Bones (TV Series) Mayhem on a Cross (2009) User Reviews

Some good parts

[mitchrmp · 8/10 · 30 July 2016]

Though I'm not a fan o f the rock band story line, there were some aspects in this episode that I found endearing.

Gordon Gordon is back, and he and Sweets meet to have a discussion about Booth and Brennan. Gordon makes an interesting observation of Booth and Brennan (one knows they love the other, but the other is clueless).

Sweets' past is also revealed. Brennan mentions what she saw, then Gordon Gordon figures the rest out, informing Sweets then Booth.

The closing scene is my favorite of the episode - A very touching and telling scene between Booth and Brennan where Sweets comes to a conclusion. I watched it twice, and saw what he saw. It's revealed in Season 5.

Cuckoo land

[ctomvelu-1 · 8/10 · 18 April 2009]

B&B descend into the world of black metal music, as they receive the skeleton of a former metal band member affixed to a cross. Not only do they discover he was shot in the gluteous maximus but that he was tortured and basically cut open down the back, and ultimately strangled. The fun part of the episode has Brennan and Sweets attending a metal concert, with Sweets in full metal makeup so he can blend in (he also was a big fan of metal music not so many years earlier). Brennan simply observes that the music all sounds the same. The Beetle-banged shrink from some previous episodes is back, this time to hobnob with Sweets. Somehow Booth discovers the guy was once a glam rocker. The episode is full out looney-tunes, and very entertaining.

the best episode ever!

[Azja · 10/10 · 19 April 2009]

First off all, I am a big fan of Bones, but after fabulous gravedigger I missed something in this series... But this episode brings back to me why I really love this series. Everyone can find something interesting in this episode: death metal, strong emotions, interesting psychology context, real good script and great humor.

Secondly, in this episode Sweets personality is developed and lifted to a new level. And, what's more, you can't miss Brennans interrogation scene...

In my opinion, it is the best episode to date.

10/10

Strikingly Human

[Hitchcoc · 10/10 · 2 February 2023]

I don't care about whether the portrayal of the metal bands was real. They were set up as wholly competitive and looking for an edge, to make themselves more outrageous than the next guy. I'm sure there are metalheads out there who nitpick over whether they fit the mold or the stereotypes. This has to do with the fact that under all that stuff, they are people. The issue here have to do with the jealousies and motivations of everyone. The British psychiatrist returns with some secrets and some goals. Sweets turns out to be pretty darned cool and to have demons of his own. Booth and Brennan are put in their places and need to face some of that. This is certainly a top five for me.

Favorite episode of the entire series.

[sammdoren · 10/10 · 24 July 2020]

Mayhem on a Cross is by far my favorite episode in the entire run of Bones. Although there's a lot of character development for B&B up to this point, I feel like it's a real turning point for both of them and where Sweets finally becomes a part of the team instead of an outcast. It's got great music, a great plot for the murder of the episode, and really adds to the character development.

Baby duck! (aka Bones at its best)

[sls-236 · 10/10 · 21 July 2022]

Hi Bones Booth! I'm excited to hear what you have to say about this episode. For me, this is my all-time favorite episode. It has all the elements that comprise the show at its core and makes Bones Bones to me - some comedy, some heart, and a fun case. And it's all woven together beautifully. 11/10!

Gordon Gordon Returns!

[vampthropologist · 10/10 · 20 July 2022]

Aside from having to adjust the volume throughout due to all the loud music, this episode is perfect.

All the Wyatt/Sweets scenes are so lovely and seeing their dynamic and hearing all their insights and observations of B&B is fantastic.

Also, getting the most random tidbit about Gordon's past as a Ziggy Stardust knock-off was so unnecessary but very much appreciated.

Side note: did anyone else notice a slight English twang in Booth's voice whenever he said "Noddy Comet"?

The moments of Brennan in the interrogation room with Sweets were so outrageous and hilarious, especially when she awkwardly sat backwards on her chair after going all 'bad cop' on Murderbreath, absolute gold.

