Bones

• Director: Various
• Screenwriter/Written By: Hart Hanson, Kathy Reichs
• Producer: Kathy Reichs
• Starring: David Boreanaz, Emily Deschanel, Michaela Conlin, T.J. Thyne
• Running Time: 60 mins.
• Language: English
• Rating: TV 14

What do you get when you cross snarky female forensic anthropologists, a former army sniper trying to make up for his past by working for the FBI, and dialog that would make any sane person leave the room?  You get the first few episodes of Bones.

Bones is basically a version of CSI geared towards women.  The main character Dr. Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) aka Bones, is the world’s premieir expert on forensics, an expert in martial arts, a famous novelist, and an orphan to which is all made clear in the first 20 minutes of the first episode.  With all of her education and knowledge you’d figure that she’d have some flaws which leads to hilarious and totally “unpredictable” situations which are totally predictable.

Every strong woman needs a strong man and that’s where Special Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) comes in.  Booth is witty, cocky, handsome, and of course street smart makes him the perfect counterpart for the socially inept Bones.  Booth’s past makes him a man’s man but that doesn’t stop him from being sensitive too.

After about five minutes of watching Bones, it became apparent that I would have to take notes to accurately list all of my problems with the characters and writing on the show.  A criminal could only be so lucky to have this team of crack detectives investigate them.  While the gritty stuff behind how the criminal was found was interesting, the lack of due process and how evidence was collected would be enough to nullify the cases in the real world.  Bones doesn’t let a meager thing like a search warrant stop her from getting her man.

Luckily by the fifth episode the writers must have figured out that men wouldn’t watch the show the way it was and gave more of a focus to the forensic science and shifted away from the characters witty personalities.  Since producer Kathy Reichs is actually a renowned forensic anthropologist, her input gives the show a realistic feeling.

In the end Bones has a lot of flaws which I can’t overlook but I can see how people, especially women, would like the show. It’s the kind of show that you would watch because it’s on not because you particularly care about seeing it.  If Bones was a book, I could imagine finding it at a laundromat next to a large pink laundry basket.