AW SHIT BEAUTIFUL BONES HAD A REASONABLE EPISODE. Yep, either my standards are falling fast or Beautiful Bones is actually improving, because I legitimately enjoyed this episode. And it wasn’t because of subtle changes in writing or whatnot – the two-parter structure just fits this show so, so, so much better. It is really damn hard bordering on impossible to tell a satisfying, atmospheric, character-focused mystery in twenty minutes, but in forty-ish? Yeah, you can get there. So we got more nice character moments, more actual mystery elements, and more atmosphere than ever before. Great work, Beautiful Bones. Now please don’t immediately go back to your old formula and continue to suck at it.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!
“The Cursed Man”
Opens with a nice conversation between Shoutarou and his mother. We naturally learn that he lost his father early, and the topic of mortality comes up naturally as well
Officer Utsumi calls Shoutarou to meet with Sakurako
His friend Fujioka claims he is cursed and going to die soon
All the men in his family have died young
The two-part structure is already feeling like it’s giving this episode a bit more room to breathe
“Fate is the epitome of stupidity”
Utsumi doesn’t believe the curse, he just wants Sakurako to comfort his friend. An understandable conflict!
Some pretty good faces in this episode, and I can actually relate to Shoutarou and Sakurako getting sick of this guy
A cursed dog as well
And a car stranded in the woods
Yeah, this structure is really helping the show a lot
The unfriendly dog suddenly gets friendly before its owner passes away. We’re actually getting mystery variables
Nice shot of the house, and the axe
The dog, Hector, loves Sakurako. And Shoutarou gets another unfortunate boner
A lethe diana, a butterfly that likes corpses
And again, a nice scene establishing characters and potentially clues that doesn’t have to feel rushed
Shoutarou warming up the family. One of his talents
Fujioka has evidence of his family history. Many young deaths
Even a sense of atmosphere this week
He’s got a bad cough, and wasn’t quite able to quit smoking
The dog likes dead animals
“I can’t help but think that he smells death”
He’s also got a cursed painting, apparently. Just loading up on curses
And then Fujioka runs into someone mysterious out on his drive. “I’ll follow your advice to the letter”
“I was just thinking his research really runs deep”
“Where’s your cursed painting? I know you have it somewhere nearby”
If there was anything that carried over from the previous episodes, it’s the fact that the set up is inane as ever. I don’t know about you, but my 1st instinct upon learning of a family history of sudden death would be to check for patterns in medical records, as opposed to say, blaming the family dog, or calling an osteologist that a friend tells me really smart. I’m pretty sure that the painting is at the center of this, perhaps because it’s toxic and the dog is aware of it.
Yeah, Fujioka had visible leukonychia in quite a few shots. Definetly arsenic poisoning.