Bones

Another TV-themed thread.

From http://www.nj.com/entertainment/tv/inde ... e_not.html:

"Bones" creator Hart Hanson says he based Brennan in part on an Aspie friend, but the needs of a broadcast network like Fox to get as large an audience as possible meant he couldn’t come out and say that.

As opposed to Dr. Sheldon Cooper, who seems to be an aspie favorite by accident (that is, the authors never intended Asperger's to be part of his character), Dr. Brennan apparently is specifically intended to be depicted as an aspie (even if it's never mentioned in the show).

So, if you watch Bones, then what would you say of Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan?

anagram wrote:Another TV-themed thread.

From http://www.nj.com/entertainment/tv/inde ... e_not.html:

it might just be me but i can't help feeling a little nauseated by the over-pretentiousness of that article. like as if the whole of the AS community will be offended and damaged for ever if they made any formal acknowledgement of a link between the condition and their characters. chances are the real reason is one of liability, in the eyes of their lawyers, though i can't quite see how or why.

anagram wrote:

"Bones" creator Hart Hanson says he based Brennan in part on an Aspie friend, but the needs of a broadcast network like Fox to get as large an audience as possible meant he couldn’t come out and say that.

As opposed to Dr. Sheldon Cooper, who seems to be an aspie favorite by accident (that is, the authors never intended Asperger's to be part of his character), Dr. Brennan apparently is specifically intended to be depicted as an aspie (even if it's never mentioned in the show).

So, if you watch Bones, then what would you say of Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan?

i've not seen 'bones'. chances are it's not made it over the pond yet. but it's interesting that the character of sheldon is based on computer programmers. that's as good a link to AS as any, acknowledged or not. indeed, the character might be all the more realistic for this rather than trying to create some text book AS character.

Let's not forget about the boy in the show Touch, a non-verbal autistic child who possesses an unique ability to foretell events based on mathematical patterns. Why is this show "good for ratings" but "Bones" having Asperger's isn't?

Color me perplexed.

shock_the_monkey wrote:chances are the real reason is one of liability, in the eyes of their lawyers, though i can't quite see how or why.

Most likely.

derBunker wrote:Why is this show "good for ratings" but "Bones" having Asperger's isn't?

I don't know, the guys behind those things seem to have some very weird thinking. But in this case, my guess is that Dr. Brennan is supposed to be an accessible character. She's blatantly awkward or inappropriate in every situation, but she's also supposed to be sexy and fun. For the masses of simpletons who only pay attention to the "sexy and fun" component, they probably just prefer to think of her as "an eccentric genius", with the awkwardness as comic relief, and would be put off by the thought that she has an actual psychiatric condition. The whole "stigma" thing.

As for Sheldon, I don't think there would be much of a problem with their audience. It seems to me that the authors simply want to keep the freedom to do whatever they want with the character.

My psych is pretty sure I am Aspergers and I have had multiple people say that I remind them of Bones. When I finally watched the show, I said, "Hey, that's not a compliment!" It makes me laugh, I actually think she's a pretty good representation of a fictional character with Aspergers. Maybe I went into the wrong line of work by being a Manager, apparently i would have made a pretty good medical examiner...

-- Tue Jan 22, 2013 6:51 am --

My psych is pretty sure I am Aspergers and I have had multiple people say that I remind them of Bones. It makes me laugh. Maybe I went into the wrong line of work by being a Manager, apparently i would have made a pretty good medical examiner.

-- Tue Jan 22, 2013 6:52 am --

My psych is pretty sure I am Aspergers and I have had multiple people say that I remind them of Bones. It makes me laugh. Maybe I went into the wrong line of work by being a Manager, apparently i would have made a pretty good medical examiner.