Watching Bones

I’m a TV geek. I’ll admit, I’m addicted to TV. As much as I hope and pray I can raise my kids to love the outdoors more than the video games their dad loves, I’m afraid that I don’t have much of an example to set by myself. Maybe that’s why I get such a kick out of seeing crossover characters. I don’t mean when story lines of different shows cross - as they did occasionally in Buffy and Angel episodes - such as when Seth Green had a guest appearance on Angel with the explanation of being on an errand for Buffy. I mean when you see a character who’s not a regular and think, I recognize them from somewhere… This week’s episode The Man in the Mud was just such an episode. I immediately recognized the lawyer, and it didn’t take long to put him in his correct show.

Booth and Bones, meet Mr. Tom Friendly, AKA one of the “Others” on Lost. This week on Bones, he played Braxton Smalls, the lawyer for the the Fitz family. Oh, “he” is M.C. Gainey, and the rest of his resume is forever long. This guy’s another one who’s been in everything!

Another face you might have recognized this past Monday was none other than one of the Lawrence brothers. You remember Joey, right? As in Joey Lawrence - from Blossom? (And from a very abbreviated music career… Sorry, couldn’t help myself - I had to post the video… Now I guess we all understand why he ducked out of the music scene and stuck to acting. How old is this thing anyway?)

Well, the youngest Lawrence brother Andrew played Tim, the kid who took his girlfriend up to the mud pit at the beginning of the episode looking to get lucky. Guess he got more than he bargained for, huh?

We’ve seen various members of the Bones cast at different American Idol performances, so I guess it was just a matter of time before we saw a little bit more of our current pop culture in the show itself. Coming in March, one of the new episodes we’ll get to see, one of the last ones shot before the strike shut everything down, is called The Wannabe in the Weeds. And, it wouldn’t be a true American Idol-esque show without someone from the show. No, we’ll not see Simon, Paula, or Randy on Bones (wouldn’t that be weird!), but we will be getting some previous contestants.

Season 5 contestant Ace Young and season 6 contestant Brandon Rogers will be guest starring. Brandon talks about it briefly on his Myspace page, sharing that “[Ace’s] part in the show is WAY more integral to the story line than mine, but I’m not jealous.” Good sportsmanship, and besides, a role on Bones is a role on Bones.

Oh yeah, and there’s a rumor that “something bad” may happen to Booth and Bones at the end of the episode, but according to the “great intel” on Michael Ausiello’s “Ask Ausiello,” all the verification we’ll get for now is that no one dies. Thanks for the great info Michael! However, Kristen at E!Online gives us a little bit more – she tells us to expect a cliffhanger episode, and that the ending will most likely “be more difficult for Brennan than for Booth.” (Oh yeah, and she also refers to someone “suffering physically as well…” like I mentioned earlier – so maybe I’m not as out of touch as I’d thought since she was referencing episode 12 and we’re waiting until next stinkin’ year to see this episode!)

For those of us wondering about the junkie-youth center worker guy in the last episode of Bones, his name is Reid Scott. He played Robert Fraiser - who turned out to be the murderer of the rich Terry Bancroft, long-time friend of Hodgins. Scott has guest-stared in various TV shows, mostly in It’s All Relative, CSI, American Dreams, and My Boys. He’s also currently filming a film called Amusement, about three women being stalked by a killer. Keep an eye out for him!

This is just too good! We get the treat of seeing “Bill S. Preston, Esq.” or, Alex Winter, in the upcoming episode of Bones. I haven’t kept up with his career, but I’m not ashamed to admit that I grew up with Bill and Ted as they had their “excellent adventure,” and later their “bogus journey.” I’m really looking forward to seeing him flex his acting muscles again and am curious to see how far removed from his Bill & Ted character he is. Something tells me that Bones won’t tolerate anyone remotely similar to Bill S. Preston, regardless of how excellent he is…