Getting to know more about Sweets' past and his motivations for wanting to delve into B&B's childhood trauma is really great, nevermind tear-jerking. Particularly in the final scene where B&B invite Sweets to 'family dinner'. The teary-eyed revelations, the catch in Booth's voice, Brennan putting Booth's handkerchief pack in his pocket - utterly heartwrenching.

This is definitely up there as one of the best episodes of the entire series and is the perfect way to bring back the amazing Stephen Fry into the land of Bones.

TV can't get more stupid than that

[Stan-75 · 2/10 · 15 April 2010]

I always considered "Bones" to be one of the better crime shows. Not following the show closely it has always been nice to pick up an episode on German TV once in a while. But this episode, dealing with Black and Death Metal, killed the show for me.

Being a Metal fan for years with a deep interest in the extreme versions of the genre, and having been working as a Metal music journalist for the past three years, interviewing a variety of Death and Black Metal musicians (Satyricon, Secrets Of The Moon, Vader, Behemoth, Agalloch, Dornenreich, Nile, etc.) I cannot start to express both my amusement and disgust at how clichéd, shallow and plain stupid the subculture was portrayed in this episode.

The so-called "Black Metal concert" at the beginning was a complete artistic train wreck by the hands of the producers. Just to clear some things up: Black Metal does not sound like a lame Ministry copy; and Black Metal fans do not look like a mix between Mini-KISS and Emo-Kids in designer clothes from the town's mall. At least not in Norway. And what's up with that chainsaw? Black Metal fans would have laughed at that show and left after five minutes...

Anyway, once the characters on the show started talking about Black Metal and the case got underway, it really became excruciating to watch for someone who actually knows the music and is friends with many people in the scene in Germany. All the stereotypes were neatly laid out: Satanism, desecration of dead bodies, self-mutilation, etc. And someone should have mentioned to the producers that Black Metal musicians DO NOT walk around in corpse-paint all the time! Many bands don't use it all anymore. And the ones who do, do so on stage and for promo shots, certainly not when they are interrogated by the police! But oh well, better to present the unknowing audience a decent freak show than to at least try to be somewhat realistic.

I really couldn't watch the whole episode (had to mute in between because of the ridiculous and misinformed dialogue). I could never have imagined "Bones" to sink that low. The depiction of the music and the scene was way off. It had almost nothing to do with the reality of this subculture. The writers merely picked out the most scandalous events of the past (yes, the guitarist of MAYHEM was indeed stabbed to death by the BURZUM guy in 1993) and presented them as the essence of this genre. As far as research on the subject matter goes, the depiction of the concert at the beginning and the ludicrous costumes of the "Black Metal kids" clearly showed that the producers had no interest whatsoever in actually trying to shed light on an interesting and sometimes very obscure scene.

What they did instead was a toe-curling freak show. A disgrace to all the artistic beauty and significance of a musical style; a defamation of a whole subculture (marked by some stupid lunatics and many, many intelligent, insightful people); and finally an insult to the viewer's intelligence.

Misrepresentation of a sub-culture at it's best.

[lucy-nyy · 3/10 · 4 November 2017]

Okay, so being from Norway and having been a metal/rock fan for quite some years now, this episode killed me! It's just so terrible! I've always loved Bones (and have binged the series many times), but I've come to the point where I can't just sit back and shut up about this. The portrayal of Norwegians, Metalheads and the likes in this episode is disgusting and offensive, and it makes me wonder how many other countries, cultures, and sub-cultures they've offended throughout the years, because I can't think this is the only time they've done this.

First off, in the opening when the "policeman" (aka SWAT - which doesn't actually exist in Norway) and the "detective" are speaking, the "detective" barely speaks Norwegian at all, and it made me cringe so hard. Yes we have a lot of dialects in Norway, but that is not a Norwegian dialect, it's like hearing an English speaker trying to say a Norwegian sentence for the first time (Like Brennan trying to say 'skalle', and mispronouncing it terribly). Oh and btw, all the "detective's" lines sounds like they've been translated with a beta-version of google translate. At least get a Norwegian actor if you're going to represent another country, like the "SWAT leader".

