Bones: Fox's Answer to the Forensics Drama

At season's end, May, 2007, there were eight forensics-style dramas on-air between CBS and Fox. Fox's contribution to this current trend is Bones, inspired by the real life of forensic anthropologist and novelist, Kathy Reichs.

Bones (also known as Dr. Temperance Brennan, played by Emily Deschanel, Boogeyman) is a forensic anthropologist who works for the Jeffersonian Institute in Washington D.C. She also works as a consultant to the FBI, partner to Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz, the WB's Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Bones, so called by Booth for her career studying ancient bones, a nickname which her colleagues (who he calls "Squints" because they spend all their time squinting into their microscopes) soon adopt for her as well, makes a point of being all scientist, placing very little creed in emotion or intuition, two things upon which Booth relies heavily.

At the beginning of the series, Bones works for the FBI on a case by case basis. If a case comes in where her skills might be useful, Booth calls and they go to work. As the series progresses, this formality is left behind and Booth goes to her as if she were another agent assigned as his partner, the Scully to his Mulder, if you will excuse the reference.

The formalities of their relationship also begin to soften as Booth quickly becomes only one of two people to whom Bones is comfortable showing her vulnerable, human side; the second being her colleague and oft-called best friend Angela Montenegro (virtual newcomer, Michaela Conlin), the only "Squint" who doesn't hold the title of Doctor.

Angela's calling in life is as an artist, having found her commission at the Jeffersonian putting computer generated faces back on the bare bones Dr. Brennan digs out of the ground. The other "Squints" Bones works with are Dr. Jack Hodgins (T.J. Thyne, Ghost World), an heir whose true love is science, and Zack Addy (also played by a relative newcomer, Eric Millegan), a doctorate student working and training under Dr. Brennan's supervision.

Dr. Hodgins keeps his millions a secret from his colleagues until Booth discovers the secret through the course of an investigation. As the second season (2006-2007) comes to a head, we see a romance develop between Angela and Hodgins, resulting in a spur of the moment, "Let's do it next week," wedding extravaganza in the season finale.

Bones is not only about solving crimes with nothing but the victims' bones to work from. Dr. Brennan and Agent Booth's pasts also play a large part in the story. For nearly two decades, Brennan has thought herself and her brother orphans. Their parents disappeared and were presumed dead. As the first two seasons of the series play out, we, and she, learn that is not the case and that her father is not only alive but a fugitive from the FBI.

Agent Booth has a son, Parker, who is, at the start of the show, four years old and lives with his mother, Rebecca, who refused Booth's marriage proposal during the first months of her pregnancy. Also, in the beginning of the series, there is allusion to a history, possibly romantic, between he and Bones, although one is never confirmed. In season two we learn of another woman from his past, Dr. Camille Saroyan (Tamara Taylor, Diary of a Mad Black Woman), who has taken over as director of the "Squints'" lab and was undoubtedly romantically involved with Booth.

Bones takes a somewhat sideways approach to the forensics drama craze started by Bruckheimer's CSI triad, and is definitely worth a look, if you haven't tuned in already.