DVD/TV Series Review: Bones: Season 1

 

Bones was a procedural crime drama that aired on FOX starting in 2005. It starred David Boreanaz  (best known for his role as Angel on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff series Angel) as FBI Special Agent Seely Booth, and Emily Deschanel, as Dr. Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist at the Jeffersonian Institute in Washington D.C. who works with Booth to solve murders. The rest of the main cast is made up of the staff members of the Jeffersonian, whom Booth refers to as "the squints". They include Michaela Conlin, as forensic artist Angela Montenegro, Eric Millegan as Zack Addy, Dr. Brennan's grad student lab assistant, T.J. Thyne, the lab's entomologist, and Jonathan Adams, the director of the Jeffersonian.

The show is, for the most part, a case-of-the-week procedural that involves a death either occurring or being discovered in the cold open, and then Booth and Brennan investigate the case (usually with the capture of the murderer) by the end of the hour. There are some serial arcs included as well. In season one, the main serial arc was the disappearance of Brennan's parents when she was young, and clues appear throughout the season that leads to a bit of a cliffhanger in the season finale. The show is very character-based and the first season does a lot to develop the various characters. They do go a bit overboard on the character of Brennan, making too much of the fact that she does not follow pop culture and does not understand any (almost) pop culture references. The writers do a great job with Booth and Brennan's opposite personalities and give the large ensemble cast a lot to work with. Boreanaz actually gets to show off more of his comedic acting chops, which he only got to do a couple of times playing Angel. So, he is far less serious and brooding than he had to be playing Angel.

For those who get the DVD set, the original release of season one was on the dreaded dual-sided discs, so the episodes were spread over four discs instead of the usual six. There is a commentary track by the series creator Hart Hanson on the pilot episode, and a commentary track by Boreanaz and Deschanel on the episode "Two Bodies in the Lab". Then there are a series of featurettes including one on forensic anthropologist and author Kathy Reichs, on whom the character of Brennan is loosely based, a featurette on the team of squints, a featurette on the medical jargon used in the show, and character profiles.

Overall, the first season is a good start to the series, although it did take a while for the series to find its footing. Thankfully, FOX did give the show some slack and let it evolve, and by the end of the season, it had developed a tone and style that would pretty much carry throughout the rest of its run. It could get a bit gory at times with very real-looking corpses in various stages of decay which could creep and/or gross some people out. Given that it aired on Fox, however, they could not go overboard with violence, sex, or nudity, although there is some sexual banter and implied nudity that never reveals anything. So, if you like crime procedurals and have not yet seen it, this is a good series to check out.