(no subject)

[eruthros]

Spoilers ahoy.



I'd like to think I have more to say about Bones than this, but in fact the first thing I think when I think about the episode is: "But no one has ever been IDed from facial reconstruction!"

This is so not my field, so I haven't done any reading on the subject in the last threeish years, but. Butbutbut. I think it would be big news if someone had ever actually managed it -- I mean, occasionally it's been used for what proponents call identification, but in all cases they've had a fairly good idea of who the skeleton is first and know who to show it to and who to ask and what color to make the eyes/hair etc. Which hardly counts. And I suppose I should also say "no ID from facial reconstruction has ever been confirmed by other means." Occasionally people call and say "I think that's my daughter," or whatever, but the dental records or DNA doesn't work out. It's fabulous for giving a case new publicity and getting it on people's radar, but so far the only way it's ever solved cases is by giving the police six hundred new phone calls.

On a more show-based level... hmmm. I'm not sure that I like what they've done with the character of Tempe Brennan. In the books, she's much less Mary-Sue (and more middle-aged, for one). I suppose this may be toned down in subsequent episodes, but at the moment Brennan is really ridiculously a trope of women-in-science Mary-Sueness. She's a martial arts master with a gun, her quirks are all "adorable," she's young and pretty and an orphan, fergodsakes. And her Missing Parents make her want to Help Others, which is why she went into forensic science -- yeesh. Also, this totally sets her up for my least favorite Women In Positions of Knowledge/Power character arc ever -- you know, the one where the Quirky and Smart and Kickass but Emotionally Distant Woman must Change to Fit Societal Expectation For Women -- I mean, to Become More In Touch With Her Heart and Start Listening to the Men in her Life. (Who, actually, are often wrong, because otherwise they can't set said woman up as smart and kickass, so why she'd start listening to them I don't know.)

I rather liked David Boreanz' Booth, though, which surprised me. He was occasionally a little over the top, but on the whole they wrote him much more subtley. Conclusion: I may watch it again, especially as it's on before House, but at the moment I feel rather "eh" about it.



And then there is House. Which rocked. House was snarky and fabulous. And Wilson was practically singing Barbara Streisand. And Foreman and Chase had character development. And Stacy didn't annoy me as much as I thought she would. And Cameron was... blargh, as usual.

m_shell pointed out early in the episode that Cameron was right about her clinic patient from a medical perspective -- you really couldn't say cancer for sure until it'd been biopsied -- but I was confident that Cindy had cancer, for plot and character reasons rather than any medical reasons. After all, I said, we'd seen Cameron's problems with death, and we'd seen how she couldn't tell people they were dying, and so this had to be trying to do character development. Regardless of the medicine Cindy had to be dying. Also, considering that she made this whole Hippocratic Oath point, she was really fine with leaving death-row guy to die. "First, do no harm" my ass.

Foreman's character development, otoh, was much more interesting -- he nearly let death-row guy die (see above, re: Hippocratic Oath) and then ended up planning to testify at his appeal. Sure, part of it was the biological, but my sense of his conversation with House was that he was actually thinking about his refusal to see social stuff as part of people's problems.

I couldn't get over Cuddy's shirt. So ridiculous. With the ruffles. Wah.

I still love Wilson, but his new haircut is too short. Also, I am shallow.

And House himself -- saving his patients by whatever means necessary, and alienating everyone to do it.

Comments

[umbo.livejournal.com]

Okay, I didn't post about this, at least not yet, but I watched Bones last night, too, and beyond the ID from facial reconstruction thing, did you get how they said she was pregnant, and "not very far along" because of finding fetal (or were they supposed to be embryological) inner ear bones? I mean, I didn't go and look up ossification of the stapes and when it happens in fetal development, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't happen super early in pregnancy, you know? That just really annoyed me.

Also, I find the actress very strange-looking--her eyes are creepy--and the character's way too Mary Sue-ish. But it was nice to see Boreanaz again.

[eruthros]

Oh, shit, now I'm trying to picture x-rays in my head to think about ossification stages. Um. To get all three ossified, it'd be around week... twentyish to thirtyish. And generally speaking, people sure do look pregnant by then. And you certainly wouldn't say "not very far along." (They wouldn't actually be all the way ossified; bone marrow is present until some time postnatal. *handwaves*) But finding them at all... wow. I mean, we don't find them in adults. And they came out of a dredged pond? It is to laugh.

