Bones: how the mighty have fallen

[tielan]

Tonight, I watched the most recent episode of Bones with arabel, who's only seen a handful of early episodes and didn't mind what she saw. We weren't very impressed. It doesn't help that arabel's in graphic design by trade, knows a lot of artists, and really hated the extreme wankiness of the artists portrayed in the episode.

Then, we went and watched the S2 episode The Judas On A Pole. And within five minutes, she turned to me and said, "It's a completely different show!" And it was.

The writing was tight, the plot was engaging, the acting was subtle, the team was wonderful and worked. Brennan wasn't a socially maladjusted nerd - yes, she wasn't always fully with it, but she wasn't so socially stupid - that was left to Zack, who did a much better job of it.

*sigh*

Comments

[beanie-j.livejournal.com]

You know, I adored this show from day one right up until about three episodes from the end of last season.

S4 has just been exceptionally weak - it started off with that awful travesty of an episode in London, totally rife with bad stereotypes of the British and has just not gotten any better. I really do want to say the whole thing is down to the hole that Zack has left and a lot of stand-ins who are just lacking, but it's not. While most of them have been annoying, the writing has fallen to a really low standard, to the point where I'm considering giving it up as a bad job.

It used to be an intelligent and thought-provoking show. Now it's just another procedural-cum-soap.

[tielan]

It has gotten rather abruptly worse.

I liked it up to the finale, then they kinda lost me. And this season has felt distinctly shallow - entertaining but in a sugary way. It was such a nuanced show in the earlier seasons.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

Bones drives me up the wall. Sometimes I can disengage and watch it, but most of the time I can't.

[tielan]

I can watch it and be entertained, at least. It's more than I can manage with some of my shows.

[mahoni.livejournal.com]

:( I decided to watch Pushing Daisies in that time slot this fall, because while I enjoyed the first ep of Bones this season just fine, it didn't wow me, and then the second ep was just kind of eh. But that's a bummer, that it hasn't gotten any better so far.

I wonder if some of the problem could go back to David Boreanaz taking over some of the...language is failing me, I can't remember the terminology. But, he's a producer on the show, and an interview over the summer made it sound like he was going to have a lot more control over the stories/writing this season. My first thought when I read that was, oh great, does this mean that 'Bones' is going to become all about Booth and that the aspects of Bones' character that maybe make her look bad but make Booth look good are going to be highlighted? It seemed that way in the first couple of eps, but then I was probably looking for it...

[tielan]

I wonder if some of the problem could go back to David Boreanaz

It might. Bones has been becoming increasingly 'socially stupid', which she wasn't mid-season 2 and season 3. It wasn't so "I don't know what that means" and more "I have a feeling I'm missing something, but I can get the gist of the joke because I'm pretty sharp."

[madjm.livejournal.com]

It's been totally blah this season.

Other than the dog episode.

[tielan]

The episodes have their moments, but I really miss the delicate balance of S2 and S3. Sweets is like Rodney - he should be used less, not more. They need a character who doesn't have such dominating, annoying traits to fill in for Zack.

[faerietaleredux.livejournal.com]

I'm very hot and cold when it comes to Bones. I watch it fairly regularly because my friend loves it, and we make a night of watching it. I don't know that I owuld seek it out on my own though.

Either I really enjoy an episode, or don't at all. I have to say I did like the airplane episode that just aired. If only because I've seen a few other 'solve a murder mystery while in flight' shows over the years and Bones did a better job than most with it.

Also, I still have every intention of writing a J/T ficlet for you. In just over three weeks I will be done with school and can breathe again (though I'll probably get sick the first week--my body finally collapsing in relief).

[tielan]

Ooh! JT ficlet for Christmas!

*glees*

[beanie-j.livejournal.com]

You know, I adored this show from day one right up until about three episodes from the end of last season.

S4 has just been exceptionally weak - it started off with that awful travesty of an episode in London, totally rife with bad stereotypes of the British and has just not gotten any better. I really do want to say the whole thing is down to the hole that Zack has left and a lot of stand-ins who are just lacking, but it's not. While most of them have been annoying, the writing has fallen to a really low standard, to the point where I'm considering giving it up as a bad job.

It used to be an intelligent and thought-provoking show. Now it's just another procedural-cum-soap.

[tielan]

It has gotten rather abruptly worse.

I liked it up to the finale, then they kinda lost me. And this season has felt distinctly shallow - entertaining but in a sugary way. It was such a nuanced show in the earlier seasons.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

Bones drives me up the wall. Sometimes I can disengage and watch it, but most of the time I can't.

[tielan]

I can watch it and be entertained, at least. It's more than I can manage with some of my shows.

[mahoni.livejournal.com]

:( I decided to watch Pushing Daisies in that time slot this fall, because while I enjoyed the first ep of Bones this season just fine, it didn't wow me, and then the second ep was just kind of eh. But that's a bummer, that it hasn't gotten any better so far.

I wonder if some of the problem could go back to David Boreanaz taking over some of the...language is failing me, I can't remember the terminology. But, he's a producer on the show, and an interview over the summer made it sound like he was going to have a lot more control over the stories/writing this season. My first thought when I read that was, oh great, does this mean that 'Bones' is going to become all about Booth and that the aspects of Bones' character that maybe make her look bad but make Booth look good are going to be highlighted? It seemed that way in the first couple of eps, but then I was probably looking for it...

[tielan]

I wonder if some of the problem could go back to David Boreanaz

It might. Bones has been becoming increasingly 'socially stupid', which she wasn't mid-season 2 and season 3. It wasn't so "I don't know what that means" and more "I have a feeling I'm missing something, but I can get the gist of the joke because I'm pretty sharp."

[madjm.livejournal.com]

It's been totally blah this season.

Other than the dog episode.

[tielan]

The episodes have their moments, but I really miss the delicate balance of S2 and S3. Sweets is like Rodney - he should be used less, not more. They need a character who doesn't have such dominating, annoying traits to fill in for Zack.

[faerietaleredux.livejournal.com]

I'm very hot and cold when it comes to Bones. I watch it fairly regularly because my friend loves it, and we make a night of watching it. I don't know that I owuld seek it out on my own though.

Either I really enjoy an episode, or don't at all. I have to say I did like the airplane episode that just aired. If only because I've seen a few other 'solve a murder mystery while in flight' shows over the years and Bones did a better job than most with it.

Also, I still have every intention of writing a J/T ficlet for you. In just over three weeks I will be done with school and can breathe again (though I'll probably get sick the first week--my body finally collapsing in relief).

[tielan]

Ooh! JT ficlet for Christmas!

*glees*