Newest season of Bones doesn’t look so promising

The highly anticipated season opener of the popular police procedural Bones was a serious let-down, and this set the tone for the rest of season six so far.

With a weak plot that was obviously designed to bring the cast of characters back together and yet another contrived reason to keep Temperance Brennan, played by Emily Deschanel, and Seeley Booth, played by David Boreanaz, apart, the show is beginning to feel like a drag and what was once fresh and new is now overdone and boring.

The newest reason to keep Booth and Brennan apart is Hannah, the blond, overly-cheerful girlfriend Booth brings back from Afghanistan.

Hannah and Booth met while in the field, and once she finishes her news assignment — she is a reporter — she follows the FBI agent back to America.

While the writers wrote Hannah to be a likable character, she ended up feeling a little flat and a little too nice and understanding.

Unfortunately, her most interesting moment on the show was when she rejected Booth’s proposal and moved out.

Speaking of the proposal, it felt like it came from left field; there had been absolutely no mention of any thoughts of proposing to Hannah until “The Daredevil in the Mold” (6x13).

It was as if the writers decided that because the audience wasn’t as receptive to Hannah as they had hoped, they needed a way to get rid of her.

Booth in particular seems to be going back and forth between being jealous of men in Brennan’s life (especially in “The Bikini in the Soup” (6x14)) and telling Brennan (when she does tell him that she has a crush on him) that he’s in love with Hannah.

The jealousy plot has been used in pretty much every season at least once.

Brennan is, if possible, even more obtuse and oblivious that before, not even recognizing that when someone keeps canceling lunch dates, that said person wishes to avoid her.

It takes her best friend Angela Montenegro (Michaela Conlin) to tell her that if she uses common sense to puzzle it out, then yes, Hannah is trying to avoid her.

Brennan’s character started off socially inept and unable to understand common pop references, but now, it’s seems like she has regressed to the point where she cannot interact with anyone who is baseline normal at all.

This reversion to childishness directly contradicts the growth she has experienced in previous seasons.

It also smacks of condescension, as the forensic anthropologist has trouble socializing; she isn’t stupid, she just has issues reocgnizing proper behavior in society.

Another point of contention is how she often makes jokes that are only funny to her and don’t make sense to anyone else.

This is just awkward to watch because the audience doesn’t laugh at how silly Brennan is. They just think she is kind of dumb.

Period.

To be honest, the only reason the show is especially interesting worth watching every week is the subplot between Montenegro and Jack Hodgins (T.J. Thyne).

It has surpassed even the main “pairing” (pairing is in quotes because seriously, there is nothing happening between Booth and Bones right now) of the show because it actually has some sort of substance and originality.

Sure, having a character get pregnant is pretty overdone, but in this aspect of the show, at least the writers have given it a small twist with Angela and Hodgins’ unborn child.

Or perhaps it isn’t the twist that is particularly memorable, but the way Conlin and Thyne play it onscreen, especially Thyne.

In last week’s episode, “The Blackout in the Blizzard” (6x16), Thyne’s expression and how he conveyed his character’s fear that his child might be born blind was amazing, especially coming from a character who hasn’t had much in the emotional scenes department at all.

The way he looked at Angela with tears pulled at the viewers’ heartstrings, while the “serious” discussion meant to bring Booth and Brennan together felt fake and did nothing.

Thankfully, not everything in the show is bad.

There are some deeper emotional moments, especially in the latest episode with Hodgins and Angela, whose storyline has begun to take on more importance.

“The Killer in the Crosshairs” (6x15) was also pretty good in terms of character and plot depth.

However, most of the show feels silly, fluffy and the episodes don’t really link to each other.

For example, was it really necessary to see Clark stripping at the end of “The Bikini in the Soup?”

The answer is no.

Sure, it was played for laughs, but there was no point to it, and it wasn’t even that funny.

In fact, it felt almost out of character for Clark compared to how he had been presented in earlier seasons.

The show should take more care to make the comedy in Bones more than mere slapstick, as befits the intellectual stimulation the characters’ careers seem to bank on. Instead, the writing has gotten sloppy and this time, there isn’t a writer’s strike to excuse it.

It seems like the writers are beginning to lose their grasp of many of their characters — not just the side ones, but also the main characters that have been around since season one.

Furthermore, Bones has a tendency to skip over major plot points, which is frustrating as the writers should trust in their audience’s intelligence.

Characters will talk about things that never come up again, and viewers are left scratching their heads and wondering what became of a certain conversation.

If the writers can’t or won’t write anything new and substantial, it may be better if the show ends at a time when people still support it rather than later when the show has become a joke or when people hate it.

Ratings are still solid, but the lack of action on the part of the writers when it comes to Booth and Brennan is really beginning to frustrate viewers.

They have not been renewed for a seventh season yet, though according to the ratings, they have a strong chance of survival.

For now, the show really need to focus on the characters, giving the show substance, and giving Bones back the spark that made millions fall in love with Dr. Temperance Brennan and Special Agent Seeley Booth in the first place.