A New Reason to Love FireFox (and an endorsement of Bones)

So I’ve mentioned I got addicted to the show Bones on Hulu.

I didn’t mention they have a “limited commercial interruption” style of sponsorship. That basically means that the same commercial (or product) comes on at each normal commercial break.

*But* Firefox’s ad blocker blocks even those, and once we were watching together on my husband’s computer (which has AdBlock enabled) we watched nothing but show. Very cool.

DH (dear husband)’s gift to me arrived Saturday: Seasons one and two of Bones on DVD.

I’m still re-watching Season One with Jay (as we get the kids down early enough), but I’ve started watching Season Two ahead of him (since I’ve finished One already).

The direction is very different between seasons. I didn’t think I was the sort of person to notice that sort of thing, but everything from camera movement, costuming and scene-cuts has changed, so maybe it’s impossible to miss.

If you’re familiar with the Harry Potter movies it’s a little like the shift between (I think it was) movies 2 and 3, where the kids went from school-robes all the time to “normal” every-day sort of clothes.

Disclaimer: This show does require a high gross-out threshold. Glimpses of the dead are not gratuitous, but neither are they obscured or made “artistic” in any way (frankly I don’t know how that could happen, but I’ve hear some people try).

Other than the pilot the ladies are generally dressed as you’d expect self-respecting, emotionally-healthy professionals to be, and the namesake lead, while being emphatically her own woman, does not emphasize or accomplish that by being disrespectful toward men (a first in my viewing experience).

~ ~ ~

The primary selling point for this show is its characterization, and I really appreciate the way the writers have handled the someone’s-dying-every-episode element that plagues (or I think should) the conscience of every show like this.

Having established that the characters talk about significant things, the writers use them talking about the affect their work has on them and the value of every human life. Better (I imagine) than most body-a-week shows, Bones works to make each victim an individual and shows how the cases affect the lives of those working on them.

8 thoughts on “A New Reason to Love FireFox (and an endorsement of Bones)

  1. you’re absolutely right. In the third Harry Potter movie you do see the students wearing more muggle clothes from there on out.

    I could never get into Bones for some reason. not sure why.

  2. My SIL says she doesn’t like the show (other than the leading guy) because the title character is so extremely out of it– disconnected from the “real world”.

    Sometimes I think that’s why I like it– seeing an utterly cerebral woman who doesn’t greatly value the pop culture. It’s like watching a caricature of myself (Yes, it could be worse!).

    For the record, I’m actually fairly intuitive, along with “over-thinking” everything (INTJ, here), but all the information I “collect” gets run consciously through my brain and analyzed. Usually with a running commentary of process until I reach my conclusion, which my audience also receives.

    Apparently that’s not really common, and it kinda makes some folks nuts; another reason I’m thankful to be married to a man who can appreciate this level precision and analysis.

    I once asked Jay if he felt buried– whether he’d like less transparency from me– and the answer was an emphatic No.

    That blog post led to a (small) discussion of how mysterious a woman should or shouldn’t be with her husband, which, of course had me firmly on the transparency side.

    (And, yes, I do realize that has relatively little to do with this post. but, hey, you were just killing time anyway. Right folks?)

  3. I heart Bones. I think that Dr. Brennen’s naivete about pop culture reminds me a lot of some of my dear non-tv-watching, non-contemporary-music-listening, non-secular-things-attending Christian friends. Brennen’s comments crack me up sometimes, and I love the tension between her and Booth.

    I need to try Hulu.com and catch up on my old episodes!

  4. I watch several “body of the week” shows (love the epithet), and I agree that there’s a varying degree of “involvement” on the part of the investigators. Bones is okay, and I do like that human aspect. My favorite, far and away, is Law & Order, which has long made an effort (other than season 8) to eschew most of their characters’ personal lives.

    On the other hand, I think a lot of these shows show the panoply of emotions that can come in these lines of work. A lot of investigators, I’m sure, are so jaded by the constant exposure to violent death that they aren’t as affected by it as we lay (wo)men are. However, L&O: CI, for example, has one investigator have a complete mental breakdown.

    However, in a number of shows they stress the fact that these characters, by the nature of their professions, must NOT be affected by the individuals whose deaths they investigate. The scientists on CSI: are bound to remain objective, which Gil Grissom’s character seems to carry to an almost pathological extent. After Sarah Sidle began identifying too closely with victims (after being victimized herself), she eventually has a bit of a breakdown and quits.

    The prosecutors on L&O, too, must remain dispassionate, applying the law equally. Frequently, the prosecution’s deepest involvement is with the defendant, and not the victim, unless the defendant tries to malign the victim during the trial.

    Indeed, on L&O, it is highly unusual and may even interfere in a prosecution if one of the prosecutors identifies too strongly with a victim or defendant. Asst. DA Abby Carmichael’s prior history with a defendant, which is supplanted by her sympathy at having also been raped by an older man in power, threatens a case she prosecutes in one episode.

    Asst. DA Serena Southerlyn is actually fired because she’s too passionate about defendants; DA Branch tells her that prosecution is “cold-blooded.” As DA, Jack McCoy states (when called as a witness) that “where there’s a law, I’ll prosecute it.”

    Investigators, conversely, must become intimately involved with their victims’ lives. On Cold Case, Det. Rush’s philosophy was summed up in an early episode: “People shouldn’t be forgotten.” Special Agents on Without a Trace frequently become so involved with their missing persons’ lives that they go undercover or keep in contact with them for a long time afterward. On both Without a Trace and Criminal Minds, characters have become addicted to painkillers, partially due to the stressful nature of dealing intimately with psychopaths and their victims.

    Other investigators seem to be driven by a neurotic need to fix what’s wrong with the world–or at least a single case (ie Monk). The Closer focuses on finding the truth, but also bringing the victim’s murderer to justice.

    Another thing that deeply affects the way that characters relate to victims: their gender and age. Children and women of any age are more sympathetic victims which can make even the most jaded (L&O’s Logan and Briscoe, I think) cringe.

    Like I said, I watch a LOT of BOTW shows (I don’t think I realized how many until I was pretty far into this… sheesh…), and I think that there are are a lot of different yet accurate portrayals of characters’ reactions.

  5. Speaking of work affecting life, I remember feeling a sense of responsibility to befriend the family of a new state trooper until he got settled in and made friends in town–

    I had this very strong sense that he needed “normal” people to be around since his job forced him to be in contact with a spectrum of unhealthy people on a daily basis.

    It’s a rough job. A lot of those are.

  6. I’ve been wondering whether we should try Bones or not. I’ve seen one episode and liked it but we’re really picky about which shows we watch.

    I may have to suggest it again. And thanks for the FF tip. I hadn’t thought of that. (My husband and I are still using separate browsers…)

  7. Well, Hulu might have caught on.

    The last time I watched a show there, I got a number of 15-second blanks with the tiny words that advertisers made this entertainment possible.

    At least I didn’t need to watch half-dressed women or advertisements for movies where the highlights worth showing included guns competing with helicopters for the most continual noise.

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