The Bionic Woman: Series 1 [DVD] [1976]

I have to confess that sober critical judgement rather goes out of the window where The Bionic Woman is concerned. You see my youthful little self, sat in front of the TV in the 70s when this was first aired, was a little sweet on Jamie Sommers. Indeed I couldn't even listen to the theme tune without dribbling and getting a little hot under the collar. Still, wiping away the tears of nostalgia, what do I make of it all thirty years later? Well, it's still fabulously good entertainment. Lindsay Wagner could certainly act and during the course of the thirteen episodes that make up the first season of The Bionic Woman she goes through the entire range of human emotion, carrying the audience with her as she confronts the loss of all memory about her past and comes to terms with her new super powers and the opportunities, and possible dangers, they bring with them, not to mention coming face-to-face with someone claiming to be her mother (long thought to be dead) and battling a whole range of shifty looking blokes with dodgy taches, cheap suits and nasty looking firearms.

Richard Anderson provides excellent support as Oscar Goldman, the boss we'd all like to have: authorative, fair, supportive of the people who work for him and as smooth as a dry martini; while Lee Majors crops up from time to time to go all doe-eyed at Jamie (not that I blame him).

The stories themselves vary in quality but they are never less than entertaining and sometimes, such as in "Mirror Image", "Jamie's Mother" and the two part "Welcome Home Jamie" they reach genuinely dazzling heights of invention. The acting and writing in this series was consistently good, making it obvious that the whole team really cared about the show and regarded it with a great deal of affection.

All in all this is a fabulous little box set and well worth a look for anyone with happy memories of early evening TV in the 70s: funny, dramatic, moving and clever (and yes, thirty years on, I'm still a little sweet on Jamie).

DVD's are brilliant and the episodes are great to watch. I think the set would have been even better if they had included The Bionic Woman and The Return of the Bionic Woman. They are still good dvds though.

"The Bionic Woman" was and still is one of my favourite childhood shows.
Lindsay Wagner brought so much warmth and charm to the part of Jaime Sommers,that when after being introduced in a two part episode of "The Six Millon Dollar Man" as Steve Austin's(Lee Majors) childhood sweetheart and then killed off,public reaction was so strong she was brought back to life and spun off to her own series!
Jaime moves into an apartment on Steve's Mum(the wonderful Martha Scott)and Stepdad's ranch as she tries to rebuild her life as a school teacher and secret agent for the OSI headed by Oscar Goldman(Richard Anderson)
Jaime faces an evil double ganger in "Mirror Image" who comes back in a later season to plague Jaime.
"The Six Million Dollar Man" episode "Survival Of the Fittest",involving a plane crash and an attempt on Oscar's life is reused as "Fly Jaime" with Dr.Rudy Wells(Martin E.Brooks)the target this time.
The theme of facing your demons and moving on is reused time and again,in this first season,in "Winning Is Everything" Jaime helps a young driver faces the horrors of a past crash,in "Jaime's Mother" Jaime helps a lookalike of her dead mother face her past and do the right thing,a great star turn by Barbara Rush.
In the last episode of the season "The Ghost Hunter",Jaime helps a young widowed Doctor deal with his teenage daughter's telekentic powers rather than bury his grief in his work.
A great show with nice remastering on this DVD,don't understand why "The Six Million Dollar Man" wasn't treated the same way.