Now to the "SWAT leader" or whatever the hell they're supposed to be anyway, I'm happy he's actually Norwegian, but that doesn't weigh up for the terrible acting and totally horrid misrepresentation of our law enforcement. You seriously don't need "SWAT" to storm into a metal concert in any country, a few cops and some security guys would have been enough (not that even that would have been needed, but if they really wanted to make it look dramatic that would have at least made it look plausible), and 95% of the folks there would have had no problem calming down and allowing the police to do their job. Also storming a concert with SWAT is just plain stupid. I don't care that this is fiction and all, it still pisses me off. (Also any comments made about our police is disgusting, they make it sound like we should have more murders, that our police "need more practice" and that they're incompetent at doing their job.) I could probably rant about the totally stereotypical portrayal of Norwegians as well, but you get my point.

So, over to the portrayal (both in description from the team and visually) of "metalheads", it's so cliché that I wanted to bang my head into the wall 60% of the episode. It's like the entire concept of metal, and any sub-genre of it, the producers and directors have, is from their own time as teens back in the late 70's and throughout the 80's, and from some select myspace pages (which was at the time of this episode's release (2009), almost a dead platform) which the producers and directors apparently wasn't aware of. Also if offending was their goal with this episode, they definitely did it with the whole satanic thing, and the "all metalheads loves gore, death and destruction". If it's still unclear for you, yes I find this disgusting and offensive, not just because they're using the most idiotic stereotypes, but also because they paint the picture to outsiders that metalheads (or anyone belonging to that sub-culture) should be regarded with caution, that they're prone to violence and that they lack any respect for anything and anyone. Also that all of them/us are depressed, misguided and/or "freaks".

And what the hell is up with that make-up/face-paint all the time? No one does that any more. Yes it was popular once, in the 80's and early 90's!

I'm sorry, but anyone saying this was a good episode, have to have had rose-tinted glasses on.

The rest of the episode (the 40% I didn't want to bash my head in) was at the scenes with Sweets and his story development, and the ones with Gordon. Which is the sole reason this episode actually got 3/10.

Lol Metal

[opalescente_smv · 5/10 · 19 May 2013]

Whoever wrote it clearly had no idea of what (s)he was talking about : Black Metal. Instead of a fair description of a subculture we had a bunch of stereotypes and a parody of metalheads. That would be very funny if only I would be a total ignorant and didn't know a thing about that music. Nobody looks like this anymore, it seems those kids came straight from the batcave 80's scene...I guess this is what happens when a series gets popular, we've got those misinformed writers making silly episodes. It wasn't enough to insult English people during the first episode of the fourth season, they had to make fun of Black Metal!

Too bad there were such bad clichés because I loved the new bond developed between Sweets, Bones and Booth. Could have been so MUCH better!

Research ladies

[Euronymus · 5/10 · 10 November 2021]

This is the lamest representation of Black metal and/or scandinavians so far (22 y ago), But Gordon Gordon is back and that s about the best representation of great Brits so far (Fry and Laurie ftw)

By far the most ignorant episode of the series

[istanbulwhiteboy · 1/10 · 30 January 2023]

Any spoilers i may have included are irrelevant, because this episode is a steaming pile of excrement that the writers, producers, and director spoiled by airing it in the first place.

Whoever they paid to write this episode's script was WAY overpaid. They did little or no research on the music (even Wikipedia has a superior description of the sub-genres mentioned in this horrible episode) and instead of maybe educating people on something with which they're not familiar, turned the topic into a circus of ignorance and cliché. This kind of garbage was the primary reason for the "satanic scare" in the 80s, where the media classified almost every violent crime as having evidence of "satanic ritual".

I really thought this show was better than that, but instead the producers have made an embarassment of themselves and assumed the absolute lowest common denominator as their audience.

Also, if Kathy Reichs had anything to do with this episode beyond funding as a producer, she should be ashamed and embarassed to call herself an anthropologist, considering how little effort was put into defining the sub-culture that was the centerpiece of the episode. They were too lazy to even bother to use stereotypes, which would have been a far more accurate depiction.

I'm not angry, i'm disappointed.