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Date Posted: 06:26:37 02/02/06 Thu
Author: Cactus Watcher
Subject: Did I see you on TV this morning? (Spoilers for last night's Bones)

Dr. Brennan answers the title question with her usual inability to make generalizations and inferences, "I have no idea what you watch..."

“Do you have any idea what it’s like to deal with that kind of people?” asks one of the minor characters of last night’s Bones of FBI agent Booth. He’s speaking about really smart people, and, yes, Booth does have some idea.

For a show that centers on the clinical study of mute remains, a big part of 'Bones' is the study of personality. Last night most of the characters went through the stress of an interview.

Many years ago I watched the very personable Merv Griffin attempt to interview Joyce Carol Oates, the opening scene of last night’s Bones was very similar. Both instances showed what happens when someone with no interest in chitchat is asked to make light conversation with someone who asks stupid questions for a living. Merv Griffin is nobody’s fool, but without knowing anything about Ms Oates, he was at a loss to get her to make anything but terse, clinical, somewhat bored answers to all his questions. Both in the fiction and in the real event the interview was to stir up interest for the person’s latest book. The first thing you might think watching the interviews was how could such a person write an interesting book? In Bones’ case the question is a lot more insistent since she is portrayed as a virtual cultural illiterate. But it doesn’t take much of knowledge of American literature to be aware of the case of Emily Dickinson, a virtual hermit who managed to write prolifically and very well without a lot of contact with others, or interest in what they were thinking.

Are all the smart people on Bones like the lead character Dr. Brennan? Hardly. We have the sweet bubbling personality, the artist, the most normal of the bunch, who may have the lowest IQ of the group, but is extremely talented perhaps a genius at what she does. We have the angry young man, a rich kid no less, who grumbles at almost everything. We have Zack, who though we are told has an amazing IQ, seems to be not at all disinterested, but totally naive about everything, but his work. There is the head of the institute, who reminds me so much of my grad school advisor it’s scary. Certainly very few professors are actually like this person, but enough so that the word ‘professorial’ pretty much covers his demeanor.

A security expert comes to ask questions to find out about these people. The artist is somewhat paranoid about it and treats it as a therapy session. The angry young man can’t get her to even bother to interview him, which frustrates him a lot. He tells Zack, “She’s wrong! I’m dangerous.” Zack doesn’t say much in his interview, but he’s constantly working before during and after his interview, which in itself speaks volumes. Zack sees the interview as little more than an annoying nuisance. The head of the institute largely laughs off the interview which he clearly sees as beneath him. Even when the interviewer tries to hit on something that might, indeed, pose a sequrity risk, he wryly points out part of the enjoyment he gets out of talking to a environmental extremist friend is arguing with her. The interview with Bones turns out to be the twist in the story line, so there is really no interview with her. But Dr. Brennan does prove through what happens that she is worthy of her security clearance.

Booth isn’t part of the team of ‘squints’ as the FBI on the show calls their extremely smart consultants, but like the artist he has talents that make him fit in and work well with them. One of his talents is recognizing the value of their work. His personality is very much a lighter, more friendly version of a certain vampire we all know about, even down to the way he feels about the son he rarely sees.

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