Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 353

Vikings

Vikings debuted on the History Channel on Sunday.  It's the new series by Michael Hirst, who did such a fine job with The Tudors.  Indeed, The Tudors set the mark for historical accuracy - as far as use of  technologies like the printing press - and I consider it second only to Rome as far as historical drama on television.

It's a little too soon to tell where Vikings will rank, after just one episode, but the series is off to a good start.  The central theme is the breakthrough of the Vikings from a relatively local force that plundered east at the end of the 8th century AD to the first in-effect world power, with ships that went west and all the way to North America.  I've long been fascinated by this accomplishment, how and why it succeeded and ultimately failed, and Vikings looks like it's up to the task of telling us more about it.

To get across the "open ocean," as the Atlantic was referred to by the Vikings, suitable ships had to be constructed.   Floki, a slightly cracked genius of a ship builder, is doing the job.   Such a voyage will also require support of a Viking leader, or be much more difficult.  Haraldson - played by Gabriel Byrne - is vicious, jealous, arbitrary in his rulings, and not game.  This is good foundation for a high-tension story.

Most of all, a trip across the ocean, or even to just England and the west, will require someone at the helm, a Viking able to get the voyage going in face of all the inertia and outright opposition.  Ragnar is such a man, and is the protaganist of this narrative.   He has a beautiful wife, a powerful younger brother who covets Ragnar's wife and needs to be convinced about the voyage, and an implacable vision of his future and his place in the west.

Ragnar's wife Lagertha (played by Katheryn Winnick from Bones!) is not only beautiful but powerful in her own right.  She not only rules the home but kicks the asses of two men who want their way with her when Ragnar and brother Rollo are away, and later in the story talks Rollo down when he makes a pass at her.   Rollo is by this time convinced about the value of a voyage to the west, and is willing to brook its dangers, but will Lagertha in the end go along with it?

A good first episode, with heroes and villains and those in between assembling the ingredients of what looks to be an excellent series.

                                                                        Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

Bones 8.18: Couples

Mathew Brady's inglorious photographs of the Civil War were the first extensive record ever made by camera of a war.    The work of the man who spelled his name with a single "t" would forever change the way people looked at war.  Tonight, photographs of one of the many horrible wars fought by children in the past decades play a major role in Bones 8.18.

But, again, the best parts of the show are what happens to our characters and their relationships.  Arastoo and Cam have been a happy, covert couple for a while, known only to Hodgins who of course confided in Angela.   It's time they stepped into the light - hey, this is Bones we're talking about, office romances between consenting adults are the lifeblood of the show - but it's never easy.  Arastoo, usually the epitome of sanity and calm, lashes out at Hodgins over not cracking the case quickly enough.   We learn near the end that Arastoo's cousin was a child soldier in the first Gulf War, which understandably makes Arastoo especially sensitive on the subject.   He explains this to Cam - after his intemperate outburst earlier and not wanting to talk about it her after that - and this provides the occasion for a nice passionate hug.   Just in time to be seen not only by Hodgins and Angela (who's happy that she can now publicly talk about this) but Bones as well, who, of course, at first does not get what she's seeing.

Later that evening, she tells Booth all about this over wine at home.  They've been bickering this episode about where to go on vacation - actually, a continuing issue for the couple, with Booth wanting to have fun and Bones wanting some intellectual purpose to the vacation.  (I confess, I'm with Bones when it comes to this.)  But they finally reach an agreement about some suitable spot in Thailand, with ancient relics and a great beach.   A good night for couples on Bones tonight - Cam and Arastoo, Angela and Hodgins, and Bones and Booth.  I hope they'll take some pictures if they ever get there - far  more uplifting than what Mathew Brady showed us.

See also Bones 8.1: Walk Like an Egyptian ... Bones 8.2 of Contention ... Bones 8.3: Not Rotting Behind a Desk  ... Bones 8.4: Slashing Tiger and Donald Trump ... Bones 8.5: Applesauce on Election Eve ... Bones 8.6: Election Day ... Bones 8.7: Dollops in the Sky with Diamonds ...Bones 8.8: The Talking Remains ... Bones 8.9: I Am A Camera ... Bones 8.10-11: Double Bones ...Bones 8.12: Face of Enigmatic Evil ... Bones 8.13: Two for the Price of One ... Bones 8.14: Real Life ... Bones 8.15: The Magic Bullet and the Be-Spontaneous Paradox ... Bones 8.16: Bitter-Sweet Sweets and Honest Finn ... Bones 8.17: "Not Time Share, Time Travel"

