Though it has occasionally tried to be modern and hip (particularly during its fight scenes, which use quick edits, generic guitar riffs and techno beats to mask some truly pedestrian choreography), the first few episodes of Bionic Woman have been mostly filled with the sort of eye-rolling melodrama that ought to be confined to daytime soap operas and the speak-your-inner-soul word balloons of Stan Lee.

Since her bionic makeover, Jaime Sommers has been either mopey, flippant, or defensive. Though she’s a $50 million super-soldier in training, we’ve seen she’s more concerned with the possibility of missing her sister’s school talent show than interested in what could silently kill an entire town of people. And while she may aim to be a single parent at 24, she sure seems more upset with the ambling direction of her life than the fact that her fiance and unborn baby are both dead. Jaime looked to be the latest in a recent trend of sad sack superheroes, whose incredible powers prove time and again to be nothing more than a cruel curse.

At least, that’s what I would have written a week ago. Once more however, this week’s installment (which it should be noted was still filming when the premiere episode was largely savaged by reviewers) showed some marginal improvements, and if it continues along this path, Bionic Woman may yet capture some of the retro-corniness of its conceptual roots.

In an episode which saw Jaime pose as a British exchange student — and thankfully freed Michelle Ryan to speak with her native and noticeably less stilted, accent — we were treated to a plot so silly, I can’t help but think the showrunner (pick a Jason, any Jason) had their tongue planted firmly in cheek when putting this one together.

In the interest of full disclosure, I admit that Al-Queada terrorists having the ability to implant mind-controlling neural chips in the heads of American POWs is a pretty ridiculous, Manchurian-sized pill to swallow. And I do hear a tiny voice in the back of my head scoffing at the idea that in Hollywood, it’s only acceptable to show dark-skinned terrorists if you reveal a greedy white guy is pulling their strings. But for now, I’m simply ignoring all that while trying to enjoy this newly lighthearted tone — for however long it might last.

This post was authored by Jim Titus, a man worth significantly less than Six Million Dollars