Archive for Reviews
An SUV falls into a sinkhole, uncovering a small green skeleton. While Brennan and the team try to determine cause of death, Booth seeks an unofficial opinion from psychiatrist-turned-chef Gordon Gordon Wyatt (Stephen Fry) after a poor showing on his way to being re-certified to carry a gun.
This episode continued the season-long theme of Booth becoming less sure of himself and more dependent on Brennan. As an old friend from Season 2, Wyatt is about the only person with whom Booth can discuss both his professional and personal lives. As always, Fry portrayed Wyatt with seemingly effortless eloquence.
The chance to hear Wyatt’s opinion and watch him interact with Booth, Brennan, and Sweets was more interesting to me than this week’s casework. The green skeleton was identified as a former midget wrestler, the Iron Leprechaun. The team figured out that while on parole, he tried to rob a cash-for-gold store to prove himself a good provider for the woman he loved, who happened to be his brother’s wife. After that, it was obvious who his killer was, but still resonated well with Booth and Brennan’s as-yet-unconsummated relationship.
While the sillier cases usually turn me off, the lighter case here allowed Sweets and Wyatt more time to wax psychological about Booth’s inability to shoot straight. I’m usually not a fan of characters analyzing other characters aloud, but again, Wyatt/Fry’s disarming delivery makes it palatable.
It occurs to me that the only time I enjoy Brennan’s dry tone is when she’s talking with Booth. In turn, Booth tells Brennan that talking with her makes him feel better. “It makes no logical sense, but it does.” They understand each other in a way no other two characters do. In this episode, Booth gets it when Brennan, in her way, makes a joke.
Finally, while previous episodes have hinted at Booth’s reliance on Brennan, this episode gave hard evidence: Booth performs superbly at the firing range after taking Wyatt’s advice to bring Brennan along.
In closing, I think Bones has succeeded where other shows have failed to balance personal and professional elements; Brennan and Booth’s personal interaction has always been part of the show. I only hope it stays fresh through future episodes and seasons.
The fourth season of Bones came to an end. In a recent interview with Zap2It, star Emily Deschanel spoke on a couple big plot twists: the return of Zack and the appearance of a Family Guy character.
How was it having Eric Millegan (Zack) back for the finale?
“It’s wonderful to have him back. I enjoy his company so much. I became friends with him over the years, like I have with most of the cast, and it was really hard to not have him around all the time. But that said, when he came back for the finale, it was as if no time had passed. He just walked in, and it was great to act with him again and hang out with him on set. It was a breath of fresh air.”
What can you say about the Stewie Griffin appearance?
“I thought it was such a brilliant crossover kind of episode. … I haven’t seen the end result, but the script was so funny and moving, and it’s kind of got emotion and drama. Basically, in that episode, I ask Booth to father a child with me, and he starts to hallucinate and sees Stewie from ‘Family Guy.’ The way it’s done is to be believable. I mean, if you’re going to see a hallucination, it might as well — it could be a cartoon as easily as it could be another human being, so I think it’s done very well.”
Show:
Bones (FOX)
Episode: “Yanks in the U.K., Parts 1 & 2″ – Season Premiere (Season 4)
Premiere Date: Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008
Rating: 3.5 out of 4 Stars
Quick Synopsis: The title pretty much says it all.
Long Synopsis: Agent Booth was invited to speak at Scotland Yard and Dr. Brennan was invited to speak at Oxford. While in London, the daughter of a prominent American living there is killed. Booth and Bones are asked to help out with the case. They work with their mirrored counterparts on the case. After finishing the investigation they are about to leave, when their skills are required on another case that may be related to the first one.
Review:
Bones is always a fun time, but this fish out of water version kicks it up a notch. They sure had a lot of fun with the differences between England and here in the States, which included some really funny scenes.
David Boreanaz’s Booth gets to have the most fun with these differences, from wanting a cup of coffee to driving a Mini.
But, as usual, some of the most fun is had back in the lab at the Jeffersonian. Clark Edison, played by Eugene Byrd (Crossing Jordan), is working for Dr. Brennan in place of Eric Millegan’s Dr. Addy. He keeps getting caught up in all the things happening around him and he just wants to do his work. While you can see some of them coming, watching him squirm while having to hear about them is pretty good.
The cast has really come together, although it was weird not having Dr. Addy around. His matter-of-fact logical reactions were some of the better moments on the show. While I really Dr. Sweets, played by John Francis Daley (Freaks and Geeks), his presence doesn’t really make up for the loss, which is readily evident in this episode.
Overall, Bones is always worth watching, but here on a Wednesday night that hasn’t had anything worth watching all summer, it is a definite must watch. When the rest of the networks get up and running this fall, it will be in competition with America’s Next Top Model on The CW, Knight Rider on NBC, Pushing Daisies on ABC, and The New Adventures of Old Christine and its new companion Gary Unmarried on CBS.
Bones season four premieres tonight, Wednesday, September 3rd on FOX.
Check out some photos from the episode below.
Bones S.4 Ep.1 & Ep.2 Photos
(Click on a photo to see a larger version with description)