And see also Bones 7.1: Almost Home Sweet Home ... Bones 7.2: The New Kid and the Fluke ...Bones 7.3: Lance Bond and Prince Charmington ... Bones 7.4: The Tush on the Xerox ... Bones 7.5: Sexy Vehicle ... Bones 7.6: The Reassembler ... Bones 7.7: Baby! ... Bones 7.8: Parents ...Bones 7.9: Tabitha's Salon ... Bones 7.10: Mobile ... Bones 7.11: Truffles and Max ... Bones 7.12: The Corpse is Hanson ... Bones Season 7 Finale: Suspect Bones

And see also Bones 6.1: The Linchpin ... Bones 6.2: Hannah and her Prospects ... Bones 6.3 at the Jersey Shore, Yo, and Plymouth Rock ... Bones 6.4 Sans Hannah ... Bones 6.5: Shot and Pretty ... Bones 6.6: Accidental Relations ... Bones 6.7:  Newman and "Death by Chocolate" ...Bones 6.8: Melted Bones ... Bones 6.9: Adelbert Ames, Jr. ... Bones 6.10: Reflections ... Bones 6.11: The End and the Beginning of a Mystery ... Bones 6.12 Meets Big Love ... Bones 6.13: The Marrying Kind ... Bones 6.14: Bones' Acting Ability ... Bones 6.15: "Lunch for the Palin Family" ...Bones 6.16: Stuck in an Elevator, Stuck in Times ... Bones 6.17: The 8th Pair of Feet ... Bones 6.18: The Wile E. Chupacabra ... Bones 6.19 Test Runs The Finder ... Bones 6.20: This Very Statement is a Lie ... Bones 6.21: Sensitive Bones ... Bones 6.22: Phoenix Love ... Bones Season 6 Finale: Beautiful

And see also Bones: Hilarity and Crime and Bones is Back For Season 5: What Is Love? and 5.2: Anonymous Donors and Pipes and 5.3: Bones in Amish Country and 5.4: Bones Meets Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives and Ancient Bones 5.5 and Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot and Psychological Bones 5.7 and Bones 5.8: Booth's "Pops" and Bones 5.9 Meets Avatar and Videogamers ... Bad Santa, Heart-Warming Bones 5.10 ... Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles ... Bones 5.12: A Famous Skeleton and Angela's Baby ... Love with Teeth on Bones 5.13 ... Faith vs. Science vs. Psychology in Bones 5.14 ... Page 187 in Bones 5.15 ...Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses and One Wild Relationship ... Bones 5.17: The Deadly Stars ...Bones Under Water in 5.18 ... Bones 5.19: Ergo Together ...  Bones 5.20: Ergo Together ... Bones 5.21: The Rarity of Happy Endings ... Bones Season 5 Finale: Eye and Evolution

                                                                   Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

The Following 1.7: At Large

Joe has been masterful behind bars, uncanny in his ability to manipulate events to his diabolical liking.  In The Following 1.7, his situation takes a major turn for the better for him - and for the worse for Ryan and every one determined to stop him.  He's sprung, united in person with what looks like a large contingent of his following, and reunited with his son Joey.

How does this happen?  Well, what's been clear all along is that Joe's tentacles reach out everywhere, including into law enforcement.   In last week's excellent episode, which I didn't have a chance to review, the plot hinged and swung in Joe's favor when a local cop in upstate New York turned out to be one of the following.  She steps out from her undercover role at just the right moment, and prevents Ryan from rescuing Joey.   Everything is back as it was - Claire is back home and Joey's still kidnapped.

Tonight it gets much worse.  The following kidnaps the warden's daughter - the warden of the prison holding Joe - which gives Joe the leverage to help him escape in the trunk of his lawyer's car.  Before the episode is over, she's choked to death by Joe.   The warden's daughter is unharmed.  But Claire's put into witness protection, a sensible move with Joe at large, and a big victory for the erudite madman: in one fell swoop he gets back his son and puts his wife beyond Ryan's arms and reach.

