The X-Files comes to Bones on January 14th

[ethsnafu]

Hi folks,

I actually found a really funny (or at least I think so) series of photos that an X-Files fan has shared at Flickr as incontrovertible evidence that Bones has plagiarised the X-Files. Now I may well accept (if I actually watched Bones) that there are certain similarities between elements of the show but I feel it's a little kooky to assert that because the leads in Bones hugged on a particular occasion then that was evidently a stolen hug from the X-Files because the X-Files invented characters hugging each other right? I'll share the smoking guns below but if anyone has seen Bones would you concur with some assertions I have seen on the web that it does rip-off (hate that expression) the X-Files at all?

Eth

Eth

[Guest WaveCrest]

The show's synopsis is evidence that Bones is not copying The X Files - Brennan and Bones investigating cases which involve bones (it's a bit vague and I haven't watched an episode in full, but it's roughly what the show is about).

[model217]

I didn't watch Bones last night,but did anyone see Fringe? Two words came to mind when I saw the guys with shotguns enter the police station-The Peacocks!

[Beerbelch]

BEER----> Yes, I watched them both. Hagland was fun on Bones, I won't tell you what happened to him at the end. Fringe was another good one. Hey guess what tjust came on my "Music Choice" TV - '2525' by Zager and Evans - 1969 (hehe).

BELCH

[Guest WaveCrest]

I'd honestly forgotten "The X in the File" premiered this week on FOX. Last night I looked at the TV ratings news article for Thursday night in the US, and was surprised (but not too much) when I saw Bones had got 10.7 million viewers. That was an increase of nearly a million viewers on what it gets when it wins the 8 pm - 9 pm timeslot on Thursday nights. I'm guessing the extra viewers may have been X Files fans who wanted to see the episode.

[ethsnafu]

Well folks I am reading some truly awful reviews of this episode online in anticipation of having the opportunity to watch it. For those who have seen it, below is one such review. Would be interested to know what you make of it.

Eth

What was touted as a fun Bones venture into potential X-Files territory instead turned out to be an excruciatingly stupid episode that focused not on Booth and Brennan but on yet more pointless Angela relationship drivel. Booth and Bones felt like side characters in their own show. At least when Moonlighting did the occasional episode focusing on the supporting characters they were more creative about it. The stuff on this show just sucks now. Bones has officially jumped the shark. A dead, strangely extraterrestrial-looking body is found in the desert in Roswell, New Mexico, by a nutjob named Marvin who spends his life looking for aliens. Alas, Brennan quickly determines that the body is indeed human and belonged to a female in her 30s. But I always love(d) when the show took Booth and Brennan out of D.C. and into a special location, and Roswell—being full of all the kooks and alien lore—could have been a great setting for the all-science, all-logic Brennan to make fun of and play off. There are a couple of fun moments where Brennan insults the locals in her own special way, but not enough. The majority of the show consists of showing us how Angela and intern Wendell are now an item, and focuses on them getting up the initiative to tell Hodgins that they are fornicating like the clueless morons they are. That’s what this whole episode is about. The murder investigation is a sidebar. It’s all about sex and relationship woes between pointless supporting characters. Why do the writers insist on doing this? Is it because they’re running out of ways to build the relationship between Booth and Bones and thus need to focus on pointless subplots to cover up their failings? Maybe that’s it. All I know is that any scene that doesn’t have Booth and/or Brennan in it sucks, because the supporting cast members, likable as some of them may be, are not interesting enough to watch solo. I’m sure people will disagree with me on that, but I just hate this show when it’s not focusing on Booth and Brennan. I think the only way the show can be saved is if the entire writing staff is fired and/or Angela and Sweets get blown up in a nuclear fire. Another thing: Bones is not a comedy. It can be very funny, and should be funny, but it is not a comedy. The humor is supposed to clash with the dark situations and emotional trauma. But the writers are really trying to make it into a comedy. The music is always telling us “Laugh! It’s funny!” The problem is that Bones is not funny enough to work solely as a comedy. The humor has to be a contrasting factor with the rest of the show. We’re talking about murder and dead bodies here, it shouldn’t be that funny. The tonal balance was perfect in seasons one and two, then Hart Hanson and his writing staff started losing their way (and probably ingesting hallucinogenic mushrooms) and they’ve been doing it ever since. I’m not going to even get into summarizing any of the details about the murder investigation. The writers didn’t care about it, so why should I? Or you? Or anyone? In fact, I’ve already completely forgotten what the murder was about. That’s how forgettable it was. Season 5, Episode 11: The X in the File (originally aired January 14, 2010)

[ethsnafu]

Oh happy day,

Well I found someone who liked the episode but it would seem that by their own admission they aren't so familiar with the X-Files. Now maybe that accounts for some of the overtly negative reviews out there. I know there seemed to be an almost unyielding amount of negativity for the Fringe episode that paid homage to the X-Files so I guess that any wander into their territory irks the more vocal contingent amongst the X-Files fan community but it's to be expected I guess. I remember watching X-Files Millennium and frantically trying to find a projectile to launch at the screen so I'm not immune from a little fan-rage.

Any how, read on here!

Eth

[Guest WaveCrest]

There was a new episode of Bones on FOX last Wednesday, and it got even more viewers than the X Files episode, getting 11.9 million viewers and easily winning the 8 pm timeslot. Did the X Files fans stay on for the next new episode, or were they non-X Files fans who were new to Bones?

[Guest WaveCrest]

I saw on the front cover of the new issue of a UK terrestrial and satellite TV listings magazine Bones. I saw something in the new TV Times last night an episode synopsis for Bones on Sky 1 next Thursday (11th March) at 10 pm, which resembled the episode synopsis for "The X in the File", about a body in Roswell. I've just checked on Radio Times' website in their listings section and the episode premieres in the UK next Thursday!

Tomorrow night's new Season 5 episode is called "The Goop on the Girl" (10th episode of 22). Interesting that "The X in the File", the 11th episode of the fifth season, is being shown on the 11th of March.