so maybe I will say something about Bones
But first, have a Farscape fic rec! Two years ago, kernezelda indulged my out-of-all-reasonable-proportion love for Xhalax Sun by writing me awesome Xhalax birthday fic: Butterfly Effect. It's AU season 3, and now she's written more in that 'verse: Chrysalis. Once again with the achey, perfect Xhalax voice--Kerne really captures exactly what it is that makes me adore this minor character and her relationship with Aeryn. And extra points, too, for being what is loosely, at least, female friendship fic. I mean, they're not exactly friends, or even very friendly, but non-romantic relationships between women FTW.
(It suddenly occurs to me that it may well be this whole relationships-between-women thing that contributes so strongly to my love of the Xhalax-Aeryn storyline in the first place. For all that I love Farscape, that's not something it typically does as well as it might, but I love it when it does happen.)
Anyway, there's precious little Xhalax Sun fic in the world, and now there's more, and this can only be a good thing!
**
And Bones. I wasn't sure whether I was going to talk about it or not, because I didn't have lots of thoughts immediately post-viewing other than "hee!!! show!!!" because it is my unintellectual happy place. It continues to be my unintellectual happy place, but being me, I had to analyze why that is. :P
Also, it seems to have spurred a minor debate in the TV blogosphere about the whole will-they-or-won't-they trope of couples with lots of UST, and I find it interesting that people are saying things I essentially agree with in principle, yet somehow find I don't mind whatsoever when it comes to Bones. My favorite commentary so far is fialka's here. I say "favorite" in the sense that it's well-written and well-reasoned and generally sensible, in typical fialka style, even though ultimately I part ways with her conclusions. Mo Ryan, using similar reasoning to Fialka, is breaking up with Bones. And in an interesting related piece, Linda Holmes at NPR points out that requiting the David/Maddie UST is not actually what ruined Moonlighting.
As I said, I agree with Fialka (and Mo Ryan) in principle: as much as I love me some UST, dragging it out forever is awful, and eventually makes me hate shows. L&O: SVU is a great example of this. X-Files is a better example, in many ways, though I never actually broke up with that show. And I agree with Fialka that what writers should really be thinking about is not whether getting a couple together (or not getting them together) is going to ruin the show, but about writing whatever happens well and convincingly, and letting the characters develop naturally. Farscape, of course, is the greatest example I can think of of a show that got the characters together and made the relationship itself part of the story and never shied away from letting the characters and the relationship grow organically (while also never turning it into a soap opera).
So I agree in principle. Except...I really don't care with Bones. It's a bad example of this trope, at least as a trope done in good faith, because there is no question of whether they will or whether they won't: they will. Obviously. The show has told us that in exactly those words. But in the meantime, they're not finished playing with the formula. Because Bones, even more than most procedurals, is a formula: quirky crime, mostly in the background, interspersed with fun and often silly teamy and UST-y moments, with a shippy Booth/Brennan tag at the end of the episode. It's like clockwork, and it works because the show is so aware of the formula, and of the fact that the audience is aware of the formula. The characters don't grow and develop. Really, they don't. I've just watched the whole series pretty quickly, and Booth and Brennan's relationship is in pretty much exactly the same place in season 2 as it is in season 4. The formula is the same. The shippy moments are the same--no more or less shippy in season 4 than in season 2. The two steps forward, one step back thing is itself consistent, and it is indicative of the fact that these characters are not actually developing. So to expect growth and development from a show that has not actually delivered on that front in at least three seasons is kind of setting yourself up for disappointment, I'd think. And I don't blame Fialka or Mo Ryan or anyone else who is disappointed in the way the show constantly teases about B/B, because I've certainly been there with other shows, and it's annoying, but I sort of feel like the rules don't apply to this show.
Bones is not a show about solving murders, and it's not a show about a band of quirky scientists and their FBI agent friend who solve the murders, and it's not even a show about the relationship between Booth and Brennan. It's a show about procedural tropes. The things that other shows take seriously--the forensics, the crime-solving, the will-they-or-won't-they UST of the central couple--Bones plays around with and exposes as tropes. And nowhere was that clearer than in "Harbingers in the Fountain" with all of the blatant telegraphing of the Booth/Brennan stuff. It's not even "as if" the show looked at the audience with a giant wink and said "now we will push the Magic Reset Button"--they did exactly that as clearly as if they said the actual words. The writers knew they were doing it, we knew they were doing it: the entire episode was a meta commentary about UST on television shows. And then they told us what we already knew (in part because we got the same thing verbatim back in season 2, another instance of how little growth there is in this show): don't worry, it'll all work out eventually.
So Bones is still my happy place. I like the formula. If I didn't like the formula, I could never have gotten through the four existing seasons--because all this show has is formula and chemistry! It either works for you or it doesn't, I think, and I understand why it doesn't work for people, but it's not as though the show is masquerading as something it isn't. I expect to enjoy season 5 just as much as I enjoyed the seasons that came before it--which is a hell of a lot--but I'm not expecting anything new or different from it.
