Ever since its demise at the hands of NBC executives, David E. Kelley’s Wonder Woman pilot has been one of the hottest “gets” in Hollywood. Once the show failed to get picked up to series I started calling my contacts and was met, almost universally, with “I don’t have it, but I’m trying to get it.”
Persistence pays off and eventually I got my hands on a copy of the pilot.
(For contextual purposes, you might want to check out my review of the script before reading my review of the pilot.)
For all its problems I actually enjoyed the Wonder Woman pilot script that made the rounds and was looking forward to seeing it brought to life. In the time since that first draft was written a lot of work must have been done because what we have in the actual pilot is a leaner and meaner version of the script that I read. While the overall plot is the same, there must have been a page one rewrite because every scene has been rewritten, reworked, or excised completely. (In fact, a friend of mine who works as a writer in Hollywood told me back in March that the script had been completely overhauled.) Whether it happened in the writing or in the editing, the result is the same: a whole lot of fat was cut.
WHAT’S THE STORY?
The basic structure is the same from the script. We open and close with a big action sequence that showcases Wonder Woman’s superheroics, and in-between we are introduced to her world populated up of her co-workers, allies, arch enemy, and ex-boyfriend.
WHAT CHANGED FROM THE SCRIPT?
While the overall plot remains the same, many of the details changed. Some notable elements that are missing from the pilot are:
Themyscira – Throughout the script Wonder Woman constantly flashed back to her time on Paradise Island including her warrior training and meeting and falling for Steve Trevor. None of this appears in the pilot.
Myndi Mayer – In the script she is Diana’s best friend and the press secretary at Themyscira Industries. She does not appear at all in the pilot; instead her character has been merged with that of Etta Candy, who in the script was Diana’s personal assistant.
The Animals – Wonder Woman’s team of quirky and (allegedly) endearing misfits, who act as her evidence team and tech support while she’s out on missions is, thankfully, no where to be found in the pilot.
The Gimmicks – There were a lot of gimmicks in the script that are missing from the pilot:
- The script indicated that the pilot would run commercial-free (I bet the ad sales department had a good laugh over that one), but in the pilot there are standard commercial breaks.
- The script was littered with on-the-nose musical cues for pop songs like “Single Ladies” which are nowhere to be found in the pilot. Along with the missing pop songs, many of the groan-inducing pop culture references are gone, including a running gag about a lawsuit with Katy Perry who had dressed up as Wonder Woman in one of her videos.
- The script also indicated that there will be bleeped out cursing in the series which no longer occurs, though in a meeting about a ridiculously endowed Wonder Woman doll Diana does say the word “tits” twice and “ass” once.
- In the opening scene of the script as Wonder Woman is chasing a criminal down Hollywood Boulevard, she runs into (sometimes literally) people dressed as Buzz Lightyear, SpongeBob SquarePants, Iron Man, and, of course, Wonder Woman. None of this occurs in the pilot.
WHAT WAS GOOD?
As Wonder Woman/Diana Themyscira/Diana Prince, Adrianne Palicki was a revelation. I was already a big fan of hers from Friday Night Lights but here she takes center stage and pulls off what is an extremely difficult role. She’s tough, she’s charming, she’s sexy, she’s vulnerable, and she’s got a little bit of an angry edge to her when she’s Wonder Woman that adds just a dash of exciting unpredictability. This could have been a star making turn for Palicki who certainly deserves one.
The Wonder Woman on this show is a badass who is not above choking dudes with her lasso (her favorite move) or throwing a piece of pipe through your throat if you won’t stop shooting at her. For a weekly television show, the action scenes were fairly well executed and at times quite thrilling. The whole final sequence where she storms Veronica Cale’s compound and decimates her ‘roided out super-soldier army is really fun to watch.
The first time we see Wonder Woman she is wearing the version of the costume that we’ve seen with the blue pants. The biggest surprise in the entire pilot? When she shows up to take on Veronica Cale’s goons for the final big action scene, she’s in the classic pants-less comic book costume. That costume only appeared briefly in the script where it hung in the back of her closet. There is a mention of a designer coming in to discuss a new costume so it would appear that this Wonder Woman has different costumes for different occasions. Whichever costume she’s wearing they all really work on-screen.
