A Whodunit With a Funny Bone
Seeley Booth is a slut.
There, I've said it. And so might you after this week's episode of Fox's
Bones (Wednesdays at 8 pm/ET), one of the most enjoyable episodes yet this season on one of TV's more underrated procedurals. There is no justifiable reason why this show isn't doing better on Wednesdays, in one of the most undernourished time periods of the week. (The competition tonight includes three reality shows and CBS's plodding headscratcher
Jericho, which follows last week's mega-hyped and well-sampled premiere with a ludicrous second episode in which Skeet Ulrich once again saves the day as ominous rain clouds threatening radioactive fallout loom on the horizon. Not exactly "there's no place like home" material.)
Back to
Bones, which most weeks manages the neat trick of delivering a grisly puzzle amid clever character intrigue laced with comedy involving FBI stud Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) and the science-geek "squints" led by the formidable Bones (Emily Deschanel). This week, the case is so icky and ooky that Bones herself is a little squeamish. "Even for me, this is disgusting," she says as she surveys the liquefying remnants of this week's mystery corpse, which has been left to stew in a bathtub (a Godiva 3000, we're told) filled with corrosives. "It's only skin," Bones mutters as the congealing brew bubbles and observers try not to barf. It is all so hilariously gross. When young lab rat Zack (Eric Millegan) gushes over a piece of evidence to Booth, the former sniper snipes: "I'd like to go back to the old arrangement where you don't talk to me directly."
Moments like that is why I tune into
Bones. Tonight's case is nice and twisty, but the real buzz in the lab is over Booth's apparent reconciliation with his ex-girlfriend (Jessica Capshaw) who's also the mother of his son. Even the usually all-business Bones gets into the gossip. The episode is bookended with scenes of Booth in bed, making what he calls a "huge mistake." You'll probably agree.
But only if you watch. Which I highly recommend.
