...Best Damn Tapper! *Most Smartest*

SCI FI Channel is pulling the plug on "Painkiller Jane," says The Hollywood Reporter.

The action-hero series starring Kristanna Loken is wrapping production on its 22-episode first-season order, which will run as planned. Sixteen episodes have aired so far, with the season/series finale slated for Sept. 21

Based on the comic book of the same name, "Jane" centers on top DEA agent Jane Vasco (Loken), a woman with regenerative powers who joins a covert government agency that hunts down "neuros," people with neurological powers.

The last episode that aired was an "it's all a dream episode" as well as a clip show. *shakes head* It's the merciful thing to do now, for the viewers (all 5 of us left) AND everyone involved with the show. Seriously, this is like the first cancellation I'm relieved by.

I'll miss seeing Kristanna every week, but hopefully she'll get another show for next season. And I never thought I'd say this, but I'm ready to see her NOT playing a superhero (unless Sarah Connor Chronicles needs TWO Terminatrix's. Then Kristanna could be the evil hate!sex bot and Summer could be the Schoompy!Snuggle!bot who gets into sexy fights to save Sarah from Kristanna).

Let's hope for a a doctor, a lawyer or a cop show (this includes forsenic/crime scene investigation shows)... or if it's a mid-season replacement show based on this years theme she might end up playing an alien, a vampire, a various other type of immortal or a hapless fool who finds herself in a position of great importance. Mostly though, I hope she can joins "Women's Murder Club" with Angie Harmon so I can go ahead and swoon from the overpowering amount of sexy.

So...I haven't watched 1x12 yet, but because I like to prepare myself for the horror that is to come I usually check TWoP for comments before viewing the episode so I know whether to lower my expectations or keep them at a middling level of expectation.

So there I was reading the comments, and apparently ( spoiler )

Can anyone confirm this? Cause if so I don't know if I'll bother with the episode or the show anymore. It's just the last straw. Okay, I'll probably watch the episode because I'm a glutton for punishment, but it's like the producers are trying to do everything in their power to make me loath this show.

( Slightly spoilerific ramble )

Anyway, if anyone knows if that's true for sure, lemme know so I can prepare myself ... TO NEVER WATCH THIS SHOW AGAIN!

*sigh*

Why Lokinator? Why? [fierce whisper]I trusted you![/fw]

Fairly decent episode, mostly due to strong supporting players this time around. But of course because it's PKJ there were things that I strongly hated as well.

The Good:

1. The FoTW was pretty good this episode. Meghan Ory was really good as Wanda. Was she chewing the scenery a bit at the beginning? Yes. But she totally needed to. Wanda's gleeful bitchery entertained me from the moment she showed up on screen. "Sebastian designs for girls with single digit BMI's. You're just to healthy *double kiss*" Oh, Wanda. Plus she totally brought the subtext with Jane, and despite how evil her character was she made me feel some sympathy for her, and kind of wanted to ship her and Jane even though it's totally messed up (whatevah, whatevah, someone should have told Loken not to kiss back!)

Jane: You're a MONSTER!
Wanda: No. Darling. *pause* I'm a model!

Ory actually made that line kickass. And having just typed it and seeing how horrible it is on paper (well, screen I guess) I'm even more impressed by how her delivery rocked it.

Plus, I'll love Wanda forever for the following exchange.

Wanda: (gently petting Jane's as she leans over her while Jane is tied to the bed) I can make this arrangement very nice for you. Clothes, money, jewelery (caresses Jane's face)... anything you want. (Runs fingers between Jane's breasts) Like I said, in time you can get used to anything you want, and excuse the ways in which you get them.

Jane: (staring into Wanda's eyes) Alright. Uncuff me. (Lips pouting suggestively) And let me show you what I can give you.

Wanda: (licks her lips)

Really it says something about this show that I liked Wanda more than pretty much all of the main cast, and would rather ship with a narsicisstic, vampiric killer than any of the main characters.

2. Jane actually showed an interest in her powers and what it means for her. For someone who just discovered she has superpowers Jane has been awfully apathetic towards investigating possibilities, and downright idiotic to not have made a stronger connection between the people she's investigating and herself. She redeemed herself a little this episode by actively testing her abilities, and telling Mohinder to stick it when he was all like "we don't know for SURE" about her being a neuro.

3. I liked the title. Though it would have been better if they'd actually named the character Lauren Gray instead of Wanda (which makes me think of the Scarlet Witch ... who is cool)

( More Portraits of Lauren Gray commentary behind the cut - SPOILERS )

By PKJ standards a very good episode. Definately an improvement over last week, which I loathed.

I've been complaining about the writers inability to present a believable friendship between Jane and Mo, but they did a much better job this week. I mean I was amazed to see them hanging out in their spare time (eveen if they had to throw Riley in there), they smiled at each other like they actually enjoyed each others presence, Jane wanted Mo to be there with her in the hospital after the bone marrow extraction, Baumgardner identified Mo as the person Jane trusted most, and they made some inside joke references to Jane and Mo being at the academy together (though I must say I think its rather unlikely they would have gone to the academy together and been friends and then been assigned as partners after graduation). Hell, there were even some looks that could be considered subtextual.

( More 'Friendly Fire' commentary behind the cut )

That being said, one of the least painful PKJ's to date.

Title: Stay
Author: Janine
Fandom: Painkiller Jane
Pairing: Jane/Maureen
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the characters.
Note: Takes place after episode 6

( Stay )

Oh, PKJ! *shakes head* I just don't know what to do with you.