A lot of time was spent in the script on Steve Trevor and the effect that their break-up had on Diana. That’s toned way, way down in the pilot. In fact, the famous sequence where she has a sleepover with her best friend and eats ice cream and talks about their breakup and then cries because she misses Steve is nowhere to be found. Yes, there are a few flashbacks to their break-up, and yes, Diana misses Steve, and yes, it has affected her, but how she deals with it is handled in a much more realistic way. Diana is obviously lonely and does not have any kind of personal life and that was clearly being set up as a subplot to run through the series.
The streamlining of the script really worked in the pilot’s favor. The story moved much quicker than it read. For example, in the script, Diana spent a long sequence testifying before the United States Congress about her vigilante activities, which allowed for long and droning speechifying on both sides. That would have been really boring on screen. In the pilot, that sequence is swapped out for a scene in which she has dinner with one sleazy congressman. The same information about the government being uneasy with Wonder Woman’s activities was conveyed in a much quicker, and more compelling, way.
WHAT WAS BAD?
There wasn’t a whole lot about the pilot that I didn’t like. The most glaring was probably Cary Elwes, as CEO of Themyscira Industries Henry Demeter, who had “superhero overacting disease” in which perfectly respectable and talented actors think that because they are in a comic book production that they need to turn the goofiness up a few notches.
As Steve Trevor, Justin Bruening was a bit of a mannequin. A very handsome mannequin, sure, but he didn’t exactly exude a ton of charm.
The device of filing in exposition with a lots of talking head cameos from real life television personalities was a little grating after a while, though one would hope that there would be less of a need to hear that… sigh… Dr. Phil thinks that Wonder Woman is a wacko as the show progressed.
There were also a bunch of cringe-inducing lines of dialogue which I was apparently mostly comfortable with after years of watching Smallville and Heroes.
WHAT DID I THINK OVERALL?
Overall, I quite liked it. When I was done watching the pilot I found myself bummed out that I wouldn’t be seeing any more episodes. I really liked this version of Wonder Woman. She is a badass fighter with a bit of an unhinged edge that gives her just a hint of “if she got out of control she’d be scary”. She’s also vulnerable and relatable as a person which is crucial for a television series lead. Was she exactly the Wonder Woman from the comics? No. Of course not. But she’s also not so far off as to be foreign. Ultimately, had this series been picked up I think we would have had an interesting new version of Wonder Woman, and a series that would have been a lot of fun. Were there parts that were clunky? Yes, absolutely. Especially some of the dialogue from the talking heads. Did Carey Elwes need to tone it down a notch? Yes. But this was a pilot and these things would have been fixable. Series often go through a lot of changes and adjustment after the pilot and there’s no reason why Wonder Woman wouldn’t have been any different. Overall, it’s not a total surprise that NBC passed on the show. While the pilot is really solid and lots of fun, it wouldn’t blow anyone away and when you’re talking about a show that would be as expensive to produce as this one, the first time out of the gate it has to be spectacular. To steal a line from a friend who also saw the pilot “I’d still like to see more but it’s missing something. It sounds corny to say, but I think it needs a little magic, a little WONDER.”
One side note. Once NBC passed on the show, a lot of people started speculating on whether or not it would ever be made available, like the failed Aquaman pilot, Mercy Reef, which was released via iTunes. I don’t think the same will happen with Wonder Woman. For one big reason: it’s unfinished. During most of the final fight scene the stunt wires are visible and some of the lasso effects are primitive. Also, it appears that they began shooting the pilot with the shiny costume that received so much scorn on the internet. When Wonder Woman comes back to her base after the first time we see her chasing down a bad guy, she walks into an elevator wearing the newer costume with the more cloth-like dark blue pants, and she walks out wearing the shiny light blue pants. A title appeared on screen that read “VFX MISSING – PANTS TO BE DARKENED”. And in one helicopter shot of a highway there is a title that reads “ADD POLICE CARS” Clearly this was a rough cut and clearly they are not going to sink money into finishing something that will never be broadcast so any hopes that this might be released in an official capacity are dashed.
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i’m just glad they got rid of those lane bryant star pants
@Loser13 She also wears the pants costume in the pilot.
I’m just looking at the costume in the screencaps your showing and all I could think is:
This will never work, ever.
No one will take a show seriously, even if it’s suppose to be more light-hearted, with that ridiculous costume. Hard to take anyone seriously, let alone to show how different of a woman Wonder Woman is, then by having the costume of a stripper.
