Bones (TV)

Bones

Dr. Temperance Brennan : Emily Deschanel
Special Agent Seeley Booth : David Boreanaz
Zack Addy : Eric Millegan
Dr. Jack Hodgins : T.J. Thyne
Angela Montenegro : Michaela Conlin
Dr. Daniel Goodman : Jonathan Adams

Bones, the new Fox mystery starring Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz, is based on a series of books by forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs. I’ve never read any of the books by Reichs so I really can’t judge how the books have translated to the TV series, but I will give you my first impressions about the show itself.

The pilot episode introduces us to the characters of Dr. Temperance Brennan and Special Agent Seeley Booth as they attempt to determine what happened to a girl whose decomposed body was found in a pond in Arlington Nation Cemetery.

The show opens with Brennan arriving home from a trip to Guatemala and being held at the airport so that Booth can attempt to convince her to work on a case with him. The two have worked together before and apparently things did not go well because Brennan wants nothing to do with Booth. He continues to work on her and she finally agrees to work with him only if she is allowed to fully participate in the case.

Breenan and her team arrive at the pond, gather the necessary evidence and using all sorts of high tech magic, eventually determine that the body belonged to Cleo Elder a young women that worked as an intern for United States Senator Bethlehem.
The remainder of the show is spent trying to determine if the Senator, his assistant, or a young man that was stalking Elder committed the murder.

After viewing the first show, I would say that it is decent but nothing spectacular. The plot of the story was good, but like so many shows that are currently on television, the dialog seemed forced and uninspired.

The directing was average, with the director opting to turn this into just another cookie cutter television mystery. All the standard television cliques were used; rotating the camera around a group as they are having a discussion, trendy music playing in the background as we see images of people analyzing the evidence, and most of the other cheap devices that are used in the TV world today.
Where the show appears to have the most problems are with the two lead actors. Both appear to be in need of personality transplants. There is nothing likeable about either one of them and absolutely zero chemistry between them.

I’m familiar with David Boreanaz from his Buffy The Vampire Slayer days, and expected little in the way of acting from him. As expected, he delivered. He was able to cut it on Buffy because he played a three hundred year old vampire and really didn’t have to show much in the way of emotions. Here things are a little different and I’m not sure that he was the right pick for this part, but maybe I’m missing something.

As for Emily Deschanel, I know nothing of her previous work so I have only this show to base my observations. She, like Boreanaz, came across as dry and unemotional. Maybe that’s what the character is all about, but if the show is to succeed in the long run, they will have to rethink this. People want to watch characters that they care about, and neither of the leads in this series are fulfilling this function.

The actors and actresses making up the supporting cast were quite good and if developed further, perhaps they can compensate for the lack of range exhibited by the leads.

Although I’ve written a lot of negative things about it, in total the show is not really that bad. The concept is interesting and with some work and character development this might turn into a halfway decent program. The pilot wasn’t terrific, but often times it takes a while for a show to gel so it’s not really fair to condemn this on the first viewing.

There is potential here and I plan on watching it a few more times with hope that it will all come together. If you’re not doing anything else on your Friday nights you might consider giving it a try.

7 out of 10 Stars

Posted by Al on 01/10/10 at 10:31 PM in Television