Painkiller Jane is a show that is plagued with... well, mediocrity. It's not a bad show, but there's really nothing that stands out either - unless you want to count Kristanna Loken's cleavage, which gets ample presentation, to the point where it's an obvious attempt to keep people interested via sex appeal. Obviously Loken is pleasing to the eye in general, but they should've paid as much attention to the rest of the series as they did on capitalizing on her good looks.
So, as said, nothing really stands out as "great". First off, the neuros. Call 'em what you will, but a potato is still a potato, and these guys are just like the ones you see in, say, Heroes or X-Men. Basically identical powers, genes to blame, and so on. Obviously not overly original - though I suppose this stems from the comic this show is based on, but I've never read the comic so I don't know how faithful the show is to it.
Then there's the main characters - the usual "freak-hunter" squad. Sadly, the team personalities are pretty much as uninspired as the neuros are. There's the sexy tough chick (well, two for the first half of the series). Then there's the kind of egoistic and annoying "ohmygod I'm so smart and soooo gooood at what I do" techie geek that you see in just about every damn series, or so it feels at least. Don't forget the "muscle" of the group either, a brawny guy whose function is pretty much just the combat side of things. And of course he has to throw sexist comments around all the time, just like you'd expect. The roster is rounded out by the usual reclusive, not-great-with-people doctor and the ex-special forces team leader.
Aside from the uninspired character templates there's the acting. Well, it's also on the mediocre region. It rarely makes you cringe, but just as rarely shines. This is true for all cast members.
The writing continues the standard-fare trend, with not many gems to be found. There are several rather weak episodes, many more so than really good ones. It feels they forgot the main premise altogether for a majority of the season, only returning to it at the last four or so episodes. That's generally not a good thing, as they could've kept things much more interesting by giving us more than just separated incidents with random neuros.
The bottom line: Not bad, but not exactly good. It really does summarize the series as a whole. It's something to keep you occupied in the lack of something better. At least for my part, I didn't feel I wasted time watching it. It was sufficiently enjoyable to prevent that feeling. But certainly it could've been better if the makers had put some extra effort into it.
Despite not being so great, I wouldn't have minded seeing a second season. Perhaps they would've focused more on the real bad guys instead of just the "symptom". But it's not surprising that show got stopped, so this is all we'll get.
So, as said, nothing really stands out as "great". First off, the neuros. Call 'em what you will, but a potato is still a potato, and these guys are just like the ones you see in, say, Heroes or X-Men. Basically identical powers, genes to blame, and so on. Obviously not overly original - though I suppose this stems from the comic this show is based on, but I've never read the comic so I don't know how faithful the show is to it.
Then there's the main characters - the usual "freak-hunter" squad. Sadly, the team personalities are pretty much as uninspired as the neuros are. There's the sexy tough chick (well, two for the first half of the series). Then there's the kind of egoistic and annoying "ohmygod I'm so smart and soooo gooood at what I do" techie geek that you see in just about every damn series, or so it feels at least. Don't forget the "muscle" of the group either, a brawny guy whose function is pretty much just the combat side of things. And of course he has to throw sexist comments around all the time, just like you'd expect. The roster is rounded out by the usual reclusive, not-great-with-people doctor and the ex-special forces team leader.
Aside from the uninspired character templates there's the acting. Well, it's also on the mediocre region. It rarely makes you cringe, but just as rarely shines. This is true for all cast members.
The writing continues the standard-fare trend, with not many gems to be found. There are several rather weak episodes, many more so than really good ones. It feels they forgot the main premise altogether for a majority of the season, only returning to it at the last four or so episodes. That's generally not a good thing, as they could've kept things much more interesting by giving us more than just separated incidents with random neuros.
The bottom line: Not bad, but not exactly good. It really does summarize the series as a whole. It's something to keep you occupied in the lack of something better. At least for my part, I didn't feel I wasted time watching it. It was sufficiently enjoyable to prevent that feeling. But certainly it could've been better if the makers had put some extra effort into it.
Despite not being so great, I wouldn't have minded seeing a second season. Perhaps they would've focused more on the real bad guys instead of just the "symptom". But it's not surprising that show got stopped, so this is all we'll get.