I never thought I would utter these words….

but the Bones finale disappointed me in a major way.  What was that?  I hate episodes revolving around a character’s dreams/hallucinations/fantasies.  They’re totally pointless and extremely indicative of being out of fresh ideas.  What was the point of Booth’s comatose dream mystery?  The end of the episode was the only part of the show worth watching, but I am not looking forward to a season of Booth not remembering anything or anyone (particularly Bones).  It’s going to be agonizing and painful to watch Bones realize that she loves/loved Booth, but due to Booth’s amnesia, they cannot be together.  Also, how are they going to continue working together?  Certainly, he can’t continue to work for the FBI.  Will they bring in new FBI agents for Bones to collaborate with each week?  Instead of the revolving door of interns to replace Zack, will it be a revolving door of FBI agents for Bones to choose from?

In closing, I would like to express some anger over what we were led to believe about Bones and Booth finally getting together.  We were told explicitly that it would not be a dream or hallucination.  LIES!

Bones: Andy Richter to guest, but not as Bones’ assistant

I read today that Andy Richter will be guest starring on Bones as a circus ringmaster.  The theme of the show sounds a little far-fetched, and I would have much rather had Andy Richter play one of Bones’ assistants.  It’d be more of a stretch for Andy Richter to play a lab assistant than a circus ringmaster.  Still, it’s always good for the show to get well known (if not necessarily high profile) guest stars to draw in more viewers.

Jared Booth?

I heard that Brendan Fehr is going to be playing Jared Booth, Seely Booth’s brother, on Bones.  This is interesting news, and somewhat annoying because I know that he and Bones will start dating.  Of course, (Seely) Booth will realize his affection for Bones just in time for the season finale.  It’s bad enough that Bones and Booth still give each other that obvious look (presumably to “subtly” clue the audience into a significant event in the episode).  We don’t need the storylines to be predictable on top of that, do we?

The Bones’ Season Premiere Was….

…..good, not great.  For me, it seemed like there was way too much going on, yet not enough going on all at the same time.  Does that make any sense?  For one part of the hour, Bones and Booth were trying to solve the murder of a wealthy American heiress.  I’m not sure we ever truly found out who murdered the poor girl, but I think it may have been the butler.  It doesn’t really matter because the first murder was just a set up for the second murder of the evening, Dr. Ian Wexler, Bones’ British friend and colleague.  The whole mystery seemed uninspired to me mostly because it’s hard to care about a character that you’ve just been introduced to. 

Back at the Jeffersonian, Angela’s ex-husband shows up, creates drama, then decides to leave (but not before sleeping with Dr. Saroyan).  What?!  The really confusing part is that this drama causes Angela and Hodgins to break up over lunch at the diner.  The conclusion they came to happened in a matter of minutes.  However, it’s hard to care about all of this because of the void left by Zack.  I knew I would miss him in the lab, but I didn’t think it would have this much of an effect on the show.  I know there will be a revolving door of interns trying to snag his position, but as I have mentioned before, Michael Badalucco as an older intern does not interest me.

Sorting out the casting news of June 2008

Of all the casting news in the month of June so far, the one that interests me the most isn’t Charisma Carpenter’s stint on Greek, or James Tupper’s (from Men In Trees–Tupper isn’t quite a household name) role on Samantha Who?, or even Madchen Amick’s cougar role on Gossip Girl.  Nope, none of those.  Who needs to read about beautiful people being cast to play beautiful people?  I’d rather hear about random, off-the-map actors like Michael Badalucco being cast on the smart and full of beautiful people show, Bones.  According to tvguide.com, he’ll play one of many candidates for Zack’s old position at the Jeffersonian.  I’m interested only because I was expecting a much younger candidate (I’m sure we’ll have our fill of younger candidates though).  TVGuide mentioned that casting Michael Badalucco was similar to the casting of Edward Herrmann (aka Richard Gilmore) to play an old(er) intern on Grey’s Anatomy.  I, for one, don’t see the similarity between the characters other than being older than interns typically are.  Michael Badalucco is no Edward Herrmann.  What has Michael Badalucco even done since The Practice?  Appear on Bravo’s now defunct Celebrity Poker Showdown?  Yes, but not much else.  According to his filmography at IMDB, he’s done a few random things here and there (i.e. the ABC Family Channel monstrosity, Pizza My Heart).  Maybe he can save his dying career with this turn on Bones. 

