A Bones and Sleepy Hollow crossover is happening and I'm mad as hell about it.

I don't watch the show Bones anymore. It used to be one of my favorites but they killed Vincent Nigel Murray so that he could leave to go play in the doomed SyFy series, Alphas, and I declared myself, "done with this show." In the years since I abandoned it, I'd heard that Boothe and Dr. Brennan got married (yay...glad I missed that) and that Dr. Sweets (a character that I absolutely loved) also got killed off so he could leave for another show. Quite frankly, I'm glad I stopped watching.

So it really pisses me off that Fox is ramrodding a crossover of Sleepy Hollow (one of my favorite supernatural thrillers) with that of Bones. This reeks of desperation to me. Bones is losing viewers by the droves because the story jumped the shark a long time ago and they killed off too many beloved characters and/or had the characters on the show treat them like shit. Dr. Sweets rarely if ever got any kind of respect from the scientists in the show.

But one of the things that I liked about Brennan's character was her atheism, and her level headed-ness in the face of all things supernatural. I remember an episode where a voodoo priest tried to scare her with his curses and she poked him in the eye and said something like, "People aren't so scary when they get poked in the eye." Her belief in things that can be proven was like finding my fictional soul mate. When asked about her beliefs, Dr. Brennan said, "I believe that this coffee is warm because the molecules are racing around in it. I believe that the sun will rise in the morning because it has several billion years to go before its nuclear fuel is depleted" and on and on and on. Dr. Brennan is incredibly grounded in science and a crossover with Sleepy Hollow is going to suggest that Brennan doesn't know everything, which is wrong because SHE PRETTY MUCH DOES KNOW EVERYTHING. Brennan's IQ is off the charts. She's smarter than the crack of Indiana Jones's whip.

So now Abbey and Ichabod are going to cross paths with Boothe and Brennan? Give me a break. Ichabod is 250 years old...this can't/shouldn't exist in Brennan's universe. The first two seasons of Sleepy Hollow were about the Book of Revelations and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse which Brennan views as FICTION in the same vein as Harry Potter. It makes for a great story. But mixing these worlds MAKES BRENNAN wrong about everything she believes in. Why does FOX even think that this is a good idea?!

In a week full of outrage, I guess this latest insult from Fox makes me want to ask, "Et tu Fox?" But thanks to Shakespeare, we all know how that ended.

Getting My T.V. On

Now that the Emmy's are over and all the television shows that I love are starting up, I decided to do a post about them to 1) organize my thoughts and my DVR and 2) to let you guys know about them in case you want to watch them too and then we can gossip about them. Please say you are nodding your head yes.

SUNDAY

Right now I watch Breaking Bad but as soon as the season is over, the Walking Dead starts in the same time slot on October 16th.  And oh I'm so excited.  Above is the poster for season two and it looks so apocalyptic it just draws me in.  Here's the teaser trailer for the season:

Before AMC's hit series launches into its second season on Oct. 16, we're going to learn exactly what kicked off the zombie apocalypse—through the eyes of one particular zombie.  In Walking Dead's pilot episode, "Days Gone Bye," the good sheriff Rick Grimes stumbles out of a hospital to see a world ravaged by an unseen event that caused the dead to not stay dead. One of the first things he encounters is a legless zombie, slowly making her way from an unseen Point A to an indeterminate Point B.

A new six-part web series, directed and conceived by Walking Dead FX maestro and co-executive producer Greg Nicotero, will tell the story of this zombie—also known by her given name, Hannah—and, through her, reveal the early days of the zombie-laden hell on earth.

The web series will premiere on Oct. 2. The nightmares will begin shortly thereafter.

MONDAY
The Alphas season finale is on 9/26. Coinciding with that is Terra Nova in a huge two-hour series premiere and it looks really frickin' good.  Check out this trailer for it:

Also I shall be watching the new season of House. At the end of last season he drove into Cuddy's home and the preview for this season has him in prison. It's going to occupy the time slot right after Terra Nova so I can watch these or DVR them back-to-back...squee.

WEDNESDAY

This week is the one-hour premiere for Modern Family.  I love this show because it is so funny and the gay couple is refreshing too. Also on Wednesday night is season two of Harry's Law.  I gotta get my court drama in and I absolutely love how Kathy Bates plays Harriet.

