Bones Gives Birth to Christine Angela!

The Spring premiere of Bones, The Prisoner in the Pipe did more than just debut the show in it’s new timeslot; it debuted a whole new character. Yes, the Bones family proudly welcomed Christine Angela into the fold. Was it perfect? For me, it was mostly perfect. Am I flailing like kermit the frog over it? No, but after being the most hyped episode seven years in the making, you can’t expect to please everyone. That being said, here’s what I liked, loved, and tolerated.

The Case
I’m not getting into the case at all in this one, suffice it to say that I enjoyed it. It was well-paced, nothing about the crime work seemed unbelievable at any time to me, and I bought it. It was actually interesting, as opposed to other cases in the past and I enjoyed the fact that the majority of the solving was done in the field. Brennan’s experiment with the cookbook greatly reminded me of the on-the-spot crime solving in The Baby in the Bough. It flowed easily and there was a happy balance of squints & B&B.
Status: Liked

Daisy Mae Wick’s Blatant Disrespect for her Mentor’s Office Floor/Cervix
Firstly, yes I have given Daisy a middle name if only for the fact that I needed to scream her full name at the TV. “DAISY MAE WICK, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” The whole scene in Brennan’s office I likened to the time my dog Freckles decided to use the living room rather than the great outdoors to do her business. See, like Daisy, Freckles was kind of stupid and never seemed to learn her lesson. I knew she couldn’t be trusted. Like Freckies, I knew Daisy was up to something, the minute I saw her there. I caught Daisy mid-piddle. I just wanted to whack her on the nose with a newspaper and say “No!” repeatedly.

Ditto on Daisy the Doula. A thousand times no with a newspaper.

Status: Tolerated. It’s all you can do with Daisy

Sweets and Booth
Normally, I can’t really stand the two of them together. I feel like Sweets place in the field is a little forced even if he’s doing something as simple as profiling. In my mind, Booth’s partner is Brennan and I think I’ve harbored a little angst towards Sweets because of this. I much more enjoyed Sweets place as a psychologist. And just like Brennan said in the 100th, “It’s your job as a psychologist to get everything wrong.” Like say, attempting to pull one of on a woman who is far smarter than you.
Status: Loved (No Soccer)

The Blatant Foreshadowing
While I wasn’t able to guess the killer straight off the bat, the writing was literally on the wall in other scenes. The minute Brennan mentioned the Bible story, I knew where we were headed with this. So did my 17 year old sister and my mom. I knew from spoilers that she’d give birth in the barn, but it only made for a more frustrating viewing experience when they guessed and then proceeded to pester me with “Come, on just tell us!” Also, the line about “Whoever wrote that knew how to manipulate an audience” came off a little harsher than intended when looking back on it.
Status: Tolerated it.

The Baby in the Manger
As I said with the blatant foreshadowing, from the middle of the episode I knew that this was going to happen. The only thing that made me upset about this was that my very good friend who happened to be on the fence about Bones gave up after this. “Her child is Christlike? Come on! Done!” she tweeted me. I’m hardly a religious person at all, but the comparisons were stretched thin at best. It was even a bit much for my tastes.
Status: Tolerated It

The Birth
If you take away the location and look at the birth as a standalone scene, it was epic. EPIC. Others have said that it’s been hard to accept Brennan and Booth as a couple, but to them I say, just watch this scene. The one thing that I walked away from this knowing was that they are so in love with each other its amazing. Its not about kisses or sex. Its about taking care of each other, and assuring each other that you’re there for each other. That’s exactly what this scene did with both the writing and the direction. When Booth apologizes for not getting Brennan to the hospital in time, you can see that he’s feeling like a failure as father. It’s his job to make sure Brennan and the baby are safe, that’s all he’s tried to do and now, here they are in this place where its the polar opposite of everything he’s envisioned for the birth of his daughter. In his mind, he’s failed. That ONE line of apology to Brennan, all of that came across.

And her response to him is even better. “This is a perfect place. This is a perfect place,” she says. She’s laying on a dirty floor covered in hay and its perfect. And I don’t buy that she’s happy she can control the situation, because at this point we’ve all realized that Temperance has lost complete control. When she follows up by telling him that children raised on farms have far fewer allergies and respiratory issues, she’s turned to logic once again to assure him that he’s done good. Those two lines of dialogue spoke more to me about the love the two have for each other than any other scene in the entire episode. Putting the religious aspect of the birth aside, it was the perfect place.

The bickering between the two never stopped, but you know what else didn’t? Their hold on each other. If you watch the scene, you’ll notice that they’re holding onto each other as much as they possibly can in every single moment. It echoes the song at the end: it shows how bad they need each other. Not to mention Booth wiping the sweat off her forehead. Sigh. David Boreanaz could deliver my baby anyday. Yeah, I said it.