Also, yes. It distresses me, because book-Brennan is actually a fairly well done not-Mary-Sue decent-scientist character. She's old enough to have actually done the academic stuff she's supposed to have, for one. She has an adult daughter and an ex-husband. She goes out on her own too often, but that's part of Making Mysteries Into Thrillers.

And I don't know what's up with Deschanel, but I agree that something there looks funky and not-real to me. She does look a bit like an anime character, or something, but I can't really put my finger on it.

Oh well. As you say, interesting to see Boreanz again.

[umbo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and, just to add, because you're the one person on my friends list I can say stuff like this to and know you'll not need any other explanation, so, they find ossified *ossicles*, in a pond, like you said, but they don't find any *other* ossified fetal bones? Which, I know, I know, I shouldn't even be worrying about it because of the whole "early pregnancy" thing they said, but, still, *god*. I don't expect much from, say, SGA, but you would think a show about a forensic anthropologist on a major network in prime time would do at least a *little* research.

[eruthros]

Seriously. It would be like... "oh, hey, we found a neonatal hyoid!" And, sure, it makes them harder to ID because you hardly ever see them -- if she'd spent half the episode thinking fetal verts were from frogs, we'd be laughing hysterically, too -- but at the same time, so very yeesh.

[miriam-heddy.livejournal.com]

See, I'm glad I'm not the only person who was compelled to think Streisand during House.

Also, yes to the Mary Sue-ness of Tempe (though I thought she was surprisingly *plain* for TV, though with killer breasts). Also, if she says, "That makes no sense to me" (or whatever that tag line is) all season, I'm going to have to throw something at the TV, or start a drinking game. But yes, I did like DB, because the character seems to be to his strength (stoic, quiet, snarky, buff).

Also--yes, Cuddy's shirt! I think it was oddly Victorian/1980s, and I couldnt' figure it out except to assume it's part of the shift to seeing Stacey as House's personal object of desire (well, outside of the ever-hot Wilson).

[eruthros]

I was totally humming it during that scene, actually. Yet another sign that Wilson should stop pretending with an endless series of wives.

I don't know that I agree that Deschanel as Tempe is plain. Not-gorgeous for TV, definitely, but otoh there's something about her face that just bugs me in a way that makes "plain" not my first choice of word. Maybe she had plastic surgery, or something, or maybe it's how they're doing her makeup, but somehow it seems vaguely wrong and I can't pin it down.

I know! What happened to Cuddy over the summer that made her stop wearing her comfy cleavage-shirts? This saddens me. Makes sense from a producer perspective (though Stacey is not as attractive or personable as Cuddy, but whatever, producers are notorious for disagreeing with me there), but from a character perspective... nope. No rhyme or reason there.

[ryca.livejournal.com]

I watched Bones too (of course), and I didn't love it, but I definitely liked it. I think that DB is one of the strongest points of the show, which makes me happy 'cause of the love there and all; his Scully&Mulder line made me happy.
I read a review that bagged on the show for managing to fit boobs into the first three minutes, but that scene actually just really made me like the character, a lot.
The girl who plays TB (ick, TB - not good; also, I keep thinking of her as "Temperance Barrows" from Marge's book on The Simpsons) is ok, but I'm not loving her yet. Yes a Mary-Sue, although that doesn't always bother me as much as it seems to bother others. I'm definitely a fan of the gun-wielding martial-arts chicks, although it's a bit much when they have a PhD, too. I like her team a lot, though. Her tagline really amused me this episode ("I don't know what that means"), partially because of her delivery, but it has the potential to be seriously overused.
My biggest complaint was the horrifically stilted line they gave DB at the end; I can't believe he was willing to deliver it. "Being a sniper... I killed a lot of people". No shit? I mean, I'm glad to know you're motivation and all, and I like the character both for being willing and able to do bad things for good reasons (at least we hope that's what he always thought was happening) and for wanting to atone, but that line! It was just so forced! "We have to get DB's character motivation into this episode, too - shit! Well, we'll just stick it on the end, and spell it out real simple like so nobody'll miss it". Sheesh.