Bones: If We Weren’t Supposed To Eat Animals, They Wouldn’t Be Made Out Of Meat
November 7, 2009 by Cameron Cubbison
Filed under Television
After a near month-long hiatus, Bones is back with an episode that devotes too much time to Angela nonsense and jamming a PETA agenda down everyone’s throat and too little time to giving us anything new or propulsive with the characters. This is a gripe I make frequently, and I only do it because deep down I love the show and the actors so much. Most Bones fans don’t seem to share my concerns about the tone of the show. But I swear, if you go back and look at the first two seasons and compare them to what we’re getting now, it’s a whole other ballgame.
The older stories were more dynamic, they were more edgy, they were more exciting. Add those things up and to me, that meant the show was more fun. I’ve read interviews with Hart Hanson, the show creator, talking about how basically now he’s doing the tone on Bones that he always wanted to do, a lighter show, and that in the beginning Fox was trying to have him do a slightly darker thing. Which is not to say that Bones began as a relentlessly dark show, because it didn’t. The humor has always been a big part of Bones. But there was a much higher, more electrifying sizzle factor, which I think Bones needs. So if Hanson was being forced to do something not quite attuned to what he wanted in the beginning of Bones, it was actually a good thing.
Because the thing is, Bones can’t work as predominantly a comedic show. If that was going to work, if a show that featured characters working on slimy, dismembered skeletal remains was going to be funny, you’d have to push it into a much darker, nihilistic place. You’d have to enter Dexter or Six Feet Under land, something like that. And that’s not the show I want. The first season of Bones was some of the best network television I’ve ever seen. But I think the writers and showrunners have just gotten too comfortable and too lazy. They’re not trying to push the characters anymore.
Without overarching, serially developing conflicts for Bones and Booth to deal with, the show just becomes another procedural. When Bones was still dealing with being an orphan and not knowing what happened to her parents, that gave her something really meaty to deal with. Watching Emily Deschanel portray Bones as she struggled to bury herself in her work so as not to think about the big gaping piece missing from the puzzle of her life…it was just electrifying to watch. But ever since she solved that puzzle and made up with her father (who has since all but disappeared from the show), she just hasn’t had anything really significant to deal with. I know it sounds mean but I want something really traumatic to happen to her so that we can have some fresh conflict.
And Booth…even though last season’s finale was completely hamhanded, at least this season started out with good conflict for him, trying to get back to who he was before his brain got all jumbled up. But I still want some more meat for him. I want to learn more about his time as a Ranger, I want to learn more about his childhood, I want to have more drama with his brother, I want to have more going on between him and Bones. I want both of them to beat more people up, to get angry again. I want more meat damn it!
And speaking of meat, that brings us to the perfect segue to start talking about this week’s episode. While camping, a troupe of little Woodchucks (Girl Scouts basically) discovered the mutilated remains of what turns out to be a local chicken framer who was set to inherit a chicken factory farm that was being protested for inhumane living conditions and animal cruelty. They took soil and water samples and brought them to Brennan because apparently she’s their idol (hey, I think she’s pretty cool too). But Bones tells them they should not have disturbed the crime scene as if she were talking to FBI agents and not little girls. That was pretty funny. That’s the woman I know and love. But little moments like that aren’t enough when the rest of the story sucks.
I know that in real life Emily Deschanel is a vegetarian and very concerned with animal rights and I respect that. I love animals too. Hell, I love dogs more than people. But at the same time, I don’t want an agenda jammed down my throat. And this episode is all about blatantly trying to make meat eaters feel bad. Throughout the investigation and woven into the dialogue are all these statistics and comments about chickens being mutilated and murdered and abused, and bla bla bla this is unsanitary and bla bla bla that pig is so cute how can you eat him, etc.
I’m sorry okay, but humans are meant to eat meat. If we weren’t meant to eat meat, our bodies wouldn’t be so dependent on protein. I love meat. If it has a face, I eat it. I can’t live without meat, I’m not going to stop eating meat and drink eight soy protein shakes a day just so my hair won’t fall out. It’s unnatural! If another species comes along that becomes higher on the food chain than humans and starts slaughtering us wholesale to eat us, I’ll be okay with that. It’s the circle of life. Watch The Lion King for christ’s sake!
I’m not going to get into what little plot there is, because you can figure it out in twenty seconds, and you know exactly how the investigation is going to go. Booth and Brennan are going to interview the animals rights protesters, the other employees at the chicken company, etc. We’re going to get a series of interrogations, bla bla bla, until we find the right person.
What does bear mentioning in this episode is that the writers decide to engage in more cringeworthy Angela scenes. Angela is celebrating near six months of celibacy, per Sweets’ suggestion (again, this entire plot thread makes me want to smash myself in the skull with a frying pan), and so we have to watch her going all around the Jeffersonian making insinuations and innuendos. I guess that’s supposed to be entertaining? Funny? Try none of the above.