THURSDAY
Big Bang Theory beginning with episode 1 entitled, "The Skank Reflex Analysis". After the season four "walk-of-shame" done by Penny after having slept with Rajesh...Penny reveals she wants to be "just friends." Raj replies, "Well as friends then you may want to know that we didn't have sex in the conventional manner." Insert awkward look.   And...I may peek in on Bones even though they really pissed me off with Vincent's death.

FRIDAY
Double whammy of Supernatural season 7 premiere and Fringe season four premiere.  Oh I love you DVR.

So this is what I got lined up. Is anyone else out there passionate about t.v.?

And I swear I am not addicted to t.v.  So none of you get into your minds that you need to stage an intervention.

I'm Mad At Writers Who Kill Off Characters

I want to know what magnificent source...what God of Literature said that it is okay to kill off beloved characters.  Tell me this person's name because they're full of crap and I want them to know they are full of crap.  My post yesterday about Vincent Nigel-Murray being killed off in BONES I think is at the root of my recent feelings regarding this topic.  I LIKED that character and him being thrown down the tubes so that the bad guy that Booth has to face off against is even more evil is just plain stupid. People can argue, "Oh killing off a character makes it more realistic and is better because it shows the writer isn't willing to compromise to keep someone alive."

VINCENT'S DEATH--COMPLETY UNNECESSARY AND SAD

Oh yeah? How is it better?  Bones lost a viewer.  I'm not going to watch the seventh season. How's them apples?  Have I done this before?

You betcha.

DEEP SPACE NINE--STAR TREK.  The writers killed off Jadzia Dax and I was furious. FURIOUS. I stopped watching.  Rogue Mutt asked me in my Star Trek compilation why Deep Space Nine got no love.  The reason...the whole series got tainted in my eyes despite all the great stuff they did when they killed off Jadzia.

Amber a.k.a. Cutthroat Bitch

In HOUSE...the writers killed off Cutthroat Bitch.  Yeah that really was her name (done by House of course).  But my point is that she LOVED Wilson. She was a brilliant doctor. And they frickin' killed her off and I cried and the series hasn't been the same since.  I love Thirteen which is why I keep coming back to watch House but she's sick so the writers have probably got her death tacked up on a scorecard somewhere. Good thing that it's in season seven cause if I quit watching once they kill her off, then the series is over anyway.

I didn't like it when Robb Stark died in A Storm of Swords.  I think George R.R. Martin went way to frickin' far with that. And you know what? His first three books may have been masterpieces, but A Feast For Crows and A Dance With Dragons have been crap.  Some of this is (I think) because Robb Stark IS DEAD!  He wrote himself into that corner because with Robb alive, the Lannisters would still have someone to fight against and he wouldn't have had to go into the whole Greyjoy thing.

Now I admit, there are times when death is necessary.  Charlotte in Charlotte's Web needed to die because her species of spider dies every year. That's just nature.  Obi-Wan Kenobi needed to die so that he could lead Luke to Yoda and be with him in the cockpit to destroy the Death Star.  Dumbledore needed to die because J.K. Rowling wrote herself into a corner by making Dumbledore more powerful than Voldemort. With him around, NOTHING COULD HAPPEN.  But you writers out there who are rubbing your hands together saying, "I'm going to kill off this character because it will tug at the heartstrings of all my readers" followed by an evil cackle--THAT IS NOT A REASON TO KILL SOMEONE OFF.  Yes, you will get this reaction and then I WILL HATE YOU FOR IT.  You will lose a reader because I will get mad.  Think very carefully about who you axe in your books because I am not alone.  Make sure the death is necessary please.

Meaningless death is meaningless.  There is a reason I read fiction.  In everyday life, people for no reason at all end up dead over something as stupid as a fish bone in the throat.  When I read, I don't want real life.

Alphas

So I've been watching Alphas on SyFy and I really like this show. It has Ryan Cartwright in it (which was a big plus for me) because I loved him as Vincent Nigel-Murray in Bones and was really sad when he got killed in the last season of Bones. /sniff

Why did he have to die? Why couldn't it have been Wendell?

