"In Praise of Bones"

I am cleaning up some bookmarks and files on my home computer (as this mini-flurry of posts might indicate) and found this last one: "In Praise of Bones." It's a pretty good explanation of why Bones is worth watching--and a lot of fun.

My favorite part: "If Bones is the kind of show that is largely ignored by the critical establishment because it is neither particularly original nor creative, it still performs an under-appreciated but essential service: to be entertaining without being stupid, to be soothing without being boring, predictable without being unsatisfying. In short, to be a comfort, both comfortable and comforting. Bones is a show about quirky people who do a strange job while talking about how weird their feelings are, and it all adds up to something supremely, lovably regular."

I've been a Bones fan from the start, but felt my affections wane a bit this season. However, the last few episodes won me back--even (especially?) the two big developments in last week's finale:

1) Angela and Hodgin's baby being born--and healthy! Lord, I even got a bit choked up!

2) The Booth/Bones baby revelation. I literally said, "No way!" out loud, then was about to call "BS!" but darn it if Booth's smile at the news didn't sell me on it. Although I find David Boreanaz a lot less appealing after his sordid personal scandals, Booth is still such a great character and that smile and his chemistry with the fabulous Emily Deschanel is quite winning. The baby storyline is a pretty bold move for the writers to make, but I say good for them.

I was also reassured by an interview the executive producer gave right after the episode aired. Here's the especially relevant part for me (although the whole thing is worth reading):

TVLINE | What impact did Emily’s pregnancy have on this story? Would you have gone this route regardless?
Emily being pregnant certainly figured into it to a certain extent. But [series creator] Hart [Hanson] and I were leaning toward this independently of that. The biggest problem we faced going into Season 7 was how to get these two people together while keeping the integrity of Brennan and Booth’s characters in tact. By going this route, we didn’t have to have them go through the traditional love-dovey stage where everything was wonderful and they understood each other and they got past their differences. That’s never going to be the case. They now are together but are essentially the same exact characters. They’re going to disagree on everything they disagreed about before, including how to approach their lives together, religion, family and now how to approach having a child. So we lose nothing but gain a huge amount with the reality that they are now together sharing the biggest thing in their lives.

This makes a lot of sense to me. Can't wait for next season!