Bones and Booth: Opposites Attract on Fox's Bones

What is the best formula for a great TV show? Ask FOX. They have found the answer with the hit series Bones", now in its 5th season.

1. Put together a man and woman team who are complete polar opposites. Make sure they are gorgeous. One is the brain and socially awkward. The other is street smart and charming and a little quirky. There is your core. You have the recipe for crazy banter and some very entertaining sexual tension

2. Next, give the dynamic duo a group of loyal geniuses with a wide array of personalities and specialties. There you go.

Bones has this formula. They have great mysteries with clues that only Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Emily Deschanel) can solve. With the help of super suave, ex-sniper FBI Agent Sealey Booth (David Boreanaz) we can be assured that the bad guy will be caught.

Bones is based on the life and novels of Kathy Reichs, who is a Forensic Anthropologist. In the show, Brennan is also an author who makes a very good living with her crime novels. Is there anything this Dr. / Author can't do? Well...there is the matter of being very socially awkward. She doesn't beat around the bush. She doesn't worry about hurting feelings or saying something inappropriate. She doesn't get the subtle nuances of relationships. Nevertheless, she manages to get by, having some fascinating relationships in the process.

Fans, sometimes called "Shippers" don't want to see our two leads with anyone but each other. In this writer's opinion, if the tension went away, the show would suffer for it. We like to watch something "almost" happen now and then. It's the thrill of knowing that if they weren't partners, they would absolutely go for it!

The supporting cast is another ingredient that must be present in order to have a hit show.

Since it began in 2005, the cast has changed very little. One of the fun things about TV these days is that there are very few writers/producers who aren't willing to shake things up. Cast changes are a big ingredient, whereby it used to be cliffhangers and shootings of some sort that grabbed the ratings. It is not so cut and dry anymore as to if someone will live or die. There is no assuming that just because he/she is a main character, that they are immune.

The supporting cast consists largely of the "squints", the lab rats, and the brains. At first glance, Booth is horrified to imagine trying to work with this group of geniuses. Yet, over the seasons they have become a dysfunctional family of sorts. As a team, they solve the unsolvable.

There is Brennan's best friend, Angela Montenegro (Michaela Conlin) who can manipulate the bones and skull to recreate a human representation of the victims. Aside from her talent with art, Angela is very...feminine. She loves the opposite sex (and the same sex). She is a huge advocate of the Booth and Brennan possibility. She has had a relationship with Hodgins (TJ Thyne), who happens to be the sole heir to a huge trust fund. Yet he uses his time to help the team by identifying bugs and dirt, etc. to calculate locations of the murder sites. He at one time was to marry Angela, but they stepped back and became co-workers with a history. Oh, and one more thing, her father happens to be a member of ZZ-Top. (Yeah, don't know how that happened, but there it is.

Dr. Camile Saroyan (played by Tamara Taylor) came in during season 2 to take over the department. She is the medical examiner who has a history with Booth. Let the tension ensue!! Saroyan is an ex cop who has seen it all on the streets. She is the least squint-like of the group. She and Brennan are as different as night and day, yet have managed to work together with Booth and the Squints to save the day.

The past two seasons, the intern position has rotated. Originally, the intern turned anthropologist Zack Addy (played by Eric Millegan) was the lab rat, contender for "King of the Lab" with Hodgins. He is extremely intelligent with the same social ineptness as his hero/mentor, Bones. He went through the motions of being the genius, the friend of Hodgins who would try crazy experiments and eventually, the serial killer apprentice who went to prison. Yes, it is a plot twist that made the end of the 3rd season a gem.

Now there are a group of interns who take turns in each episode adding their own smarts and personalities to each case. The variety is nice, although many miss Zack.

Enter a new character that came to the fore in season 3. Now a regular on the show, Dr. Lance Sweets (played by John Francis Daley) is the shrink assigned to Booth and Brennan to help them get through their issues (partner, personal, possible "other" issues). Sweets is young and seems to be naive. He adds the comic relief to the show and a sweet charm that obviously had to remain on the show. His views on the relationship of Booth and Brennan, along with helpful insight during interrogations have won the viewers' hearts.

There is no absence of humor and mystery in Bones. Even Brennan's past as the daughter of a criminal, Max Keenan (played by Ryan O'Neal) is made humorous and it is impossible to feel anything but kindly toward Keenan, who has committed unspeakable crimes, only to help protect his family.

Assistant D.A. Julian (Patricia Belcher) is the advocate for Bones and Booth, helping them with such things as search warrants and "bending" the law. Julian is definitely a help to the team, even though she isn't a "Squint".

As the stories become more mysterious and complicated, we find each episode to be a challenge to unravel. The most exciting plots that the fans look for, however, seem to revolve around the relationship of Booth and Brennan. They have expressed enough affection to keep fans hopeful, with enough outside interests to discourage them from an outright affair.

What have you been missing? Action, intrigue, mystery and humor. What you have been missing is a great FOX show, "Bones".