The Grief and the Girl

Even being raised in Quebec and Ontario, I can agree that the accents were insulting. The officer's uniform, even if it wasn't RCMP, was sloppy and ill-fitting. And finally, you think they could have thrown in some scene footage that looked a little like Newfoundland?

I work in the film industry and I can only believe that this episode was rushed and poorly researched on a number of fronts.

After all, if you're going to set an episode in such a distinctive location, please do some homework to get the basics right.

So yes, these little things distracted from the story and drove me to add this review.

I love Bones, and I was excited for an episode that would take place where I live, in Newfoundland. My excitement was quickly crushed by the accents (and dialogue in general) of all of the Newfoundlanders. The vast majority sound American, they all choose their words like Americans, and the few speaking with accents are clearly not Newfoundlanders nor are they familiar with the Newfoundland accent. The main RCMP officer sounds like she's trying for Scottish, but can't maintain it for a whole sentence. The shop owner (father, not daughter) is going for a mix of Irish vowel sounds and the sort of "Canadian accent" Hollywood jokes that are more true to Ontario than anywhere in the maritimes. I honestly found it so distracting, and a little insulting. We film our own "cop drama" show here in Newfoundland (Republic of Doyle), so it's not as if there were no local actors available and up for the role of an RCMP officer. I did appreciate Aubrey's enthusiasm for Newfoundland phrases, and found those funny. My husband complained about the officer's rebuke over the term "Newfie," as in this day and age you'll be hard pressed to find a bayman (and it'd be a bayman to have a thick accent) who's offended by the term.

For crying out loud. If you're so touchy about the accents of the Newfoundland people, watch a documentary. These are not thoroughly thought out feature film. Do you think they should spend a year analyzing an accent and then go into training to make sure the pronunciations are exact. In Bones, it's the plot and the principle characters in the episode. They work to make it somewhat realistic but it's of little importance to the general plot. The issues here, in addition to the discovery of the murderer are the relationships of the characters, especially Booth and Brennan coming to grips with loss. Then there's the appearance of that Sully guy. He's a decent catalyst. I agree with one reviewer that the funeral was really poorly portrayed. I assume a bunch of actors were unavailable for this final scene. Who were those people anyway?

Being a Newfoundlander, I was very upset for the cinematography of this episode. More so, the accents! How horrible! One cop lady sounds Irish and the others all sound American. The areas they have scenes look nothing like Newfoundland. Almost looks more like PEI or Maine! I was so excited to see any show spotlight my beautiful province. I hope everyone who watches this show search up Newfie accents. Because you'll see whoever directed this and cast the actors/actresses really need to do more research. Disappointing.