Joe's power over his followers and consequent power to make events go his way - almost every time - makes this almost an unequal contest vis-a-vis Ryan.  How can Ryan possibly win when a local cop, a warden, and a lawyer are in one degree another all under Joe's absolute control?   And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Next week, it looks as if Joe will turn his sights on the FBI.  His follower already killed one agent.  Tonight, Joe lets Ryan live because he'd rather Ryan stay alive to witness all of Joe's depraved victories.  I'm still thinking that someone in the FBI, someone we already know, if not already working for Joe, will sooner or later come under his control after he puts one of their loved ones at lethal risk.

The bad guy has never had such awesome assets in the land of television, and that's one of the things that makes The Following so good.

See also The Following Begins ... The Following 1.2: Joe, Poe, and the Plan ... The Following 1.3: Bug in the Sun ... The Following 1.4: Off the Leash ... The Following 1.6: The Lawyer and the Swap

                                                                 Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

The Walking Dead 3.12: The Lesson of Morgan

We last saw Morgan at the beginning of the first season of The Walking Dead, in a heart-rending thread.   His wife has been bitten and has turned.  He knows he must kill her, to protect himself and their son.  But he still loves her.  In the end he just can't follow Rick's right advice.  He can't bring himself to do what he knows needs to be done.

This would be one of many heart-rending threads in this series, and in some ways still the purest and best.   And Morgan comes back tonight  in episode 3.12 - as Rick and Carl go back to their home town, on a mission with Michonne to get rifles and guns - and we see the terrible, bitter fruit of his "weakness," as Morgan puts it.   He was only able to finally kill his walking dead wife, his beloved Jenny, when she was already killing their son Duane, also unable to fire his gun at his mother.   A powerful, horribly instructive story, entirely appropriate for this powerful series.

The larger issue tonight is who can our brave human group trust?  At the beginning, Rick refuses to pick up a human pleading for help on the road.   At the end, going back over that same road, Rick picks something up, a backpack with whatever that the guy on the read had been carrying, and puts it in the car.   It's not clear what that is.  Maybe it symbolizes the pleading man, who is now beyond the need to be picked up or saved.  Maybe it's Rick belatedly showing his regret for not picking the man up.

But Rick's trusting of Michonne, who saves Carl's life - Carl, who risks it to get a picture of his family before the walkers came, Carl, who did have that hideous but necessary strength (to paraphrase C. S. Lewis) to kill his mother before she turned - is completely clear now.  And that trust from Rick, and the recognition that he was right to give Michonne a chance - is a key ingredient in Rick's recovery from the loss of Lori.

It was good to take a week off from the Governor, who will be back next week.  What this fine standalone episode shows tonight is that what The Walking Dead is about and has always been about most is our humanity.


See also The Walking Dead 3.3 meets Meadowlands ... The Walking Dead 3.4: Going to the Limit ... The Walking Dead 3.9: Making Crazy Sense ... The Walking Dead 3.10: Reinforcements ... The Walking Dead 3.11: The Patch

And see also The Walking Dead Back on AMC ... The Walking Dead 2.2: The Nature of Vet... The Walking Dead 2.3: Shane and Otis ... The Walking Dead 2.4: What Happened at the Pharmacy ... The Walking Dead 2.6: Secrets Told ... The Walking Dead 2.7: Rick's Way vs. Shane's Way ...  The Walking Dead 2.8: The Farm, the Road, and the Town  ... The Walking Dead 2.9: Worse than Walkers ... The Walking Dead 2.11: Young Calling the Shots ... The Walking Dead 2.12: Walkers Without Bites ... The Walking Dead Season 2 Finale
And see also The Walking Dead 1.1-3:  Gone with the Wind, Zombie Style ... The Walking Dead Ends First Season





Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

House of Cards: A Review

Just finished watching House of Cards on my MacBook.   Watching a television series all at once, or over a few days time, rather than on a once-a-week basis, is nothing new.  And, in fact, ever since I saw the first few seasons of Alias, The Sopranos, and 24 that way back in the mid-2000s, I've been saying that's far and away the best way to watch television.  It's also a key characteristic of what I call "new new media," or the putting into consumer's hands the powers previously in the hands of producers - such as, in this case, being entertained on your not the producer's or network's schedule.

But House of Cards shuffles the deck in other new and crucial ways.  First and foremost, its entire first season debuted all at once on Netflix - unlike Alias, etc, in which the DVDs did not become available until after the season had aired on television.  This is a first, and made the series even more exciting.