Then we have Angela and Brennan get in their first real fight in the show’s history over a pig. Yep, a pig. Angela wants people to donate $1500 to save a pig from becoming bacon, and Brennan doesn’t want anything to do with it. Hey, neither do I. But after the pig is dead, why don’t you send me the bacon? Honestly, I’m all for Angela and Brennan getting in a fight, I’m all for some kind of intense conflict between main characters…that’s exactly what I’ve been saying…but couldn’t they have picked a slightly weightier jumping off point than a pig?
Oh yeah, and Wendell is back, and remember how I had been saying I wished that they would just make Wendell the permanent intern and start developing his character? Well when I said develop his character, I didn’t mean do it by having him get it on with Angela. Sweet jesus…can anyone really tell me that what Bones really needs right now is another forced romance between supporting characters?
The only good scene in this episode comes in the aftermath of Brennan proving to Booth that he misjudged a suspect, that his golden instinct was wrong and her science was right. Seeing the wounded look on his face was really powerful. This is a guy who has built his entire life around being able to read people, to respond to situations on a gut level, and to see him realize his gut failed was really good, and David Boreanaz played it just right. I want more moments like that and less of the aforementioned. The stakes need to be raised for Booth and Brennan. I want more drama and less comfort. Characters being comfortable does not make for compelling television people. I don’t really have anything else to say except this episode disappointed me and I long for the early days of Bones. Maybe next week.
Season 5, Episode 6: The Tough Man in the Tender Chicken (originally aired November 5, 2009)
For more on Bones, click here.
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First off emily is a vegan not a vegetarian so get that right first off. Also emily jst plays the part she most likely didnt choose to make that episode the writers did so don’t go blaming her and saying she was using the show to promote anything. The show is amazing and yea the last few episodes havnt been all that great but still. You need to get all your facts together before you try to demote the show bcuz u don’t approve of how the show is going and because the last episode had to do with “factory farming”.
<3 bones
Regarding your headline: Do you also advocate eating people? Because we are also made out of “meat.” We are made up of fat, muscle and flesh just as pigs, cows and chickens are.
Pigs, cows and chickens can also feel pain just as we do.
Care about animals? Go veg! Learn more at ChooseVeg.com.
Humans thrive without meat. High quality protein can easily be obtain from plant sources. These sources have no cholesterol and usually no saturated fats. Older people often have to cut back on meat just to stay alive. Humans weren’t “meant” to eat meat. We evolved the capability to do so but it is unnecessary and, all things considered, not conducive to optimal health.
I’ve never heard of hair falling out. I’m a body-builder and need about 190 grams of protein a day. This is very easy (and enjoyable) for me to obtain on a strictly vegan diet
Animal agriculture causes immense amounts of suffering. Only someone in denial or uneducated about the issue would dispute that.
Animal agriculture accounts for 20% of all green house gases according to a recent study by the U.N.
Sorry to just start spitting random facts at you but I’m compelled to correct people when they get these kinds of things wrong.
Thought you could use some positive feedback from a meat-eater so here I am. I love Bones and really disliked this episode and having Emily Deschanel use my favorite program to promote her politics.
I was surprised to see the agressive responses you received to your article. That proves that politics have no place in an entertainment medium. All of a sudden people are all worked up over vegan-vegetarian isms. The show is about Booth & Bones and is followed by all of us romantics who enjoy the interactions between them.
I don’t want to know any of their personal political stances as much as they don’t want to know mine. “Bones” actors/writes etc. should stick to the business of entertaining or run for political office on their own time.
I don’t think I quite understand why you’re so angry- because the producers of Bones made you feel bad about your food choices?
No one’s shoving an agenda down your throat, they’re telling it like it is. I applaud Bones for dedicating an episode to the grim realities of factory farming. Most people have no idea where their food comes from, and that is dangerous.
And really, factory farming is not the ‘circle of life’, and you’re lying to yourself if you think it’s natural.
You don’t know as much as you think you know. Emily is vegan not vegetarian and if you want to eat meat and are fed up with bones then f off and go eat meat and stop watching bones. That gives the real fans a chance to watch the show and enjoy it without idiots slagging it off every week.
I don’t want to start some carnivore/vegetarian debate on here, but I think before you try to talk about people’s need for protein (specifically gotten through meat) you should educate yourself more on the actual facts of this matter. I realize this site is more about pop culture than journalism but every writer, no matter what audience they are writing for, should arm themselves with facts before making such blatant assertions as you did here. If for nothing else than your own journalistic integrity. I think no matter what side of this debate anyone stands on, they can agree on that.
I love meat too though you’re missing out if you don’t eat dog meat. It’s particularly good when you brutally slaughter the dog so it produces adrenaline and then the meat tastes better. You should try deep-fried golden retriever.
WOW!! Haha, it’s the same for any good tv show. The current season is never as good as past seasons. BTW I’m a vegetarian, and most of us don’t obsess over what other people eat,I mean there are some vegetarians like that, but I don’t have any issues with other people eating meat. Just saying we’re not all the same.