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Creators/Executive Producers:
Hart Hanson, Kathy Reichs
Cast:
Emily Deschanel ………. Doctor Temperance “Bones” Brennan
David Boreanaz ………. Agent Seeley Booth
Michaela Conlin ………. Angela Montenegro
Eric Milegan ………. Zach Addy
T.J. Thyne ………. Doctor Jack Hodgins
Jonathan Adams ………. Doctor Daniel Goodman
John M. Jackson………. Deputy Director Sam Cullen
The Show:
My goal on this website is apparently to be known as the Reality AND Procedural Drama Guy, as I take a look at Fox’s entry, Bones. And oddly enough this is one that I haven’t really watched much. So here we go.
The base premise is similar to NBC’s Crossing Jordan, which I freely admit that I also haven’t watched, and have only a passing familiarity to through watching Las Vegas. Both shows focus on a doctor who gets involved in crime cases. In the case of Bones, Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan is a forensic anthropologist who works with the FBI to help solve crimes. Her liason is Agent Seeley Booth, and she’s aided by her “squints”, Zach, Hodgins and Angela at the Jeffersonian Institute in Washington. Here’s a deeper look at the characters:
Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan – Brennan is one of the leading forensic anthropologists in North America (apparently they’re rare – the next closest one to DC is in Montreal), and hates being called Bones, which naturally means that Booth always calls her that. She moonlights as a novelist (writing fiction about forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs, which is an in-joke since Reichs is a real-life anthropologist who writes fiction about Temperance Brennan), and apparently has no social life whatsoever, not recognizing pop culture references, when she’s getting hit on, etc. Her parents disappeared when she was a teen, which is what helps drive her to help with the FBI cases. That and the fact that her boss (Goodman) loans her out to the FBI, that is.
Special Agent Seeley Booth – Booth is a former Army Ranger who works in the FBI, and acts as a liason between the Feds and the Jeffersonian. Booth is generally at odds with Brennan and the squints, preferring detective work to the lab analysis Brennan’s team uses to figure out crimes. He does respect their work though.
Angela Montenegro – Angela is a specialist in forensic facial reconstruction and would appear to be Brennan’s best friend. Whether Bones actually knows that or not is up for debate. She’s the most “normal” of the squints, although this is again debatable, since she’s she’s definitely on the left side of “normal” (if the squints are on the right).
Zach Addy – Zach is Brennan’s assistant, who doesn’t have a PhD, but was working on two of them. Like Bones, he’s rather socially awkward and both Angela and Hodgins try to coach him in that respect.
Doctor Jack Hodgins – The final member of Brennan’s team, Hodgins is an entomologist and can estimate time of death by looking at larvae in skeletal remains. He’s a bit more sarcastic than the rest of the team, and along with Angela, works on making Zach a little less socially awkward.
The first thing I noticed about the show is the amazing lack of chemistry between leads Deschanel and Boreanaz in the first few episodes. The writers try to hide this by keeping them at odds with one another, but it’s still pretty apparent. It does get seem to get better towards the end, so chalk it up to the actors needing more time than normal to get accustomed to each other.
The second thing I noticed is that they try to incorporate a lot of humour into the show. Not laugh out loud, My Name is Earl-type humour, mind you, but the subtle kind that let you get to know the characters a bit more.
Overall, this is a show that I would put on par with a Las Vegas or The Unit in that it’s not a show that’s a must watch or even a must TiVo (if I had a PVR), but I can watch the show without feeling like I’ve wasted 60 minutes of my life, and that I can tune in a month later without feeling like I’ve missed something.
In terms of actual content, it’s not that great.
Episodes:
By the way, all episodes are on flipper discs. I’m all for trying to keep the packages compact, but I’m not a big fan of this.
Disc One:
Side A:
101 “Pilot”
102 “The Man in the S.U.V.”
103 “A Boy in a Tree”
104 “The Man in the Bear”
Side B:
105 “A Boy in a Bush”
106 “The Man in the Wall”
Disc Two:
Side A:
107 “The Man on Death Row”
108 “The Girl in the Fridge”
109 “The Man in the Fallout Shelter”
110 “The Woman at the Airport”
Side B:
111 “The Woman in the Car”
112 “The Superhero in the Alley”
Disc Three:
Side B:
113 “The Woman in the Garden”
114 “The Man on the Fairway”
115 “Two Bodies in the Lab”
116 “The Woman in the Tunnel”
Side B:
117 “The Skull in the Desert”
118 “The Man with the Bone”
Disc Four:
Side A:
119 “The Man in the Morgue”
120 “The Graft in the Girl”
Side B:
121 “The Soldier in the Grave”
122 “The Woman in Limbo”
The DVD:
Video:
(Presented in 1.78:1 Widescreen Format)
It’s a good thing when shows release their DVD sets in widescreen, even when they air it in fullscreen.
Audio:
(Dolby Digital: English 5.1 Surround)
There’s also captioning in French, Spanish and English.
Special Features:
Squints – The cast lets us know how they prepare for their roles as forensic scientists.
The Real Definition – A guide to forensic technology.
Bones: Inspired by the Life of Forensic Anthropologist and Author Kathy Reichs – You’d think that they could make this interesting. You’d be wrong.
Character Profiles – You get some interesting tidbits here, like how Angela is the daughter of ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, which is great if you read this stuff before watching all the episodes (like I generally do).
Audio Commentaries:
– “Pilot” – (Barry Josephson and Hart Hanson)
– “Two Bodies in the Lab” – (David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel)
