Why I am Still Annoyed About the Bones Premiere

Season ten of Bones began on Thursday, September 25, 2014.  It is now three days later and I am still very annoyed, and even ticked off. 

There will be spoilers for the premiere in this.  I will also mention some things that tie back to earlier seasons that will also be spoilers if people haven’t seen those seasons yet. 

I started watching Bones from the very first episode and I enjoyed it for the first few years.  I think the show was pretty good at that point.  Then someone - the writers, producers, or creator Hart Hanson (or even all of the above) - started making story decisions that didn’t work that well or that just flat out annoyed me.  A few ticked me off so much that I stopped watching the show for a while.  The first time was when Angela and Hodgins broke up for a non existent reason.  That was in episode two or three or season four, right after the upsetting season three finale that turned Zack into the apprentice of a cannibal serial killer.  I got fed up and the season was probably half over before I watched an episode again.  Even once I did watch again, I wasn’t watching all the time.  There are still episodes that I haven’t seen from that season as well as a few episodes that I turn off if I come across them.  Things that happened in the 100th episode were horrible and I didn’t watch any more of that season.  I decided to give the show another chance with season six and I mostly stuck with it, though there was still more annoying stuff here and there.  I have had more issues with the series in the last few years, but I kept with it.  Then I watched the season ten premiere.

I was actually surprised in a good way with the finale of season nine and feel it is the best finale that Bones has had in a very, very long time.  That did make me a little more optimistic about the new season, though I also had the feeling that it wouldn’t last and something would be screwed up eventually.  I read some things from a few interviews with writers or producers mentioning some things that would happen and I was at least a little concerned about one or two things.  There wasn’t any sort of indication that a character would get injured let alone killed.  The sneak peek did show Booth in a bit of danger once or twice, but that was it. 

For the first part of the episode, things were mostly all right, though I don’t think some things fully worked or made sense.  I get why Temperance was worried about Booth and wanted him out of jail immediately, but I also get why he was upset over the way she did it.  Something about that doesn’t sit right with me.  Booth was very angry for most of the episode, and while I can understand why, an angry Booth isn’t pleasant.  I don’t know what to think about the new character that was introduced, a younger FBI agent.  I can’t remember his name right now.  In some ways, he feels like a replacement for Sweets.  The new guy seemed all right, but I don’t trust him yet.  I think my biggest issue is probably that Sweets was not a field agent even though he has assisted Booth a lot over the years.  He is a psychritrist first and foremost, so to me, it makes no sense that he went off alone to look for records or something.  Considering that they were trying to do an investigation without the big bad guy finding out, and said big bad guy showed that he has connections to send killers after Booth previously, it was stupid that anyone involved would go anywhere alone at that point.  It was just stupid and makes it that much more irritating.

Sweets did seem a little out of place when he was first added to the show.  He seemed nice enough at that point, but I didn’t particularly care about him one way or the other.  As the seasons progressed, I came to like him.  He wasn’t really a favorite character, but I liked him.  When I like characters, I do not like when bad things happen to them, and I most certainly don’t like it when a character I like is killed off.  If that happens too many times with a show, I’ll stop watching. 

After the episode aired Thursday night, I discovered that John Francis Daley, the actor who played Sweets, needed to the leave the show for other projects.  I have no problem with that.  I just don’t care for how the character was written off the show.  While his death does tie in with the story, I don’t think it was necessary.  This new big bad guy who is behind a conspiracy that goes back years and years and years was bad enough before this.  Sweets could have been injured, maybe even to the point that he needed some kind of specialized therapy, in another city, and that would have accomplished the same thing.  Or he could have gotten a promotion that involved moving or going away for new specialized training or something like that.  Anything would have been better than killing him. 

Bones does have a fairly large cast overall when you consider all the rotating interns that have in place since the incident with Zack.  Not many of them have officially left even though they may not be around very much.  Overall, the characters of actors who have left the show have not met good fates.  Zack became the apprentice of a cannibal serial killer and is locked up in a psychiatric hospital.  Vincent Nigel-Murray was shot by a sniper who was out to get Booth and now Sweets gets beat to death while trying to help Booth.  Yes three over the course of the series isn’t as bad as it could be, but that doesn’t make it any better.  Zack was a fan favorite and Vincent and Sweets seem to have been liked by most fans as well.  It just stinks that the show keeps doing things like this to the nice, likable characters. 

It seems very obvious that the writers are going to use Sweets’ death as motivation for the other characters and I for one believe they will drag out the aftermath long after there is a conclusion to the story with the current big bad guy.  This is setting up all sorts of issues with Booth that really aren’t needed.  This show has tried to do long, complicated stories before and every time, I’ve thought they have fallen flat in some way.  I do not have high hopes for this.  Frankly, I can see some rather stupid things being done in future episodes as a result of this.

Right after the premiere was over, an interview with one of the producers - I can’t remember who now and I have no intention of reading it again - showed up online.  The producer came across as a smug jerk, laughing about deciding to kill off Sweets and how that decision is the main reason why the real life pregnancy of Carla Gallo was written in.  Gallo plays Daisy, the woman that has been involved with Sweets, off and on, for several years.  It was made very clear that Sweets is the father.  The producer said it will be great.  I do not agree.  The producer was basically laughing at the fans of the show.  This is not the first time that a producer or writer of Bones has come across as smug and arrogant in an interview, brushing off fans who are upset.  I get that they can do what they want with the show, but they seem to be forgetting that without the fans, they will have no show. 

I am still annoyed and a bit ticked off over this.  I know it is just a tv show, but when I like a show, I get annoyed, irritated, and ticked off over stupid things.  Right now, I honestly don’t know if I will watch the second episode, let alone the rest of the season.