Probably for the best this never came out.
I have to admit… As someone who’s not a fan of the classic costume, she looks pretty bad ass in that last picture.
I really would have liked to see this have a chance, especially now that it seems most of the bits I was worried about were cut from the shooting script. Great review Conner! Thank you!
I would’ve watched it (at least the first few episodes).
I find it very…confusing that you liked the script so I’m not sure what to make of your thoughts about the pilot. From what little I’ve seen, I do believe Adrianne Palicki did a good job and I’m not a hardcore traditionalist when it comes to live-action adaptions so I don’t have a problem with updates/reimaginings. My problem seemed that Kelley wrote the script without understanding the core of who and what Wonder Woman is. Yes, she fights bad guys and is a trained warrior but she is an emissary of peace. She would not throw a pipe through a henchman’s neck and kill him.
My hope is that they keep Adrianne and get a new staff that can tell the story right. A lot of what Kelley was trying to do is salvable, there are interesting ideas there but they need to be executed properly.
Excellet screengrabs btw. 🙂
@TNC. But that is Wonder Woman’s costume. It’s worked for 70 years. If you change it (even just adding pants), everybody complains, and with enough changes it’s not even recognizable as the same character. Might as well do the real thing. Which is what I see above.
I wonder if negative response to the picture, the script reviews, etc., led to it not getting picked up. I was looking forward to it, and to showing it to my daughter…
Conor, I appreciate your measured review.
Worth noting: Diana has TV’s EVERYWHERE. The Dr. Phil talking head is seen on a monitor mounted on the wall in her vanity area next to a mirror. So she can watch CNN while she washes her hands.
I think the three identities issue is too convoluted for what this show wanted to be. Especially introduced all at once. That said, I agree that the revised script or the major edits did streamline this significantly from the draft I read months ago.
Not sure how fans would feel about Diana sitting on her couch watching The Notebook with her cat Sylvester, bag of potato chips in her lap. It’s a step up from the slumber party, but still several steps from a perfect landing.
@MisfitsTamara I think Maxwell Lord would disagree with Wonder Woman’s unwillingness to kill. As would all the Koreans in NEW FRONTIER.
my biggest problem with the costume is that …it looks like a costume. I just have a hard time really buying in a serious live action world, the main hero character would wear something like that in public and be taken seriously. At least for me, i think this could have achieved that level of “empowered action character” if they went away from the traditional comics and more towards the recent Jim Lee revision. Its interesting how things that look cool in comics look corny in live action. Maybe thats just my personal thing…but its rare that i really like comic book looking costumes on screen.
It would have been cool if this show would have been finished and aired. Oh well.
No Egg-fu? Lame.
Bit torn on this. For the most part, I don’t mind the show not getting picked up. David E Kelley would have likely given us many more reasons to groan than reasons to cheer over the course of a series. But the main reason I’m somewhat bummed, Adrianne Palicki. I knew she would be perfect casting. Not surprised at all to hear Conor say that she was great. It’s really a shame she couldn’t have got the role with more capable people running the ship.
@Mano: It’s one of the main problems I have with trying to like Wonder Woman. I can’t believer her as this independent, sort of feminist character without rolling my eyes because she’s dressed like a prositute.
I liked the new costume for JMS/Hester’s run cause it was a more believable, and less sexual costume.
The part about making her “bad ass” really, really bothered me.
@RapidEyeMovement Why? People love when she’s badass in the cartoon. It’s the same thing here.
Must find bootleg!!
You know what I’m sick of? This mentality that a woman who shows off any trace of sexuallity is not only automatically branded a sex worker, but CANNOT be taken seriously.
Yes, the Wonder Woman costume in the stills here IS supposed to be somewhat sexy. But…so what? Why should the fact that Wonder Woman’s costume resembles a swimsuit make her a lesser character? Does sexuality equal stupidity?
@comicBOOKchris agree 1000% percent. I’m baffled about how some people are so uptight around the subject of sex.
Wow–it actually sounds good. If it did get picked up I would still worry because of David E Kelly, but the costume doesn’t look horrible like the previous images shown had depicted it (in fact, it looks good) and the pilot seems pretty entertaining. Even though I was cynical of the show, I still wanted it to be picked up to see what it was about and, if it were bad, how they would improve it.
