Bones – TV Review

Ah, procedural cop drama-type stuff. I love it. It doesn’t have to be good, although I do prefer it if it is. Bones is good. Really good. Not strictly scientifically accurate, but I have several podcasts and websites I can go to if I want accurate science.

Dr Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) is a specialist in bones. Special Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanz) is an FBI agent. Through a couple of cases, they end up working together, along with her team; Angela (Michaela Conlin) who does art stuff and has a crazy and, maybe, impossible machine to create 3D representations of people, objects and scenes; Jack (T.J.Thyne) who does insects; Zach (Eric Millegan) but we don’t talk about what happens to Zach; and later on, Camille (Tamara Taylor) and psychologist Dr Sweets (John Francis Daley).

The cases are generally very gross. There are all kinds of relationships happening, including a long-term will-they-or-won’t-they with the two main characters which, thank goodness, turns into a relationship. I like the show because I like all of the characters a lot, especially Brennan and Booth. Plus, every now and then, something genuinely unexpected happens, and that’s pretty cool.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – TV Review

I came late to the Buffy party. I think season five or six was screening in Australia by the time I started hiring them from my local DVD shop and making my way through the whole lot. I dread to work out how long I have spent watching this show (or indeed television in general…), but it was definitely worth it.

If you don’t know, Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is a cheerleading high school student who lives a secret double life as a vampire slayer at night. She lives in Sunnydale, which is unfortunately located on the hellmouth, which means there are not only vampires, but demons of all kinds. Buffy’s watcher is Giles (Anthony Head) who works with her friends Xander (Nicholas Brendon) and Willow (Alyson Hannigan) to research and fight all the nasties. Then along comes Angel (David Boreanaz), a vampire who has a soul, and everything changes. And then later, Spike (James Masters) and Anya (Emma Caulfield) and so many more.

It’s the wit of the creator of the television series, Joss Wheedon, that I really love. Personally, I found Buffy to be an annoying, whiney spoilt brat, but she needed to be like this to give the show the structure it needed. Luckily she was surrounded by funny and quirky characters who made me laugh and kept me interested.

I want to watch it all again, but I have far more important things to do (and to watch). Perhaps I’ll just satisfy my witty vampire needs by re-watching the film the show was based on. I recall loving that one as well.

Angel – Mostly season 3, with a bit of 1 and 2 – TV Review

**spoiler alerts – although it started last century, so I think that you can get over any being upsetness, really**

I resisted watched Angel for so long. I mean, I loved Buffy, but Angel never really held the same appeal to me. I should clarify this – I loved Buffy the show, but I hated both Buffy and Angel, the characters. What won me over was that recently I wanted something I could watch without using too much brainpower and that would make me laugh. Thank goodness, my local video shop (what an outdated term – video shop. Haven’t seen a video since the late nineties) has lots of television series.

My viewing pleasure was not helped by the fact that I started watching from the last disc of the season and thought that Joss Wheedon had done a terrible job at introducing these characters. Duh. Of course he didn’t. He’s a genius, I tells you. That’s what you get for watching the last three episodes first. (Yep. I was totally brain fried when I started watching. Didn’t even have the brainpower to check that the discs were in the right order) I got over that. I don’t think I mind spoiler alerts so much – it didn’t bother me knowing where the script was going. In fact, I had to watch them again at the end to really know what was going on.

One of my other not-so-secret-or-shameful loves is bad tv, and I include American cop shows, even the really good, well-respected cop shows in that. I love Bones, although I miss Zac. Bones helped me to love David Boreanaz, and I’m discovering that I can tolerate the brooding of Angel and just look forward to the fighting and the gags.

Season three broke away from the lightness of the first two seasons and had some deep, brooding darkness. It worked for me – although I hate it when they lose too many gags. I was really appreciating the fact that there was not that sense of sexual tension between Angel and Cordelia, and then they started having a whole heap of sexual tension between them. Yawn. Although the scenes in the theatre dressing room – spicy. May have to start writing a romance set in a theatre… The whole Fred/Wesley/Gunn triangle was played out pretty nicely – much as I love him, it felt pretty real to see him get his hopes up only to realise he was wrong – and his heartbreak was effective as a red herring away from the stuff with Angel’s son.

I’m ready for Season four. Season three ended on quite a cliffhanger – well, a series of cliffhangers. I just hope that however Angel gets free, somehow he and Wesley can start working together. And Cordelia doesn’t go too far away. And that guy from the other world – he can bugger off. I’m not a fan. Oooh, and the singer demon guy – more of him, he’s a delight. I’ve seen some later episodes, and I know that Angel and Fred are in them, but I don’t recall Wesley or Cordelia. Or Gunn. Guess I’ll have to wait and see!

My video shop doesn’t have season four. It’s damaged and the new copy should be in around March. I’ll either have to wait, or have to beg, borrow or steal season four.

I just found the image below. I don’t know what season it is from, but it looks awesome. And is that Wesley on the right? Hmm, is it just me, or does he look a lot ‘Chris in the morning’ from Northern Exposure? Gotta love all of that!