So, I was going to review Grey’s Anatomy next, you know, going by genre, I could get all my medical shows taken care of first, but then I ran across the following article about Bones and decided that’s where I needed to go next.
- Bones creator Hart Hanson also looks at negative comments as a sign of fan passion, something his show, sitting somewhere "between a cult hit and a real hit," needs to survive. He faced a virtual firing squad after the controversial season finale, when he dared turn naïve "squint" Zack Addy (Eric Millegan) into a serial killer's apprentice, sending him into a mental hospital and out of the regular ensemble. It was a storyline Hanson admits was too compressed, but not one he regrets overall.
"Oh boy, when you mess with an ensemble," Hanson began before trailing off. "To be honest, it was great." Not only was that one of the highest rated episodes, but the number of hits to the show's website doubled. "The network doesn't care if comments are good or bad. They count the hits."
"Do we listen to the fans? Oh, no," Hanson said adamantly during the audience Q&A portion of his Master Class. Besides, given the outcry over the finale, "Right now, if we listened to them, I'd have to quit."
He even tells his actors not to look at message boards. "They're really mean about every one of our actors. The ones who have an axe to grind will write and the ones who love them won't. Our Internet presence is fairly negative. But we don't care about that, because they're all watching."
Hanson says "we don't know who they are" because the demographics of the show are so broad, though actor David Boreanaz (Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and novelist Kathy Reichs clearly add their own fandoms to the mysterious but loyal mix.
"No, we don't listen to them," Hanson reiterated. "And they're really vociferous and passionate and we are very, very glad they're there.”
--Interview excerpts courtesy of Diane Kristine and posted on blogcritics.org.
Hart Hanson may not care what the audience thinks of his work, but he probably should. The show is mediocre at best, and pretty damn bad at worst. This kind of record doesn't exactly lend itself to the lofty pedestal on which he seems to think his show resides. Oy.
Now, in general, I have no problem with the writers of a show ignoring outside influences and applaud shows that have the courage to do so. In general, I completely agree that if the fans are upset with a plot twist, that doesn’t mean it's a bad move, but in this particular case, it wasn’t only a bad move, it was horribly executed, completely unfounded, and came across as nothing more than a ratings ploy. A ratings ploy which, I might add, will likely harm the show in the long run (and let’s face it, this show isn’t good enough to endure much of an enervation…).
Before I get into the real discussion, a side note: I realize probably very few of the people who read my blog watch this show, but I just have to put this out there. I have never been much of a fan of this show. In fact, I only started watching it this last year (and have caught earlier episodes here and there) and have been pretty underwhelmed by the whole affair. Indeed, the only reason I even gave it a chance was that I had an opening in my TV schedule and this was the only option available. In short, the show isn’t very good. I find the two leads to be the least interesting part of the show. Temperance Brennan is an uneven, inconsistent character who is only moderately likable most of the time. Seely Booth (Angel) is even worse. I find the character one-dimensional and pompous. Anyway, for me, and the few other people I know who watch the show, the “squints” are the best part of the show. Indeed, for most people I know, they are the real heart of the ensemble and the primary reason to keep up with the show. No matter how much the writers and producers want to believe that Brennan and Booth are at the center of the show’s moderate success, it’s the supporting characters that make the whole thing work (as well as it ever does, that is).
This season, admittedly the only one I’ve seen start to finish, made me really hope that there’s a different show competing for the same timeslot next season so that I can officially throw in the towel on Bones. At this point, it wouldn’t even need to be a very good show and it could likely win my affections. Oh, this season. Wow. What a waste.
It started out promisingly enough for such a mediocre show, but soon lost its focus and ultimately fizzled. The season arc with the cannibalistic Gormogon (sp?) was pretty cheese-tastic to begin with and shouldn’t have garnered a season-long arc unless the writers were really going to run with it. In the beginning, it looked like that would be the case, but as the season progressed, the storyline was often mishandled, forgotten, and clunky.