@comicBOOKchris I’m no sociologist but if a female firefighter or a police officier wore a “sexy” version of the uniform their male colleagues wear they most certainly would be taken less seriously.
I don’t disagree with your complaint/point-of-view but WW’s look is as difficult to explain to the layperson as Hawkman’s continuity.
The first and last screen gabs the costume looks great, the one with her in what appears to be the hospital from scrubs, looks very prop costume-y. I think this could have been fun. Shame it won’t materialize.
@Smasher I get what you’re saying, since it does look a bit over the top…but then again, so does Superman, the world’s greatest hero. Truth be told, I’d be equally befuddled if I saw a guy dressed as Superman flying down and stopping a meteor from crashing into me as I would if a woman dressed as Wonder Woman did it. Probably even more so.
@comicBOOKchris –it has nothing to do with sex appeal. She’s wearing a non functional plastic outfit made up of bright primary colors…looks halloween, not Amazonian Warrior Princess. As soon as Navy Seals start dressing that way, i’m just gonna have a difficult time suspending my disbelief. =) I would have the same criticism for A LOT of superheroes.
@Smasher—great point.
@Smasher That argument is terrible.
@Wally I’m so glad a man was on hand to tell us what is and isn’t apropriate dress for a woman!
@Magnus — i never brought gender or sexuality into it. You did. People are free to have opinions that differ from the norm. I ‘m sorry you don’t agree. Thanks for playing.
Thanks for posting. I can’t wait to this myself.
@TheNextChampion Given your comments You might want to read this
http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/5833184631/wwcostume
Connor, any chance iFanboy can include these pictures in every article from here out?
@comicBOOKchris Truedat. I think it was in the Superman revamp proposal that Waid, Morrison, Millar, and Peyer sent to DC that said in reference to updating his costume, “Finally, Superman’s smart enough to wear his shorts under his pants.”
What Wonder Woman needs is a “cause.”
When you’re walking down a dark street in a sketchy part of town you think of Batman.
When you’re on the roof of a building and you look down you think of Superman.
Odds are when you think of Wonder Woman you aren’t in any danger except maybe of someone walking in on you 😛
@dcwomenkickingass made the point better than I could ever. There’s truth in that tumblr post.
@dcwomenkickingass Great post – http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/5833184631/wwcostume
It’s not Woman Wonder’s fault. It’s the hookers and strippers’ fault for dressing like Wonder Woman and not living up to her example.
TGIF!
@dcwomenkickingass –nice post with interesting comparisons.
it’s not Dianna’s fault….I blame party city. =p
@conor To be fair, I’m basing that feeling off another review I read. That review made it seem horribly out of context, and that stuck with me. I might feel different if I saw it myself.
Although I always feel uncomfortable when superheroes are portrayed as generic “bad asses” in adaptations anyway (excusing obvious examples, such as Wolverine). Never really suits them, in my opinion.
So happy the musical cues, the “Animals” and the Congress scene were nowhere to be found. Sad to lose the funny bit with the performers on Hollywood Blvd. Adrianne was a great WW and I wish we could have seen this develop further.
@Paul I agree that the three identities were a lot to handle in the pilot. I’m still confused.
@dcwomenkickinass Totally agree with you about the costume and loved that Tumblr post. The material was my biggest concern but after watching the pilot, I think it would have grown on me.
@RapidEyeMovement By “badass” I mean that she got attacked by 20 super-soldiers and she kicked all their asses. Which is what I thought Wonder Woman was supposed to do…
Well the Wonder Woman I know, conor, would not have killed anyone but rather incompacitate them without killing them.
How many times have you seen Batman take a life on purpose?
How about superman? How many times have he taken a life?
How many times have you seen your favorite superhero go out of his way to make sure the bad guy does not die?
This Wonder Woman was NO hero. She was just a blood thirsty enforcer. We need less enforcers in this world and more heroes.
John
@johnstang2: There are many different versions of Wonder Woman. Some kill some don’t. This one kills. I’ve seen Batman kill people on purpose in the Golden Age and in BATMAN RETURNS.
Can someone explain to me why the went with such cheap shinny fabric instead leather for her costume .. it is supposed to be armor afterall … I really don’t think vinyl/latex/cheap plastic and spandex are realistic. Sure it works in the comic books but even they are having a problem making her costume more utilitarian and realistic.
