Creator
Hart Hanson
Cast
Emily Deschanel Dr. Temperance ‘Bones’ Brennan
David Boreanaz Special Agent Seeley Booth
Michaela Conlin Angela Montenegro
Eric Millegan Zack Addy
T.J. Thyne Dr. Jack Hodgins
Tamara Taylor Dr. Camille Saroyan
DVD Release Date: September 11, 2007
Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 946 Minutes on 6 discs
The Show
Bones takes two people that you’d never expect to be working together and pairs them up to solve cases. First of all is FBI Agent Seeley Booth (David Borenaz) who knows his stuff but usually goes off on instinct. And more times then not, his instinct is right on the money. Booth has an uncanny ability to read people and figure out things about them from just one meeting. He has a background as a sharpshooter and wishes to make up for the lives he took by solving murder cases and bringing killers to justice.
Dr. Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel), on the other hand, is a forensic anthropologist that uses science and studies to put together the clues from a case. She takes every shred of evidence she can find, even if it’s the smallest piece, and can make it into a huge case-solver. Logic is her mindset and she uses it in any way imaginable to solve the murders presented to her.
Together they work on some of the strangest cases imaginable with Brennan’s team from the Jeffersonian Institute. Burned bodies, people buried in cement, and bodies found perfectly normal after being dead for months are just a few of the things that get thrown their way. And while Booth uses all of his experience and instinct to figure things out, Brennan is always there to use her forensic knowledge to butt heads with him. Her experience has earned her the fun nickname of “Bones” from her partner.
Bones does have a lot of the same facets of other crime dramas, which is to be expected. The duo is given a case to solve at the beginning of each episode and they simply must figure it out. Booth and Brennan somewhat remind me of Goren and Eames from Law & Order: Criminal Intent. The only difference is that Bones takes Goren and splits him up into two people making it interesting when they both have their own theories and try to rebuke one another’s. Eames usually just kind of sits back and doesn’t do much.
It’s those kinds of differences that make Bones so much more enjoyable than many of the other crime dramas on television. There isn’t some huge team of detectives to concern yourself with and learn all their names; two main people to focus on and a few back in the lab are more then enough. And if you think that wouldn’t be enough then you are mistaken, because this is a crime drama that doesn’t just focus on the drama in its cases. Booth is in therapy and constantly trying to deal with his own issues. Meanwhile, Brennan is always on the lookout for her mother’s killer and her estranged father. Personal life outside the station is not something often seen in these kinds of shows, and it adds a nice touch to make the characters even more likable.
Season two really has made me want to start watching the new episodes each week and even go out and pick up the first season. There were some truly excellent episodes this season that just made the played out crime drama seem fresh and new. “The Blonde In The Game” is one of the best from the season because it brings so much tension as the duo races against time to save a life. “Aliens In A Spaceship” is my favorite from this year because it showcases how the mood can be kept so light between Booth and Brennan, but turns extremely dark and sinister depending on what type of villain they’re up against.
Episodes
Disc One:
The Titan On The Tracks: Brennan and Booth head to a train derailment where a popular Senator is now dead. Their investigation shows them that an apparent suicide is what caused the train to go off its tracks. Brennan also finds out some disturbing news about her mother’s killer as she continues the search for her father.
The Mother And Child In The Bay: The year-old body of a pregnant newlywed is found in the Delaware Bay answering a huge news item that had gone unanswered. Brennan and Booth go to question her abusive husband but then end up on a huge search after he takes off.
The Boy In The Shroud: A young teenage runaway has been found murdered and girl raised in foster care is the suspect which brings about some tough issues for Brennan who was also raised by foster parents. Brennan doesn’t take kindly to the harsh way Cam looks at the foster care system.
The Blonde In The Game: The remains of a young girl are found, and after some investigation the clues lead to a man on death row as being the murderer. Some more searching leads to the finding of another body and unearths even more clues. Brennan and Booth are now on a wild chase as they find a clue showing that the next victim, a young girl, is still alive.
Disc Two:
The Truth In The Lye: Brennan and Booth end up at a construction site and found the dissolving body of a man. Upon examination, they find out the truth about him and the double-life he was leading.
The Girl In Suite 2103: A hotel bombing turns out to be a lot more as Brennan and Booth as they realize the intended victim was a Columbian judge who was in town at an international drug trafficking conference.
The Girl With The Curl: Everyone and anyone becomes a suspect after a ten-year-old girl in a beauty pageant ends up dead. Parents, siblings, competitors Brennan and Booth must question everyone and it isn’t easy. Meanwhile, Angela is worried that dating Hodgins can become a problem as everyone has said.
The Woman In The Sand: Two bodies are found in the desert right outside Las Vegas and it leads Booth and Brennan to believe they were murdered by the same person. Their investigations take them on the trail of a high stakes loan shark and Brennan ends up being caught up in the world of ultimate fighting.
Disc Three:
Aliens In A Spaceship: Brennan and Booth are on the tail of a serial killer known as the Grave Digger. He likes to kidnap his victims, bury them, and ask for a ransom. If he gets what he wants, great. If not, he leaves them to die. Things get real though when Brennan and Hodgins become his next possible victims. This is my favorite episode from the entire season by far; it is excellent.
The Headless Witch In The Woods: Brennan’s instincts are rarely wrong, but this time they aren’t only wrong but make things worse. Her and Booth are investigating the violent death of a documentary filmmaker that starts to fuel the legend of a headless witch that haunted a local forest in the 1700s.