Now, I realize the writers’ strike took a toll, but no show fared worse than Bones it seems. All of a sudden, out of absolutely nowhere, and only in the finale episode do we finally find out the whole Gormogon story. What’s worse, the only foundation that was laid for who Gormogon’s apprentice was, oh wait, there was no foundation… Yes folks, it was season-long arc and the writers decided they would draw a name out of a hat for the big reveal. “And Gormogon’s apprentice is…[hand swirling in baseball cap full of character names] Zack!” Mr. Hanson may think that the audience is in a tizzy because he “messed with an ensemble,” but that’s hardly the case. That they eliminated one of the few good characters of the show was a display in idiocy to be sure, but it would have been fine if they had set up the show, laid a foundation, and revealed Zack as the apprentice after a satisfying build-up. Without that, the audience is left with nothing but “WTF?!” to dwell upon over the summer.
Like I said, if they had come up with a rational reason that it was Zack, started including subtle nuances that he could be capable of this back toward the beginning of the season, and led the audience on an adventure of discovery that Zack could be the bad guy, then it would have been absolutely acceptable to write Zack off the show (even if he is the main reason so many people watch). It’s not that the audience is being whiny that the show is losing one of its best characters, it’s that the writers’ have lost the audience’s faith in them to guide the show. If the audience can’t count on a show to offer well-thought-out, well-planned, and well-executed storylines, then what the hell is the point in watching?
To prove my point, I offer a comparison to a far superior show, the inimitable Veronica Mars. Season 1 set up a web of delicious, exciting, tantalizing mysteries that built up to the ultimate climax, revealing the killer of Lilly Kane. The writers for Veronica Mars, having actually planned out the season prior to the final 3 episodes, built up enough foundation for their characters that the audience believed it could have been anyone, and no matter who it was, it could be justified. Case in point, it could have been Logan, a fan favorite, and that would have been complete awesomeness because it was so well established that he could be the one. Even if you never dreamed that Logan could have done it, if it had been him, you would have instantly started replaying the entire season in your head and come up with 15 fantastic, subtle, compelling, edge-of-your-seat, shocking and satisfying reasons it was him. And even if it did mean that one of the most popular members of the ensemble were written off the show, it still would have been an incredible ending that the audience would appreciate. With a show like VM, the foundations that led to the climactic ending are being established as early as the first episode. It’s not that you messed with the ensemble in and of itself, Mr. Hanson, it’s that you did it so poorly. That Zack was the apprentice could have been completely awesome. It could have been a rather compelling and engaging twist in an otherwise mediocre show. If the writers’ strike is to blame, and I can’t believe it’s entirely to blame, then the Gormogon storyline should have been continued into the next season where it could have been done with more grace and logic.
However, when such a revelation is just tossed in at the last minute, providing a climax for an already cheesy and lackluster arc (that had been largely ignored in the episodes leading up to the finale), it is disconcerting, illogical, and lame. It’s ridiculousness like this that makes a mediocre show so very mediocre. When shocking revelations are played solely as a stunt to gain a few extra viewers, it cheapens the show and insults the core audience. Hart Hanson may not care what the audience has to say about the show, even going so far as to imply that the finale gained more viewers and therefore it doesn’t matter how it was received, but when the people running the show are so short-sighted, I think taking others’ opinions into account would behoove your story-writing in the long-run.
I have yet to decide if I’m done with the show or not. Essentially, I no longer have what little confidence I had in the story-writing and have just lost one of the few redeeming characters on the show. Also, that the actor who portrays Zack (Eric Milligan) was basically unceremoniously fired from the show doesn’t cast a flattering light on the powers-that-be. I heard that they basically called Eric up out the blue and told him they needed to talk not long before the finale. Classy guys, really classy. Eric handled the situation with far more grace and composure than I would have. He was shocked by the decision, but never came across as bitter. I heard that several of his castmates, however, were certainly not okay with this development and expressed as much. Good for them.
Alas, only moderately okay show, we may be done. I guess time will tell (by which I mean we’ll have to see if there is anything, and I mean anything else at all that I can watch during that timeslot). Lord knows I wouldn’t do something productive or read a book or something to pass the time.
Season Grade: C+
Finale Grade: D
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