The trappings of the series - the backdrops and tech environment in which the characters live and work - are also brand spanking new, and presented in the savviest way I've ever seen on television.  Texting, twitter, YouTube are not just throwaway references inserted in the story to make it seem hip, but crucial  components of the narrative.  Zoe, a reporter who moves from the equivalent of the Washington Post to the hypothetical successor to Politico, is aptly called a "twitter twat" by her rival in an early scene, and Zoe's knowledge of how information moves in our world is even more central to her success, or at least ability to stay above water, than her body, which she also uses to good effect.

The story is like Boss, but played on a much higher level, and without the literal insanity that the Mayor of Chicago had in that recently bygone series.  But House of Cards is also like Homeland, in that there are characters willing to commit murder to get to a heartbeat from the Presidency.

Kevin Spacey is better than ever as the lead character, and the rest of the cast, especially Corey Stoll, are the toppest notch.  I'd say House of Cards is among the top 3 best new television shows this 2012-2013 season, and I'm looking forward to more next year.

                                                                           Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

Bones 8.17: "Not Time Share, Time Travel"

How, we're asked in Bones 8.17, can the same victim be found dead twice - in two different places, with one victim 20 years older than the other?  After a tasty UFO romp a few years ago, Bones gives us  an equally enjoyable time travel caper tonight.  Actually, the two victims turn out to be son and father, and not really involved in time travel, but my favorite kind of science fiction - as a reader, viewer, and author - was still the topic de jour tonight.  "Not time share, time travel," as an early suspect explains the passion of the younger victim.

The team gets it - time travel and all its complexities - precisely right.  Hodgins correctly says that time travel to the future is more possible than time travel to the past, which pitches us into paradox.  No time on a network television show to explain why with examples, so here are two:  I go back in time and prevent my grandparents from meeting.  So how did I exist in the first place to go back in time?  Or, an old guy (yeah, older than me) knocks on my door and gives me instructions on how to build a time machine, which I build, and then travel back in time to knock on my door to give myself the instructions.  So where did the instructions come from in the first place?  (Only a multiple universe muti-verse, in which every act of the time traveler creates a new universe, can get us out of such paradoxes.)  But travel to the future is no bed of roses either - it robs us of free will.  If I travel to the future and see you wearing a red shirt tomorrow, that deprives you of your free will to don a blue shirt tomorrow, if you choose.

Anyway, conundrums like this are what make time travel so much fun to think about it, as we see tonight again in Bones.   A new intern, who may even be brighter than Bones, thinks time travel is a possibility.  His name is Wells - a good name, given that H. G. Wells wrote the time travel classic, The Time Machine.  He gets Bones to see, at least a little, that luck can be a factor in solving cases, and you have to be open to all possibilities, however unlikely.

Tonight's episode is really about unlikely possibilities paying off.   Booth wants to invest in asteroid mining, Bones is skeptical about such a literally far-out venture paying off, and Booth in the best line of the night says, well people didn't think that we would pay off.  Exactly right.  And although time travel may forever be beyond our reach because it would shake up the very cause-and-effect nature of the universe, Booth and Bones certainly are not, and, in fact, according to the ratings, are doing better than ever as a couple.  Time well shared.   Viewing well re-paid.

See also Bones 8.1: Walk Like an Egyptian ... Bones 8.2 of Contention ... Bones 8.3: Not Rotting Behind a Desk  ... Bones 8.4: Slashing Tiger and Donald Trump ... Bones 8.5: Applesauce on Election Eve ... Bones 8.6: Election Day ... Bones 8.7: Dollops in the Sky with Diamonds ...Bones 8.8: The Talking Remains ... Bones 8.9: I Am A Camera ... Bones 8.10-11: Double Bones ...Bones 8.12: Face of Enigmatic Evil ... Bones 8.13: Two for the Price of One ... Bones 8.14: Real Life ... Bones 8.15: The Magic Bullet and the Be-Spontaneous Paradox ... Bones 8.16: Bitter-Sweet Sweets and Honest Finn

And see also Bones 7.1: Almost Home Sweet Home ... Bones 7.2: The New Kid and the Fluke ...Bones 7.3: Lance Bond and Prince Charmington ... Bones 7.4: The Tush on the Xerox ... Bones 7.5: Sexy Vehicle ... Bones 7.6: The Reassembler ... Bones 7.7: Baby! ... Bones 7.8: Parents ...Bones 7.9: Tabitha's Salon ... Bones 7.10: Mobile ... Bones 7.11: Truffles and Max ... Bones 7.12: The Corpse is Hanson ... Bones Season 7 Finale: Suspect Bones