I love the way British guys talk.

I think that having him playing a character with severe autism brings out his true acting ability as he is obviously supressing his strong accent (a feat I'm sure that is difficult).

If you don't know what Alphas is...here's a summary:

Alphas is an action-packed thriller from writers Zak Penn (The Avengers, X-Men: The Last Stand) and Michael Karnow. In the series, five ordinary people are brought together to form one extraordinary team of Alphas -- people with the unique power to stretch the capabilities of the human mind giving them superhuman physical and mental abilities.

Operating within the Defense Criminal Investigation Service of the U.S. Department of Defense and led by preeminent neurologist and psychiatrist Dr. Lee Rosen (Emmy Award-winner and Academy Award-nominee David Strathairn), an expert in Alpha phenomena, the team investigates cases that point to others with Alpha abilities. As they work against the clock to solve this new brand of crime, they must prevent their own personality differences and disparate backgrounds from interfering with their ultimate mission to catch the enemy.

In addition to Academy Award nominee David Strathairn (Temple Grandin, Good Night, and Good Luck), the ensemble cast stars Malik Yoba (New York Undercover, Why Did I Get Married?), Warren Christie (October Road), Laura Mennell (Watchmen), Ryan Cartwright (Mad Men, Bones) and Azita Ghanizada (Castle).

It's on every Monday and you guys should watch it and be Alphas fans with me :))

Bones is Brilliant

Bones is one of my favorite shows.  Why? The answer is simple--the writing is outstanding.  If you haven't checked it out, in my opinion, it's in its own league of crime-solving t.v. shows and stands apart from the nitty gritty drama of C.S.I. and its brooding characters.  If you haven't checked it out, I strongly suggest doing so. In particular, there are certain "Smoking Man" episodes (for you X-Filers out there) which are the real core of the show.  These feature re-occurences of the same serial killers...Gormogon, the intelligent Howard Epps, and my favorite...the Grave Digger.  Here's a photo collage I created that might help explain my love of the show:

Furthermore my friends, Bones is all about writing. The concept for the show is based on the real life of a Kathy Reichs who I guess is an amazing forensic anthropologist.  Anyway, Dr. Reichs wrote crime books featuring Dr. Temperance Brennan (the main character).  Well in the show, Dr. Brennan is also a published author but her main character in her books is a Dr. Reichs.  Kinda clever in my opinion.

Also, the dialogue for the show is really really good:

Booth: He's got no sense of discretion. That kid. Typical squint.

Brennan: I don't know what that means.

Booth: Well when the cops get stuck we bring in people like you. You know squints. You know to squint at things.

Brennan: Oh you mean people with very high IQs and basic reasoning skills.

Another example:

Sweets: Anyway, even though Daisy and I aren't dating, I've decided we can still enjoy each other's company, casually, once in a while.

Brennan: I'm not sure why I should care. Are you planning on having sex somewhere that I will witness it?

Sweets: I hope not.

Brennan: Then I definitely don't care.

I think writers that are trying to work on dialogue could learn a lot from just watching the show and seeing the banter that goes back and forth between Dr. Brennan and just about anyone that crosses her path. I also want to mention that because of this show...I know what the words "specious", "prurient", "kinesiology", and "ad nauseum" mean so its definitely a vocabulary "expander" (those are just the ones I can recall looking up that I'm remembering at the time of this blog entry).

Another thing that I love are the poweful intelligent female characters.  Dr. Brennan is an atheist so she's after my own heart from the beginning. She's almost like a super-hero solving crime with this immense brain of hers in this glamorous fictional setting.  This is way better (for me) than the weak co-dependent female characters that seem to be making their authors or movie-makers mega-millions and have a following so large it's a population almost as high as China's (I don't really understand why that is). I have to admit, there are times when watching the show that I wish my life could be this frickin' awesome...solving murders and then sitting with friends down at the local pub.  How awesome would that be?

But the real thing that got me hooked on the show were the gruesome, disgusting pictures, like the one below (insert ewwwwwww) and admit that ya can't take your eyes off of it cause ya know you want to know what's goin on there.


Is there a dermatologist in the house? I have a fungus problem.

Happy President's Day!