Who Stole The Thunder From The Wonder?

Nobody wanted to see Wonder Woman. When Ally McBeal creator David E. Kelley cooked up Wonder Woman 2011 for NBC TV, diehard fans railed. The original 70's goddess Lynda Carter could never be dethroned by the statuesque Adrianne Palicki, and then there were the un-American disco tights:

It was a disaster. The uproar was so vicious that NBC nixed the pilot episode outright. It never had a chance.

Recently, however, the ill-fated offline episode had somehow leaked its way around and I was fortunate enough to view it. It's not bad. Granted, it's not as spectacular as I had hoped, but neither was it as revolting as the angry fanboys had made it out to be. And yes, they had to admit that the show was indeed promising.

 

Spoiler Alert

WW2011 lost much of its predecessor's campiness and replaced it with a slightly more grounded outlook, with the heroine addressing her own objectification as a figurative and literal public action figure. Unlike with most superheroes (including the previous WW incarnation) the show blurs the lines between the stereotypical hero/alter ego persona; everybody loves Wonder Woman, and Diana Prince's entire corporation knows that she IS Wonder Woman.

It may be unsettling at first to see the Themysciran beauty running around in tights instead of the classic granny panties, but Palicki manages to rock the outfit and make it her own. (And fear not, purists -- later she changes into an updated version of the corset-and-panties ensemble as well). She was also able to pull off the character's requisite regal bearing despite her relatively girlish features.

There are a few questionable aspects of Diana's character that stand out, and one of those is her capacity to implement torture. She's uncharacteristically cruel and vindictive. On the flip side, Kelley throws in a little bit of Ally McBeal and depicts Diana as a heartbroken career girl tearing up over sappy old movies alone with her cat. These may be pushing the humanized angle a bit too far, turning a strong and confident warrior princess into a closet emotional train wreck. Maybe that's why she gets pitted against a mere mortal (Veronica Cale) in a cheekbone competition instead of a supervillain with powers equal to hers.

Of course there are your traditional chopsocky action scenes. And in this case it was thugs vs. juggs: Wonder Woman easily plows through a slew of impossibly muscular henchmen only to engage in a few seconds of mostly trash-talk with Cale. 

For me the major flaw in this episode is the lack of tension in the storytelling and editing. There is a marked absence of urgency that renders the viewer mildly curious, but not necessarily stoked enough to find out what happens next. Still, if the series manages to recover from its pratfall, with a little tweaking Wonder Woman 2011 can manage to kick serious critic ass.