Season 10 of Bones Begins And I’m Already Annoyed

The tenth season of Bones began on Thursday, September 25, 2014 on FOX.  I have mostly watched the show since the first season, though there have been several times when I have gotten very, and I do mean very, irritated with the show.  I have stopped watching a few times, and even felt close to that point again last year.  I kept watching, though there are a couple episodes I still haven’t gotten to.  I was surprised by the finale.  It was very good and is the best finale the show has done in years. 

Things I have read or heard about the premiere recently started me to get concerned again.  The only thing this show has truly been consistent in is screwing stuff up in some way.  More often than not, this show has disappointed or ticked me off in some way.  That is why I have stopped watching more than once.  I guess I still hold out some sort of hope, which is why I have returned to the show time after time.  I don’t feel as, invested in the show as I use to be, so I end up feeling ambivalent about watching the new episodes at times.  I wasn’t completely sure that I was going to watch the new episode live before hand, but I did.  I am not happy.  

From here on, there could be spoilers, both for a few things from the last few seasons as well as from the premiere.  Read at your own risk.

After dealing with the super villain/hacker Pelant - a horrible character that I loath - for far to long, the show finally dealt with him in season nine.  Or at least they seemed to.  Then more complications surfaced when Temperance started having bad dreams about Pelant and became convinced that he had discovered a serial killer that has been active for years when he was mucking around to torment her and Booth.  I didn’t like the idea of that, even after evidence was found to prove that the Ghost Killer - what they started to call the killer - was real.  When it turned out that the Ghost Killer had recently been killed, I got more irritated because it seemed stupid to me to set up some new big serial killer, only for them to already be dead.  Then they discover that there is a huge cover up and conspiracy going on and it includes at least one person at the FBI.  Booth and Temperance keep digging, which makes them targets.  Season nine ended with some sort of black ops type team going into Booth and Temperance’s home to take him out.  When that doesn’t work, Booth is framed for the murder of three FBI agents.

The premiere episode picks up several months after the events of the finale.  I honestly don’t remember hearing how long in the episode, but I have read that it is supposed to be four months later.  Booth is in prison and it looks like he in general population.  Temperance and everyone at the Jeffersonian are working to prove that Booth is innocent by tracing back to the origin of the cover up.  They got a body dug up, but something was done that makes it almost impossible to fully examine the bones.  Temperance takes matters into her own hands to get Booth out of prison.  He seems more ticked off than anything by that.  It does seem to have been very risky for her to do, but he probably wouldn’t have been safe there much longer. 

Booth is having some issues, which makes sense given what he has been through recently.  Sweets is involved in helping as well.  Daisy turns up and it seems that not only are the two of them involved again, she is very pregnant.  I had read about that sometime last week I think it was.  The actress who plays Daisy is pregnant, but since Daisy is usually only in a few episodes a year, I didn’t get why it was written into the show.  I think I do now though, and I’m not really liking that either.  I’ll get to more on that in a minute.  Anyway, the team keeps working and they do manage to uncover some things and it is looking like progress is being made.  Then something goes horribly wrong.  Sweets was doing something related to a new search warrant - I can’t remember exactly what now.  Anyway, that went way wrong, someone beat the crap out of him, though Sweets made a point of saying he fought back and Booth would have been proud.  It seems there are some kind of massive internal injuries and he dies - with Booth and Temperance at his side - before the paramedics get there.

I am still in bit of shock over this.  It certainly surprised me since I never thought anything like that would happen and there were no hints of it in the stuff I have read over the summer about the new season.  Sweets wasn’t my favorite character, but I didn’t dislike him.  I didn’t like him that much when he first showed up, but he has grown on me and become more likable.  I am not happy about this at all.  Right now, I don’t know that I want to watch the next episode. 

I already read an interview with one of the producers that was up online right after the episode ended.  In it, the producer - I can’t remember his name, but I think it is the same one who adored Pelant as a character - mentioned how John Francis Daly, the actor who played Sweets, has also being writing and working on other projects, including directing new the National Lampoon’s Vacation movie, so some conflicts were coming up.  I can understand that, but I still don’t like that Sweets has been killed off, and in this way.  It was very clear immediately that Booth is going to be feeling extremely guilty about this, and the short preview of the next episode enforces that.  With the final scene, it is clear they are setting it up to be a mission for everyone at the Jeffersonian to find his killer.  While it may work for the story they are doing, I still don’t like it.  Booth was already moodier, which I get because of being framed and everything, but now it will be so much worse.  I am not looking forward to that.

The producer was laughing in the interview about a few things and talked about how fun this is going to be for the show, showing how the characters deal with the death and all that.  He basically said that the main reason Daisy is pregnant in the show is because they were killing Sweets off, so that will offer some fun story possibilities.  Ummm..no.  It isn’t fun when a likable character is killed off out of the blue like this.  It was also brought up in the interview about Wendell’s illness and how his fate may improve now..  He is one of the rotating interns and last season they decided to give him some kind of horrible bone cancer that is almost always fatal.  Since that happened, I have had a feeling that it was just a matter of time before they killed him off, something that would tick me off.  The producer sort of confirmed that had been the original plan and now, since they killed Sweets, Wendell’s fate will change.  That irritates me too.  

So once again, I am annoyed and aggravated with Bones.  I really did figure something in the episode would at least slightly annoy me, but I didn’t expect anything on this level.  I thought it would be a bit later in the season before I got this irritated again.  I should have known better, especially since they actually managed to have a good finale last season.