Bones – Drama series review

I had been holding on from posting about this series for a while. Being into the 4th season already, thought it was intriguing and interesting enough to share it with you folks. The series, as the title says, is about bones – literally. Every single episode involves a murder investigation that may be as recent as a day or as old as couple of years!! Basis the bones or remains available, there is a crack team of scientists or forensic anthropological investigators, as they call themselves, alongside an FBI agent, analyze those bones and figure out the cause of death and eventually the perpetrator. It may sound so far fetched and at times unbelievable to watch, but despite several misgivings I’ve managed to get into the 4th season of it, convinces me that there is an element of intrigue which keeps the interest going about this series. The lead character is a lady who is nicknamed “bones” for she is the subject matter expert in everything about bones under the sun. She can look at a human remain, without skin mind you ( she is very specific and methodical about this part for whatever reason that skeletons are her area and if they are covered in skin, its handled by a different person!) and figure out the gender, possible cause of death, approximate age and at times approximate duration of when the incident happened as well. 

She is assisted by another lady, who does visual effects of how the face behind the skeleton will look like and is probably the key person who leads to information about the actual victim. There is a guy who can explore and experiment every single grain of sediment or dust or particles on the remains and can figure out every possible chemical combination behind those particles. The jumps they make from such combinations usually prove the stumbling block in connecting the dots of the mystery. There is another character that seems to be on a rotational basis, performed by many actors. It is the role of an assistant to the leading lady, in figuring out any damage caused to the bone and on potential weapons that caused it or how the injury might’ve occurred. There is one admin lady, who manages the whole team and oversees the analyzing the “skin” part of the bones, having been on similar such role or coroner in her previous engagement. And the leading guy is the FBI agent, the brawn supporting all these brains. There is a psychiatrist character who has been seen recurring since last season and is probably for the comic relief portions or for the emotional connect, I guess. The rest of the cast are mostly floating characters who make guest appearances time and again.

Story wise, each episode deals with a dead body or bones rather, which are notified to the FBI agent, who along with the bone lady, goes about figuring out the cause and effect. Each of those episodes are so far-fetched and yucky that, the team manages to arrive at a conclusion with clues coming from every weird environment conceivable is what probably makes the series engaging.

There is something about the leading lady, who is a mix of Ross (FRIENDS) and Sheldon (Big bang theory). Her nose looks very distinct, and it reminds me the Asterix cartoon especially the one with Cleopatra! Her profile is more or less like any genius profile on any sitcom across every channel, where the brainier the character is, the more distant they are from common societal norms and cues. The lead characters haven’t got romantically involved yet, despite 4 seasons old and it is a common recurring comic query across several episodes as to when they would eventually come together. Considering some of the yucky situations from where they recover the bodies, this may not be for dinner time viewing or anytime that involves eating. But it has been quite engaging so far with another 8 seasons to go!!! I doubt if I would finish this fully, but nevertheless would recommend this one from what I’ve seen so far, for the scientific analysis behind the investigation.