Could it be? A truly procedural episode of 'Bones'?... Yes!
What's it about?
A ballet dancer is murdered and Booth and Brennan are led to suspect a group of street dancers in the crime. Meanwhile, Booth's girlfriend Hannah is shot, leaving Booth to worry about her health.
Review
On the one hand you could say that this episode is a bit of a generic crime-of-the-week episode of 'Bones' rather than another example of the show at its creative best, particularly after the last episode screened before the month long break, but on the other hand you could say that this is a shining example of how 'Bones' can still rock even when it is playing the part of pure crime procedural.
We all know that what sets 'Bones' apart from the man 'CSI' type shows in the world is the fact that it's characters take precedent over its crimes so that their interpersonal relationship become the crux of the show and the crimes become secondary entertainment.
Well this week those relationships take a bit of a backseat (bar the obvious love triangle) and the crimes becomes the focal point of the episode and quite a crime it is too. We get our usual poor young fool who unwittingly stumbles across a bizarrely buried corpse in the teaser and from there the show experiments with what it would be like to be crime centric.
Instead of becoming bogged down (in a good way) by their own personal troubles each of the characters shine in their separate areas of the investigation and the teams pulls together to show what a crime fighting machine their really are. The prize for most cool moment in the show has to go to Angela and her laser skeleton model making machine, it actually rivals the long dead Angelator which has somehow morphed from cubic projector to awesome transparent monitor.
After over five years of episodes the audience will never forget the relationships which linger in the background here and that is probably the single most important reason as to why this episode works: because we care, we don't care this episode has none of what we expect.
What really matters this week is that these people are experts in their field and it was about time that we focussed on that, even for a moment, and allowed them the chance to do what they do best. All this does make me wonder what is coming up over the next few weeks if we are being lulled in this sense that everything is going well for the team and that they are at the top of their game.
We've all heard the spoilerific rumours that a member of the cast is going to be killed off this season so maybe this level of contentment we are currently experiencing is beginning of the build up to this potentially tragic episode.
The relationship between Brennan, Booth and Hannah is becoming more interesting to watch. The writers would be well aware that the majority of the audience would be rooting for her to be killed off or removed from the show as quickly as possible to allow our two leads to get together but instead of that they're doing the exact opposite and breaking our hearts in the process.
Where you would expect large amounts of screen time dedicated to Booth and Hannah exploring their relationship this week we're spending more time delving in to the relationship between the two most important women in Booth's life and it's proving to be more interesting that way.
As audience members we are starting to become conflicted: on the one hand we want to see Brennan and Booth get together but on the other hand we're witnessing that after years of social awkwardness Brennan can makes friends and be a real person. It's hard to tell sometimes which would be the more compelling to watch.
Suddenly I find myself not rooting for Hannah to fall prey to one of the various murderers on the show!
Creatively we're seeing some experimentation on the show at the moment and I, for one, am enjoying it. I'd be happy to watch the format of any previous season of this show go on for years but it's a stronger testament to the faith that network have in the show that at this stage they're still allowing the writers to try new things and shake up the cast and characters even if the results are not what the audience are hoping for.
Can this show actually get any better?
Next week...
The past and present collide when human remains from a 150-year-old slave ship, the Amelia Rose, surface. The team is tasked to give the deceased a proper burial but make an unforeseen discovery linked to a recent murder. In the course of the investigation, Booth and Brennan are led to a different kind of ship—a cougar cruise—where they learn their victim was seen moments before his death. Meanwhile, Sweets struggles to maintain a casual relationship with Daisy, and Cam discovers a surprising and emotional connection to the Amelia Rose.
Overall
Story 4.5
Character 4.0
Crime solving 4.5
Overall 4.5
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