Additionally, Brennan’s last line in that scene: “Look at us. We’re a family.” Emily Deschanel played that so perfectly that I would not change a thing. The first thing I looked back on was in season 2 when she says, “I’m just one of those people who doesn’t get to have a family.” And now, she’s holding her daughter and laughing. It was perfectly executed by the director, the actors and the writers.

Status: LOVED

So that’s my take on the big things. What say you Bones fans? Liked it? Loved it? Hated it? Do you feel manipulated as an audience? I wanna know! Hit the comments and lets discuss!

Glee Review: “Audition”

Alright, I’ll say it. I didn’t like the Glee premiere. Fire at will…but only after you read my reasoning.

Keep in mind that with the hype Glee sustained this past year (19 Emmy nominations, 4 wins, a sold-out concert tour and ratings that other shows only dream of) it’s understandable that I could find the season premiere disappointing. After all, that hype lasted all summer and the season premiere has been promoted as if it’s the second coming of Christ. It’s bound to be a let-down, at least in some ways.

Let’s start with the beginning because as a classic show tune goes, that is a very good place to start. The beginning is the opportunity a show has to hook you, and pull you back in. In Glee’s case, the line didn’t even catch. Jacob’s video blog highlighting the Glee club fell flat for me as it came off with a tone one can only describe as smug. Yes, it ended with Kurt getting a slushie to the face, thus showing the audience that the Glee club certainly wasn’t too big for their britches but for me that slushie came a few minutes too late.

After that, it didn’t seem to get any better. The unholy alliance of Sue and Will made little sense to me in the season finale, and it made even less in the premiere. My number one problem: Will isn’t cruel. By no means has Will Shuester ever come across as having a mean bone in his body. It’s completely believable for Sue to refuse to sit with Beiste by telling her that she’s saving the seats for her “ghost friends.” Shuester, however? No. So for him to so easily engage in activities that would so easily cause emotional pain to another human being…I just don’t buy it. Yes, he understands how he wronged her, and it comes too little too late, for both him and me as a viewer.

It saddened me greatly to learn that Quinn’s growth (which at times felt forced last season) was only a result of her pregnancy hormones. The minute she zipped up that Cheerio’s uniform, it was pre-preggo Bitch Quinn all over again. She stood in front of Sue and had no problem trying to use her pregnancy as a bargaining chip to get back on the squad. When promising to preach abstinence didn’t work, she spilled Santana’s secret to ensure that she could reign supreme. So, what about Quinn’s life long friendship with Mercedes?

Where are our lines?

Speaking of Mercedes…where the hell was she? And Kurt? If Chris Colfer had won an Emmy, would he have had more lines? Because short of his slushie rant, and his comment about fashion having no gender, I couldn’t seem to find him. Seriously, Mike Chang had more screen time.

Of course, there were some strong points. I did nearly pee when Rachel described Sunshine as a Filipino that was shorter than her. Charice killed that performance of “Listen” (she certainly fared better than Overstreet’s Billionaire) and Lea Michele once again proved her worth with “What I Did For Love.” In fact, Rachel was the only one who seemed in character this entire episode. I truly believe she would send someone to a crack house for love….love of herself.

Am I giving up on Glee? Absolutely not. I’m certainly not watching NCIS at 8PM on a Tuesday and this was only the first episode of the season. And next week’s Britney Spears episode looks mind blowing.

Alright Glee...You Can Hit Me One More Time

Critics React to Community Season 2 Premiere

Yes, it’s time for yet another one of my infamous “I’m just going to tell you what other people are saying because I’m not cool enough to have gotten my hands on an advanced copy of a season premiere” blogs. It seems that over the past few days those lucky bastards TV critics have had the distinct pleasure of viewing the season 2 premiere of Community, which airs next Thursday, September 23rd at 8PM on NBC. I’ll admit, I was a little jealous (a la Annie’s reaction to Britta being nominated for Trannie Queen) but I sucked it up, and came home and did what any normal girl would do. I hunkered down with some pomegranate seeds and started scanning the Twitterverse for tweets about the premiere like the girls at Command PR scan Perez Hilton to see what their clients are up to. The good news is: Reactions to the premiere didn’t include pleas to leave Betty White alone* and only one of the reactions references a bigamist marriage. The bad news is: I’m fairly certain by doing this I’ve stolen the task of one of Dan Harmon’s interns. Sorry, lil buddy.

*Why leave Betty White alone? Go read all the reviews and then watch a hilarious PSA about the ethical treatment of Betty White. (Note: While, I can’t speak for NBC, Dan Harmon or the cast and crew of Community I feel safe in the assumption that no Betty Whites were harmed in the making of the season 2 premiere of Community) On to the reviews….

And now…a word from Grandchildren For The Ethical Treatment of Betty White….

So there you have it Community fans, Dan Harmon and Dan Harmon’s intern who probably wants to kill me for taking his job. That’s what the critics are saying about the season 2 premiere! One week and the rest of us will speak out about your hilarity and brilliance.

Are we excited? I’ll toss that one to Shep…

Before I respond to that, I'll have to take an Extra Strength Vitamin Duh.