'Bones' & 'Castle': Game Changing Episodes

Castle: The Limey & Bones: The Prisoner in the Pipe

Let's talk about 'Bones' and 'Castle'. Both of them had important episodes last night, which may well change the course of their prospective series.

 

In last night's episode of 'Bones' (recapped here), we all knew what was coming: a baby. It was no secret that Brennan was going to deliver her baby last night, and that's slightly unfortunate. Much of the episode was completely expected. The producers and the network released a huge amount of information about the episode ahead of time: we knew that the crime involve a prison, we knew that Brennan would go into labor near the prison, and (if you've been paying attention to spoilers, like this spoof video by Michael Ausiello, Gillian Jacobs, and Adam Pally) we knew that the birth would take place in a barn. In fact, the network even released an extended scene from this episode, showing the manipulation that occurred between Booth, Sweets, and Brennan. Oh, plus the fact that we all knew that they would name the baby Christine after Brennan's mother. Really, there were no real surprises left. And I think that's unfortunate. I assume that spoilers were released in order to achieve a massive number of viewers for the show's first post-hiatus episode. But loyal viewers don't care about numbers in the same way TV execs do. The episode would have been a lot stronger if viewers could have held their breath in anticipation, even a little.

Clearly, my main critique is not the content of the actual episode, but rather the way that it was promoted. Each part of the episode felt predictable, and a large part of that predictability was not due to the quality of the writing, or the quality of the performances, but rather to the promotion of the episode. I knew what was going to happen next to such an extent that I didn't much care what was happening next.

Now, let's switch shows and talk about 'Castle'. This show actually went to the other extreme. The producers have been promising that the last couple of episodes of this season will change the course of the series. Many viewers, myself included, have taken this to mean that something will finally happen between Castle and Beckett. What that something is remains to be seen--but at this point I think we'll take almost anything. Last week's episode was important, and painful, because Castle finally learned that Beckett had heard him tell her that he loved her, and had then lied about hearing it. While 'Bones' didn't put its viewers on edge enough, 'Castle' put them on edge too much. I was filled with nervous anticipation during the whole episode (would Beckett figure out why Castle was being so distant?), and none of that nervousness had dissipated by the end of the episode. Nothing was really resolved at all, and the lack of resolution was to such an extent that I actually was in a bit of pain (okay, okay, I know I shouldn't care so much about a show--but I do). Now, the fact that I cared so much is a credit to the show. But, that being said, it actually made me hesitant to watch last night's episode. I seriously contemplated taking a break for a week or two so that I could watch several episodes in a row and hopefully see some closure on screen. But, of course, I write this blog so that wasn't really an option.

During this week's episode we continued to deal with the fall-out of Castle learning Beckett's secret. Castle is clearly pulling away (even returning to his partying and sleeping around ways), and Beckett actually noticed. Finally her detectives skills are worth something (where were they last week?!). Lanie gave Beckett some reasonable advice: talk to Castle, tell him how you feel, he's probably pulling away because he's tired of waiting. Now, clearly that isn't all true. It was painful to watch Castle hurt and trying to deal with it, and Beckett hurt and trying to deal with it, and realize that if they just talked to each other honestly for one second none of that pain would be necessary. At the end of this episode things were actually worse than at the end of the last one. Beckett began to doubt that Castle cared for her, and wondered if he could ever change his womanizing ways. Castle continued to believe that Beckett didn't care for him (it wasn't helpful that she was so friendly with the visiting Scotland Yard detective). Great. Rip my heart out right now.

Clearly I didn't enjoy either of the last two episodes of 'Castle', but I didn't enjoy them because they made me care so much about the characters that it actually hurt a little. On the other hand, I didn't really enjoy last night's return of 'Bones' either. However, my lack of enjoyment there was due to the promotion of the episode. With 'Castle' there was too much nervous anticipation (I was so focused on their relationship I couldn't focus on the murders), and I cared too much. With 'Bones' there was a lack of anticipation, and because of that I didn't care enough. Hopefully both these shows can find a happy medium next week!

'Bones' airs Mondays on FOX at 8/7C

'Castle' airs Mondays on ABC at 10/9C