I tend to think of myself as a bit of a TV snob. If I'm going to regularly devote 30mins to an hour of my life to a show, it’s gotta be worth it – and impress me big time!
What exactly constitutes a good show in my eyes changes and is challenged all the time. Critical acclaim, a good cast and a premise/genre that appeals (crime drama, dysfunctional families, general pathos are usually an easy sell. And when I find a show I like, I pretty much dedicate my TV-viewing energies to it.
So for some bizarre and forehead-slapping reason, I have turned my nose up and missed out on about 95% of a show that has sucked me in during the closing stages of its 1st season – Bones. Oh, there are a myriad of reasons why I didn’t take to it when it premiered on SABC 3 in June 2006 (and, BTW, how come has it taken SABC 3 nearly a year to air the first season? I actually thought this was the second season). The best I could come up with:
1. It came in the wake of another forensic crime drama CSI ( and one of my favourite shows) and, like NCIS and Medical Investigations, I assumed it was as boring and derivative as those 2 shows.
2. The female lead, Emily Deschanel (Dr Temperance Brennan), was instantly unlikable with her ice queen stare and steely manner of doing everything.
3. I preferred the male lead, David Boreanaz (Special Agent Seely Booth – are these characters names for real?) in black leather, with his face all mucky and large fangs protruding from his mouth.
4. The rest of the cast of science geeks looked about as interesting and attractive as all those other survivors on Lost we see scurrying about in the background.
5. The lab they all worked in looked too sterile, like the place the government would do covert experiments on people and aliens. And they had this totally unrealistic hologram thing that made 3D images of the bodies. It was not as cool as CSI’s blue torches and other gadgets.
7. I thought the chemistry between the two leads would be vital to the show, but from the short glimpses I had, the two just didn’t look or feel good as a team – Mulder and Scully they were not.
8. Bones is the name of one of my least favourite Radiohead songs.
But last week I bit the bullet and sat down to watch an entire episode of Bones for the first time because both TVs in my home were locked on SABC 3 and I did not have the energy for a remote control fight. The episode ("The Soldier on the Grave") started off with the grisly discovery of a freshly incinerated body of a US soldier who had recently fought for the coalition forces in Iraq. This case had significant impact on Booth, who was in the military and served in Iraq and Bosnia before becoming an FBI agent. So, he may not be a vampire anymore, but he’s still hardcore
The episode dispelled many of my pre-conceptions, if not all, but what stood out most was that Brennan and Booth actually had a gentle, chummy and very funny thing going on. Brennan is still aloof and eccentric, but Booth calls her ‘Bones’ and treats her better than he ever did Buffy, Cordelia or Harmony (ok, I’ll stop with the Angel comparisons, but its hard y’know).
The writing also impressed me and the way the controversy of the Iraq invasion was handled. They didn’t hold back. On the one hand you have Booth, who served and feels a deep solidarity with the troops who are and have been over there. And on the other hand, the lab geeks are conspiracy theorists and pacifists and the tension there was well done. The curly haired one (Jack?) actually had a good war debate with his boss:
Boss guy: It's difficult knowing Kent will never play again. Makes the war so real.
Curly-haired Jack: Which is odd because it was all fiction that got us there in the first place.
Boss guy: So you don't think we should stand up to tyrants?
Curly-haired Jack: Sure. I've been waitin' for the press to do that for three years now.
I think that bit was the point at which I was sold.
The season 1 finale last night ("A Woman in Limbo") hit even closer to home for the Bones team. During routine identification of a set of bones, they discover that they have actually ID’d the remains of Brennan’s long-lost mother. Whoa, watch that ice queen veneer shatter to a million little pieces! Out came the tears, emotional off-loading and latent family dysfunction (yay!) and a shocking family secret. And who was there to help our heroine keep it together? Lovely Booth, who I’m liking more and more as a normal person. Choice line to baddie who is suspected of having killed Brennan’s mom:
Booth: You got two ways to look at this. One is you score a private chat (with Brennan). The second one is you attack her and I'll drill you through the forehead.
Baddie: (handcuffed) How can I possibly attack her?
Booth: I'll decide what is and isn't an attack, like, say, a hiccup.
Ah! Isn't that sweet? And the lab geeks began displaying signs of a personality. Curly-haired Jack is the straight-talking one, the younger one (Zack? Argh, do these names
have to rhyme!) is the perma-nervous, socially maladjusted one (a less cute George O’Malley, anyone?) and the other pretty chick (Angela) is responsible for those awful holograms and has an annoying habit of calling Brennan “sweetie” all the time.
So expect me to do some serious catching up with Bones once its on DVD. I was always a late bloomer. Or, perhaps Bones regulars can tell me, was it actually the show that finally bloomed late in the season?