Describe:
I chose the show Bones because I wanted to pick a tv show that
I hadn’t watched before. A lot of my friends and family watch it and have
recommended it to me, but I’ve never been able to get into because I’ve never
found the main characters relatable. However, for this assignment I decided to
give it a shot. I watched the new episode “The Twist In The Plot”, which aired
on January 28th at 8:00 p.m on Fox. Bones is a drama about a
forensic anthropologist (Dr. Brennan) and her FBI partner (Booth) who solve
crimes that involve bones.
The Twist in the Plot Promo
The Twist in the Plot Promo
In this particular episode, a human skull is found in the
woods and when Dr. Brennan and Booth go to investigate, they find another body
buried next to it. The first set of bones belongs to a woman, Monica Craig, who
apparently died of lung cancer. However, the interesting twist is that the body
buried next to hers belongs to a girl named Rachel, who was Monica’s “death
consultant”. Rachel and her partner Akshay (played by guest star Vik Sahay) run
a new-age funeral home that promotes green burial. Booth figured out that
Monica’s husband, Dr. Craig, was having an affair with Rachel, but Rachel broke
it off two days before Monica died. Then when Dr. Craig went to bury his wife,
Rachel showed up. Dr. Craig lost it and smashed in Rachel’s head with his
wife’s burial marker.
The two main characters in Bones are Dr. Temperance Brennan,
played by Emily Deschanel, and Special Agent Seeley Booth, played by David
Boreanaz. Emily Deschanel is the sister of another popular actress, Zooey Deschanel,
who stars in the prime time show New Girl. Emily Deschanel has been in many
popular movies, such as My Sister’s Keeper, Glory Road, and Spider-Man 2. David
Boreanaz gained most of his popularity through the tv show Buffy the Vampire
Slayer. Another main character in Bones is Dr. Lance Sweets, who is played by
John Francis Daley. Daley got his big break as a young actor in the show Freaks
and Geeks. The guest star in this particular episode, Vik Sahay, got his claim
to fame in a very popular tv series called Chuck.
Emily Deschanel David Boreanaz Vik Sahay
During the hour-long show, there were a large variety of
commercials shown. Some of these commercials included Ford, H&R Block,
Glade, KFC, Home Depot, Cheez-Its, Kiefer Mazda, American Family Insurance,
Seven Feathers, Guaranty RVs, Bank of America, Turbo Tax, and Powerball. Also,
some of the specific products advertised were a Samsung TV from Best Buy, two
separate iPhone 5 ads for Verizon and AT&T, and a 2013 Lincoln MKX. There
was also a trailer for a movie called “Bullet To The Head” and a Fox ad for a
new show called “The Following” (which I ended up getting sucked into watching
right after Bones).
Analyze:
The style that the characters of Bones project is very
professional. Booth is always wearing a suit, as well as Sweets. Also, Dr.
Brennan dresses professional throughout the show along with the other major
female supporting actresses. The attitude that the characters project is also
very professional. Although Booth and Brennan have an existing romantic
history, during work they remain professional. Bones is filmed very
dramatically with dark lighting to portray the seriousness of the show and is
filmed in Los Angeles at the 20th Century Fox lot. Some shows
similar to Bones are CSI and Grey’s Anatomy. Both use forensic/medical
terminology and have a serious side with a little humor and romance mixed in.
What makes Bones unique however is of course the types of cases they do, which
involve almost exclusively cases with bones. Also, it’s a unique show because
the cast is almost exclusively nerds that are all experts in their fields. The
characters are slightly humorous in their innocence and their nerdiness.
Interpret:
The only stereotype I saw in this show was that all of the
females in the show were portrayed as slightly heartless on the outside when it
came to relationships. In the episode I watched, the women were consumed with
the case while the men were broken down or concerned about the relationship.
There were two relationships going on at the time I watched Bones. One was
between Booth and Dr. Brennan and the other was between Sweets and a girl named
Daisy Wick. Since the focus of the episode was around burial Booth asked Dr.
