Eric, I'm now partway through season two, thanks to Netflix. I'm still not sure I'm sold on the show's writing, though. For one thing, each episode quickly devolves into a short self-contained morality play, where the mystery is "solved" because of some totally unique finding on the bones [this combination of pollen only occurs in one place in the mid-Atlantic!]. that part is getting tiresome. I was also frustrated that the minor characters don't seem to have their own arc. They just exist solely to move the plot along, and it seems as though no thought went into how they would develop over time. In season one there was an episode where Angie was central to the plot, and they did mention in passing that Hodgins was rich, but other than that, they are just plot devices. Now, in season two, we see some effort to add layers to the Angie and Hodgins characters (by hooking them up with each other, which is getting horribly drawn out). Other than that, there are no subplots that seem to traverse across episodes. As another example, the writers apparently couldn't figure out what to do with the former head of the jeffersonian, so instead of trying harder, they wrote him out of the show. I suspect that what happened to you was similar: the writers never bothered to develop your character, and eventually decided that it would be easier to introduce a new character than to work on yours. In my view, all characters should have their own path, even minor ones. For instance, one thought that came to me was that it would be great if Angie was in a car accident, and temporarily lost the use of her hands, and a subplot spanning a half-dozen episodes would track her reaction to the fact that she couldn't draw. I still have a season and a half to go, though. But I'm guessing that the writers simply decided to get rid of you because they hadn't spent any effort developing you, and didn't know where to start. I guess we'll see. I'm also not sure about the "Brennan" character. I can't come to grips with the fact that she is totally oblivious to societal norms and the people around her, yet she takes the time to put on makeup, dress snazzily, and do her hair every day. It does not fit. She's a mishmash of traits that don't go with each other. Anyway, I recently saw the episode about the tall man that was hit by the train. Was that filmed after Eddie Griffin died? Was the episode patterned in part after his death? And I'm still interested to know if it was difficult to learn some of your lines--the ones with the scientific terminology. Was there a consultant to help explain what your lines meant, and how to pronounce some of the words? Or were you left to yourself to figure that out?
Hardly. I was asked to watch the series and evaluate whether what happened to Eric's character "made sense," and I plan to follow through. Of course, I'm more than happy to keep my analysis to myself.
One thing about Bones pissed me off. That is that sometimes, you had to wait for that dumbass show to be over before House would come on. That they are still producing it.....amazing.
They get anywhere between 8-10 million viewers and I doubt its production cost is as high as a lot of series. Four million of those viewers are probably just for David Boreanaz alone. I doubt it lasts past six seasons though as ratings will start to decline and writing gets worn down. Plus it's Fox, so.
