By Brandon Nolta

Well, kids, although this reviewer has yet to hear anything official, it seems I’m not alone in suspecting that BIONIC WOMAN, the latest reinvention of a 1970s TV show, is circling the drain. Critical buzz from many quarters has been lukewarm at best; even my own generally positive take on the series has been tempered with troubles. Now, with a pair of stories hitting the Web in the last couple of days, the lack of news is taking on an ominous cast for the adventures of Jaime Sommers.

In a blog entry on the San Jose Mercury News site, TV columnist Charlie McCollum reports his suspicions that the show has run its course. The November 28th episode was the last one completed before the writers’ strike, he says, and while direct evidence is hard to come by, the circumstantial evidence is pretty damning: persistent rumors of strife between cast members, numerous changes in showrunners, and worse of all, general low quality.

“My suspicion is that the suits at NBC have already made a decision to put ‘Bionic Woman’ out of its misery,” McCollum says. “They just haven’t gotten around to pulling the trigger quite yet.”

Further down the Golden State, Los Angeles Times staff writer Greg Braxton reports news of a similar vein, although his is more in what isn’t said outright. Noting that NBC has already ordered full seasons for freshman series CHUCK and LIFE, Braxton reports that BIONIC WOMAN’s popularity has dropped dramatically. The series still has four episodes left to run in its original order, but the lack of enthusiasm from the public at large and the programming executives (none of whom seem too vocal in their support for the show lately) lends credence to the idea that BIONIC WOMAN is about to run out of juice. Fans of BIONIC WOMAN might be well-advised to catch those episodes — live or off the NBC Web site — as soon as possible.