These Old Bones

Here’s a weird confession. Since the election I have been slowly, surely making my way through the entire run of “Bones.” Yes, “Bones.” Yes, the one with Brennan and Booth. Yes, all 11 going on 12 seasons of it. Now, there’s nothing wrong with “Bones.” It is a perfectly serviceable crime procedural-romantic comedy-workplace ensemble show. It’s not terribly complicated, but with enough mystery to be a satisfying puzzle.
My go-to comfort TV before the election was “The Golden Girls” and “Great British Bake Off.” They still are. But I’ve seen basically every episode of each, in most cases multiple times. So I was looking for something else. Something I could watch to take my mind completely away. So, “Bones” it was.

I’ve watched “Bones” on-and-off over the years – consistently in the very early seasons and sporadically over the rest of its run. Yes, it has its problems. Booth can have some not-so subtle retrograde chauvinistic tendencies and a preoccupation with preset gender roles. The cases aren’t Shakespeare. The plots can be bonkers or downright bad. The science is, well, let’s just be kind and say it can best be classified as magical realism. Plus you can never, ever eat dinner while watching because, you know – gross. So many gross, gross, gross dead bodies. So many.

But there has been something undeniably comforting about systematically making my way through years and years of this show. I enjoy the characters and even most of the squinterns. I enjoy the cast’s chemistry. I enjoy watching David Boreanaz’s head size change from season to season (big, small, big, small, bigger, even bigger…)

Sure, things have annoyed me as I’ve binged my way through prematurely decayed corpse after wildly prematurely decayed corpse each case. Like, I cannot count how many in-show Toyota commercials I’ve had to watch. We get it, there’s a built-in navigation system – wooo. And, I know this is like five years late, but what’s up with the insane time jump the show made when it finally got Bones and Booth together? Like, they passed over all the good stuff of them becoming a couple and dropped us right into a full-fledged relationship. (Again, I know, this complaint comes more than five years too late.) Also, how did Christine get so old in Season 10? Like wasn’t she a baby the last time we saw her?

And, yes, the show’s treatment of Angela’s bisexuality hasn’t been the greatest. She flirted with that FedEx girl and had a brief relationship with Roxy. But then they kind of dropped it altogether. Granted, she is married to Hodgins with a kid (well, at least one – I still have one more season to go to catch up). But, again, a person’s bisexuality doesn’t go away when they are in a relationship with someone of the opposite sex. So it would be nice if the writers remembered that, too.

But sexual and gender politics aside, I have enjoyed my “Bones” marathoning. It has given me a strange, completely personal goal to accomplish since the election and its devastating results. And in this frightening new world we have to find our joy where we can. May you find whatever your “Bones” is and enjoy the hell out of it.

Oh, and while watching I found this gem from Season 8. Back in 2012 when the mere thought of a Trump presidency was just a ridiculous laugh line. Yeah, take me to that “Bones” and let me live in it forever, please.

http://dorothy-snarker.tumblr.com/post/155174572165/universe-please-take-me-back-to-2012-when-the