"Status quo" is the watchword for procedural dramas. Even shows like Bones, where character stories usually trump the case of the week, require some level of normalcy so that the show can continue to grow even as the procedural element begins to wear out its welcome (see also: House).
Which is why I'm divided on the season six premiere of Bones, "The Mastodon in the Room". On one hand, the humorous and quite literal (though that's not a bad thing for a show whose lead female is, in fact, quite literal) reveal of the titular object inside the newly-reopened Jeffersonian lab is a striking comment on how different the team dynamics are at now that everyone's more or less back on the job. Everyone's got a mastodon in their respective rooms that they'll soon have to air out -- Booth has a girlfriend, which may put Brennan's subtle hints at romance in this episode at risk for the season; Hodgins and Angela are expecting (!); Daisy and Sweets are kinda-sorta-but-not-really back together. It makes sense, then, that everyone backs out of the room at the sight of the giant mammoth sitting on what was once their stage (in both the literal and metaphorical sense). It's a clear indicator that while on the surface the team is back together, underneath their facades are real issues that will have to be addressed during the season (and preferably during sweeps, thinks Faceless FOX Executive #1).
On the other hand, the entire show has to attempt to get back to normal, so it's unfortunate that the two cases on the table this week make for more than a single episode can handle. If the show had just established that the skeleton was not Logan Bartlett and moved on, I would have been OK with that. Instead, they follow up on it towards the end, at which point I had become more invested in the North Korean child to whom the skeleton actually did belong. It all felt like a more contrived version of the show's usual cases, and even though they were clearly backseat to the character stories, I still had an expectation of the show's usual "cold opening", so it was jarring to have to sit through a procedural story.
Unless there's a significant episode worthy of review this season, I probably won't write another review about the show this year until the finale. After all, the trajectories laid out for us in these characters is nothing that hasn't been seen before. The reason that I am a Bones fan over most other crime procedurals is because I, like the other devoted fans of the show, am emotionally connected to these characters. I'm not thrilled with the prospect of seeing another child birth scene on TV, but I am thrilled that it is finally happening to Hodgins and Angela -- just to give one example. For now, it's comforting to know that "status quo" isn't always on Bones's mind.
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