Food for thought

[eowyn_315]

I stumbled across this transcript of a keynote speech by Hart Hanson (aka the creator of Bones), and I thought he had some very interesting things to say. Some of them I agree with, some of them I don't (namely this: "My entire audience wants them [Booth and Bones] to get together." Um, not all of us, punk. Personally, I think you're killing the

Comments

[shapinglight]

For all the problems (and there were legion) that Dollhouse had, I'd still rather have that on my television than Bones, ten times over. Guess TV aimed at a mass audience just doesn't appeal to me.

Same here. I did get through one solitary episode of Bones, but it was a near thing that I didn't die of boredom. Dollhouse hasn't bored me once.

Made me go, WTF a few times and roll my eyes, but never bored me.

[eowyn_315]

It may depend somewhat on when you watched - I did enjoy the first few seasons of Bones, whereas the last two have been rather disappointing. But overall, yeah, I will take a niche show over a mass-appeal procedural any day. The shows I love best are always the ones with the lowest ratings.

[shinybaum]

Two seasons behind on Bones but I did love Sweets, what did he do wrong?

[eowyn_315]

I have no idea. According to Hanson, "The audience didn’t like him because he was snooty and over-educated and distant from his feelings." And then later, "part of the anger is that the audience really wants those two together, wants Brennan and Booth together, and Sweets was saying, 'No, no, you can’t do it because you can’t trust your feelings.'"

Honestly? I never had a problem with the first thing. The second thing, I can't bring myself to care because I don't want Booth/Brennan together anyway.

[shinybaum]

I would kill for a tv show that didn't feel the need to pair people off. KILL. A decent friendship between people of the opposite sex, where both are straight, unattached and have no interest in each other. Not even subtextually.

[eowyn_315]

ME TOO. I don't understand why people on TV can't just be friends anymore. That's what I loved about Booth and Bones - they seemed like a really great friendship, almost like family to each other - and they went and ruined it by forcing all this sexual tension on them. *pouts*

[deird1]

I really really want to come up with a wonderfully detailed comment on this post, because awesome posts deserve awesome comments, but really I have nothing more detailed to say than this:

WORD.

[eowyn_315]

Hee! That'll do. :)

[ayinhara]

I prefer Bones and Booth as friendly colleagues. I don't think the characters have enough in common (beyond the common workplace) for anything else.

[eowyn_315]

Yeah, I always saw them as better friends than relationship material.

[eilowyn]

My only problem with Bones is I can never get through an episode without bringing up Willow's fish. My roommates are used to it. "Oh, yes, he's a charming special agent, but that doesn't change the fact that he killed Willow's fish!" Because that is the biggest crime ever committed in the Buffyverse. So big it carries over onto other shows.

I'm taking a class in dystopian literature right now, and we got to talking about how disparaging Fahrenheit 451 is about television. I'm an English major planning on getting a MFA in TV writing, so of course I felt a little put out by the constant inference that books are sacrosanct and TV has none of the literary merit of novels. However, there is a character who states that television could have literary merit if it sought to that level of depth. That got me wondering: has Hart Hanson given up? Did he ever try to make television that aspires to be art?

[eowyn_315]

Because that is the biggest crime ever committed in the Buffyverse.

...Really? (I can't tell if you're joking or serious, lol.)

That got me wondering: has Hart Hanson given up? Did he ever try to make television that aspires to be art?

I can't say, since I've never seen anything he's done other than Bones. He does have a point - you can't make a lot of money by writing television that aspires to be art. You make money by writing CSI. So you get some people, like Joss Whedon, who write whatever they want and don't care if only 12 people are watching. Then there are others who try to write the show that's going to be the most popular, even if it's crap. I wouldn't go so far as to call Hanson a sellout, but I'd say he falls closer to the latter camp than the former.