the dark Bionic Woman introduced early and it should be interesting to see how that give and take develops. I’m glad they signed Katie Sackoff to a recurring role status–the scenes with her character just had a lot more pop and tension.

I will admit, some of the elements of the show were a bit forced…the whole sister angle, not sure where that’s going. But I’m willing to give the show a chance based on what I’ve seen here. The first episode is good and I can’t wait for the second.

Smallville: Bizarro
The good thing about the season premiere is that, for once, Smallville doesn’t feel the need to wrap up everything with a nice, neat bow. It does deal with Bizarro Clark, though I fully expect he’ll be back later this year (though I’m still waiting for Brainiac to return as well….so take my prediction with a grain of salt) and Chloe comes back to life. Of course, the show has to go to great lengths to make Lois dumber than a box of rocks and just accept that weird stuff happens and not question it any more. But I keep recalling my pledge to turn off my brain and just go with it, and that seems to be helping a lot.

Meanwhile, Lana is alive…though how she escaped and/or knew her car was wired to blow up, I’m not sure. Unless she did it to frame Lex, but that’s giving the girl a lot more credit that I think she should be given.

Family Guy: The Star Wars parody
Robot Chicken’s was better.

And while I liked the one joke about hyper-space looking like the opening credits of Tom Baker Dr Who, the rest of the show was too scattershot. And, typical Family Guy, jokes are allowed to run too long, until all the funny is sucked out of the gag.

The Office: Fun Run
I read an interview where the production team behind The Office said they were looking at the hour-long episodes to open the season as a feature film and not just two episodes jammed together. And having seen this week’s episode, I think they took that thought too far. Like most comedies these days, they had some good jokes that were stretched too thin over the running time of the episode.

Don’t get me wrong–there were times in this episode I was on the floor laughing. But it also felt like, at times, we were stretchings things a bit. That said, it was still funnier than Caveman will ever be on its best day.