Everyone on this team is a complete moron.
Jane is less of a moron than the others, but it cannot be denied that she too, is uncommonly slow. I mean, honestly how did it take her like a day to realize that brandy Dr. Lewis gave her was drugged after Mohinder told her that she had been dosed with a slow-acting tranquilizer? Slow.

And when they were waiting outside of the motel, why did they just stand around for like 15 minutes waiting for Dr. Lewis to come out. I'm sorry, he should have been out of the room about a minute after he went in. The fact that Jane kept on muttering, "something isn't right, this is taking too long" does not make things better. It makes them worse because she KNEW something wasn't right and still kept out standing out there doing nothing like a moron.

Also, how is it surprising that Jane could possibly be neuro or neuro-like? You know that she can heal almost instantaneously. What did they think it was, magic beans? A fairy godmother? The effects of diligently taking Flintstones chewables? Idiots!

( More PKJ 'Breakdown' commentary behind cut )

Best episode of the series yet. Which is to say that on a scale of 1-10 is was about a 6, in the good range. But that's better, the score keeps going up so hopefully on day it will level out at a 7.5/8-ish range of good (I'm not greedy, I don't need it to be Heroes or Battlestar Galactica).

Jane

First of all, I liked that this episode had a large focus on Jane. The show is named after Jane, Kristanna Loken is the strongest, most charismatic member of the cast (not to mention the most photogenic) and Jane is the best developed, most non-annoying member of the cast so far so the episodes really SHOULD focus on her.

The boyfriend subplot kind of came out of nowhere (but SciFi is airing the episodes out of order, I think this was shot 7th, so we probably missed his introduction), but it was brief, and Kristanna was smiling left, right and center and being cute which made it much less cringeworthy than I would have anticipated.

Jane was smart. It's really already been established that Jane is the only member of the team that has any higher brian function, but this episode she wasn't smart in a "I'm gonna do something that is just common sense, though that seems to be above the mental abilities of my teammates", she actually did something that was creative, and that I hadn't anticipated her doing 30 minutes into the episode. Actually, I probably should have anticipated it, but I was watching at 2 in the morning, and I was interested enough in what was happening on screen that I wasn't trying to re-write the episode.

Also, on a completely shallow note, Kristanna looked super-gorgeous this episode. There were so many shot were I reached out my hand towards the computer screen and whispered "pretty". So ridiculously good-looking!

( More PKJ - 1x04 'Catch Me if You Can' comments behind the cut )

Anyway, definately the best episode yet, and hopefully it will continue to get better. Though it does piss me off that they are airing the episodes out of order. Seriously, what is wrong with SciFi?

Yeah, a Lokinator interview with afterellen.com! Kristanna discusses Painkiller Jane, the L Word, Michelle Rodriguez, being an out actress, playing superheroes and much more ...

Check out the interview for the answers to the following questions and more!

AE: I had a chance to watch the first two episodes, and I have to say there already seems to be something of a queer subtext developing between Jane and her friend Maureen, another agent. I was wondering if this was intentional.

AE: I wanted to ask you about the interview you did with The Advocate a few months ago. What kind of reaction did you get to that interview?

AE: Some of those scenes that you shot with Kate Moennig seemed like they might be really uncomfortable physically, like the car scene. Was that fun to do or was it really awkward?

AE: Oh, OK. How did you feel about your performance in BloodRayne?

AE: What is the status of your relationship with Michelle Rodriguez now?

*dreamy sigh* Oh Lokinator how I dig thee! As usually an insightful, classy, humorous, and charming interview from the everyone's favorite Norwegian-Amazon-Equestrian-Farm-Goddess. Stay gold, Kristanna, stay gold!

1 more day until Painkiller Jane! 1 more day until Painkiller Jane! 1 more day until Painkiller Jane! 1 more day until Painkiller Jane!

Edited: because I just found a link to another Kristanna interview on Painkiller Jane here.

Because Jane Vasko, Lokinator's character on Painkiller Jane is pretty much indestructible like Hayden Panettiere's character, Claire, on Heroes, a lot of comparisons have been made between the two shows - just like everyone was all like "she's a female Wolverine" when Heroes premiered. X-23 would so pwn Claire like it was her birthday though, so she's like a diet coke female Wolverine.

Also, because SciFi is part of the NBC Universal family there have been rumblings about a crossover between the shows, which led to the following exchange:

"You might be looking at great crossover possibilities," a TV critic said to Painkiller Jane star Kristanna Loken during her appearance at the press tour. "I mean, I can just see you and the cheerleader whacking the crap out of each other for hours at a time."

"She wouldn't stand a chance," replied Loken, fixing him with a cold glare.

LOL! Awww, I love you Lokinator. You can fix me with a cold glare any time

*makes super sexy clawing motion*

Also, considering that Hayden is like 5'1 (though cute as a button), I'm inclined to agree.

So, there's been a slump in Kristanna news lately, no more Painkiller Jane promo pics or trailers, and like 3 minutes of screen time on the TLW each week *waaaah* But once again Youtube has come in handy and I found some new Kristanna clips I hadn't seen before.

I bring you ... Lokinator vs. Superman ... Or, more accurately Lokinator does Superman (kinda)...

Kristanna plays Penny "Barnabeedian" Barns, a woman obsessed with Superman who develops a computer program to try and determine the identity of the Man of Steel. When her computer program hits on a 97% match, Penny is convinced that she has discovered the identity of her true love and immediately sets out to meet ... Jimmy Olson, the Man of Steel. Hilarity ensues.

( Kristanna Loken on Superman 1 of 2 )

( Kristanna Loken on Superman 2 of 2 )