Season 8 is likely then point when Bones has officially jumping the shark and landed in a whole different time zone. Technically, you could argue the introduction of Pellant is the actual shark jump, but season 8, for the first time, is just one bad unwatchable, episode after another. When the reruns pop up I sadly delete them or they make me too worked up. This episode is definitely one to delete.
Bones has always played it loose with science but they veer way too far from reality here. They couldn't hire a single technical consultant? But even before we get to the nonsense Neanderthal plot, we are subject to ridiculousness such as Hodgins seriously believing the body found in the tree is a mothman. Or Bones practically breaking into tears when Clark is assigned to study the fossils instead of her. There's nothing worse than a writer showing up to a long running series and turning the characters into whiny clowns.
Also, it's so silly to have Clark asking for Hodgins and Angela for help (beyond contrived plot convenience). There's no one more qualified working at the entire Jeffersonian? Knowing about bugs in modern N. America, especially in relation to corpses, is not the same as specializing in bugs in ancient Asia. I can fanwank Angela helping out in her down time, but pulling Hodgins from an active case is just dumb. Compounding the zero accuracy involved in overall ancient history (including even when Neanderthals became extinct), the writers don't even seem to understand how various fields of study are incredibly specialized. There's just no respect for knowledge or science exhibited here, which is what I think ticks off so many fans of a show that usually promotes at least the idea of science.
Most of the episode, until I finally turned it off with disgust, is various characters standing around, whining and bickering. Then we're forced to listen to the grandstanding speeches of the creationist guy. (Sorry other reviewer, creationism is not science. Period. It's not some alternative fact, both sides nonsense.) That's when I had to delete another one without finishing. I've endured it once, never again.
The entire series of Bones is admittedly pretty silly fantasy. But overall it's about the characters we enjoy and their goofy mysteries. This episode changes the characters so they are unrecognizable and obnoxious, all to grandstand and hit us over the head with morality most reasonable fans of a show in its eighth year already agree with. Skip it.
Bones has always played it loose with science but they veer way too far from reality here. They couldn't hire a single technical consultant? But even before we get to the nonsense Neanderthal plot, we are subject to ridiculousness such as Hodgins seriously believing the body found in the tree is a mothman. Or Bones practically breaking into tears when Clark is assigned to study the fossils instead of her. There's nothing worse than a writer showing up to a long running series and turning the characters into whiny clowns.
Also, it's so silly to have Clark asking for Hodgins and Angela for help (beyond contrived plot convenience). There's no one more qualified working at the entire Jeffersonian? Knowing about bugs in modern N. America, especially in relation to corpses, is not the same as specializing in bugs in ancient Asia. I can fanwank Angela helping out in her down time, but pulling Hodgins from an active case is just dumb. Compounding the zero accuracy involved in overall ancient history (including even when Neanderthals became extinct), the writers don't even seem to understand how various fields of study are incredibly specialized. There's just no respect for knowledge or science exhibited here, which is what I think ticks off so many fans of a show that usually promotes at least the idea of science.
Most of the episode, until I finally turned it off with disgust, is various characters standing around, whining and bickering. Then we're forced to listen to the grandstanding speeches of the creationist guy. (Sorry other reviewer, creationism is not science. Period. It's not some alternative fact, both sides nonsense.) That's when I had to delete another one without finishing. I've endured it once, never again.
The entire series of Bones is admittedly pretty silly fantasy. But overall it's about the characters we enjoy and their goofy mysteries. This episode changes the characters so they are unrecognizable and obnoxious, all to grandstand and hit us over the head with morality most reasonable fans of a show in its eighth year already agree with. Skip it.