Bones Is Back, and Other Happy TV Thoughts
Why not start off a glorious spring week- a week that continues the welcome rollout of shows returning from long strike hiatus- with some positive thoughts? Starting with the return of
Bones to Fox's schedule. For those keeping track in this confusing midseason, Mondays are now the new Tuesdays for Fox. And once
House kicks back in with new episodes starting April 28 (a
House repeat airs next Monday), Mondays will almost feel like the new Thursdays with so many choices on the suddenly overstuffed night, as Fox's first-rate drama combo faces ABC's blazing-hot
Dancing With the Stars, CBS's terrific comedy lineup and ever-popular
CSI: Miami, as well as a cult fave in the CW's returning
Gossip Girl and NBC's ubiquitous
Deal Or No Deal. Whew.
But back to
Bones, one of TV's most purely enjoyable procedural crime dramas. Yes, there are icky remains to deal with (a body boiled in a sulfurous mud pit), but the fun of
Bones is in the playful interplay between the characters as they crack these messy cases. You'll hear a lot of "No Changees" and "No take-backs" in tonight's clever episode, as "squints" Hudgins and Zack joust for "king of the lab" title while FBI guy Booth and Bones herself (the terrific twosome of David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel) indulge their creative side by going to a ceramics therapy session with their baby-faced shrink (John Francis Daley, who'll always be associated with
Freaks and Geeks to me) and his girlfriend. I smiled more during this hour than I normally do through most comedy series, and you can chalk that up to affection more than to the one-liners (although there is one reference to The Three Stooges that made me laugh aloud). Welcome back,
Bones. Good luck in your challenging new time period. At least it's not (as has often been threatened) Fridays.
Looking back to Sunday night, another thumbs-up to
Desperate Housewives, returning in top form by putting this season's greatest new asset, Dana Delany's mysterious minx Katherine Mayfair, at center stage. Delany embodies the show's themes of glamorous desperation and unbridled bawdiness. She is hilarious when trying to keep her busybody neighbors at arm's length, ridiculously sexy when bedding Susan's hunky cousin (having deflowered him when he was a teen) and harrowingly dramatic when revealing her need to her estranged husband while getting him to lie again to her rightfully suspicious daughter. A bravura performance.
But I also enjoyed the subplot involving Lynette's post-trauma curiosity about religion, raising her hand mid-sermon to challenge the Presbyterian pastor (to Bree's hypocritical dismay, naturally). How funny was Bree's advice for free-agent Lynette not to go Catholic: "I go for worship, not a workout." The Catholics, at least, won't judge Lynette for her overabundant brood of brats. And in the spirit of her search for answers, Lynette he even forgave Bree by the end. Bless their hearts.
Finally, shout-outs to two terrific series nearing the end of their runs. The charming
Eli Stone, in a special post-
Housewives stunt (lost quite a bit of the lead-in, but still, nice to see it get some attention), extended its own "faith" metaphor as Eli finally predicted the looming earthquake accurately. (So it wasn't the "big one" by Irwin Allen disaster-movie standards, but the Golden Gate did look the worse for wear. Thankfully the mayor was a believer, or just being cautious.) What I love most about this show is the way it reveals just how Eli has rocked the world of everyone he knows- most notably, in this episode, his boss Jordan (the wonderful Victor Garber), who makes a case to the firm's board that Eli "reminds us of the best parts of ourselves." Jordan loses the vote and his managing-partner position- until the quake conveniently asserts itself. "I'd like a re-vote," Jordan quips. Just like we'd like a recount of those pesky Nielsen numbers that show a lack of support for this underrated underdog. I'll weigh in again before Thursday's four-hankie finale, which the
Eli Stone faithful can't afford to miss.
With Sundays suddenly busy again, don't let that deter you from sticking with HBO's magnificent
John Adams miniseries through next Sunday's heartbreaking finale. (There are plenty of viewing options to catch up during the week, as well as On Demand.) Last night's episode gave us an unvarnished look at Adams' unhappily turbulent single-term presidency, beset by provocations of war, dissension at home (leading to the unfortunate signing of the Alien and Sedition Acts) and family tragedies. Perhaps most startling was the depiction of the unfinished White House the First Couple miserably moved into, a grim and empty estate amid a wilderness of mud and misery. "Half-fed slaves building our nation's capital," clucks Abigail (the remarkable Laura Linney). "What possible good can come from such a place?"
Nothing but good can come from watching John Adams. The April 20 finale, titled "Peacefield" after the Massachusetts home to which John and Abigail retire, could just as well be called "Requiem for a Curmudgeon." To the end, Adams (Paul Giamatti) was a proud, pugnacious patriot consumed with thoughts about posterity and his place in American history. First David McCullough's acclaimed biography, and now this gritty and fascinating historical drama, have brought this figure back to resounding life. It really is one for the ages.