Brennan what her burial wishes were. Brennan proceeded to describe in great
detail how she wanted her body to be carried to the top of a mountain and be
crushed by a goat so that vultures could eat her body. Booth was upset because
he wouldn’t want the last image of her to be vultures picking at her, but
Brennan didn’t understand (until the end of the episode of course). The other
relationship that was going on was the ending of Dr. Sweets and Wick’s
relationship. They broke up in a previous relationship, but Sweets was still
upset. When Wick came to work, however, she was very professional and acted like
nothing had happened while Sweets was clearly distraught. Although the
producers portrayed the women as heartless, for the most part there were very
few stereotypes in the show. The cast was very diverse and there were no jokes
about the women working the same jobs as the men and no comments about the
black woman being one of the main bosses. If I was from a foreign country and I saw this show I would think that Americans have an obsession with the dead and killing people, since this show is one of dozens of murder television shows.
Most of the commercials were targeted towards a slightly
older demographic. The target audience for the show is more mature and it’s not
a very good show for kids, therefore, most of the commercials were similarly
targeted. There were ads about insurance, gambling, and taxes, which are all
targeted towards a fairly mature audience that would have good money management
skills. There was also an ad for a Lincoln MKX, which is a very sophisticated
car that starts out at just under $40,000. If I were a foreigner visiting
America, I would think that America is very professional and wealthy. I would
think that every one in America had achieved “the dream”.
Evaluate:
I would give this show a 4.3 out of 5 as far as
entertainment goes because the cases are extremely unique and the best part is
that they’re not predictable. I think another strength of the show is the good
mixture of cases with the personal side stories. One of the weaknesses of the
show I think is that the main characters are hard to relate to. They’re so
serious and professional all the time that it’s hard to find the flaws in their
character that are essential for the audience to be able to relate to them. As
far as a cultural mirror of society, I would give Bones a 3 out of 5. Most
people aren’t as serious as the characters of Bones are and have more
personality as well. However, having said that, I do think that they did a good
job portraying the work relationships and the mix between professional and
personal life. Compared to most other tv shows, Bones pretty accurately
reflects “real life”, but a very high class life. I mostly enjoyed the cases in
the show and just tolerated the personal side stories, which were luckily
fairly brief. If I had watched the show from the very beginning of season one I
would probably be able to get more into the personal side, but as a new watcher
it was harder to get into. What makes this show memorable is the interesting forensic
techniques that they use, which are different from the typical crime scene
techniques since this show deals exclusively with cases involving bones.
I read a review on Bones from an online California magazine
called Kings River Life Magazine. The review was written by one of the
magazines journalists, Stephanie Barnett. Barnett says, “When I first watched Bones, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it. Always being slightly squeamish but very interested in investigative and science shows, I wasn’t quite sure what I would think about a show that deals with decomposed dead bodies. One show was all it took for me, because I was hooked ten minutes in. Combining a great cast, with hilarious characters and amazingly creative writing, Bones is a triple whammy.” I slightly agree with this review because I wasn’t sure if I would like it and I was quite surprised after watching it. I also agree that the cast is great and perfect for their roles. However, I didn’t think the show was very hilarious. Maybe I just watched a very sad episode, but I wasn’t very amused and I definitely wasn’t “hooked”.
Engage:
This was the first time I watched Bones and I did enjoy it, but I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to watch it on a regular basis. My mom used to watch it all the time, but I don’t think she watches it anymore. She started watching it because she was addicted to the books that Bones is based on. The book series, Bones, was written by Kathy Reichs who was actually a professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. There are 15 books in the Bones book series, almost all of which were best sellers.
Conclusions:
From this project I learned that there are a lot of good tv shows out there that I haven’t really given a shot. I am very particular about the shows I watch and I usually judge them from the trailers, but the trailers I’ve seen of Bones haven’t done the show justice. Most of the trailers are about Booth and Dr. Brennan’s relationship, which I haven’t been interested in, but the rest of the show is actually very entertaining.
