The priest in the churchyard speaks Shakespeare.
written by Julie R. Neidlinger 1 comments link this postI was on the treadmill today, running my pathetically slow mile-plus as I attempt to get in shape for a 5K in May. I like to watch TV shows I've recorded on the DVR while running indoors, and the show Bones is one of my favorite (along with NCIS) for this purpose. It's exciting and interesting and keeps me in the mood to run.
The Bones episode I watched today ("The Priest in the Churchyard") was an older one, but I enjoyed it more than usual. It wasn't so much the storyline, but the usual undercurrent between the two main characters (Seeley Booth, played by David Boreanaz, and Temperance Brennan, played by Emily Deschanel). Booth is a character that is intuitive, fiery, loyal and emotionally attuned, whereas Brennan's character is logical, scientific, removed and in a state of being a kind of perpetual-observer. It's a kind of switch on the stereotypical male/female traits in some sense, and many wonderful chunks of dialog between the two show the conflict and interplay between two very different minds and how both kinds are very necessary.
This episode, with the guest character of Dr. Gordon Wyatt (played by Stephen Fry) as a psychologist (with some of the best lines, I might add), was particularly enjoyable as I gasped for breath on the treadmill. Between bantering and throwing about poetry by William Blake and great Shakespeare quotes, the conclusions Wyatt came to regarding human behavior were quite revealing in some sense, despite the set-up and superficial nature of all TV shows.1
You can check out the quotes from the show and get a taste of what I'm talking about, but really, I just loved the back-and-forth of Shakespeare as well as the contrasting characters of Booth and Brennan, who have been created as almost the exact opposite in every personality and mental trait. They are the perfect foil for each other, unlike in any show I've seen.
In particular, this chunk of dialog:
Gordon: In my opinion, you are unable to lead a purposeless life at this stage of your psycho-social development, which by the way is an issue you should address, because a certain amount of purposelessness is necessary to lead a full life.
Brennan: I hate psychology.
Booth: You don't like it because he's saying that all this tension between me and you is your fault.
Gordon: On the contrary. If anything, yours is more pronounced given that your behavior has been affected by what turns out to be a quite irrational fear of being responsible for somebody else's destiny.
Brennan: That makes sense.
Booth: Oh, now you like psychology.
Brennan: I think you'll both be able to work together just fine.
Or this bit of dialog:
Angela: All right, listen up, Monty Python. You got it right with Hodgins and I, that's fine. But we both know that you are full of it on the other thing.
Gordon: (faking surprise) I have no idea to what you refer.
Angela: Brennan didn't run off with Sully because she cannot live a life without focus. She stayed because of Booth.
Gordon: Ah, now you're projecting Miss Montenegro. Agent Booth and Dr. Brennan are not you and Dr. Hodgings. I stand by my diagnosis.
Angela: You stand by the FBI. Your first priority is to get agents back into the field. Solving murders.
Gordon: (amused and guilty) Your romanticism is endearing, but as the bard says, "Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, such shaping fantasies, that apprehend more than cool reason ever comprehends".
Angela: He also says, "Journeys end in lovers' meeting, Every wise man's son doth know."
I think I shall now chew on the concept of being unable to lead a purposeless life and the negatives of that if carried to an extreme. And also, my inability to use Shakespeare like a fictional TV character. Alas. All this, while drinking lots of water. Because I'm tired and out of shape and need to be on that treadmill more than a couple of times a week.
1 I am loathe to become one of those people who insists on taking life lessons and emotional cues from an hour-long drama with dramatic music and slow-motion cut-aways. I don't want to sit around too often and find myself dissecting a TV show to death in search of life truth. That seems foolish. And yet, I'm doing it now. But...I don't do it much! Really!
Labels: relationships, television
Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger 1/24/2008 02:17:00 PM
Like this post? Subscribe to the feed.
Help support this site.
Facebook |
Stumble It! |
Del.icio.us |
DiggIt! |
Technorati |
Blinklist |
Furl |
reddit |
Newsvine
1 Comments:
Hmmmmm, I am not familiar with the show Bones, I try to limit my TV viewing to the Bravo channel and occasional episodes of Hannah Montana and the suite life of Zach and Cody... (I have two kiddos, but even if I didn't, I think I may have found the Disney channel on my own, HA)
Anyhoo, I digress, the lead a 'purposeless life' line really jumped out and grabbed me as well.
Prolly because I do not care for the purpose driven life movement which has become so popular.
Personally I think it is quite dangerous (and a sign of being full of 'self' instead of Christ) to start thinking one has some grand God given purpose in life, a calling, and/or a divine mission to complete.
There is something very pure and dare I say it, psychologically healthy, about realizing exactly how purpose-less our lives really are in the grand scheme of things...
In the words of Jesus (John 6:29) 'The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.'
Now, I guess you could say therein IS purpose -- we are to believe and in believing we then become vessels for the Spirit to use on a whim- in ways we could never predict, nor comprehend fully...
Yet by simply being a vessel to be used in ways we cannot fathom nor predict, in many ways that IS purposeless-- at least to today's standards of 'finding our gifts' and/or 'recognizing our talents', and 'starting our own ministries', etc. I could go on, but I don't want to be a blog hog, and I think I just got off subject a bit :)
By 
Andrea, at
24/1/08 16:32