And see also Bones 6.1: The Linchpin ... Bones 6.2: Hannah and her Prospects ... Bones 6.3 at the Jersey Shore, Yo, and Plymouth Rock ... Bones 6.4 Sans Hannah ... Bones 6.5: Shot and Pretty ... Bones 6.6: Accidental Relations ... Bones 6.7:  Newman and "Death by Chocolate" ...Bones 6.8: Melted Bones ... Bones 6.9: Adelbert Ames, Jr. ... Bones 6.10: Reflections ... Bones 6.11: The End and the Beginning of a Mystery ... Bones 6.12 Meets Big Love ... Bones 6.13: The Marrying Kind ... Bones 6.14: Bones' Acting Ability ... Bones 6.15: "Lunch for the Palin Family" ...Bones 6.16: Stuck in an Elevator, Stuck in Times ... Bones 6.17: The 8th Pair of Feet ... Bones 6.18: The Wile E. Chupacabra ... Bones 6.19 Test Runs The Finder ... Bones 6.20: This Very Statement is a Lie ... Bones 6.21: Sensitive Bones ... Bones 6.22: Phoenix Love ... Bones Season 6 Finale: Beautiful

And see also Bones: Hilarity and Crime and Bones is Back For Season 5: What Is Love? and 5.2: Anonymous Donors and Pipes and 5.3: Bones in Amish Country and 5.4: Bones Meets Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives and Ancient Bones 5.5 and Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot and Psychological Bones 5.7 and Bones 5.8: Booth's "Pops" and Bones 5.9 Meets Avatar and Videogamers ... Bad Santa, Heart-Warming Bones 5.10 ... Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles ... Bones 5.12: A Famous Skeleton and Angela's Baby ... Love with Teeth on Bones 5.13 ... Faith vs. Science vs. Psychology in Bones 5.14 ... Page 187 in Bones 5.15 ...Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses and One Wild Relationship ... Bones 5.17: The Deadly Stars ...Bones Under Water in 5.18 ... Bones 5.19: Ergo Together ...  Bones 5.20: Ergo Together ... Bones 5.21: The Rarity of Happy Endings ... Bones Season 5 Finale: Eye and Evolution



"A thinking person's time travel story... I felt like I was there." - SF Signal

Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

The Walking Dead 3.11: The Patch

Well, the most interesting and important development - and maybe revelation - in The Walking Dead 3.11 happened when the Governor aka Phillip takes off his eye bandage back in Woodbury.  It's not 100% clear, but it looks as if his badly injured eye may not be completely gouged out.  I'm no ophthalmologist, so I couldn't tell you if the Governor can now see something out of that eye, but the producers showed us that scene for a reason.  So I'm guessing/betting that the Governor does indeed have some vision out of that eye now.

Why is this important?

Andrea's back in the Governor's bed, following Carole's good advice that Andrea should give the Governor "the time of his life," and then kill him in his sleep.   Andrea seems well on the way to doing that, but pulls a little back at the end of this episode.   Presumably Phillip is safe, for now.

But did he see what Andrea almost did?   He was wearing a patch over his eye, and, ordinarily people don't see through patches.  But The Walking Dead is clearly no ordinary story, so I'm thinking maybe the Governor put a little pinhole in the patch, to enable him to see through it, which would give him an advantage with people in addition to Andrea.

We'll see (pun intended).  Meanwhile, Tyreese's group is now in Woodbury, Rick may be getting it a tad more together (after that great scene in which Carl tells him maybe he should step down as leader), and both sides - Rick's and the Governor's - are gearing up for some kind of battle.   More than in any of the three seasons so far, The Walking Dead is moving into humans versus human territory, with the walkers an ever-present danger to both and, as we saw last week, weapons that the Gov is happy to use against our people.  Not a bad state of affairs at all for a good story, and I'm looking forward to more.

