I rather enjoyed it… but damn did I hate the holographic display. It was just so damned unnecessary- done right, modern-day, realistic technology would be just as interesting.
The show didn’t set my world on fire or anything, but I’ll watch it for now.
Did they ever say how they discovered the body at the bottom of the pond in the first place? Do they dredge the pond in Arlington National Cemetery a lot?
I also chuckled when they put the graphic onscreen that identified the cemetery after they’d already mentioned it. How scary is it that they expect their audience not to recognize the place?
(So…uh…the holographic thingy wasn’t real? Too bad, it was neat-o.)
I’m going to chime in and say I am very happy that David B. is working again, and I think he did a great job. I liked the musical elements, but would have to agree that the holographic simulator will be the death knell to this show.
I could also do without the constant “I have no pop culture references, hee, hee” lines from Bones. While we’re at it, what was with the opening scene showing what’s her name flashing the guy at the counter? That seemed a bit gratuitous to me. (although a lovely bustier I must say)
I give the show about 6 episodes before it’s gone. Unless the opener was just trying to put too much information into 1 episode and they settle down over the next few.
Wally
While I liked Deschanel and Boreanaz, the supporting science crew characters seem like they follow some sort of new stereotypes that we’ve come to know from the other forensics shows, like the CSI franchise, and the like, as if they were created with the help of focus groups or something. There’s the nerdy young guy whose Id overwhelms his personality; the pretty young girl who is a braniac geek but probably never has sex with anyone; and the helpful guy who is relatively straight and narrow.
Even Deschanel and Boreanaz have that stereotype problem: Bones with her serious problems relating to people; Boreanaz who is the straight and narrow foil for her weird character flaws.
The use of rock music to help facilitate science and thinking and problem solving sequences is another stereotype in the current trends within this genre.
These are problems which might limit it, and make some people say, well, I already have three CSI shows to choose from, plus a few other CSI clones, so why should I watch Bones?
Why? If the viewing public wanted realism and scientific accuracy in their forensic science dramas, *CSI * would never have taken off and spawned 43 sequels and 796 knockoffs. It was nifty-looking. This show belongs next to *24 * in the “Reasonably entertaining but in no way resembling reality” category.
I thought it was pretty lame. As soon as I saw that senator chewing gum I announced “She’s going to get a DNA sample from it.” It was also pretty silly for the other guy to try to take the gum from her but I guess it established for us that this scientist could kick ass and wouldn’t be man handled. The disdain between the FBI and scientist seemed especially contrived. Does the FBI, or law enforcement in general, really have disdain for those analyze evidence? It might be one of the few Fox programs that deserves the axe.
Marc
Actually, that got established by the opening scene in the show. For her to beat up the aide was just gratuitous.
I’m guessing this show will be extremely formulaic: most of the plots will involve a dead guy, bones only, and it’s Up To Her to figure out who it was, how the person died, and why. She’ll figure it out, and, in most cases, end up in a Silence of the Lambs ending where she’s one-on-one against a murder, relying on her kung fu skillz and handy revolver to bring the perpetrator to justice.
She’s already established that she’s willing to shoot people. This can’t end well for her. Or, rather, it shouldn’t… that kind of justice may work on Firefly, but not in a show set in Washington, D.C.
So this show has nothing to do with DeForrest Kelley, then.
Grumble, grumble, grumble.
Well, he is dead, you know… 
<< blinks >>
Say what?
I found it such a disappointment.
I was hoping for somebody who could solve crimes.
Instead, the lead is a nerd (and unbelieveable judo expert) who is simply handed all the evidence, guesses who’s bones she’s looking at. Guesses the perp is the ones everyone’s already guessed in the tabloids, and tries to pin it on him. Is this how we want the police to operate?
Then, when that’s wrong, she just guesses the next guy to pin it on.
No searching for suspects and clues, the answer is just handed to her.
Apparently the only thing they took from the books was the word Bones.
Will tape it once or twice more, but so far, unimpressed as well.
CSI has two or three stories running through it - this had one very weak storyline and the superduper hologram was a bit much. Plus, far too many coincidences and most of the plot was easy to figure out long in advance.
I was disappointed in the show. I’ve enjoyed the Temperance Brennan books, and when I learned that Kathy Reichs would be one of the producers of this series, I got my hopes up. Now all I can say is “meh.” The first episode was so formulaic that I almost fell asleep. I liked Emily Deschanel, but nothing else grabbed me.
Yeah, since June of 1999.
He’d dead, Jim.
As an old Miami Vice fan, I say, “bah!” It’s “MTV forensics”–& perfectly acceptable in a pilot.
I like Boreanaz better as a cop than as a Repentant Vampire.
I thought the song during the skull assembly was so bad that I turned the sound off until they started talking again.
It has some potential, but I was seriously underwhelmed.
What’s on opposite?
Ditto, except that I had it Tivo’d, so I just fast-forwarded.
Pretty much all my complaints have already been listed: the magic hologram, the not-one-but-two musical interludes, the “Jeffersonian?”, the stereotype supporting cast, the “awkwaaarrd” moment. I’ll add one: “squints”. After you’ve used your cute-new-word more than twice, it becomes annoying.
And nobody chews gum unless they’re about to provide a DNA sample. And nobody throws out factoids like “tropical fish fancier” unless it will become Big Clue at the end.
But I didn’t hate it as much as it sounds.
That’s what I was talkin’ about in my spoiler. Not ten minutes earlier we’d been lectured on diatomaceous earth, including the fact that it’s used in fish tanks; so when the reference to the aide’s tropical fish hobby came up, it should have been a Big Clue right then, not twenty minutes later. I hate when supposedly brilliant characters become slow whenever the plot calls for it.
Yeah, yeah. I know. I just refuse to accept it.