As for the ep itself, I was delighted, perhaps especially by all the anvilicious winking, though even I had to roll my eyes at the idea that anyone could imagine that Booth was somehow only NOW in love with Brennan. But I'll handwave it. It's a handwavy kind of show, after all.
(It suddenly occurs to me that it may well be this whole relationships-between-women thing that contributes so strongly to my love of the Xhalax-Aeryn storyline in the first place. For all that I love Farscape, that's not something it typically does as well as it might, but I love it when it does happen.)
Anyway, there's precious little Xhalax Sun fic in the world, and now there's more, and this can only be a good thing!
**
And Bones. I wasn't sure whether I was going to talk about it or not, because I didn't have lots of thoughts immediately post-viewing other than "hee!!! show!!!" because it is my unintellectual happy place. It continues to be my unintellectual happy place, but being me, I had to analyze why that is. :P
Also, it seems to have spurred a minor debate in the TV blogosphere about the whole will-they-or-won't-they trope of couples with lots of UST, and I find it interesting that people are saying things I essentially agree with in principle, yet somehow find I don't mind whatsoever when it comes to Bones. My favorite commentary so far is fialka's here. I say "favorite" in the sense that it's well-written and well-reasoned and generally sensible, in typical fialka style, even though ultimately I part ways with her conclusions. Mo Ryan, using similar reasoning to Fialka, is breaking up with Bones. And in an interesting related piece, Linda Holmes at NPR points out that requiting the David/Maddie UST is not actually what ruined Moonlighting.
As I said, I agree with Fialka (and Mo Ryan) in principle: as much as I love me some UST, dragging it out forever is awful, and eventually makes me hate shows. L&O: SVU is a great example of this. X-Files is a better example, in many ways, though I never actually broke up with that show. And I agree with Fialka that what writers should really be thinking about is not whether getting a couple together (or not getting them together) is going to ruin the show, but about writing whatever happens well and convincingly, and letting the characters develop naturally. Farscape, of course, is the greatest example I can think of of a show that got the characters together and made the relationship itself part of the story and never shied away from letting the characters and the relationship grow organically (while also never turning it into a soap opera).
So I agree in principle. Except...I really don't care with Bones. It's a bad example of this trope, at least as a trope done in good faith, because there is no question of whether they will or whether they won't: they will. Obviously. The show has told us that in exactly those words. But in the meantime, they're not finished playing with the formula. Because Bones, even more than most procedurals, is a formula: quirky crime, mostly in the background, interspersed with fun and often silly teamy and UST-y moments, with a shippy Booth/Brennan tag at the end of the episode. It's like clockwork, and it works because the show is so aware of the formula, and of the fact that the audience is aware of the formula. The characters don't grow and develop. Really, they don't. I've just watched the whole series pretty quickly, and Booth and Brennan's relationship is in pretty much exactly the same place in season 2 as it is in season 4. The formula is the same. The shippy moments are the same--no more or less shippy in season 4 than in season 2. The two steps forward, one step back thing is itself consistent, and it is indicative of the fact that these characters are not actually developing. So to expect growth and development from a show that has not actually delivered on that front in at least three seasons is kind of setting yourself up for disappointment, I'd think. And I don't blame Fialka or Mo Ryan or anyone else who is disappointed in the way the show constantly teases about B/B, because I've certainly been there with other shows, and it's annoying, but I sort of feel like the rules don't apply to this show.
Bones is not a show about solving murders, and it's not a show about a band of quirky scientists and their FBI agent friend who solve the murders, and it's not even a show about the relationship between Booth and Brennan. It's a show about procedural tropes. The things that other shows take seriously--the forensics, the crime-solving, the will-they-or-won't-they UST of the central couple--Bones plays around with and exposes as tropes. And nowhere was that clearer than in "Harbingers in the Fountain" with all of the blatant telegraphing of the Booth/Brennan stuff. It's not even "as if" the show looked at the audience with a giant wink and said "now we will push the Magic Reset Button"--they did exactly that as clearly as if they said the actual words. The writers knew they were doing it, we knew they were doing it: the entire episode was a meta commentary about UST on television shows. And then they told us what we already knew (in part because we got the same thing verbatim back in season 2, another instance of how little growth there is in this show): don't worry, it'll all work out eventually.
So Bones is still my happy place. I like the formula. If I didn't like the formula, I could never have gotten through the four existing seasons--because all this show has is formula and chemistry! It either works for you or it doesn't, I think, and I understand why it doesn't work for people, but it's not as though the show is masquerading as something it isn't. I expect to enjoy season 5 just as much as I enjoyed the seasons that came before it--which is a hell of a lot--but I'm not expecting anything new or different from it.
As for the ep itself, I was delighted, perhaps especially by all the anvilicious winking, though even I had to roll my eyes at the idea that anyone could imagine that Booth was somehow only NOW in love with Brennan. But I'll handwave it. It's a handwavy kind of show, after all.