Judas On A Pole: A thirty-year-old case is reopened after a man is found gutted, burned, and displayed like a scarecrow on top of a federal building. Some investigating scares Brennan as she finds out her father may have been responsible for the horrible murder of a former FBI agent.
The Man In The Cell: Brennan seems to have finally gotten a break when the remains of her arch-nemesis Howard Epps are found burned in his cell. Some testing though proves it isn’t Epps and that he has escaped. Brennan is placed under police protection because things are getting too close for comfort as Epps is leaving clues a gruesome trail of bodies for her to find. Another excellent episode from season two.
Disc Four:
The Girl In The Gator: As Booth starts therapy, new Agent Sullivan is now working with Brennan. Their first case together is of a young college student found inside the body of an alligator. Sullivan works fast in his personal life too, as he already asks Brennan out.
The Man In The Mansion: The team investigates the stabbing death of one of the Jeffersonian’s wealthiest benefactors at his home. Hodgins has a personal connection to the victim and risks the integrity of the whole team by tampering with evidence. Sullivan and Brennan continue to get closer, and Booth is cleared to use his gun by his therapist but must continue the sessions.
The Bodies In The Book: Brennan’s latest novel is a success and has hit the best-seller’s list, but it has also spawned a copycat. A series of murders are all connected as the scenarios with which they happen all relate to those from her book.
The Boneless Bride In The River: Brennan and Sullivan’s vacation is cut short when a mysterious case comes upon them. A mail-order bride is found dead in a river, and all seems normal until they realize she has no bones in her body.
Disc Five:
The Priest In The Churchyard: Brennan is on a weird case after a water main breaks at a church flooding the cemetery outside. Things become a bit weird though after some of the bodies were recently buried there and no-one should have been in over fifty years. Brennan also joins Booth in therapy to get their relationship back on track since their bickering has been hindering the case.
A Killer In The Concrete: The anniversary of Brennan’s mother’s death is upon her and things are getting really complicated when a body is found in recently poured cement. After Booth gets kidnapped by a suspected mob killer, Brennan must do whatever she can to get him back safely even if it means accepting unwanted help from her father.
Spaceman In A Crater: Upon finding a man’s body in a crater, Brennan and Booth do some investigative work and find out it is an astronaut. Hodgins gives some assumptions that don’t seem to make much sense, but the team’s answer to the astronaut’s death may really come from out of this world.
The Glowing Bones In The Old Stone House: A set of glowing bones are found in a house and it is quickly discovered that they are not radioactive. Brennan and Booth are called in by Homeland Security and are at a total loss and upon the murdered man’s identity being revealed; his friends all become suspects. Hodgins also strangely lets Angela know how much he loves her.
Disc Six:
Stargazer In A Puddle: Hodgins and Angela are very nervous as their wedding quickly approaches. Meanwhile the skeletal remains of a young woman who had a rare aging disease are found and Brennan and Booth begin the investigation. But while checking out different suspects, Brennan’s father shows up and has a shocking revelation into her past.
The Video
The episodes are shown in 1.78: Anamorphic Widescreen format and it looks extremely good. The transfer to DVD seems virtually flawless with blacks never too dark and all colors as bright and crisp as they need to be. The picture looks very sharp and seems to have been touched up considerably from how any show first looks when it airs on TV.
The Audio
The episodes are heard in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and it also comes through perfectly. Bones consists of an extreme amount of dialogue and it can always be heard at a reasonable volume even when music does kick in at times.
Special Features
The Memories In The Season – The cast sits down and gives their favorite moments from the entire second season. This feature turns out being about a sixteen-minute summary of what you can watch in each episode. Kind of cool seeing everyone pick out their favorite spots, but it’s also a bit repetitive.
Visceral Effects: The Digital Illusions Of Bones – Fourteen minutes of behind the scenes stuff with all the special effects. It is cool seeing them do the green screen stuff or when they create bodies and blood splatters. But the cast keeps talking about it and you can’t help but feel like they are reading from cue cards.
Deleted Scenes – Here you get ten cut scenes totaling up to nine minutes, and it’s really better when the scenes are combined with the episode they are with instead of all bulked together like this. Watching the scenes together after viewing the entire season is kind of pointless. Even though there were titles for each scene and what episode it came from, I never could quite remember where they would fit in.
Gag Reel – Eight minutes of some pretty basic stuff here with flubbed or forgotten lines, constant laughter, and funny faces. Some of it is quite funny while most is just so-so. The weird thing is that there is a good bit of cursing in it yet the only thing bleeped out is the f-word while all others seem to be fair game.
Audio Commentaries – The episode “The Glowing House In The Old Stone House” has commentary with director Caleb Deschanel, executive producer Stephen Nathan, and actress Emily Deschanel (Brennan). Episode “Stargazer In A Puddle” has commentary with creator Hart Hanson, executive producers Stephen Nathan, and Barry Josephson. Each commentary is rather generic with some background information on what is going on in each episode or how they got the plot ideas. Some talk about how fun the cast is to work with and the same ol’, same ol’.
The Inside Pulse
Bones is a nice addition to the crime drama genre with a brand-new style. There are the bickering cops who are paired together, but never before have I witnessed them each having their own unique styles like Brennan and Booth. The episodes are truly fun to watch and are more than enough to make you want to purchase this set. A problem that exists though, is the same one that plagues almost every TV on DVD set: the special features. Bones actually gives more then you’d normally see, but they just aren’t that good. To be quite honest, the special features are rather boring so don’t expect to learn a lot about the series behind the scenes because the information is truly “bare bones.” Sorry, I had to.