Not sure why logic just isn’t an option!
@conor Choking henchmen and putting a pipe through a guy’s throat seem a bit harsh and excessive. And I don’t mean in a “Wonder Woman would never do that” kinda way (although I don’t think she would, but that doesn’t matter as much in an adaptation), I just mean that this doesn’t seem like my kinda show.
Gotta say, I wasn’t really thrilled by this idea. But having read this and seen these pics, I’m kinda bummed it never saw light. Looks like it might’ve had some potential.
@Smasher: I gotta squirt some fuel on this dying fire. We’re not talking about firefighters, we’re talking about fictional superheroes. If a female firefighter ran into a burning building dressed in a swimsuit, she’d be taken less seriously not because of her gender and “sex appeal”, but because she’s an idiot with a death wish. Firefighter’s uniforms are functional. Functionality means next to nothing when you’re damn near invulnerable. Most male superheroes are dressed just as provocative as the females. Maybe they’re not always showing as much skin, but their costumes are often so tight that you could count the hairs on their sack if you really wanted to. Hell, some of my favorite “sexy” ladies of the DCU show very little skin. Catwoman’s covered from head to toe, Black Canary’s got the stockings but she’s also wearing a duster, and Zatanna wears a fucking tophat! In other words, “sex appeal” in comics (and arguably the real world) has less to do with your clothes, and more to do with your character.
Is there any hope for this show to get a green light from somewhere or is it dead in the water and gone for good?
I really do hope that someone saves this show.
Wow, it’s not that I dont like Wonder Woman, its just that I don’t find her an interesting enough character to read so it was no surprise that I was only mildly interested in this show. But now that I’ve read this and seen the screen caps, I’m kind of bummed it got canned, I would have watched it…. at the very least to see her kick some ass in that costume.
I saw it last week, and if i were to write a review, it would be a lot harsher than this one. Even though the work print that’s floating around may not be airing or be released on itunes etc, I have a hunch they may still clean it up, finish it and THEN release it, or maybe even show it as a tv movie. I know for a fact there is more footage that isnt seen in the work print, when we were on set we were talking to crew members and they said the last week of filming was all green screen stuff that they were filming in the Santa Clarita studio location for the paradise island scenes, which werent in the pilot. so i think they may have enough footage to easily make a tv movie or put it for sale on itunes or on dvd. whether they’ll spend the money to re-edit & polish this turd, i dont know. but i guess it could happen…
I would like to state for the record that I too watched it and thought it was awful for so many reasons
But, to each their own and I respect Conor’s opinion – he and I, while agree on a multitude of things, also disagree on nearly just as many.
But wow, was this bad.
@ron Was there one or two things that you didn’t like that made the whole thing bad, or was it the sum of it’s parts? I can’t find it to watch it, so I am very interested on your take Ron.
Great review Conor!
I’m glad to hear that most of the eye-rolling aspects of the script that I read about did not actually make it onto the pilot.I was pretty much determined to hate this if it actually aired, but the screencaps you show don’t look all that bad. Adriane Palicki actually looks the part and now I’m curious to see what she could’ve done with the character. Oh well.
I guess there’s always the Justice League movie, right? Right?
@ron – You gotta elaborate. You can’t leave us hanging like that!
Now I want a podcast where Ron and Conor debate the merits of this pilot. 😉
@WheelHands Perhaps you’re right in it being incorrect of comparing Superheroes to Firefighters or the Po-Po. Perhaps @dcwomenkinkingass is correct in her comparison of Wonder Woman’s costume to an athletes.
The reason why NBC didn’t green light the show had little to do with the costumes and a lot more to do with what Conor and others have written about.
