Bones 5.9 meets Avatar and Videogamers

There was almost as much Avatar as Bones in episode 5.9, but that was ok, in fact pretty enjoyable, because we got to see a good story with Sweets, Jack, and Colin on the line in front of the Avatar theater, or, to be more precise, a good story with Sweets and a girl straight out the summer of love on the movie line.

First, what was Avatar - to open on December 18 in movie theaters, for real - doing so prominently on Bones? Well, Avatar is a Fox movie, and Bones is on Fox, so this was product placement par excellence. I have no problem with that - it worked well in the story. And it was good seeing Sweets - and then Colin - with the neo-hippie, and Jack give all of that some of his best knowing smirks, as well as some good older brother advice about women and life to Sweets.

Meanwhile, Booth and Bones had a pretty good case involving video gamers, in particular a murder that takes place over what I think (but I'm no expert) is a fictitious video game, Punky Pong. I have been involved in some learned debates, though, over whether playing video games engenders violence - I say they do not, see my CNBC debate with crusader against video games Jack Thompson, below (it's received more than 90,000 views on YouTube) - so I was happy to see that the violence in Bones was not the result of video games, but an over-protective father.

Booth and Bones get a little good time together at the end of the story, with Booth arguing the emotional, and Bones the logical, the ying and yang of their relationship which never grows old. They play a game of Punky Pong. In a sense their as yet incomplete relationship is as fictitious as the video game - or will remain as fictitious, until it's realized - but characters on television series are themselves avatars, subject to a logic all its own.


I'm actually on the left, and Jack Thompson on the right, in the above

6-min podcast review of Bones


See also Bones: Hilarity and Crime and Bones is Back For Season 5: What Is Love? and 5.2: Anonymous Donors and Pipes and 5.3: Bones in Amish Country and 5.4: Bones Meets Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives and Ancient Bones 5.5 and Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot and Psychological Bones 5.7 and Bones 5.8: Booth's "Pops" ... Bad Santa, Heartwarming Bones 5.10

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