There Goes the Neighborhood

In this week's episode of "When Shows Collide:" Bones and Desperate Housewives. Fitting since both shows tend to be more of a satire of their respective genres rather than traditional examples. So, what happens when a show pokes fun of another show that pokes fun of its genre? Lots of funny parallels and a lot, and I mean A LOT, of dirty laundry. And of course, Booth and Bones were right there in the middle of it trying not to get dirty. As you would suspect, most of the residents of this little chunk of suburban bliss had motive to kill their green-conscious neighbor. Thus, more than one of them was on the hook for murder by the end of the hour. One was angry over an unfortunate incident involving his dog and a laxative, one was fed up with a $5000 phone line scheme and another was upset about a series of unfortunate affairs that truly kept things in the family. All of them were pushed to the brink over the hideous windmill in the victim's yard that drove down the property values. Just another beautiful day in the neighborhood.

The bigger part of this episode, though, had nothing to do with the dark side of suburbia. It was the little things in this one that added up to one big awesome-fest. It turns out, Arastoo (this week's featured intern in the revolving door position vacated by Zach a couple of seasons back) doesn't really have an Iranian accent. He was faking it to justify his devotion to Islam and to avoid the usual questions he faces as a Muslim. Once the cat was out of the bag, the questions commenced, but they quickly ceased and the Jeffersonian crew went back to business as usual. I LOVED the reaction from each of them when they discovered the truth.

Meanwhile, Parker got to spend some quality time with Angela, which led to an awkward conversation about his father's lack of a sex life. Booth became concerned about Parker's preoccupation with finding him a girlfriend, so Sweets suggested that he show Parker that he has healthy, normal relationships with women. Of course, he chose Brennan and she accepted. Over dinner at their diner, Parker managed to get a little truth out of Brennan and to reveal his true motive: he wants a pool (his friend's father started dating and that led to access to his new girlfriend's pool). Before that revelation, he asked Brennan why she doesn't date his father. Booth seemed just as eager as Parker to hear the answer. She replied that it would be "inappropriate" because they work together. Huh, so if they didn't work together, she'd give it a whirl? I'll take it. It's progress.

And now, here's this week's edition of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly:

THE GOOD: Sometimes it takes a child's perspective to inject a little honesty into the situation. It was nice to have Parker around in this one.

THE BAD: The victim! He was overly neighborly with too many of the women on his street, but the worst was learning that he was double dipping in the Sayles house!

THE UGLY: The body in the BBQ pit. Yum! Now that will ruin an appetite!

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