small screen la

It's such a bizarre phenomenon when shows that are written in LA but set elsewhere do an "LA" episode. I don't know if it's because they need to cement the aforementioned "elsewhere" legitimacy of their normal sets or because it just makes the writers giggle, but these are always the most over the top depictions of Los Angeles on television. Take last night's Bones for example...it was all girls in bikinis, FBI agents with screenplays, plastic surgery, beach volleyball, palm trees and poolside parties. It was LA as written by an Angeleno attempting to harness the perspective of a Midwesterner who's never been here, and if it wasn't so silly, it'd be kind of ugly. It condescends to them, and propagates bad stereotypes of us. I mean, come on. I haven't played beach volleyball in years.