Several people recommended the show Bones to me in the thread about eccentric geniuses. I watched all of the episodes in the current season and about the first 7 of Season 1. (No, I don't sit and watch that many hours of tv, honest. I have it on while I'm cleaning and doing craft projects and chatting online. Love the ADD, really!)
I apologize in advance for the rambly nature of this post.
HERE THERE BE SPOILERS!
I watched the Season 4 shows online first and had mixed feelings. I wasn't sure how Brennan herself fit into the eccentric genius character. She just didn't seem to have a big enough role to be compared to someone like Detective Goran or Dr. House. Her genius didn't stand out as the deciding factor. She is surrounded by strange people. Ms Feasance comment in the previous thread cleared up some of the confusion. Unfortunately, it seems this is not a good season to get into the show.
I purchased Season 1 and the difference was almost startling. Brennan was assertive and brilliant. Her genius was the centerpiece of the show. I hesitate to call her eccentric because apparently there's the suggestion that Brennan has Asperger's syndrome. But she clearly fits in the mold of the genius who is too smart and too different to interact with others as they are expected to. I note, however, that even here they initially cast a male character with similar characteristics, and S4 has started with a new male eccentric genius in each episode to replace Zack. (ETA: I forgot one of these guest characters was a woman. The less I think or say about her the better. But the others have been men.) They also have the psychologist who is similar in his eccentric genius status. So in the one show where we have a good example of a female misunderstood/eccentric genius they've also cast a male or two in a similar, if less prominant role.
There's also another key difference between Brennan and her male counterparts: she has only borrowed authority. All of the male genius characters I know of have equal standing with or are in positions of authority over those they work with. Detective Goren and his partner, Detective Eames seem to have equal standing but he often takes the lead. The same in Life with Crews and Reese. House is, of course, in charge of his team.
Brennan has authority in the lab but has none when it comes to the FBI investigation into the crimes. Her intense involvement has come only from her demands that she be involved, and her authority is essentially borrowed, granted to her by Booth and the FBI. In Season 4 she didn't even exercize much authority in the lab. I don't know at what point Dr Saroyan joined the show, but she is apparently the one who delegates responsibility and oversees the lab. It will be interesting to see how this develops as I watch more of the show.
There's another pattern that deserves another post, which is the development of the independent, professional, assertive female character (I hate hate hate the phrase "strong women characters" and wish it would die a thousand deaths) through the life of a show. The longer a show goes on, the more likely the female character's development will be centered around romance/marriage/babies to the detriment of other interesting character development.
Monday, October 27, 2008
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4 comments:
Totes agree re: babies and relationships moving front and center. I always hated the show Party of Five, but in particular because they had Neve Campbell's character, who was also the smartest of the bunch, drop out of college to get married. A similar storyline happened in 7th Heaven. And Monica on Friends wanted teh babeez more than anything. This has always INFURIATED me about tv. Good call and I look forward to that post!
I agree with you totally, and you make an excellent point about the borrowed agency thing; although I have the feeling that if the show were about Hodgins, he'd have the same problems, the fact remains that the show is about Brennan and the writers should be mindful of that.
Briefly, the state of the fandom on LJ is such that anyone who does not ship Brennan and Booth like burning is branded "not a fan of the show" and told to stop watching and/or fuck off. I mentioned how antifeminist this was in a comments thread on 206_bones, the main Bones fandom comm, and the comments got shut down, because apparently feminism is offensive. A safer space on LJ would be Days of Our Bones, although it's about equally devoted to snark and honest criticism. But a feminist space to be critical of the show would be awesome.
I was watching Bones last night & thought of your post about the portrayal of women geniuses. What I noticed about Brennan last night is none of the other characters suffer in silence as they do with, for example, Goren. If she does something odd, they give her that "wtf?!?" look and not behind her back either as they do with Goren.
Also unlike Goren she's kind of expected to not be as detached. It's something she's supposed to overcome (ie, her pal from the lab seems to always be trying to get her to be more emotionally supportive), whereas with Goren, it's something everyone else has to adjust to.
Does that make a bit of sense???
Ms. Feasance... that's interesting about the fandom. And frustrating. One reason I don't get involved in big, anonymous fandom forums is exactly that kind of thing. The whole point of fanfiction is to do things that the series doesn't or can't do.
Does that make a bit of sense???
Complete sense, and it's such a good point. I think there was a lot more eyerolling about Goren's strangeness in the early seasons, but it was something that was worked around and he wasn't expected to change even when others expressed frustration.
But at the same time, people do try to change House. There's just not much expectation that it will work.
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