TV Show Review

TV Review: WONDER WOMAN (2011), Season 1, Episode 1: Pilot

Adrianne Palicki, Wonder Woman 2011

Wonder Woman (2011): Season 1, Episode 1: Pilot  TV ReviewWonder Woman (2011): Season 1, Episode 1: Pilot shows the viewer just how good NBC’s The Cape was when compared to this show. The premise of Wonder Woman (2011) makes no sense. The main character has no secret identity. Woman Woman (Adrianne Palicki) does whatever she wants in public to whomever she wants. No jail. No legal repercussions. In the Christopher Nolan Batman films, Batman appears and disappears so he can not be tracked. In Wonder Woman, the heroine walks away in clear view of everyone.

The Cape was not a good superhero television series, much like M.A.N.T.I.S., The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, and the Robocop television series. This was because they either lacked a sustainable hardcore edge or they never had one in the first place. In The Cape‘s case, it had some edge but it also had too much gloss and not enough grit. Blade: The Series had edge and grit, as did Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Angel, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and Xena: Warrior PrincessThe Nine Lives of Chloe King has it, more or less.

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Wonder Woman has nothing.

Wire-fu is dead just like action movies with no plots from the 90’s (along with the mainstream careers of many action stars). Seeing Woman Woman gilding through the air – obviously on wires – was unnecessary and a reminder of nameless, useless, wire-fu action films the mind struggles to completely forget.

Wire nonsense was the same element that hampered the Bionic Woman reboot, a far better action TV show than Wonder Woman could ever hope to be, even with all of its stylized fights and training sequences. We wrote about that show here: (Analysis: The 6 Things the Bionic Woman (2007) TV Show Got Wrong).

The Wonder Woman NBC’s pilot seems to have Superman’s invulnerability – she gets hit by a car then continues running after a criminal (pictured here: Wonder Woman (2011): Adrianne Palicki First Costume NBC Set Photos and video here: Adrianne Palicki: First Wonder Woman 2011 NBC Set Footage Video – and just like Superman, has a dual identity. For Wonder Woman, the dual identity is redundant, it serves little to no purpose since that identity has no job or social life because the majority of Wonder Woman’s day is spent either being costumed Wonder Woman or business suit Diana Price (whom everyone in the free world knows is Wonder Woman yet no sniper ever tries to kill her and whom no government agency tries to study).

This Wonder Woman television show, taken as a comedy and not taken seriously, is amusing, even hysterical at times. A myriad of drinking games could be made out of the proceedings. The Wonder Woman pilot episode taken seriously, however, crumbles, covered too extensively in a thick, pulsating, oozing layer of cheese i.e. the cheap and fake-looking mini fighter Woman Wonder gallivants through the skies in.

Case and point – the doll/action figure staff meeting (pictured and written about here: Wonder Woman (2011): Adrianne Palicki Needle, Doll NBC Set Photos). It was so idiotic it was funny. “Who here thinks these breasts resemble mine?” asks Diana Price, holding up a bosomy Wonder Woman doll. A male employee at the table raises his hand, quickly snatch down by Cary Elwes‘ CEO character. I have to admit I smiled during this particular moment during the episode. It was funny. Diana’s facial reaction to the raised hand sold it.

I never read the Wonder Woman comic books so I do not know if she kills in it (she certainly doesn’t have the “sand” that Wonder Woman has in the DC Universe Online Trailer) but she does in the pilot episode. It is not the fact that she kills that is the problem, it is whom she kills: a no-name security guard doing his job. Would a superhero really do that, one that is invulnerable no less? What does she have to fear from a rent-a-cop?

2011’s Wonder Woman was canceled before it ever aired, written about here: Wonder Woman (2011): Canceled by NBC, and after watching the episode, no matter what spin NBC officially put on it, I know why. After reading this TV review for Wonder Woman (2011): Season 1, Episode 1: Pilot , I think you do as well.

For more Wonder Woman photos, videos, and information, check out our Wonder Woman Page.

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Rollo Tomasi

Rollo Tomasi is a Connecticut-based film critic, TV show critic, news, and editorial writer. He will have a MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in 2025. Rollo has written over 700 film, TV show, short film, Blu-ray, and 4K-Ultra reviews. His reviews are published in IMDb's External Reviews and in Google News. Previously you could find his work at Empire Movies, Blogcritics, and AltFilmGuide. Now you can find his work at FilmBook.
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