Everyone in my life seems to like the Fox T.V. show Bones. I can't see why. Bones is one of those shows that just gets under my skin, and like many shows that get under my skin it's not because it's terrible, but because it should be good but it fails. Overall it's got a good concept, a group of museum anthropologists that help the FBI solve grizzly murders in which the victims can no longer be IDed. And the relationship between the investigator Seeley Booth played by geek god David Boreanaz and head of the museum's anthropologists Temperance Brennan played by the robotic Emliy Deschanel. It uses a science new to most people for it's "gimmick" to make it different from the glut of police procedurals on T.V. today. (seriously T.V. you know there are more genres than Procedurals and "reality" right?) So with out further ado the things that piss me off about Bones.
1. It's another damned police procedural! The police procedural is done to death, and the gimmick as good as it is, and the character work is not really good enough to elevate it from being just another one. Maybe if they got more into the actual science or further into the characters it would rise above it, but the writers seem to settle for good enough too often. Now admitted from experience not every episodic story can be great. But the writers always seem to almost get there but then run away. A good example is Brennan and Booth, have very different Philosophies on life (more on that later) but just as the scene will get anywhere with this concept a bus blows up or a new body is found and it goes nowhere.
2. There is close to no chemistry between cast members. There are some good actors in Bones and some bad ones but it seems to me that they are all acting separate from each other. A good example is the characters of Angela played by Micheala Conlin and Hodgins, played by T.J. Thyne. They are characters with an on again off again relationship but the actors have no chemistry with each other. In fact the actors in Sin City, who weren't even on set with each other had better chemistry. But most glaring is the leads, and it is do mostly to the fact that...
3. The lead actress is dull, and can't act. Emily Deschanel, spends the entire show flatly reciting lines in her whiney monotone voice, using three expressions. Straight, mean eyed, and smugly grinning. I know she's supposed to be psychologically damaged, but she's not playing psychologically damaged, she's reciting lines.
4. Now forensic science is often stretched in every show since CSI, but the stretching of the science, or the made upness of it really bugs me in this show, because it's based on a series of books by the author Kathy Reichs, who is also one of the producers. Why would this bug me you ask? Because Kathy Reichs is an ACTUAL FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGIST. Why does she let a series where a central tenant is her life's work out without much or any actual science in it! I know America is in a hate the scientists swing right now in it's entertainment, but that's even more reason for a scientist writer to write about good guy scientists saving the day.
5. Speaking of scientists, we all know there all just godless atheists right? Ugh. The most painful part of this show recently for me is that Temperance Brennan, is a straw man atheist. She is depicted as that atheist that we all "know" is out there the one who thinks all things should be dictated by logic, and all social norms are not scientific. these people DO NOT EXIST. And it pisses me off that every Athiest on T.V. seems to be depicted as this person. Just for the record I am not an athiest, so it's not personal but, it bothers me that a show who's cnetral character study is of two people of two ideologies working together (Booth is a Catholic) There is never any attempt on the writer's behalf to even try to have the character's understand each other's point of view. And when there is a moral to the story, it's always Brennan finding out Booth's right. Never the other way around. Because atheists have no morals you know *face-palm*
6. And speaking of awkward scientists, there is Zack. Zack was a socially awkward kinda creepy nerd character. And the charm about him was that he was Socially inept and kinda creepy, but he had a heart of gold as was a good kid, until they decided to make him the creepy sidekick to a cannibalistic mass murderer. So basically the Kinda creepy good kid that looked like he ate people but was really a good kid and a wonderful break of type, really was just a creepy kid who ate people.
Screw you show.
This development came out of nowhere when it was revealed that Zack was working for the bad guy they did a hasty connect the dots with the previous season, but it did not add up as there was absolutely no foreshadowing, just a bunch of pas events ret conned. To be the "evidence of his downfall". this was of course done because the actor wanted off the show. But come on you don't just re write an entire character the write them off, just send him off to another department, or kill him. Don't destroy the character and the story-line. just for a big "sweeps week.
Now I said earlier that the reason that I loathe this show is because it has good potential. So in fairness, I'll now go into what's good about Bones.
1. David Boreanaz. He holds up the entire show. His character is the most entertaining police procedural lead character on T.V. and only behind Abby and Ducky from NCIS as the most likable police procedural, character period. Too bad no one else in the main cast is. Every one else is a one note character except Hodgins he has two. conspiracies and crazy experiments.
2. The whole clashing ideologies thing. Really two friends and colleagues, one atheist one Catholic. trying to find common ground should be the interesting character idea. unfortunately Brennan is made a straw man atheist, and thus the concept is never allowed to bloom past a few tantalizing glimpses.
3. Gordon Gordon played by the amazing Steven Fry. He was a ball of energy on this show, playing a psychologist. unfortunately Fry's writing obligations prevented him from continuing in the role as a regular cast member. But the whole Idea of Psychology and the "fixing" of Brennan was continued with Gordon's successor Sweets. Providing the closest thing the show has had to character development.
4. Billy F. Gibbons as Angela's dad. Not a major thing, but the guy from ZZ Top doing his thing cannot ever be bad.
Well there you have it Bones a show that could be truly great, but unfortunately, bogged down by settling for "good enough", It should be one of the best but instead it's Epic Fail.
