LITTLE ROCK — For those who’ve watched all six seasons of Bones for the “will they/won’t they” factor between Booth and Brennan, your long wait is over.
Not only will they, they did.
We saw the results of that long-running romance and sexual tension in May when Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan (Emily Deschanel) announced to FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) that she was pregnant and he was the baby daddy.
What happens next? Find out when Season 7 kicks off at 8 p.m. Thursday on Fox.
You’ll notice Bones got off to a late start this fall. That was due to Deschanel’s real-life pregnancy. She and actor/writer husband David Hornsby (How to Be a Gentleman) welcomed son Henry on Sept. 21. Baby Henry also means there will only be 17 episodes this season.
The title of the final episode last season was “The Change in the Game” and Bones’ pregnancy certainly changes the series’ dynamics. Consummation of a long-running TV romance always does, and frequently not for the better.
The end was in sight in Season 3 of Moonlighting once Maddie and David did the deed. It didn’t help that series stars Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd didn’t much like each other and had other things they’d rather be doing. Still, the show dragged on for two more seasons.
In addition, when a series resorts to adding a baby to the cast, it frequently signals the beginning of the end.
Evidence: Jesse and Beckey’s twins on Full House; Paul and Jamie’s daughter Mabel on Mad About You; baby Avery on Murphy Brown; Jerry Garcia Conner on Roseanne; baby Andrew on Family Ties; Emma on Friends; and even weird, weird Connor on Boreanaz’s Angel.
Now the question is whether the pending baby means Bones has “jumped the shark.” That’s the industry term for the episode where, in retrospect, it was obvious a series was headed downhill.
The term stems from the 1977 Season 5 premiere of Happy Days that had Fonzie (Henry Winkler) don water skies and jump over a shark. Oddly, that was hardly the beginning of the end for Happy Days. The episode enjoyed 30 million viewers and the series “lingered” for seven more seasons.
What about Bones? I’ve been a fan of the series from the beginning and have enjoyed the witty banter and zippy repartee between Brennan and Booth. The key to the series for me has been the humor innate in Brennan’s character.
It’s difficult to believe that Brennan, brilliant though she may be, could function at such a woefully inept social skills level. But as the seasons have passed, she has gotten better at interaction. I credit Booth’s influence as well as the love and patience of her friends and co-workers.
As squirrelly as Bones can be, Booth is fairly straightforward. A former Army Ranger and sniper, Booth is a devout Catholic (Bones is an atheist). Still, the duo make a formidable crime-solving team — he with his street smarts and skill at ferreting out motivation, and she with her uncanny ability to discern clues from the bones of the victims.
Now we pick up the tale some five months after Brennan delivered the news. She is great with child and hormones are raging. I’ve seen the first two new episodes and it’s evident we’ll have a number of offerings where the two are figuring out their relationship now that a baby is on the way.
For example, Booth’s solicitousness and Brennan’s independence clash from the first as they finally wrestle with being a couple.
The first source of drama is they are still two radically different personalities, although they love each other. One of the first issues is where will they live? His place is too small and the wealthy Brennan’s place is, well, it’s not theirs.
Brennan doesn’t understand why Booth can’t just move in with her. Booth doesn’t understand why Brennan can’t see he needs to be an equal contributor to the relationship.
Another source of drama is that Brennan didn’t bother to invite Booth along for the baby’s ultrasound where the sex was revealed.
Fortunately, it won’t be all baby news this season. The Jeffersonian team will also have to contend “with a nefarious tech-savvy foe who uses his unparalleled skills to challenge Booth, Brennan and the squints to solve a string of murders designed to embarrass and humiliate them.”
Has the shark been jumped? Let’s hope not.
TV Week, Pages 93 on 10/30/2011