There are many, well at least a few great television series on at any given time but for a lot of diehard fans of the medium the golden age was the seventies. Many may argue shows from this decade were a flimsy echo of the fifties but that was basically experimental television and the transition from radio. The seventies represented the first generation that literally grew up in from of the glowing box in the center of our living rooms. Series crafted during the seventies were typical done so by people that built their careers in TV instead of adapting their skill sets from another format. Many of these series were centered on action; fighting crime and the enemies of our country. This was also the age were technology was increasing in leaps and bonds. The result, at least as it pertains here is a cult classic aeries such as ‘The Six Million Dollar Man’ and the popular spin off under consideration here; ‘The Bionic Woman’. This series had everything necessary to reach out to the audience; danger, excitement, a beautiful young woman and advanced technology. This may seem like a universal formula for success but unfortunately a reboot of the series in 2007 but it failed in less than a single season although an infamous writer strike did contribute heavily to the premature cancellation. At least now Universal Home Entertainment has been releasing the classic ‘Bionic Woman’ on DVD. Because a central character present in both ‘The Six Million Dollar Man’ and ‘The Bionic woman’ and the respective series had distribution rights owned by rival studios the release of the DVD was delay by several legal impediments much to the dismay of the legion of fans for both series. Well, the tangle of rights has been straighten out at least to the point that ‘The Bionic Woman’ is enjoying the release of the second season set, reviewed here, and a pending release of the ‘Six Million Dollar Man’ on the horizon. This is one of the best things about DVDs; if offers a way to revisit memories from a simpler time of life. It was amazing how many episodes of this series I remembered as I sat down to enjoy the new set.

The character of tennis pro Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner) started out as a spinoff of the ‘Six Million Dollar Man’ as the fiancée of the titular Steve Austin (Lee Major). After a near fatal accident Steve convinces Oscar Goldman (Richard Anderson) to get cybernetic genius Dr. Rudy Wells (Martin E. Brooks) to rebuild Jaime with bionic legs, right arm and ear. The price for this government funded largess is Jaime has to accept extremely dangerous covert missions as assigned through Oscar. By the time this second season rolled around the network was trying to establish the series as its own entity but there were still attachments to the original and some cross over appearances of Lee Major in his role as Austin. Having Jaime recruited by the Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI), a branch of the CIA offered the writer a variety of situations the drop the bionic beauty each week. This also managed to dove-tail into the perennial favorite in all forms of entertainment, the spy thriller. Usually it is a distraction when an inescapable situation is thwarted by a nifty device that miraculously saves the day. While this is normally a negative factor in the case of this genre the use of gadgetry is well established as part of the required elements. The key difference here is the gadgets are built in as replacement body parts. The series was part of a group of series created by one of the most successful and prolific creative minds in the industry; Kenneth Johnson. The stable of his creations include such hits and cult classics as ‘V’, ‘Alien Nation’, ‘The Incredible Hulk’ and both installments of the bionic franchise. With his mastery of the action series he brought a factor of enjoyment to this series that made it an instant hit although it would not last longer that three seasons and a few follow up made for television movies.

One plot device used here that is especially popular in the espionage genre is going undercover. This afforded the writers the opportunity to place Jamie in different characters each week ostensibly to keep things fresh but in this case it distanced the character from the audience making it more difficult than usual to generate traction with overall character development. Among the unlikely guises Ms Sommers assumes to save democracy is female wrestler, card dealer on a luxury cruise liner and perhaps the strangest cover identity of all, a nun. Back in Catholic school I always had some suspicions that our nuns were part machine. Considering this series originally during the ‘Cold War’ with the Soviet Union it should come as no surprise that an overwhelming number of villains in the episodes were Russian agents bent on the destruction of the United States. Just to mix things up there were occasional forays into the use of sinister aliens stirring up the trouble but thankfully this tactic was kept to a minimum. Another popular plot device brought in here is the evil double. The ‘other side’ takes one of their agents, Lisa Galloway, and replaced her with the double. In this season the evil twin manages to escape prison and attempts to take over Jaimie’s life. One of the best remembered villains in the series is introduced in this season, the Fembots’. They are killer robots with even more power than Jaime. Of course next to a Sasquatch under alien control this contrivance is downright believable. Overall in retrospect there are many corny aspects to the series but it remains a lot of fun to watch.