Robot Dreams

Everyone at work was highly amused that I was super-stoked to find the first season of The Bionic Woman on DVD this week. I’m not sure why it was so hilarious, but I had mad love for Jaime Sommers. I’m a little too young to have seen it in its original run, but I loved it on repeats. Jaime was (from my recollection) kind of a normal girl who had a crazy accident and then got the best skillz ever.

What I remembered most was that she was SO normal. She had a regular job and was like a super hero on the side. She could run incredibly fast and was always knocking people around with her wicked strong bionic arm. She’s the first female super hero I remember besides Wonder Woman but, unlike Wonder Woman, Jaime Sommers wasn’t a princess. She was kind of a jock who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Could’ve been anyone.

Looking back on it now, she’s kind of the original Sydney Bristow or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. No one saw a good looking girl and thought ‘she’s tough’ or ‘she’s a spy’. She had a handler and a seekrit identity, but she also had a LIFE. She had a sense of humor and was laid back. Her clothes were (by 70s standards) the shit.

I accidentally started livetweeting the first disc of the set – mostly because I was so stoked about watching it AND my husband was out of town so I had no one to mock my epic nerdery -which was all the Six Million Dollar Man crossovers. Jaime got introduced as Steve Austin’s childhood friend and love of his life. I’m not gonna lie, I was a little shocked by all the terrible Lee Majors emo songs which were clearly penned specifically for the episodes. They were just AWFUL. I was also surprised by the amount of unshed tears in the episodes! Maybe they created the Jaime storyline just so Steve could show his softer side but it was a pretty impressive display of emotion from my 80s TV recollections.

I think the best part about the episodes (aside from the clothes and the decor) was that Jaime was just as cool as I remember. She had a successful career before the accident and she wasn’t okay with coasting – she wanted to pay her own way. She wasn’t having any of this ‘protect the girl’ nonsense and was insistent that she could be just as helpful as Steve in making the world a safer place. So yeah. The Bionic Woman kicks ass. Because of her, I’m maybe the only kid who was hoping for a horrific car accident so I could get robot limbs.

Weirdest fact of the accidental live-tweet: A random dude who’s into a Bionic Woman porno following and retweeting me. Ick?