Television

Bionic Woman has two immediate selling points.

Mitchell Haaseth

Michelle Ryan plays Jamie Sommers, aka 'Bionic Woman'

The first, as the title and "Better, Stronger, Faster" tagline emphasize, is that this is a remake of that vintage '70s cheese franchise The Bionic Woman and its predecessor, The Six Million Dollar Man.

The second is the phrase "from the producer of Battlestar Galactica." That's another vintage '70s cheese-fest that was recently revived and renovated into a dark and sleekly postmodern work of sci-fi pop art.

With the "the" dropped and the price tag raised – a bionic woman now goes for $50 million – Bionic Woman introduces viewers to an experience that's darker and hipper than anything the original ever had to run through at 60 mph.

This year's model is a lot more Buffy than Jaime. Jaime, as in Jaime Sommers, was and is the name of the woman almost killed in a car accident and rebuilt using all sorts of nanotechnology.

The show does a good job of talking about just enough gadgetry to establish a plausible veneer of authenticity without devolving into technographic geek-babble.

There's some discussion of "anthrocytes," which seem to be molecular machines injected into the blood to promote rapid healing, some microchips implanted in the brain to process information coming in through that high-powered eyeball and supersonic hearing, and, of course, the superspeed and strength that come with a bionic arm and legs.

Michelle Ryan plays the new Jaime, joining the TV tradition of beautiful but deadly heroines from Dark Angel, Alias and La Femme Nikita. She faces off against the bad bionic woman, played by Battlestar Galactica's Katee Sackhoff, who wastes no time in establishing her charismatic mojo.

The pilot throws out a lot of hints and teases regarding back story and future possibilities, none of which are satisfactorily filled out by the show's conclusion. Miguel Ferrer, as the head of whatever secret government agency is behind all this, is great at delivering shots of menace and charm. Jaime's doctor-fiancé is kind of a drip, and the live-in little sister seems tacked on.

The result is a jumble of pieces, some interesting, some not. There's a great rooftop, in-the-rain fight scene between Jaime and her bionic nemesis. This is a show that could be great or sink like a stone. After one episode, it's too close to call.

Bionic Woman

B-

Wednesday night at 8 on NBC (Channel 5). 1 hr.

MORE TV DEBUTS WEDNESDAY

B+

Wednesday at 9, ABC

(Channel 8). 1 hr.

Dirty Sexy Money may be the Series to Watch this fall.

It boasts a giant cast with some great actors (Donald Sutherland, Jill Clayburgh) and has a provocative premise – a behind-the-tabloid-headlines look at the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

For Six Feet Under fans, this is the show that marks Peter Krause's return to series television. Here he plays the very Nate-like Nick, a lawyer who gets sucked back into the lives of the richest family in New York, the ironically named Darlings, when his dad, the Darlings' family lawyer, dies and Nick is asked to take over.

The pilot is zippy, flashy fun as Nick is instantly swamped by the Darlings' derelictions. All the kids are some variation of psycho-brat and Nick is the long-suffering sane sounding post for their troubles.

Creator Craig Wright is another successful playwright to jump into television, and the pilot's script is full of sharp dialogue. The episode closes with a mystery that Nick sets out to solve. Here's hoping he's given the entire season to do it.

Tom Maurstad

D

Wednesday at 8, ABC (Channel 8). 1 hr.

Grey's Anatomy fans may be willing to follow Dr. Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh) as she spins off to LA and her new job in a boutique clinic, Oceanside Wellness Group. But will they stay and will anyone else be interested? Judging by the pilot, the answer is probably not.

This is the television equivalent of a vanity Web site, opening with Ms. Walsh doing her version of Tom Cruise's home-alone dance in Risky Business. It's not nearly as cute as the show plainly thinks it should be, and that trend continues through the pilot.

We meet the gang at the clinic – hey, there's Tim Daly as a "nontraditional practitioner" and Amy Brenneman as a psychiatrist and Taye Diggs as whatever kind of doctor he's supposed to be.

This is a medical show at its most manipulatively formulaic. By the end, we've gone through a sperm donor dropping dead and his wife arguing with his girlfriend over who gets the sample. And then there's the teenage girl who almost dies in childbirth, and a woman having some sort of breakdown in the middle of a store.

In between, lots of snappy patter between the brilliant, beautiful docs. Ugh.

Tom Maurstad

B

Wednesday at 9, NBC

(Channel 5). 1 hr.

In NBC's new series Life, a cop is wrongfully imprisoned for a dozen brutal years, then returns to the police force to resume his life – and to figure out who among his fellow cops framed him.

The pilot episode succeeds with an unusually intriguing antihero, smart writing and an arresting star in Damian Lewis (Band of Brothers).

Before prison, Detective Charlie Crews was "a basic, by-the-book cop," recalls his former partner, "looking for his 20 [years] and his pension." That's all changed.

Life begins four months after Crews got sprung for the crime he didn't do, and his first day back on the job. The people around him feel bad for what he went through, but they're also suspicious. Why does he want to be a cop again, after the enormous cash settlement the city paid him? "He's back to get even," says his lieutenant.

Further stigmatizing Crews is the fact that he's, um, peculiar. Certain coping devices he picked up in the joint (including a blunt manner, an aversion to rules and an appetite for Eastern philosophy) put people around him on edge.

How well will this unorthodox crime fighter readjust to the outside? Will he find belated justice there? Charting Crews' new life, Life breathes new life into cop drama. Frazier Moore,

The Associated Press