 

Bones: “King of the Lab” is dead

King of the lab!!  I could never grow tired of hearing that phrase echo the halls of the Jeffersonian.  It’s too bad that we will probably never hear it again.  I wish that I had been wrong about Zack being Gormogon’s apprentice, but the signs were all there.  The show followed it’s formula, but I was thrown off by my own emotions.  Early on Zack was taken “out of the picture”, and we all know the person who is introduced early on (but seemingly inconsequential) is almost always the culprit on this show.  How could Zack be Gormogon or the apprentice if he had been blown up due to sabotage in the lab?  He couldn’t be!  For the love of god, his hands were blown off!  At various times throughout the episode, I thought it could be Sweets, but only because he was acting slightly out of character and had a glint of cannibal insanity in his eyes.  I also thought he was trying to throw everyone off by suggesting Hodgins (who I later suspected as well).  I even suspected Caroline Julian (the prosecutor) and Dr. Saroyan.  The only two people I didn’t suspect were Bones and Booth partly because they had been through enough of an ordeal with Booth’s fake death and partly because they are the stars of the show.  Of course I should not have been thrown off so many times, but as I said, my emotions got the better of me.  Why Dr. Addy?  How could he be swayed by Gormogon’s logic?  I now believe that Zack really did go to Iraq and was depressed that he didn’t fit in well with others.  This depression caused him to be vulnerable to Gormogon’s “logic” and made him feel valuable and accepted.  What I don’t understand is how he could let himself murder someone.  Zack is a little strange, but I never once thought he was capable of murder.  Maybe we were supposed to be paying attention to Zack when Sweets brought up that someone like Bones could rationalize murder.  Zack did look up to Bones and probably admired her logic and reasoning skills. 

I’m not sure what will become of Zack next season or if we’ll ever see him again, but it really doesn’t matter.  He is forever tainted by being Gormogon’s murdering apprentice.  Even if he gets released from the institution (I’ll get to that sentence in a minute), how are we supposed to forget that he killed someone in cold blood?  Also, how is it that he is not going to prison?  I get that Bones and Booth are well connected, but no one is that well connected. 

So I guess we’ll be seeing a new assistant for Bones next season.  I suppose I wouldn’t mind seeing Dr. Clark Edison full time.  He proved himself in Max Keenan’s case, and he was not given a fair chance during his interview.  What do you think Season 4 holds for our favorite squints?  Will we ever see Dr. Goodman (who has been on sabbatical forever) again? 

 

Here’s an interview with Eric Millegan, aka Dr. Zack Addy.

Previewing the Bones season finale

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When the identities of the Gormogon killer and his apprentice (which we at PopWatch know) are revealed, are you concerned about the fan reaction?
Hart Hanson: I’m counting on it. We’re expecting a violent reaction. When you make a change to a beloved ensemble cast, it’s a good thing and a bad thing. You lose someone but you’ve got to make changes and keep it alive. The kiss of death is to keep adding characters without making room for them because everyone is underserviced.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am now ready to make an official guess on the identity of Gormogon’s apprentice.  As much as I hate to say it, I think Gormogon’s apprentice is Zack.  He was asked to go to Iraq by the President, but he never went.  We (and the rest of the employees at the Jeffersonian) were led to believe that he was there for months.  Instead, I believe he was in cannibal/murder training with Gormogon.  I hope that I’m wrong! 

Bones: Who is Gormagon?

Is it one of these people?

       

Or maybe it’s this person??

We’re supposed to find out in the season finale next week, along with the two people who are going to die.  For now, all we can do is speculate.  What do you think?

