Bones

[Bryan]

Originally Posted by SamIAm

Pretty sure Bones is coming back next season. I think I read something about a two-hour season premiere next August.

Yes - in England, so I believe! Featuring Stephen Fry I guess

[tojoson]

I noticed on the upfront report

here

that Eric Milligan (Zack Addy) is NOT in the cast list, but John Francis Daley (Dr. Lance Sweets) is.

I know that Zack is injured in the season final, but I wonder if he dies, or maybe he's the Gormagon apprentice.

[starlet2367]

Wow. Is it just me or did that ep make absolutely *no* sense?

[SamIAm]

Originally Posted by starlet2367

Wow. Is it just me or did that ep make absolutely *no* sense?

Nothing about Zack made any sense anyway. Ah, well... Blame the strike? Sucks though; I really liked Zack.

[rainy]

Originally Posted by starlet2367

Wow. Is it just me or did that ep make absolutely *no* sense?

Absolute agreement. I will even enumerate some of my "huh?!" moments:
1.) The opening sequence with Booth
2.) The grad students going through all of the bones
3.) Zack making such obvious blunders
4.) No one else picking up on who else lives in the area near Hodges house
5.) The writers thinking they could manipulate the viewers into confusing Zacks niavate with a weak will
6.) The anticlimatic hunt for the master in his lair
7.) The boring ending

But . . . as is the ST way (zero to porn in the speed of light ) I must say the tub scene almost made up for it. And we all know Boreanaz had NO trouble doing that one. And the duckie perched on his knee? Priceless.

[ophelia]

I agree-- it felt VERY slapped together. I'm just chalking it up to the writer's strike and the fact that they had to jam a WHOLE bunch of crazy into one episode. (Really? Zach went that crazy that fast?)

But color me impressed that with all they had to squeeze in plot-wise-- they were STILL wise enough to give us naked Booth.

[Angela]

While the episode as a whole was weak, I thought the last sequence was absolutely abysmal. I might could buy Zach being the apprentice if someone had been working on him for years, but seriously...we're supposed to believe he turned from a law-abiding crime-solving scientist who worships Bones into a sociopathic monster with a matter of three months? Seriously? They totally lost me there. And for the end of a storyline they've been building as long as this one, the death of Gormagon and the wrap-up of Zach's loss by the crew at the end was just flat and almost boring. I can't believe that was it. And don't get me started on the sequence of logic that Bones used to help Zach see the light, so to speak. Blech. That left a bad taste in my mouth.

(But I did like seeing Bones and Boothe at the end. Silver lining, I suppose, that the two of them were able to comfort each other.)

[ophelia]

The Zach timeline is really what bothered me most too, Angela. I mean-- would it have been that hard for them to have given it a longer timeline for Zach? And I thought what we learned earlier in the season was that Gormagon (or however you spelled it) worked with at-risk youth. Wasn't Zach a little, well, OLD?

[rainy]

Originally Posted by Angela

I might could buy Zach being the apprentice if someone had been working on him for years, but seriously...we're supposed to believe he turned from a law-abiding crime-solving scientist who worships Bones into a sociopathic monster with a matter of three months? Seriously? They totally lost me there.

Yes and yes. We never did learn what happened when Zach went overseas last year. Could we have done a post-traumatic-stress tie in or meeting someone over there that assisted him in going down this path or even if he was frightened to death of what his non-compliance would bring (going off of how he said that he was taken one night to the lair).

With a ton of complex angles to take it just made me want to ask the witers, "that's all you got?"

[Helena]

Is he who plays Zach leaving the show or taking time off?

[starlet2367]

Helena, the actor isn't in the cast list for next season, according the press release for the Fox up fronts. Did anyone drag that over here yet? I can track it down, if not.

I'm hugely disappointed in this, for all the reasons you guys stated, but mostly because it felt like the sloppiest, most desperate writing ever. Zack's not a killer and they've gone a long way to show his respect for life in many other episodes. He's tender-hearted but tenderness doesn't equal weakness. While Zack is extremely intelligent and logical, you can't shred a person's nature and turn them into a killer in three months just by appealing to their logic. I mean, WTF?!?! If they were going to set this up as a manifestation of his time overseas, a clue beforehand would have been nice.

And even though it's always nice to see naked DB, putting that scene in there was so OOC for Booth that it jarred me totally out of the story. Booth likes retro and macho, but that scene was just juvenile. And wasn't he near-fatally wounded three days before? Shouldn't he, um, be in the hospital?

[Morrigan]

OK so I'm really curious b/c I see comments like this over a TWOP about the Bones finale and up to the last couple of episodes of House.

People seem to be blaming the writers strike for crappy episodes and stupid storylines and plots and I'm trying to figure out why? I can understand that kind of attitude with a show like BSG, Lost and Heroes but not a procedural like House or Bones where each episode is self-contained.

I guess I'm wondering why people are blaming the strike and not the producers/writers for telling a stupid story? Logically with a procedural, you can tell a single episode story, and save any overall story arc for next season.

[SamIAm]

Originally Posted by Morrigan

People seem to be blaming the writers strike for crappy episodes and stupid storylines and plots and I'm trying to figure out why?

Because there probably won't be another writer's strike for a while, so that won't be an issue going forward. But if you accept the writers put out a stupid story, you're stuck with knowing that's going to happen again, and probably soon.

Alas, this was just a stupid story.

[Morrigan]

Originally Posted by SamIAm

Because there probably won't be another writer's strike for a while, so that won't be an issue going forward. But if you accept the writers put out a stupid story, you're stuck with knowing that's going to happen again, and probably soon.

Alas, this was just a stupid story.

Ah that makes sense, I always tend to take a more critical approach, if it sucks I blame the writers/producers and then walk away. I don't really get so attached to shows that I can't walk away from them if they annoy me.

[Cordy's Bitch]

I think they're setting up a storyline for next year, wherein Bones goes missing, or is kidnapped or something, and realizes that the only person they can get to interpret the clues that will lead him to Bones is Zach.

Thus, we have Zach returning, almost a la a Hannibal Lecter like scenario to help, intimidating the hell out of whatever newbie they get to replace him in the meantime, stirring up old issues between Zach and the rest of the cast.

Unfortunately, I think they're using Zach as a "There but for the grace of God goes Bones" tool. The characters have been compared quite closely (with both being said to possibly having Aspberger's Syndrome).

What I hope? If they're going to do that, play up the Hannibal Lecter scenario in a way. Have Zach become more well adjusted in his time away, with a sharper sense of humor. I think that would creep out / disarm the remaining cast more than anything.