As comic fans we know good and well that WW has not had a memorable story arc in years. If there were WW stories out there like All-Star Supes, like Dark Knight Returns, like RIP, like Born Again, like Days of Future Past, like the first twelve issues of PowerGirl, the conversation would not be about what she’s wearing. It’d be about what she’s doing.
my main problem with the WW pilot, well 1st Adrianne was good, let me get that out of the way, but the dialog she was given NEVER once showed the side of diana where she is loving & compassionate, we never got that she would try to reform anyone for peace or that she even cared. it was all ‘look how pissed off & tough I am, GRRRR!’ That was the tone set in the very beginning of the episode and it carried throughout. The show starts with the worst actress EVER watching her son bleed to death out of his eyes, GROSS! then the next scene is WW taking down a criminal, injecting something in his neck, and kicking his body over to the cops, then gives the cops an eat shit look & storms off. it was not the diana we all know & love, if this had gone forward I think people that arent familiar with diana would have the completely wrong idea about her, abnd probably not like her much. She was a very unlikable diana. More than the bad writing & cheap costume, it was the tone of the story & her character that really put me off the most. just a negative vibe. i wanted to love this, in my head it was already fantastic. HUGE let down. they just managed to take everything i love about her & completely remove it. there was no trace of who wonder woman is to me. the writing killed it. she was very angsty depressed even, and angry all the time. and I HATED the use of the lasso. it was used maybe 3 times, and never to get the truth out of someone, it was whipped around peoples necks. it was horrifying. there was no spin! (dont even get me started on that one) and ww doesnt have 6 bmw mini jets. she has 1. and its invisible! come on writers, producers, etc, do you know ANYTHING?!? give us what we want! also keep in mind this was done by the same director that did the mighty morphin power rangers, and mtv’s the real world, the movie. =/ There were parts I did like tho, I love the on screen chemistry between diana & etta, those 2 actresses are great together, i loved all there scenes. the cop was TERRIBLE! he should have been cut out completely. They showed some cool artwork of diana on the walls of her office, and cool toys, ww merch etc. i’m sad to say, that i’m glad this wonder woman show didnt go to series. but i’m hopefull that this entire thing generated enough interest in wonder woman, to try again, and get it right the next time. also I have a hunch this is going to be leaking VERY soon. and you’ll all see it. i saw burned dvd copies of the screener leaving the viewing party i was at. I watched it with about 15 other nerdy gay dudes, everyone was talking & making jokes and funny comments thru the whole thing. it was kinda like being at a midnight showing of Xanadu or Showgirls. it was really fun to watch it with them but I’m anxious to see it again, at home & really try and give it another go. so if anyone has a copy for me….
Thanks Wonderboy. Its nice to see someone who really knows exactly how this pilot failed.
Its on the net now. You just have to know how to search for it. Unfortunately I wont tell in this comment so legal authorities wont tamper with it. I will say I did not put on the internet. That is my disclaimer.
I agree this Wonder Woman is not the Wonder Woman I know and loved. I in fact started rooting for the bad guys.
John
Damn. i’m glad to hear that you liked it Conor. Not so glad that it’ll most likely never hit television. There is always the crazy possibility someone else could pick it up. I’m going to guess those odd are astronomical though.
Adrienne looks much better here than in the previously released promo shots, but the costume doesn’t look much better. It still looks cheap, tacky and fake. I’m not so concerned with how “sexy” it is or how much skin she’s showing, but she doesn’t look like an athlete at all. Spandex, or leather, or velvet, or even jeans could have made this really cool. Instead it just looks terrible.
Great review Conor. Glad to hear they cut out a lot of the worst bits, but from what I’m hearing, I still don’t think they really nailed her character.
I would have liked to have seen this. I could care less about what costume she wore. But I guess the sheen or the length of her pants matters an awful lot to some.
The thing that confuses me is that a successful formula and universe were created in Smallville. Why couldn’t Wonder Woman be an extension of that success? That show took a semi-realistic view of what a modern day hero is, grit and all. All the pics and reviews I’ve read seem to say that the pilot is a modern day camp version of the character. While I continue to love the 60’s Batman show our world is not the same as it was then. Anyone remember the Smallville episode at the ComicCon when Lois comes out in a Wonder Womanesque costume? I buy that more than this piece of plastic.
The 60s Batman show works because it is so clever and works for every audience, most TV superhero things are just moronic.
How is everyone seeing this pilot, anyway? Has it been made available to the public? If so, where do I find it?
@JRScherer It has not been made available to the public.
Now THIS is how Wonder Woman is done: http://youtu.be/AU48-qgNRvA
Should’ve had her costume from the comics now. Also she just didn’t have the wonder woman face to me. She had the right figure though. Still wish it would’ve made the cut.
How could anyone complain about Wonder Woman being bad ass? She is supposed to be an Amazon, right? A warrior woman? Should she be cute and cuddly? She should be ripping people apart. It’s how she was raised.
