Hi. I'm back. By back, I mean this is the first Thursday Movie Picks I've participated in quite a while. As always, it's hosted by the wonderful Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves. Of course, I picked the Thursday when it's all about TV. That's cool. The chosen topic is one with lots of options. By the way, I figured since I'm just going to pop back up like nothing happened I might as well make it interesting. So I went with a theme within the theme within another theme. Hmmm...let's see what we've got.
The Bionic Woman
(1976-78)
Whenever there's a big hit on TV, you can be sure a bunch of clones are coming. In this case, the original hit was ABC's The Six Million Dollar Man. It's success gave us this spin-off. It features Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner) as a tennis pro who gets hurt in a terrible accident. Of course, she was given bionics and made better, stronger, faster, and then becomes a super-secret agent. It was a fun show, but if I'm being honest, the best episodes of this or its predecessor include her teaming up with bionic man Steve Austin (Lee Majors). The series was "reimagined" in 2007. It could've been great, but never really got off the ground.
Alias
(2001-06)
During the summer of 2001, I found myself on ABC watching the NBA Finals and a few other random things here and there. Every other commercial was for an upcoming series premier called Alias. It looked like a fun time, so when September rolled around I tuned in. And. I. Was. Blown. Uh. Way! It stars a then-unknown Jennifer Garner as CIA operative Sydney Bristow, who's assigned to a unit called SD-6. The twists and turns came non-stop and the action was insane. I locked in for the entirety of its run. That was a tall commitment back in the Dark Ages - before streaming. Not only was the show awesome, Jennifer Garner was spectacular. Her work in this show is the reason why I was pumped to see Daredevil. And Elektra. And Peppermint. And whatever action vehicle she shows up in next. None of those lived up to Alias, but you never know.
Quantico
(2015-18)
It was during another year's NBA Finals that I heard about this show. Once again, when it premiered in September, there I was checking it out. This one stars Priyanka Chopra (drool) as Alex Parrish, an FBI recruit who is also, somehow, a suspect in a terrorist attack. The show is told, at first, using two timelines. Like Alias, there are lots of twists and some really good action scenes. Our star has proven to be distractingly beautiful a very capable lead, and the writing is outstanding. Unfortunately, it didn't gain quite enough traction to be allowed to fully play out and was cancelled last year. The saddest part of all this is I no longer have an excuse to look at her every week.
0 Comments