Love Triangles

Continuing a subject that you loyal dozens responded to yesterday, I was a little disapppointed with "Bones" last night.

The producers had written themselves into a corner with Bones (Emily Deschanel) and her beau, Sully (Eddie McClintock), who asked her to run away with him on a sailboat for a year. There was really no good reason for her not to. All of her friends - even would-be Sully rival Booth (David Boreanaz) - thought it was a good idea. But when she informs Sully she won't be going, she doesn't give a good reason.

It's disappointing because the producers had done a great job up to that point with the whole love triangle aspect. Obviously, we are rooting for the Bones-Booth coupling, but Sully was a good guy who was similar to Booth in a lot of ways, but different enough because he wasn't married to his FBI job like Booth is. And Booth was particularly well-written, because he obviously doesn't want Bones to go off with another man, but knows Sully is a good guy for her and encouraged the relationship.

The triangle was done a lot better than earlier this season, bringing in Cam (Tamara Taylor) as a rival of Bones for Booth's affections. The problem with Cam was that she was exactly like Bones - beautiful, intelligent, driven, with horrible people skills. Because the producers did little to distinguish Cam from Bones (and making them antagonistic at first, because Cam is Bones' boss), it was hard for viewers to warm up to a Booth-Cam relationship. Since they broke up, Cam has been relegated to being a background player.

I mentioned a few other shows that have had some good love triangles lately. It used to be a show would introduce a third character simply to get in the way of a couple we were rooting for (pretty much the case for Ross and Rachel through the entire run of "Friends"). The new character was unlikeable enough that we knew our couple would overcome his/her interference and eventually end up together.

But TV writers have gotten smarter over the last few years, introducing love interest guest stars who are likeable enough that it makes the choices the regular characters make more difficult and realistic.

Look at "The Office." Karen (Rashida Jones) is a smart, pretty woman who has a terrific sense of humor. Jim (John Krashinski) got along very well with her when they were in the Stamford branch office, and since it seemed he had no future with Pam (Jenna Fischer), the Jim-Karen thing made sense even though we the viewers are rooting for Jim-Pam. What makes things even more interesting is that Karen had no idea about the Jim-Pam thing for a long time, and that she and Pam were genuinely friends with each other once the characters returned to Scranton. Credit "The Office" writers for not taking the easy way out on this.

I pointed this out as well with "Ugly Betty." While that show seemed to go a little more of the traditional route by making the third wheel in the Betty-Henry relationship more of a roadblock, the producers again brought in a genuinely pretty, funny, likeable girlfriend for Henry (Christopher Gorham). It made for some great moments when Betty (America Ferrera), acting on some evil advice from her tormenter Amanda (Becki Newton), has a subconscious moment and abandons her rival Charlie (Jayma Mays) on a New York subway, even though Betty genuinely likes her.

Back to "Bones," credit the producers for not just abandoning the Sully issue. Next week, Bones and Booth visit the latter's shrink (Stephen Fry) to examine their relationship more deeply.

What are your favorite TV love triangles?

GALACTICA ORDER UPPED: Sci-Fi announced that it will shoot a full 22 episodes for Season 4 of "Battlestar Galactica" instead of the 13 originally announced. It's kind of a good-news, bad-news deal, however, since some are predicting that next year will be the last season of "BSG."

RENEWALS: ABC announced it was renewing 14 shows on Wednesday: ‘‘Brothers & Sisters,’’ ‘‘Men in Trees,’’ ‘‘Ugly Betty,’’ ‘‘Boston Legal,’’ ‘‘Desperate Housewives,’’ ‘‘Grey’s Anatomy,’’ ‘‘Lost,’’ ‘‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,’’ ‘‘The Bachelor,’’ ‘‘Dancing With the Stars,’’ ‘‘Jimmy Kimmel Live,’’ ‘‘Supernanny,’’ ‘‘Wife Swap’’ and ‘‘America’s Funniest Home Videos.’’

The other networks are a little more up in the air with what they are bringing back so far:

NBC - ‘‘Heroes,’’ ‘‘My Name Is Earl,’’ ‘‘The Office,’’ ‘‘Law & Order: SVU’’ and ‘‘Las Vegas.’’
Fox - ‘‘Prison Break,’’ ‘‘House’’ and ‘‘Bones.’’
CW - ‘‘Everybody Hates Chris.’’

THURSDAY'S BEST BETS: The aforementioned "Ugly Betty" (ABC, 8 p.m.) returns with a new episodes tonight, followed by "Grey's Anatomy" and the new series "October Road."

Clark goes undercover to investigate a super-powered fight club on "Smallville" (CW, 8 p.m.) I'd talk about it more, but the first rule about fight club is you do not talk about fight club. It's followed by a new "Supernatural."

NBC is delivering a new "Scrubs" at 9 p.m., followed by the very funny new series, "Andy Barker, P.I." at 9:30. Tonight's installment is written by former "Buffy" uber-scribe Jane Espenson, for the record. A new "Raines" airs at 10 p.m. before switching to its regular Friday timeslot next week.

Hopefully, your brackets aren't too busted by now as the NCAA Tournament (CBS, 7:30 p.m.) resumes tonight with the Sweet 16.