See also The Walking Dead 3.3 meets Meadowlands ... The Walking Dead 3.4: Going to the Limit ... The Walking Dead 3.9: Making Crazy Sense ... The Walking Dead 3.11: Reinforcements

And see also The Walking Dead Back on AMC ... The Walking Dead 2.2: The Nature of Vet... The Walking Dead 2.3: Shane and Otis ... The Walking Dead 2.4: What Happened at the Pharmacy ... The Walking Dead 2.6: Secrets Told ... The Walking Dead 2.7: Rick's Way vs. Shane's Way ...  The Walking Dead 2.8: The Farm, the Road, and the Town  ... The Walking Dead 2.9: Worse than Walkers ... The Walking Dead 2.11: Young Calling the Shots ... The Walking Dead 2.12: Walkers Without Bites ... The Walking Dead Season 2 Finale
And see also The Walking Dead 1.1-3:  Gone with the Wind, Zombie Style ... The Walking Dead Ends First Season


Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

The Americans 1.4: Preventing World War III

Just heard the news that The Americans is being renewed for a second season - excellent, in view of how good the first season has been so far.   Consider, for example, 1.4, on last night, in which both Soviet and American agents, working not in concert, manage to stop a possible nuclear war between the USSR and the USA.

The trigger is the Reagan shooting of 1981, compounded by Secretary of State Haig's now infamous statement that he's "in control" of the government.   Haig was not only wrong constitutionally - a couple of elected officials stand between the VP and Secretary of State in succession to the Presidency - but his clumsy statement gives the Soviets the wrong idea that there may be a coup underway in the USA, which would prompt the Soviet Union to take some sort of military action to protect its interests.

There is a fearful, perfectly portrayed symmetry between the Soviet and American  agents and how they each work on their own to stop this dangerous escalation.  Phillip is the first to see that there may not be a coup going on here at all.   Though he and Elizabeth have been here the same amount of time, he is much more perceptive about American political culture than is she.  Elizabeth therefore at first opposes Phillip - and indeed kills a security guard in one of their surveillance missions - but one of the best parts of this series is how to the two come to reach conclusions through and in spite of their different starting points.  The fact that Elizabeth is now falling in love with her husband, after all of these years, also helps - and is a good motive point in the plot.

Meanwhile, Stan uses his own contact with Soviets to get a handle on how the Soviets are reacting, and is able to convey to his superiors that no massive military action is imminent or even under planning.  And, then, in a sweet move for the relative peace of the world, he tells his neighbors that American intelligence knows the KGB was not behind the assassination attempt.   Since his neighbors just happen to be Phillip and Elizabeth, this is the final defusing element in the story.

As I've written earlier, Stan being the neighbor of Elizabeth and Phillip is the one conceit of the plot set-up which seems unlikely.   But it was worked to great effect in this episode, and I'm looking forward more than ever to what may come next.

See also The Americans: True and Deep



Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

Cool Television Reviews by Other Writers

Following are some blogs with cool, savvy reviews - not written by me - of some excellent television shows -
Candace Boyle: Game of ThronesTom Brande: CommunityAnnie Carter: Boardwalk Empire  Marisa Frydman: The AmericansDanielle Kaslow: GirlsJustin LaCoursiere: ParenthoodClara Villanueva: Downton AbbeySean Alloca:  Shameless Paul Lauricella: Battlestar Galactica Catherine McNamara:  Breaking Bad James Terry: Sons of AnarchyNick Womack: Scandal  Enjoy!  Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music

Bones 8.16: Bitter-Sweet Sweets and Honest Finn

Another fine bitter-sweet Sweets-centric episode of Bones tonight - 8.16 - as the team investigates remains that come with Ketamine, a date-rape drug.   But it soon turns out that the male remains were only carrying Special K, and the episode pivots into an investigation of a date-rape victim.  For a while, it seems that the dead body was the rapist - the victim can't remember much of what happened - but there's a good twist at the end of the episode about that.

So why was this bitter-sweet for Sweets?  It falls to him to question the girl who was raped, who understandably - and on advice of her mother - doesn't want to talk about it.  As Sweets tries to draw her out, and she says Sweets can't understand what's she's going through, Sweets reveals that he was raised in a foster home (I'm not sure if we knew that already) and he was beaten by his foster father.

Probably more than any other character on the show other than Bones and Booth, we've really gotten to know Sweets better this season.  Professionally, he's taken a much more active role in the investigations.   Personally, living with Bones, Booth, and Christine, he's in effect become part of their family, and the third most important character on the show.

