Abstract
AbstractAs a television series, the Fox procedural crime drama Bones is exceptional. Having completed its twelfth and final season (2017), it is the longest running drama in the studio’s history. It is also a pioneer in its interactions with social media, offering a precedent-setting early example of online potential for organizing, commercializing and weaponizing social media platforms. During its sixth season (2010–2011) interactions between fans on social media and showrunners erupted into an internet war which when organized into an analytical model demonstrates the potential damage such conflict can cause not only to a specific television production but by extension to its showrunners as well. This transformative moment in the history of television illustrates the point at which fans who had once communicated individually now had means to connect as active online aggregates and express their views across multiple public forums. This case study illustrates the convergence of social and broadcast media...
Highlights
Fans on social media believed that given a two-year envelope to fill Hanson and Nathan had decided to push back the timeframe for the Booth-Brennan romantic coupling and impose an extended SO story arc on an unwilling audience
When Hanson was questioned by Roffman about this publicity onslaught: “The promos are heavily pimping [the Booth-Burley] storyline and how much Booth is over Brennan”, Hanson seemed surprised by the question and remarked rather astonishingly: “Who believes that? They must be crazy, people who think it’s over for Booth and Brennan” (Roffman, 2010g). The orchestration of this rather heavy-handed promotion both on and off-screen of a supposedly temporary character whom social media already despised culminated on November 4th barely five weeks into the season in the episode “The Bones That Weren’t” when Brennan, too, was drafted into the Burley fan club
What Hanson apparently intended to convey and what made it into the script were very different things. This obscurantism in dialogue, which some on social media saw as evidence that the writers themselves were unsure of the story they were telling, was repeated in a pivotal episode of season 6 (“The Doctor in the Photo”, broadcast December 9, 2010), where after the arrival of Burley, a conflicted Brennan tells Booth that “she doesn’t want to have any regrets”
Summary
Fans on social media believed that given a two-year envelope to fill Hanson and Nathan had decided to push back the timeframe for the Booth-Brennan romantic coupling and impose an extended SO story arc on an unwilling audience.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
