dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones. (Bones - Season 1 (DVD))

Member Name: stevepeto

Product:	Bones - Season 1 (DVD)
Date:	11/06/09 (96 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good stories

Disadvantages: genre is getting a little saturated

Bones - Season 1

The Review
A friend of mine recently loaned me his Season 1 boxset of Bones. He was singing its praises as he handed me the box saying "the show really sucks you in". So with no idea of what to expect I started trawling through the episodes.

In the ongoing quest to arm criminals with a plethora of information on how NOT to get caught we have seen a number of television shows crop up that delve a fair bit deeper than your average cop show. CSI being probably the most well known. When CSI popped onto our screens a fair few years ago audiences loved the fresh approach that was being taken as well as the special effects that showed bullets and other sharp objects entering human bodies. CSI was so popular we even got CSI - New York and CSI Miami as spin offs. So popular was the first show that apparently it boosted applications for Forensic jobs by more than 100%.

Bones takes a similar but visually different approach in that crimes are investigated from a forensic point of view. Although looking at the very different setups between CSI and Bones I assume it is a different form of forensics that is being used, (I am not in Forensics and so I cannot comment). They also team up with the FBI which I think has been put in to A: make it a little more interesting and B: To get them out of the lab.

The programmes two main characters are Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel), who is a forensic anthropologist, and Special Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) of the FBI. Temperance, who, apart from having a silly name and looking suspiciously like David Coulthards sister is quite a strange character. She seems to be completely science driven having few if any social or people skills, she would rather stay late investigating old bones rather than going out to a club or for dinner. There is some back story that creeps in over a few episodes where we find out more about her. She has just written a book and she lost her parents when she was 15 and went into the foster care system. But so far from what I've watched she is decidedly strange and drops into analytical deductions at least once every episode.

Boreanaz is not only there to get Brennan and her team out of the lab. There are the not so subtle romantic undertones to their relationship which may or may not be explored in later episodes/seasons, and he also gives that human touch to the investigations that they get involved in. He is also written with a sense of humour that brings the occasional smile from the audience. His role is vital, without it the program would be completely and utterly boring.

There are three main other characters that make up Brennans team, between them they talk in that scientific babble that makes the science-mumbo-jumbo chatter of Star Trek fame seem like listening to a children's book. But everyone looks sufficiently satisfied with the deep, meaningless-to-normal-mortals spiel that takes place at least once per episode, the writers must be aware of this technical chatter as they even have Booth saying "I need subtitles when I come in here." During one of the episodes, I've no idea if what they are saying is accurate although I suspect that many a forensic anthropologist would tut and slowly shake their head to the dialogue. After all these are actors and whilst some realism is going to be incorporated, errors and emissions are bound to happen.

The rest of the team are Dr. Jack Hodgins (T.J Thyne), Zack Addy (Eric Millegan) and Angela Montenegro (Michaela Conlin).

Hodgins seems pretty normal to me, he is hiding a bit of a secret but it is not a oh-my-god kind of secret, it is just something he doesn't want as general knowledge, you will find out about this in the episode where they are all required to attend a banquet, I am not going to tell you what it is. Even though I say he is normal he is still a bit geeky, preferring to play bug races with Zack on a Friday night rather than going out, but on the whole he seems a decent enough guy.

Angela is there mainly as a bit of alternative eye candy to Brennan, but her given reason for being on the show is that she is an artist that gives the bones that they find faces and identities' using a rather funky holographic device which I am sure has not actually been invented for real. She often tries and pulls her best friend "Brennan" out into the real world for dates and fun, although how they are best friends given their interests and lifestyles is lost on me.

Lastly there is Zack, and this for me is where the show is a let down a tad. The reason for this is that the actor that plays Zack plays him like a robot. In fact I would say Data in Star Trek is more human than this guy. He is taking the premise of a geeky scientific nerd and is really going other the top, it doesn't help that he has a rather annoying voice. He doesn't spoil the show, neither do the others but I always find that there are weak points in every show and in Bones it is Zack.

With that said, I am actually enjoying the episodes, and whilst i am not being "sucked in" to each of them they are really enjoyable to watch and at the time of writing this I have nearly finished the season. The relationship of the two main characters (Booth and Brennan) are reminiscent of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully of X-Files fame which is appealing as we always wonder if they are doing to take that extra step, the characters are also interesting, and well thought out with time both in the lab and out on scene trying to catch criminals so we get to see two sides of the same coins really, Booth in the more "grunt" side of working the investigations and "Brennan" finding out all sort of clues from the remains that they work on, even if her and her team do use big long words you do tend to "get the gist" of what they are talking about because they have to repeat it to someone in a dumbed down form, not that people are dumb of course, but because the original explanation is way out there and the program makers need to mention the techno-babble without alienating their audience.

If I have one gripe...ok then two as the first one is Zack then that is when they are driving. For the majority of the time (at least at the beginning of the season) they seem to be in front of a projected screen which I think degrades the production values somewhat, especially as the lab looks state of the art. It just seemed a bit tight fisted to do it that way than to actually do it for real. But these are small gripes really and I think that if you like shows of the CSI ilk then you will love this.

Sound n Vision
We get a 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen picture that looks fantastic. Images are crisp and clear in all the episodes (as they should be) just check out how clean, sterile and well lab like, the laboratory looks. On some occasions there was a very slight issue when character were is a car driving. They seem to put the car in front of a projected image and you can sometime see an extremely light halo effect around the characters, but it is certainly nothing major. I the blacks are deep and solid and the colours are bright and vibrant.

A nice Dolby Digital 5.1 sound track does occasionally filter through the rears but mainly it is the front speakers that are used, with some nice base effects thrown in on occasion too. I found the dialogue was crisp and clear and that the music never overpowered the speech.

Extras
The extras a spread throughout the disks, If you read the back of the individual boxes, it indicates the disks on which the extras can be found.

* Audio commentary for the 'Pilot' episode
Barry Josephson and Creator Hart Hanson talk us through the pilot episode, it pans out the same way as most commentaries, we find out where and why they did certain things, and little bits of the show that we may have missed.

* 'Will The Real Kathy Reichs Please Step Forward' featurette


* 'Squints' featurette
We get to talk to the cast and we find out how they see their characters in the show. I found this fairly interesting, we get each persons take of their characters which of course allow us to get to know them a bit better.

* 'The Real Definition' featurette
They take a few of the really long winded words and explain what they mean. I guess this is interesting up to a point, but ultimately it isn't going to be something that you watch more than once.

* 'Bones: Inspired By the Life of Forensic Anthropologist Kathy Reichs' featurette
We find out much more about Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel), as well as speaking to Kathy Reichs who is a real life Forensic Anthropologist about how she is involved in the show as a consultant.

* Character profiles
Text based writings about each of the characters.

Overall
The show is interesting and enjoyable to watch, most of the characters are good, likeable people, although I do think that for people like Brennan and Zack they have made them too scientific in their mannerisms and speech. The show is based on a real life forensic anthropologist, Kathy Reichs (Author) who is also involved in the creation of the show so it does on the face of it carry some clout in terms of realism.

My only question is to whether to own it on DVD. It is not that it is a bad show, quite the opposite but as with all TV shows, how many times are you really going to go back and watch it. I would say if the seasons were £10 each then I would go for it, but at over £20 at the moment for a season then I think you need to be a bit of a die hard fan.

© This review is entirely my own work but may have been cross posted elsewhere. MAY also be published under the name sjp1966 on Ciao UK and also under sjp1966 on the Digital Lard/Movie District website to which I am a contributor, as well as cross posted to IMDB external reviews, and possibly other places too.

Summary: see review for overall opinion