She also supposed the embodiment of Woman virtue too. Do you believe in torturing prisoners too? If you do then you have good company with those such as Hitler, The Japanese during WW 2, and the North Vietnamese during and after the Vietnam War.
Remember there is a fine lining between being kickass to a cold blooded killer. The Wonder Woman in this pilot showed herself to be a killer and proud of it.
And while I am at it. Amazons chose to be amazons cause men raped and tortured them. They were taught to defend themselves yes but also to love. Where was the love in this Wonder Woman.
John
I like how my complaint about her looking like a prostitute (or a better one with someone mentioning she’s wearing a Halloween costume) turned into a discussion about gender and how you can’t be relevent if you sexy.
NEITHER were the points I was trying to make. You CAN be sexy and be a great character and women CAN be more then just sex objects even though the majority of writers don’t seem to think that. But this costume makes her look: ridiculous and a massive sex object. I can’t believe anyone could keep a straight face with her coming in. Does Superman have a ridiculous costume? Yeah a bit, but at least he’s covering up his junk better then Wonder Woman.
*ugh* the comments about Wonder Woman’s costume are so sexist you don’t even know they’re sexist. I don’t see NEARLY the comments towards Namor’s costume that Wonder Woman’s causes amongst fanboys, and he wears WAY less than she does. And for this notion that Superman’s (also just as ridiculous) costume covers his “junk” better…umm, If by junk you mean their genitals, then I think both of their costumes cover that portion of their bodies just fine. Yeah, Wonder Woman has bare legs, but so what? So did Robin for 40+ years. Again, it seems there is this notion that when a woman shows skin, it must imply “slutty” and when a guy does it, well…as a guy it doesn’t titilate YOU so therefore it isn’t “slutty”. Such a double standard.
@WonderboyLB Thank you thank you thank you! Loved it! Talk about a TOTAL homage to Lynda Carter’s ABC WW TV series! Not to be confused with the CBS version that’s been homaged to death! And speaking of LC’s WW series, the producers there at ABC learned a valuable lesson by putting out that Cathy Lee Crosby version, which was: stick to the source material more closely and quit “reimagining” her. Viewers want what’s familiar when it comes to such an iconic character as Wonder Woman. Perhaps this time around, they’ll get that message before another Cathy Lee Crosby-like version aka the one that NBC was going to test as a pilot. Thank God that never made it to air. As a WWaphile, I would LOVE to see it, but at the same time, would prefer that they get her character, as well as her costume MUCH MUCH CLOSER to the source material (ie., she flies an invisible jet, wears her star-spangled costume, lives in DC or Gateway City, works for the US military, comes from Themyscira aka Paradise Island, does not intentially kill her enemies and tries to get her female adversaries to see the err of their very non-feminist ways) and no, I’m not referring to that new mish-mash of a costume and continuity that she continues to sport in the comics. Can’t wait for that storyline to breathe its last breath!
@EricAD: I think you’re missing the point. Several people said explicitly that they didn’t care about how “sexy” the costume is, or how much skin she’s showing, it’s that the costume doesn’t look well made, and doesn’t look like it’s made out of “real” materials. Wonder Woman’s costume being what it is in the comics, I don’t see how the cut of it is really any different. The execution, however, just looks fake, cheap, and tacky.
@hawaiianpunch Do you think they’ll cast a TV actor in a movie part? It would be very cool to see her in a Justice League movie for the big screen, however, that’s at least three years away….
I think the best way forward is to re-write this show and base it closer to the DOWN TO EARTH arc that was written by Rucka. It’s like it was already half way there, why not just bring in Rucka to assist? Specifically:
1) Wonder Woman should be the ambassador to her home country and work at the Themysciran Embassy
2) The main focus (to begin with) should be the Jonah McCarthy character and his first day at the embassy. It helps non-comic book fans share his journey into this world, The focus can shift to Diana once she appears.
3) This story had Minotaur working in the kitchen. How much cooler is that, compared to “the animals dancing to Kanye”?
4) In this arc Diana wrote a book called “Reflections” which was a series of essays and speach transcriptions about her beliefs. It was great way to show Diana as a public figure and how the public relate to her beliefs, and as a personality (including the costume).
