Bones' David Boreanaz Thought This Storyline Was Just 'Bad Television'
Hart Hanson's comedic crime procedural "Bones" lasted a whopping 246 episodes over 12 seasons and is still, to this day, enjoying a robust afterlife on streaming. It has also inspired a massively passionate following and the show's two stars, Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz, are now permanent fixtures in the pop culture firmament. Even if you didn't actively watch "Bones" during its run from 2005 to 2017, there's every reason to assume you will brush up with it eventually. You'll be in a hotel room, perhaps, or idly thumbing through Hulu and, like "Law & Order" or "Chopped," you'll be consuming several episodes in a row without even thinking about it.
Naturally, with a show that ran as long as it did, "Bones" had its share of stinkers. In trying to create bizarre and unique deaths to investigate, sometimes the "Bones" writers reached a little too far into outlandish territory, crafting murder mysteries that were nonsensical, strange, or just bad. At least Boreanaz seemed to think so. He and Deschanel spoke at a SAG-AFTRA event in 2014, looking back over their successful (and, at the time, still running) series, admitting that "Bones" often worked, but that sometimes it sadly didn't. There were episodes Boreanaz recalled with little fondness, including one storyline he called "just bad television."
Fans of the third season of "Bones" might recall an ongoing plot about an underground cannibalistic serial killer called the Gormogon, first mentioned in the episode "The Widow's Son in the Windshield" (September 25, 2007). It would later be revealed that the Gormogon, played by Laurence Todd Rosenthal, was protected by a mysterious former Gormogon "handler" (Joe Jefferson) and that he was training an apprentice. The cannibalistic murders involve rituals, cloaks, and candles. It's all very complicated ... and Boreanaz was baffled.
The Gormogon? Who is that guy?
Boreanaz was asked what his favorite memories of the early years of "Bones" were, and he immediately admitted that the episodes with unique acting challenges were the most fun to make. Notably, he referenced the episode "Double Trouble in the Panhandle" (January 22, 2009), wherein Bones and Booth had to go undercover and infiltrate a traveling circus as Wanda and Buck Moosejaw, a knife-throwing act from Canada. To juice up the act, their names are changed to Boris and Natasha. Boreanaz got to put on an outsize mustache and both he and Deschanel affected tacky Russian accents.
But then he got to Gormogon and was totally confused. Boreanaz explained:
"I loved the circus episode. I loved coming out like Boris the Russian Guy, you know? Being 'flames of glory.' But the silly things, too. When I'm chasing this guy around with a freakin' helmet, diving into a pool. Gormogon. Who is that guy? That was just wrong and bad television, I thought. You have these moments that are good and bad and that's just the way it is, but you remember them."
There was a scene in one of the multiple Gormogon-related episodes wherein the monster was seen strangling a child in a swimming pool and Boreanaz had to dive into the water to stage a rescue. The Gormogon story was strange and off-the-wall, even for an off-kilter show like "Bones."
Not incidentally, the Gormogon case would eventually re-open, and the new investigation would overlap with the return of Wanda and Buck Moosejaw. In the season 12 episode "The Steal in the Wheels" (March 7, 2017), Wanda and Buck attended a demolition derby. For David Boreanaz, it seems to have been the best and the worst all at once.