David E. Kelley’s attempt to lasso Wonder Woman into the modern age was already considered and summarily rejected by NBC, but when it comes to television, death is never the end. Sometimes, death only intrigues us more—especially when the prematurely departed is a high-profile adaptation of a famous comic-book character, one that seeks to balance said character’s superpowered quests with their everyday single-gal-in-the-city struggles. So in deference to morbid curiosity, here are yet more surfaced clips (via TV.com) from the Adrianne Palicki-starring ambitious failure, each showing a different side of the Wonder Woman who might have been. They’re lacking post-production finesse, but hopefully you can look past the visible wires and temporary computer graphics like so many bullet-deflecting accessories to see Wonder Woman’s heart underneath.
In this first clip, we see Wonder Woman pursuing a criminal down Hollywood Boulevard, leaping over cars and eventually tossing him around like a rag doll. What he’s guilty of exactly we don’t know, but he is certainly suspiciously bald. Wonder Woman’s confrontation with the police and her expressed anger over the likelihood the criminal will just “lawyer up” illustrates the gray area she must occupy in the legal system, while the many catcalls and paparazzi show that she must also deal with the burdens of fame. What a frustrating, frustratingly public life she must lead.
After a title card, the video then abruptly cuts to a familiar scene: Wonder Woman confronting what appears to be a rogue gang of Gold’s Gym trainers, whose natural instinct to underestimate her because she’s a woman proves to be their undoing. Below that is the prelude to that scene (leaked last month), in which these churlish fools’ overconfidence—and their failure to properly lock a gate—allows Wonder Woman to make it through security. “Society keeps trying to put up these walls,” the show seems to be saying, “But Wonder Woman always makes it through.”
Lest you think the difficult path she must walk has left Wonder Woman cold and alone, here she lets her guard down long enough to make a hospital visit to the bedside of her injured friend, Willis. She clearly cares about Willis. Willis’ well-being means a lot to her. She needs people like Willis in her life. Willis.
Finally, we get to the real conflict inherent in the show: Not only is Wonder Woman a Wonder Woman—she’s also a regular woman, one who feels the pressure to maintain her “perfect tits, perfect ass, perfect teeth” perhaps more deeply than anyone else, because she’s literally selling herself to the world in the form of Wonder Woman action figures. Unfortunately this leaves little room for Wonder Woman to be just a woman, because Wonder Woman cannot make mistakes, because that is what non-wondrous humans do. So she’s often left to wonder, can she ever be just a woman? WONDER WOMAN.