Bleeding Cool has the pilot-script NBC bought for David E. Kelley’s “Wonder Woman” reboot. How does it look? In some respects, better than many were probably expecting. In other respects… much much worse. More after the jump:
Amazingly, if your “hangup” was the admittedly-logical prospect of Kelley junking the source material entirely… you can relax a bit – if anything, it looks as though the main problem is “shitty TV-writing” as opposed to “disrespect for the material”: At least according to BC’s report, pretty-much all the “weird” stuff I would’ve expected them to throw out actually made it in: Lasso, bracelets, Amazons, magic island, super-powers, etc.
The “general” backstory seems to have arrived intact: Steve Trevor crashes on the Amazon’s Island, brings Diana back to Man’s World, etc – she goes by “Diana Themyscira,” and Wonder Woman appears to be her “title.” The big change is to the interim: At the point at which the “present day” story kicks-in, Trevor is now “the one that got away,” and in addition to acting as a superhero she’s founded a super-wealthy corporation (“Themyscira Industries.”) That the CEO of said corporation is a superheroine on the side is general public knowledge – so, pretty-much a copy-paste of “Iron Man,” but with a female lead. If nothing else, this pretty-much screams “older actress” (say late-30s and up), yes? If so, that’s a refreshing development.
It IS kind of funny how much it lays bare the shamefully narrow definition of “strong female character” in TV terms, though – the character is a (literal) superhuman, described in the script as being able to throw a truck around… but, dammit, you’ve GOT to find a way for her to also have a glamorous-yet-taxing White Collar job – otherwise, how will anyone know she’s supposed to be tough and independent!!?? Yeesh.
On the less-good side, while she’s not doing the secret-identity thing between her two “careers;” she DOES still have the Diana Prince (hair up, glasses, “girl Clark Kent” basically) second-self for a “walkin’ around” identity; which seems to exist mainly as a place for trite “women-as-imagined-by-David-E-Kelley” idiosyncracies: Singing along with the radio, “girlfriends” who behave like grade-school BFFs into their 30s, “cute” pining for Steve Trevor (a’la “Big”) and, of course: Ice Cream Buddy-Binging. Ho ho! Women bonding over junk-food! That bit NEVER get’s old…
Incidentally, Veronica Cale is named as the main baddie. A fairly recent creation in the comics, she was a scientist whose “thing” was trying to destroy WW for not being a good-enough feminist role model (“it’s easy to be accepted when your already a goddess,” that sort of thing.) In terms of appearances in comics people might’ve actually read, she was the blonde doctor who seduced Will Magnus and then had a “what have I done!?” breakdown in “52.”
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