Sunday, April 5, 2009

Okay, I have a bone to pick.

Today's post is about the series Bones.  See what I did with the title there?  Nice play on words, eh?  Um...okay, I will stop patting myself on the back now.

Wow, so yesterday I was a completely unproductive bum and spent almost the entire day watching my season three Bones dvds.  All I have left is the last disc which is actually the first three episodes of season four (more on that in a bit).  

So up front, let me say, season three was actually a pretty awesome season, despite the fact that the major story arc got wrapped up so hurriedly due to the strike shortened season.  As disturbing as the whole cannibalistic serial killer Gormogon arc was, it was also really interesting.  I loved that they started off the season with this case and ended that first episode by acknowledging how big the case actually was.  The show runners right there were promising us viewers that they were going to actually give us a story with some meat on it, in addition to the usual fare of cases that could still be resolved in a single 42 minute episode.  

A lot of stuff gets introduced very casually in the first episode that has repercussions throughout the entire season.  Zack returns from Iraq and even though he seems mostly like his normal self and ready to just jump back into his old life, it is clear that he is starting to reevaluate some of his choices in life thus far, as well as how and where he fits into the world in general, not just the lab.  Brennan and Booth are starting to examine their relationship not just as partners but as what they mean to each other outside of work.  Part of that, but also separate I believe, is the fact that Brennan's father is in jail facing trial for murder (arrested by Booth) and her brother is in hiding because he skipped parole and is believed to be a material witness to said murder.  Brennan has to work through her feelings towards her family knowing that despite what criminal acts they may or may not have committed, they are still her family, back more or less "together" for the first time in sixteen years.  Hodgins and Angela are dealing with Angela's past and the sudden discovery of her husband--not only do they need to find him so that they can move on with their future together, they need to now address how well they know each other and what their expectations of that future actually are, and do they mesh?  Also, you know, Gormogon.  Like I said, a lot of stuff.

Despite the shortened season, the show runners manage to mostly resolve all of those story lines except for the Hodgins/Angela story--and even in that case they found Angela's husband, they just have to figure out how to proceed after learning that the husband does not want a divorce.  That's pretty darn impressive for fourteen episodes.  In addition, we get two recurring cast members introduced this season who I just adore.  First there's Dr. Sweets, the ridiculously young and enthusiastic shrink assigned to Brennan and Booth, who ends up not just serving as their therapist but also becoming part of the team by helping to profile the various murderers they are trying to catch.  I love John Francis Daley, especially in this role, and I was super happy when they made his character a full cast member in season four.  He just adds to the playful spirit of this show in a truly wonderful way.  The second recurring character is Dr. Clark Edison (played by Eugene Byrd).  He is introduced as a potential replacement for Zack while Zack is still in Iraq, and returns again to help Brennan as the forensic anthropologist for the defense when Brennan's father is on trial.  I like him because he doesn't fit in but he totally should, if that makes sense.  Hodgins is bang on when he says to Brennan in episode one that Zack is irreplaceable (which I love that they have emphasized in season four by the revolving door of interns)--but if Zack had never been, Clark would have been the perfect addition to the lab.  While Dr. Sweets adds to the playfulness of the show, Dr. Edison's lack thereof (and baffelment by the disregard for professionalism he perceives in the lab) is a wonderful foil to the playfulness.  There is probably a better way to explain what I mean here, but it is totally eluding me.  If you watch the show, I am sure you know what I mean though.

So, overall, season three--rocked.

But why then, you may be asking (or maybe not, you've probably wondered off in search of coffee by now), does the post title indicate displeasure?  Ahh, and now we've gotten to the meat of the thing, haven't we?  Why yes, yes we have.  My issue is not with the show (almost never with the show, I love this show)--but with the DVD set itself.  And some of this stems back to the season two DVD release, actually, but I'll get to that.

Issue the first:  What's with the crazy late release date, Fox?  Season four of Bones started airing first thing in September of '08, but the DVDs for season three (the very shortened season three), weren't released until the end of November of that year.  Most companies plan their season DVD releases to correspond with or preceed the starting of the next season, so watchers can get caught up and get excited about the new season.  It's not like the networks are airing reruns throughout the summer any more.  As mentioned above, a lot of stuff happens in season three, and the season three finale is terribly emotional and crazy--it would have been nice to get to review that before jumping into the new season.  Also, because they delayed the release so far, someone thought, well, we'll make it better by including some of season four's episodes too.  Yeah...that was...weird.  Why are there episodes from season four on the season three DVD release?  

