Thursday, September 18, 2008

Dog 'Bones'

I've decided to try a different approach with this week's Bones write-up. You know, give it a little extra something to separate these postings from the rest of the pack. So, let's take a look at the Good, the Bad and the Ugly from last night's dog-fighting episode "The Finger in the Nest."

THE GOOD
Lots of funny moments and lines this week (as always). The banter between Booth and Bones is second to none. It was nice to see some scenes with Booth and Parker and then later, with Sweets. At the end when Brennan told him that he was a good father, I had to agree. He went out of his way to make sure that finding that finger wasn't going to traumatize Parker (I'm not what he had to worry about, though. After all, Bones stumbled upon a dead woman when she was a kid and look how she turned out). And speaking of that little scene at the end -- it was so tragic to learn that they euthanized the dog and then to watch Brennan's reaction to the news just broke my heart. She had a friggin' collar! As usual, Booth was there helping her work through it. And, I was happy to finally see someone, in this case Hodgins, reacting to Zach's revelation last season.

THE (Kinda) BAD
While it was great to finally see one of the team members suffering the effects of Zach's surprising confession and abrupt departure, it just wasn't enough. I don't expect Brennan to be boo-hooing in her Cornflakes, but I did expect some sort of emotional fallout reaction. She was close with Zach and he looked up to her. Maybe it just hasn't hit her yet. I'm also not liking this revolving door Zach replacement story they have going on this season. None of the replacements (save for week one) has made any sort of lasting impact or contribution. If we can't have Zach, then I'm ready to just find his replacement and move on. Finally, the Dog Whisperer cameo was a bit contrived. Why was he helping Booth and Bones exactly? I know, I know -- it was a stunt to draw in viewers, but my problem with it was that it came across as such. Bones works just fine without the stunt casting.

THE UGLY
Those horrible dog fighting photos! Like Angela and Brennan, I found them hard to look at even if they were fakes for the show. They did, however, continue to raise awareness about the atrocities of dog fighting, and that's always a good thing.

If you missed last night's episode ("The Finger in the Nest"), check it out for free at Hulu.com.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree the dog whisperer was out of place in the show.

I also agree that the lack of Zack reaction is strange.

I don't want Zack back - I liked the character, but you really can't have a murderer and a cannibal's assistant helping the FBI.

Yes I know Hanibal Lecter was consulted in the movies, but he was consulted as a psychopath not as a psychologist and he was kept locked up in a "dugeon" while he was consulting.

Anonymous said...

I had high hopes for an entry title of "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" after the guilty-yet-not-to-blame dog. Who's Spencer?

Either that or "Give A Bones A Dog" :-)


The episode definitely had some good, bad and ugly. As do all Bones episodes.

You, and our anon above, are right there is a distinct lack of reaction to Zack's situation. They've kept the Angela/Hodgins thing reasonably quiet so far as well. Perhaps they will ramp up later in the season, it's early days yet.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, that 2nd post was by me.

RichE.

TVFan said...

"Who's Spencer?"

Clearly a figment of my imagination. ;-) Fixed now.

"Ripley's Believe It Or Not"

See, this would have worked had I remembered the dog's name correctly, but alas, I was stuck on "Spencer" for some reason. ;-)

"Give A Bones A Dog"

And this was just too clever!

Anonymous said...

I meant to add some other comments yesterday but successfully failed to do so.

I liked this week's temp-squint (substisquint?). Clarke from ep1-2 was a nice change, someone outside the group of friends. I hope his new career as an airport taxi driver goes well :-)

The irritating girl from ep3 had to go.

Mr Starret from this one was quite good. An interesting character that could have been developed further. He had a lot of real-world experience in a lot of areas which could have been useful. And 4 sons apparently :-)


The dog whisper. I didn't know him at all (I've never seen him on English TV), so I couldn't tell if he really was well known or it was a contrivance for the show. I understand now that he is real. He may have been a special guest but Temperance's "there's nothing inherently complimentary about being on television" line put him in his place :-)


Also we got CC regular Susan Chuang as a guest star.


RichE.

TVFan said...

I forgot about Susan Chuang! I was so happy to see her. And I completely agree that Brennan's "there's nothing inherently complimentary about being on television" line was awesome!

As far as this week's squint of the week -- I liked him as well, but the way they keep using this revolving door format makes it impossible for anyone to really fit in like they should. This character had potential, though.