Bones Review – Still Time To Miss The Iceberg?
November 6, 2010 by Trisha Leigh
Filed under Feature, feature overlay, Television
I know this is going to be shocking, but I have nothing bad to say about this episode of Bones. Okay, fine. Almost nothing.
For the first time in weeks (years?) the entire hour was pretty much all about the case at hand. The only horrible dialogue moment took place in the last five minutes. The rest of the writing actually supported the characters they’ve developed over the past five years and moved them forward at an acceptable pace. Amazing, truly.
The night began with a teenage skateboarder stumbling over an exposed skull encased in concrete. The science and mystery surrounding the death were intriguing and more than enough to hold my attention over the next forty-five minutes. I mean, come on. Disintegrating bones could never be boring.
The victim had a tattoo on his front tooth (I had no idea this was possible, learn something new every day), and they quickly used stress markers on the replica skeleton Angela (Michaela Conlin) created (so freaking cool) to identify him as a ballet dancer. Booth (David Boreanaz) and Brennan (Emily Deschanel) track down a young ballet dancer with a tattoo on his tooth and have quite a funny conversation. When those two are at their best, no one on television can rival their chemistry, I swear.
Another fabulous periphery character emerged with the ballet instructor, a diminutive woman who could kick my ass in about two seconds, with anger issues galore. Turns out the victim ended her career – an obvious motive, but she was interesting so it worked better than it might have.
We learn the ballet student gave up his classical training when he fell in love with hip-hop, which leads us to a freestyle dance community gathered in the park. Here we get two more interesting, layered, well-written guest stars – nice job, writers. First, a bronze man statue who refuses to communicate in anything other than Shakespearean language. Enter Sweets (John Francis Daley) to save the day, in a wonderfully charming, quirky scene. Second, a guest appearance by none other than tWitch (Stephen Boss) of So You Think You Can Dance fame! I love love love that guy, and we got to see some of his awesome moves.
There is a minor storyline revolving around Hannah (Katheryn Winnick). She is straying from her boring political beat into crime stories, a move Brennan insists has to do with a constant need to seek out excitement and to challenge herself more every day. It makes Booth paranoid, worries him that Hannah is not getting enough excitement from him at home. We see that endearing insecurity that Booth struggles with, as well as learn that Hannah’s nowhere near ready to settle down and get married. When she’s shot – she believes by a dirty cop – he asks her to back off, at least until she’s better. Although part of her seems to genuinely take pleasure in being “protected” by Booth, it seems to me that she’s not the type of girl who’s going to listen to his pleas. We could be getting a glimpse of the problems that will eventually drive her away.
The writers fell off the wagon a bit with the final conversation of the episode, giving Hannah some lines that made her seem like an insane and inappropriate person when she demanded a gift from Brennan and then requested her sunglasses.
So. Strange. Who would do that, like, ever?
I liked her more, besides the random schizophrenia the writers tried to force on her. The friendship between Hannah and Brennan feels organic and believable.
End of the day, Booth and Bones save the day. None of the surrounding cast does much to talk about, but for now it’s okay. I remember the case, which is the formula the writers need to return to. Then again, I’m pretty sure a majority of viewers jumped ship after last season’s abysmal end and they won’t be around to see it when (if) the writers manage to turn the ship around.
Season 6, Episode 5: The Bones That Weren’t (originally aired November 4, 2010)
For more on Bones, click here.
Thursdays at 8/7c on Fox
Photographs courtesy of Fox, IMDbPro.
I actually stopped watching at the end of the last season but tuned in for this episode because I had nothing else to do around that time. I must say, I was surprised that I enjoyed this episode again, it felt like watching one of the older episodes as Nicole says in a a previous comment. I think B/B should have stuck to the partners with sexual tension as an underlying storyline like Stabler and Benson have in Law & Order: SVU.
Trisha, I just found your season 6 Bones reviews and love them. We seem to agree on the horrible parts of the episodes (and that episode 5 was actually pretty good). I do think your reviews tend to be funnier than mine, though.
Episode 5 seems to ve just as good as the rest of them. Love Bones!
Great review. I agree with everything you wrote. Although, I liked the playfulness between Hannah/Brennan, I thought it was horribly written, as well. I don’t know why they chose that route. However, their friendship does feel very organic. It seems Katheryn has finally found her footing. I’m glad!
Being a non B/B shipper, I have to say the show is at it’s best when they have episodes like these. When the formula that worked for them in the beginning, is in play. This is how it was in the first 3 seasons before we all got bombarded with will they/won’t they mumbo jumbo. No offense to B/B shippers, but you have to admit once that was the major focus, the storylines and cases suffered. A light must have went off in their heads. I think it might be too little, too late, though. A lot of people have stopped watching. I was pretty much there, but season 6 has made me stick around, so far. Let’s hope they keep giving us episodes like these.