Meanwhile, Cam shows an excellent perspective when her daughter Michelle neglects to tell her she's back in town and spending her time at Finn's place.  Rather than going crazy, she gets Finn to tell her where he and Michelle will be when they're out, so Cam can "accidentally" bump into the couple.  This, as Cam explains to Finn, will allow her to be mad at Michelle without outing the honest Finn who  told Cam about Michelle and him.   Very sophisticated and sensitive on Cam's part.  (Her relationship with Arastoo has helped her - nothing like a mother and daughter both seeing interns.)  Of course, it ironically gets the honest Finn to lie - but it's a white lie - and consistent with the underlying Bones philosophy of nothing is ever as straightforward as it seems.

Hey, did I hear something about time travel in the coming attractions?  You know I'm going to have a lot to say about that (time travel is my favorite science fiction to read and write).  In fact, I may travel ahead and see if I can get a peek at the show, so I can have a week to think about what to say in my review ...

See also Bones 8.1: Walk Like an Egyptian ... Bones 8.2 of Contention ... Bones 8.3: Not Rotting Behind a Desk  ... Bones 8.4: Slashing Tiger and Donald Trump ... Bones 8.5: Applesauce on Election Eve ... Bones 8.6: Election Day ... Bones 8.7: Dollops in the Sky with Diamonds ...Bones 8.8: The Talking Remains ... Bones 8.9: I Am A Camera ... Bones 8.10-11: Double Bones ...Bones 8.12: Face of Enigmatic Evil ... Bones 8.13: Two for the Price of One ... Bones 8.15: Real Life ... Bones 8.16: The Magic Bullet and the Be-Spontaneous Paradox

And see also Bones 7.1: Almost Home Sweet Home ... Bones 7.2: The New Kid and the Fluke ...Bones 7.3: Lance Bond and Prince Charmington ... Bones 7.4: The Tush on the Xerox ... Bones 7.5: Sexy Vehicle ... Bones 7.6: The Reassembler ... Bones 7.7: Baby! ... Bones 7.8: Parents ...Bones 7.9: Tabitha's Salon ... Bones 7.10: Mobile ... Bones 7.11: Truffles and Max ... Bones 7.12: The Corpse is Hanson ... Bones Season 7 Finale: Suspect Bones

And see also Bones 6.1: The Linchpin ... Bones 6.2: Hannah and her Prospects ... Bones 6.3 at the Jersey Shore, Yo, and Plymouth Rock ... Bones 6.4 Sans Hannah ... Bones 6.5: Shot and Pretty ... Bones 6.6: Accidental Relations ... Bones 6.7:  Newman and "Death by Chocolate" ...Bones 6.8: Melted Bones ... Bones 6.9: Adelbert Ames, Jr. ... Bones 6.10: Reflections ... Bones 6.11: The End and the Beginning of a Mystery ... Bones 6.12 Meets Big Love ... Bones 6.13: The Marrying Kind ... Bones 6.14: Bones' Acting Ability ... Bones 6.15: "Lunch for the Palin Family" ...Bones 6.16: Stuck in an Elevator, Stuck in Times ... Bones 6.17: The 8th Pair of Feet ... Bones 6.18: The Wile E. Chupacabra ... Bones 6.19 Test Runs The Finder ... Bones 6.20: This Very Statement is a Lie ... Bones 6.21: Sensitive Bones ... Bones 6.22: Phoenix Love ... Bones Season 6 Finale: Beautiful

And see also Bones: Hilarity and Crime and Bones is Back For Season 5: What Is Love? and 5.2: Anonymous Donors and Pipes and 5.3: Bones in Amish Country and 5.4: Bones Meets Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives and Ancient Bones 5.5 and Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot and Psychological Bones 5.7 and Bones 5.8: Booth's "Pops" and Bones 5.9 Meets Avatar and Videogamers ... Bad Santa, Heart-Warming Bones 5.10 ... Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles ... Bones 5.12: A Famous Skeleton and Angela's Baby ... Love with Teeth on Bones 5.13 ... Faith vs. Science vs. Psychology in Bones 5.14 ... Page 187 in Bones 5.15 ...Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses and One Wild Relationship ... Bones 5.17: The Deadly Stars ...Bones Under Water in 5.18 ... Bones 5.19: Ergo Together ...  Bones 5.20: Ergo Together ... Bones 5.21: The Rarity of Happy Endings ... Bones Season 5 Finale: Eye and Evolution

                                                             Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music