Why I like Bones.

[cactuswatcher]

From last week's previews I was afraid this week's was going to be a stinker, and not just a small one. But, I have to say that the show is really turning out to be very thought provoking. It must be disturbing to many that the show does not gloss over prejudice. Instead it takes prejudice head on and shows just where it leads. Bones' co-workers are extremely prejudiced against Booth's co-workers and vice versa. Both sides are acting like idiots, and yet somehow Bones and Booth manage to work together in the middle. This week the prejudice spilled over into the victims and criminals of the story. An Afghani man dies in a bomb blast and immediately everyone, but the audience assumes he was a terrorist. Bones starts her work which doesn't depend on what happened. Booth begins his work which does. Bones' people instantly assume that the FBI will hide the facts they find. Bones refuses to make a snap judgement about the identity of the person who died. When she does make a judgement its from a very high statistical probability that she's right. In this episode it turns out that mostly it's Booth's intuition that is correct. Bones can't even begin to understand why this 'prejudiced' view of things can possibly be right. It's the FBI not Bones people who discover that the Afghani was murdered and was not a terrorist. It was Bones' people who figured out from evidence on the body where the bomb was probably made. Together when the two go hunting for the killer, the brother of the first victim, Bones and Booth have to go searching through with a crowd for a man they strongly believe is carrying a bomb. They know what he looks like. Do they stop everyone they see, to make sure it's not him? Of course not. Is it a form of discrimination? Of course, but one a sane person would have to use. Do they stop the wrong people in their search? Yes. Finally, Bones spots in the distance someone who according to her identification points fits the killer. She's literally statistically convinced it's the real terrorist and that he is indeed carrying a bomb. She urges Booth to kill him immediately without waiting. But Booth refuses to shoot until he sees the man's face, to be 100% sure, even if it means the man might have time to set off his bomb. Bones, with all her liberal friends proves to be scientifically right, but of course, it's Booth, the FBI-man, former sniper, who is morally stronger, this time.

It is refreshing that neither of the two 'heroes' are right all the time. What they are involved in is serious business. It is refreshing that everyone we see in the show makes bad judgements that could really hurt innocent people, just as such things happen in real life. But, somehow amongst the lot of them they are going to find out the truth.

Comments

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

I'm not sure this belongs at ATPo though it is Boreanaz related. I don't think the How I Met My Wife and the Kitchen Confidential posts are going to last very long there either. I'd love to help keep the board alive, but I'm not sure going this far afield is the way to do it. At least it makes me uncomfortable. Lost, Surface, Supernatural, Invasion, etc., I think are more appropriate.