5 Reasons I Watch Bones

1. It’s free to watch the first season of Bones on hulu.com.  I know there are alot of other avenues out there for free television (alluc, tv-video.net), but this is the only one that is totally legitimate (I highly doubt that alluc and tv-video.net are sanctioned by the networks) and has excellent quality.

2. The Bones-Booth dynamic is fun to watch. Not since Jim/Pam (Jam) have I seen such “platonic” chemistry.  I like that Bones and Booth maintain a professional working relationship despite harboring more than platonic feelings for one another.  It makes sense and is very realistic because they work together in some very stressful and dangerous situations.

3. The show has a wonderful supporting cast full of dynamic characters. Zack is a genius who doesn’t even know that he is sabotaging his own career as a forensic anthropologist (by stopping work on his thesis so he won’t finish his degree, thereby ensuring that he can still work as Bones’ assistant).  He respects Bones for her immense knowledge and is enamored with her intelligence and brilliant thinking.  Also, he’s socially awkward, but in a non-disturbing, non-threatening way. It’s almost endearing how little he knows about the real world.  Angela and Hodgins bring some much needed normalcy and comic relief to the Jeffersonian Medico Lab.  Even Dr. Goodman brings light-heartedness despite his regal tone and demeanor.

4. Bones (Dr. Temperance Brennan) is not some stuffy scientist.  She is actually a very open-minded and accepting individual.  Her logical way about everything led to the very sound (and hilarious) conclusion that Jesus is a zombie (watch Episode 1.19 The Man in the Morgue for the logically sound argument).  Her lack of pop culture knowledge (save for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre) always leads to her sometimes exasperated catch-phrase, “I don’t know what that means.”  Also, she has a strange obsession with guns and martial arts (she knows three different types and has beat up an El Salvadorian gang leader).  Even though her parents went missing at a young age (leaving her with essentially no family), she’s not as closed off as one might assume.

5. They exhume bodies on this show like it’s nobody’s business.  In Episode 1.20 The Graft in the Girl, they exhume at least 3 bodies.  In an earlier Season 1 epsiode, they storm a judge’s house late at night to get permission to exhume the body of a girl who has been buried for years.  I know it can’t be that easy, but when all else fails, you can count on either Booth or Brennan to state very matter-of-factly, “We need to exhume the body.”

Hulu: Major waste of time or best thing ever?

By now, we’ve all heard of Hulu and how wonderful free (with limited commercials!) television can be.  Well, network television is always free, I suppose, but there’s no way to keep up with all the shows that air.  If you haven’t heard of Hulu, then please read this before you go any further. 

Anyway, on an uncharacteristically leisurely, nothing-to-do, Saturday, I decided to check out Hulu to see what it had to offer.  I was amazed at the variety of television shows and movies that were available for viewing.  Admittedly, I was looking for Felicity, but what I found instead was everything from the A-Team to X-Play.  After browsing a bit more, I watched a few episodes of Roswell Season 1 and Buffy Season 2.  Then I decided to give Bones a shot, and much to my dismay, I really enjoyed it.  Truth be told, I wasn’t expecting to like it that much.  Part of me wanted to watch an episode to out of curiosity (I had heard from several excellent sources that the Bones/Booth dynamic was a good reason to watch), and part of me wanted to watch to see if David Boreanaz had successfully moved on from the character of Angel which he portrayed for so many years.   While Agent Seely Booth and Angel have some similar characteristics (serious, business-like demeanors), I don’t get the feeling that I am watching Angel 2.0.  Surprisingly, I find the show to be light-hearted at times (despite the fact that it is largely about rotting human corpses and solving murders).  When Brennan (aka Bones) doesn’t comprehend a pop culture reference, I don’t find myself getting annoyed (like I normally do when people don’t get basic pop culture references).  Instead, I actually believe that this woman has no time to waste on television, movies, and music.  She is an expert in her field, for crying out loud!  You don’t get that good by wasting time on things like Hulu! 

You should check out Hulu if you have some free time (at work or at home).  It’s a worthwhile website, and my feeling is that it’s only going to grow!