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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 264468" data-attributes="member: 23">Return Of The Six Million Dollar Man And The Bionic Woman (continued) There’s a lot of story here. As well as a reunion film, it’s also clearly a pilot for a potential new direction, with a new bionic character in the thick of it while Jaime and Steve serve as mentors as well as helping out bionically. And so we get the origin story of Michael’s plane accident. There’s no getting around the fact that - despite appearing together - Michael is essentially Steve Austin for the Eighties. From the almost identical accident while flying a fighter plane to the identical injuries (both legs; right arm; right eye). It’s helped by references to the history of the characters (Steve having to make a choice in the same way he did with Jaime). Nonetheless, it’s a stretch, and that’s without even factoring in that Michael is Steve’s previously unmentioned long-lost son. Others’ reaction to learning about Michael helped this fly. Tom Schanley is always watchable (here he’s post The Yellow Rose, just before Dynasty, and some eight years from the role I most associate him with: John Rawlings on Melrose Place), and this is no exception. In the (admittedly few) roles in which I’ve watched him, his characters share an arrogant cocksureness and a throbbing necked intensity. There’s more than a hint of this angry young man here, and it works well for the role (tellingly, Steve and Michael bond over a barroom brawl reminiscent of early Dallas). Technology having moved on, Michael is powered by tiny microchips and is even more super than either Steve or Jaime. Where the originals could hit speeds of around 60mph (arguably up to just over 100mph going on empirical evidence), Michael is seen to hit over 200mph and easily outruns Jaime in a straight run, despite her having a lengthy head start. So fast does he run, that he gets a new special blurring effect as he runs (something about this reminds me of the Superboy series which came the following year). Michael’s bionic eye, unlike Steve’s, includes a laser, which he can fire at will while controlling the intensity like the X-Men’s Cyclops. While it is written as a natural evolution of technology, and makes sense considering how fast tech was evolving by this time, there’s also something about it that feels very much like brash, arrogant Eighties excess, based in the philosophy that “more is more”. Jaime at one points comments that she feels like an outdated model, and there’s a running gag of she and Steve repeatedly marvelling “I can’t do that” as they witness Michael’s latest trick. In Top Trump terms, Michael holds all the cards  (he also happens to be the hottest bionic character, even without the laser). But when it comes to watchability and human interest, the olds triumph, bionic hands down. In addition to Steve Austin’s long-lost son, this film also includes Lee Majors’ long-lost son, with Lee Majors II playing Jim Castillian. At one point, Castillian says he wishes Steve were his father. Cute as it may be, it felt a tad too meta and wink wink for my tastes. I’m undecided whether I’d want to watch an entire series centred around Michael Austin. I’m sure I’d have loved it when I was younger. But something about how it’s presented here feels shallower and less interesting than the original series. All the same, I’d have been open to the idea had it taken off. As it is, I’m looking forward to two more reunion films with a focus on Jaime and Steve’s story. </blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?