September 13, 2005

TV: Bones

The forensics craze continues with this new entry from Fox, a younger, hipper version of the CSI franchise.

Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) is a forensic anthropologist who works at the "Jeffersonian Institute" in Washington, DC, and is often loaned out to work with the FBI on its cases. Most often, she's partnered with Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz), who admires her skills, but doesn't really think that scientists can be of any real help in solving murders. (He calls Brennan and her team "squints," a bit of jargon that's already annoying after only one show.)

Brennan has three sidekicks/colleagues. Jack (TJ Thyne) is the insect expert and conspiracy freak; Zack (Eric Millegan) is the young prodigy; Angela (Michaela Conlin) is the scientist who re-creates the crimes with her nifty 3-D hologram projector ("patent pending"). They're better developed characters than supporting players usually are in week one, and Conlin is especially good; she's like a young, pretty, non-annoying version of Illeana Douglas.

The show is certainly nicely put together; Temperance and Seeley have one of those bickering-to-hide-the-sexual-tension relationships, and Deschanel and Boreanaz make that work fairly well. If you're a fan of the forensics genre, this will probably keep you happy. But I'm not especially fond of the genre, and I'll stick with Gilmore Girls in this time slot, thank you.

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