Intellectually, I get what happened, I do.  Because the season was shorter than normal, only fourteen eposides (more on that in a bit) as opposed to the regular 20-24 due to the strike, the people putting together the DVD sets were somehow worried that purchasers would feel cheated.  Well yeah, if you had released a set with fewer episodes and charged the same as a full season, sure.  So instead of selling us the season that we got (like everyone else who had shortened seasons did last year) for a slightly smaller price, in a timely manner, they instead held out until well into the next season and included what would be the first disc of the season four DVD set so that they could still charge full price (hey, well, I guess that works out for Fox, at least).  Bah.  Of course, you know they will conveniently forget this and include that same exact disc in the season four DVD release and charge full price for this season as well.  So those of us who buy each season get to pay twice for the same three episodes.  Oh, lucky us.  Bah.  I maintain we would have all been happier had Fox just released the season as it was and knocked a few bucks off of the price.

Issue the second:  The phantom episode.  I will freely admit I have been on a slow burn about this ever since the season two DVDs came out.  You may have noticed I keep saying that there were only fourteen episodes in season three, yet the DVD release (and IMDB) has fifteen season three episodes.  Here is what happened.  

In season two the episode "Player Under Pressure" was filmed and scheduled to air sometime in the spring of that season.  The main plot of the episode centered on the murder of a college basketball star on his campus, possibly by another student.  There was also a minor little B-plot revolving around Hodgins and Angela shortly after they had started dating but before it was widely known by the rest of the lab or really a public/serious relationship.  Then, in the real world, the tragic shooting at Virginia Tech occurred and Fox decided to yank this episode.  (I will note that I am still unclear if the original story was closer to the VT incident and was retooled before airing).  The decision not to air an episode dealing with a college-related murder so close to the Virginia Tech shootings totally makes sense.  I am not at all objecting to that, let me be clear.

Because this was pretty much a stand-alone episode, with no real development of season's two running story arc, it made sense that this episode just ended up not getting aired, especially since its originally intended air date was so close to the end of the season as it was.  What doesn't make sense, however, is not including the episode in the season two DVD release.  General public impression at the time was that the episode would indeed be included in the DVD release.  You've got to admit, an unaired episode is a nice little incentive for fans to buy the DVDs.  And yet, for some reason, it wasn't included, which sucked and was annoying.  But okay, whatever.

It is possible that the decision had already been made to air the episode as part of season three.  Which is, indeed, what happened.  "Player Under Pressure" was aired as episode eleven of season three.  I get that with the strike-shortened season it made complete sense to go ahead and air an already completed episode that had never been shown before--free new content, yay!  What makes no sense whatsoever is that the fact that they didn't include the episode in the season two DVDs indicates that it had already been decided to include it in season three way before the strike happened.  So why the heck did they not film some new material to update the continuity of the episode for when it did end up being aired?  Plenty of time was had by all to fix this--but as the episode aired, all of the non-case elements made no sense whatsoever.  Booth reveals to Brennan that he was a jock in high school/college and she gives him a hard time about it--even though there is an earlier season three episode resolving Booth's jockiness with Brennan's braininess (wherein Brainy Smurf played a large role).  Also, the Angela/Hodgins story would have taken very little editing to bring up-to-date with their current circumstances at the point the episode was aired.  Also, by the point in the season this episode aired, Zack had already gone over to the dark side, and when watching the DVDs already knowing about that, it is pretty clear that he's different in all of the episodes except this one (which was filmed before Zack ever went to Iraq and started down the path that made him join forces with a serial killer).  It's jarring to see him his old sweet self without the apartness that he has started to develop by that point in the series.  

I just feel like wedging this episode in where they did without updating it throws a big kink in the overall flow of the story, and it annoys the crap out of me.  They should have included it in the season two DVDs and then aired it during the strike as a way to fill space but it should not have been part of the season three DVD set.

So overall--season three was awesome, but the people over at Fox Video who put together this DVD set need to seriously lay off the crack pipe.  It's all I'm saying.

And with that, I bid you adieu.  Ciao!

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