Speaking of the costume, I don’t really care which version she wears, I liked that DCWomenKickingAss blog. I think there’s a time and place for different versions of the costume. Batman can wear 8 or 9 variations of his costume. Why can’t Diana wear the Traditional costume when on Themyscara, or Fighting crime in LA on hot day. But Maybe switches to pants and a Jacket when she goes out for Vigilante fighting in the evening. Or maybe has Wonder Woman Styled MMA Tank top and shorts when she knows shes going Fightin!! My point is, it won’t matter what she’s wearing if the show is good.
Ehhh… those who say that Wonder Woman shouldn’t be aggressive or ‘badass’ obviously haven’t read a Wonder Woman story in the past 5 years. Breaking Maxwell’s neck on live TV anymore? Even back in Kingdom Come… she is not the femal version of Boyscout Superman, DC has gone way out of their way to establish that she is warrior first.
2nd.. as far as costume… feminism does not mean wearing baggy clothes and looking like a dude. Feminism is about being a woman while not subscribing to the perceived ‘weakness’ that women are painted with. If you were to think that ‘a woman dressed like that couldn’t kick ass’, that would be anti-feminist. If WW expressed that the only way she could make a living or stop crime was to ONLY dress half-naked, then that would be anti-feminist. That she would dress half naked and still beat the crap out of everyone is nearly ultra-feminist to me.
As to clowniness, form and funtcion… you got no arguments from me.
I do believe that Superman was there and was shocked his comrade could do such a thing.
You are right. I have not read a Wonder Woman comic in five years cause they stopped writing her correctly five years ago. Read a Wonder Woman comic from the 90’s then tell me if the characters are the same.
I am not saying she cant be a warrior but please remember what being a HERO is all about. Its not about being a killer and kick ass. Its about protecting everyone rights including the rights criminals have as human beings.
Cops are trained to only use deadly force when its only absulately necessary. If a cop killed someone who did use deadly force against him then Internal Affairs would have his behind.
Superheroes need to b held by a higher standard than the Cops for they are more powerful than the cops can ever be.
And I do believe she was arrested for killing that person to.
John
I want to see this. I WILL see it, by hook or by crook! I think the photos are great. She looks like WW to me.
http://www.slashfilm.com/images-positive-review-canned-wonder-woman-pilot/
I think lois’s amazonian princess thing from smallville would’ve been cool. i would’ve done a lord of the rings type thing with a sword, maybe a shield too. so i guess it’d be modern day xena. but then i think that would be cool, instead of modern type girl slumming it in a job, she’d be a real amazonian kickass ambassador fish out of water. i want THAT tv show now!
I liked it and hated it. There was nothing in I LOVED. First let me say this Wonder Woman made me believe that she was super powered unlike the 70’s version. That I liked.
Now what i hated was the fact this Wonder Woman wa cold blooded. I thought she was the villain and the bad guys was the good guys. First using the lasso to choke people? Only bad guys do that. Then torturing the information out of the guy in hospital. Torture is in no way right. Did the writers and producers forget the fact that a power of her magic lasso was an unfailable urge to make people who is wraped in it tell the TRUTH thus making torture NOT necessary. In fact it was REDUNDANT.
This Wonder Woman did not show in any way she cared and was loving by nature. She show she was an egotistical bully who loved to beat up people. “We love you, Wonder Woman.” Not Likely. If I was Batman or Superman, I would arrest this Wonder Woman and throw her out of the Justice League. Everyone needs justice including the bad guys.
Its how we treat prisoners that really shows how much humanity we have. We need to treat them humanly even if they would not do the same for us. This one however would rather kill the prisoners than deal with them. Its especially shown in how many bad guys she killed.
That is also where the 70’s version differ to this version. I much rather know the 70’s version than this version of Wonder Woman even if she is weak. She is more human than this version.
NO WONDER THE NETWORK DID NOT PICK IT UP.
Please Try Again. And this time get it right.
No Regards
John
I liked it and I didn’t as well. The violence was over the top. I didn’t believe that WW would ever have killed anyone even if they were trying to kill her…and why would she have to?
I did think the actress looked the part. I just didn’t 100% buy the idea of the story. I hope they try again as well.
And in order to get that “magic wonder”, the Pilot just needed to include Wonder Woman’s original THEMES and concepts. Those were the vital things missing. I could careless about the details of the outfit or lasso…those are secondary.
–Brett Jett